shipping company for shipping a computer

[itachi2k4]

I put together a rig for a friend and packed the inside of the case with bubble rap sheets, put it back in the original case with the 2 foam place holders and filled in all the gaps in the box with packaging peanuts. I was planning on shipping FEDEX but i heard about how they only give $100 back no matter how much u insure the package for. Someone also made a thread here on the anandtech forum about how fedex destroyed there package where a 7950gx2 was damaged a few months ago. So What shipping company should i go with? i def need to go with something other than fedex. Also im trying to get this mailed out tomorrow so i kinda need a quick answer

 

[S_Wilson]

Fedex ground is the best for package care and the cheapest in my experience. Fedex has a liability limit of $100 unless you declare and pay for a higher value. Also, you need to have Direct or Indirect Signature for the package which is additional cost. Not requiring a signature releases Fedex from the insurance liability.

 

[TankGuys]

I put together a rig for a friend and packed the inside of the case with bubble rap sheets, put it back in the original case with the 2 foam place holders and filled in all the gaps in the box with packaging peanuts. I was planning on shipping FEDEX but i heard about how they only give $100 back no matter how much u insure the package for. Someone also made a thread here on the anandtech forum about how fedex destroyed there package where a 7950gx2 was damaged a few months ago. So What shipping company should i go with? i def need to go with something other than fedex. Also im trying to get this mailed out tomorrow so i kinda need a quick answer

FedEx. That's not what you wanted to hear, but I'd use them. A couple points to note:

1 - The $100 insurance limit is not true. That's only if you opt not to buy any additional insurance (i.e. all packages are insured for $100 default, but you have to pay more to increase the coverage). I ship *all* of our packages with full insurance, so I know you can do so.

2 - I wouldn't ship it in just the original case box. I would put that inside of an even larger box. Those case boxes are fine for shipping an empty case, but once you add all the parts, the padding around may not cope well with the additional weight.

3 - For every story you hear about FedEx destroying a package, you'll hear at least as many about UPS destroying one (heck, there's an entire thread here about UPS crushing packages )


FedEx is generally a bit more expensive, but the packages are treated much better, from my experience - and I ship a LOT

 

[Nathan0490]

I like DHL, they are very affordable. You can insure the packages, and they are trackable. They always deliver a day or so early too

 

[orion25]

I like DHL, they are very affordable. You can insure the packages, and they are trackable. They always deliver a day or so early too

I have to disagree. I ship millions of dollars of tech parts at work each day. We use FedEx for the most part but will ship collect via what ever service the customer requires. I recently sent a $100K+ order via DHL. It was on a stretch wrapped pallet and had the counts (something like 16 boxes) verified by two of my employees and the DHL driver before it left our building. Well the customer got 10 boxes on the scheduled delivery date. They got 3 more a couple of days later. We have DHL looking for the other 3 boxes ($8,000). The claim is being filed by our customer right now. Keep in mind that this was a palletized shipment that should have never been broken down.

Another story.... Almost everything we ship is in a box with our company name on it. DHL brought us 32 boxes last week from their unclaimed/unresolved (or whatever they call it) service because they were our boxes. After many hours of serial number and sales order research we determined that these were items that we had sold more than a year ago. After contacting the company we sold them to it was determined that they had shipped them to one of their customers 8 months ago and they were never received. DHL had paid the claim that our customer initiated. Now we have a few thousand dollars of telcom equipment that DHL technically owns in our warehouse............

So, in my opinion you should use FedEx. As stated before as long as you insure for the actual value the $100 thing does not matter. Besides, I like our FedEx guys more than our UPS guys. Better personalities and they can have a pallet in Australia within 36 hours from when they picked it up.

 

[wannaoc]

Of course I will lean towards UPS but I would say at least use FedEx. No matter how cheap DHL is they are in no way equal to UPS or FedEx.

Regardless of who you pick pack it well. Don't just put some foam on the four corners and send it in the original box for the case. To properly pack a computer be it just a case or a complete computer put it in the original case box or something similar then pack that in another box filled with peanuts on all sides of the inner box. If you leave any open space between the inner box and the outer box you risk a puncture which makes for scratches, any loose space can cause a shift which will help the package get dropped.