Best way to ship a computer and monitor cross country?

[Infohawk]

I got a new computer and flatscreen in February. I am probably going to be moving from coast-to-coast in the near future. I'm not driving.

How should I ship my computer and monitor? My main concern is safety, though I guess insurance can deal with this in part. My second concern is price.

Anyone have experience or useful advice for packing safely? I think I'm going to use the original boxes and packing materials. Anyone had bad experience doing this? Thanks.

 

[imported_Sailor]

I shipped two computers to NYC from Florida. Both went FedEx and both were packed the same. The first arrived with no problems at all and the second arrived with internal damage. The fan had come off the CPU and the video card was damaged. It looked like it had been dropped or thrown a few times at least.

My suggestion is to pack it as securely as possible and label it very conspicuously on all sides as a fragile computer.

 

[Muscles]

I recently just moved from San Diego back to New York and I shipped my 21" CRT monitor and computer through the UPS Store. I paid a lot of extra money for them to package them both and also paid for insurance in case one of them got damaged. They charged me about $220.00 for it but I thought it was worth it for my babies. Needless to say I was wrong. My computer made it okay but my monitor was banged up and broken by UPS. I put in a claim and they REFUSED to pay it even though THEY packaged it and I paid for the insurance. Needless to say after months of battling with them (damn near had to go to court to resolve) they gave me a little over half of what the monitor was worth. The point of this story is DO NOT SHIP ANYTHING OF VALUE VIA UPS OR THE UPS STORE!

If I were you I'd buy all the supplies and package everything up yourself. Then I'd ship it out using FEDEX who I've had much better experience with and they are a lot cheaper as well.

 

[bigj3347]

I moved back home in LA from boston last year, i packed all of my computer in its original packaging and used UPS to ship it. Cost about 100$ and it arrived with no damage except a little to the boxes.

 

[Infohawk]

Originally posted by: Muscles
I put in a claim and they REFUSED to pay it even though THEY packaged it and I paid for the insurance. Needless to say after months of battling with them (damn near had to go to court to resolve) they gave me a little over half of what the monitor was worth. The point of this story is DO NOT SHIP ANYTHING OF VALUE VIA UPS OR THE UPS STORE!

Wow, that is outrageous. What was their argument that they shouldn't pay your insurance?

Sounds like there is definitely risk involved based on posts so far. Scary stuff. Especially if they don't insure you. I wonder if it's useful to take out some key components and take them on the plane with me...

What about USPS? Seems like they might be less likely to screw you.

 

[saimike]

what i'll do is to ship the case empty -- take out all the cards, cpu, psu, mem etc and pack them separately.

 

[Lasthitlarry]

Where I work, we ship out pcs, monitors, printers out everyday, through FedEx.

I have seen the FedEx guys handle these boxes, and I get scared. They take any box, and just throw it into the truck, as if the box contains nothing but air.

If we didn't use so much bubble wrap, nothing would work after we shipped it.

I like the idea of taking it apart. You can also bubble wrap the crap out of it if you trust the shipper.

FRAGILE! FRAGILE! FRAGILE!

 

[bupkus]

Originally posted by: saimike
what i'll do is to ship the case empty -- take out all the cards, cpu, psu, mem etc and pack them separately.

Just what I was thinking.

The monitor? If it's a big CRT, then sell it! Buy new where you're going. If it's an LCD, then package it well and ship. I always keep the original box and packaging so uhh... I live in a cardboard house.

 

[Muscles]

Originally posted by: Infohawk

Originally posted by: Muscles
I put in a claim and they REFUSED to pay it even though THEY packaged it and I paid for the insurance. Needless to say after months of battling with them (damn near had to go to court to resolve) they gave me a little over half of what the monitor was worth. The point of this story is DO NOT SHIP ANYTHING OF VALUE VIA UPS OR THE UPS STORE!

Wow, that is outrageous. What was their argument that they shouldn't pay your insurance?

Sounds like there is definitely risk involved based on posts so far. Scary stuff. Especially if they don't insure you. I wonder if it's useful to take out some key components and take them on the plane with me...

What about USPS? Seems like they might be less likely to screw you.

Believe it or not the UPS claims department said that my monitor was improperly packed so they didn't have to pay even though THEY are the ones that packed it. Talk about an ass backwards company. After going through that horror story I will never give UPS any business ever again due to their inexplicable business practices.

 

[bupkus]

Still, the prevailing attitude in corporate America from the TOP down is "screw the consumer".

 

[Infohawk]

I searched on usenet and it seems UPS frequently tells people it was properly packaged as a defense to paying insurance. Ridiculous. I think I'm going to go with the USPS.