[Boatanchors] And The Caisons keep Rolling along

[rayfri]

That is precisely why, if at all possible, and even if at a slightly 
higher cost, I will ship by postal service instead of UPS.
UPS drivers and package handlers are idiots for the most part.  Either 
they havent enough education to read the labels that clearly say 
fragile... or they just dont give a damn.   Either way, I refuse to ship 
with them unless there is absolutely NO other option.. and
I've always been able to find another option....

I hate non-caring, neglectful and disrespectful attitude that UPS 
employees in general show.   I believe all they care about is taking 
your money and whatever happens to the package afterwards is the last 
thing they seem to care about.    This is based on MY personal 
experience having shipped with them before I wised up.....

Even FedEx is more careful with packages....   However, I have had only 
ONE single episode with shipping by postal, and it was my fault.  I 
neglected to put packing around a final tube in a two meter transmitter 
and it came out of its socket and broke.  But again, it was my 
fault...   The radio arrived in perfect condition otherwise.       
Almost EVERY package I have received by UPS appears, as in the example 
of Phillips story, to have been used for football place kicking practice 
or three point basketball shots.




Philip Atchley wrote:

> Hi All,
>
> Today I received the expected Hammarlund SP-600 shipment from the East 
> coast.  What I didn't expect to see was the UPS man rolling it end 
> over end (on it's sides) across my lawn and then up the porch steps to 
> my mobile home (the truck occupies the entire driveway/carport 
> space).  All four 'sides' had very large "Fragile" notices taped to 
> them.  Actually, I use the term "sides" generically, the thing looked 
> more like a huge "ball" with all corners flattened, or I should say 
> "rounded".
>
> Luckily the box the shipper used was 'HUGE', even by SP-600 standards, 
> but apparently not very sturdy.  It was obvious that the box wasn't 
> going to be reusable to ship the radio back to the owner (it's here 
> for service).  So rather than fight it, I took a box knife and cut the 
> top off.  All the Styrofoam sheets the shipper had used were busted up 
> into iddy biddy pieces, more suitable for packing a handy talky than a 
> 70 pound radio.  So I removed enough of them to reveal the inner box 
> and carefully extricated it from the outer box and it's packing.
>
> This one was in 'slightly' better condition than the outer one, but 
> still looked more like a ball than a box.  By this time I was getting 
> worried, but bravely continued on.  Sure enough, the inner Styrofoam 
> sheets were also broken up, but not nearly so badly as the others had 
> been.
>
> So, continuing on, I removed the SP-600 (wrapped in a plastic garbage 
> bag) from the inner box, fearing the worst!  Imagine my  wonderful 
> surprise when it revealed one of the nicer looking SP-600's that I've 
> seen, and apparently with no shipping damage at all!  No I haven't 
> plugged it in yet, that won't happen until it has been fully recapped 
> and serviced.
>
> The only thing "wrong" I see about the set is the non-standard meter 
> used for the S and AF level functions.  It reportedly doesn't work and 
> may not be "right" electrically for the task.  We'll see after the 
> unit is fired up.
>
> FINAL NOTE:  Probably the ONLY thing that saved this radio from total 
> disaster was the extremely HUGE box that it was shipped in, it 
> certainly wasn't because of the usual UPS 'careful handling' (sic).
>
>
> 73 de Phil,  KO6BB
> DX begins at the noise floor!
>
> THE BEACONEER'S LAIR:   http://www.geocities.com/ko6bb/
> MY RADIO-LOGS:       http://www.geocities.com/ko6bb/Logs/
> QSL GALLERY: http://photobucket.com/albums/f306/KO6BB/
> Merced, Central California,    37.3N  120.48W  CM97sh
>
> _______________________________________________
> Boatanchors mailing list
> Boatanchors at mailman.qth.net
> http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/boatanchors
> ** List Administrator - Duane Fischer, W8DBF/W9WZE **   ** For 
> Assistance: dfischer at usol.com **         $$ For vintage radio info, 
> see the HCI web site $$      http://www.w9wze.org   
>
>