[R-390] USPS info (What a screw up and a rip off !!!)

[Shoppa, Tim]

My two cents... do not count on Email to Fair Radio to produce a timely response. The phone will be far more efficient. They're nice folks but I'm not really sure they've come out of the dymo-label typesetting age :-)

-----Original Message-----
From: r-390-bounces at mailman.qth.net [mailto:r-390-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Steve Toth
Sent: Thursday, April 01, 2010 2:32 PM
To: r-390 at mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [R-390] USPS info (What a screw up and a rip off !!!)


Amen to what Trish and others have said.
 
On a smaller scale, I recently ordered an R390A power supply from Fair Radio ($45 w/o 26Z5's) so I could replace the one in the EAC that had the pronounced transformer hum.  They shipped it USPS even though i requested Fed X Ground.  It was single boxed and had wadded newspaper loosely packed around it.  Because of the weight of the transformer, it should have been double boxed or the wadded paper should have been packed more tightly.  Evidently it was dropped/thrown somewhere enroute and the single wall USPS Priority Mail box couldn't handle the abuse.  The frame that mounts to the trandformer and has the tube sockets on it was so badly bent and damaged that it's a throw away - luckily the transformer survived.   Usually Fair Radio packs thing pretty well so I was surprised when the unit arrived and I found it was damaged.
 
My advice:  Caveat Emptor.  Tell whoever you buy from to double box and tightly pack anything you purchase that is above average weight - it seems some of the UPS gorillas have moved over to USPS and they are cutting costs on shipping.
 
FWIW:  I sent an email to Fair Radio, asking for an RMA# and exchange since this unit is unuseable with the badly bent chassis and connector with bent and broken off pins.  I figured the base $100 insurance with USPS would cover them.  Turns out USPS does not insure anything they ship!  I never received any kind of response from Fair Radio.   I'm surprised at that too - usually their customer service is good.







-- Steve 
Woodinville, WA

 

--- On Wed, 3/31/10, Tisha Hayes <tisha.hayes at gmail.com> wrote:


From: Tisha Hayes <tisha.hayes at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [R-390] USPS info (What a screw up and a rip off !!!)
To: r-390 at mailman.qth.net
Date: Wednesday, March 31, 2010, 1:31 PM


For these uber-expensive transactions running into the tens or hundreds of
thousands of dollars I would rather escort something personally than to
entrust it to a shipping company or the USPS.

It just seems crazy to ship something that expensive and let the minimum
wage guy bounce it from loading dock to truck. I frequently need to take
very expensive test gear with me when I go to a customer location (Rohde
Schwarz FSH18) and would rather lug it through airports than to ship it. My
manager suggested that I just pack up everything in a big box and ship it to
a job site. I think he is crazy and doesn't remember the previous
experiences where we tried to ship stuff.

Most recently we sent stuff to the US Park at Sandy Hook New Jersey. UPS
dropped the pallet off at the park service headquarters where nobody would
sign for it or put it in the warehouse. It sat in the rain for three days
before we could get out there to do the work. Then, when the job was done,
it took UPS TWO MONTHS to return the box back to us. By then, everything bad
been so badly mangled that we had to throw most of the gear away.

Before that experience we sent test gear to Puerto Rico where they lost the
entire shipment. It was found six weeks later, sitting in the jungle, the
cabinet filled with almost a foot of water.

For lots of money on any project I would rather deliver it in person and
receive payment the same way.

-- 
Ms. Tisha Hayes/ AA4HA
----------------
"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are
willing to work and give to those who would not."
- Thomas Jefferson
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