FedEx Drop Kicked My Baby

[hagi607]

Hello,
I recently sold my computer (my Love/Baby) and FedEx must have ace ventura'd that thing over to my buyer. The PCI express clip was burst out and the card was hanging out of the slot. The chasis was bent and box damaged...
Anyway, what I think happened was the video card became loose in the slot and when he booted it the card shorted out. He said there is random blocks over the screen even on the bios post and also windows would not boot. Safe mode hangs the computer as well. I am sure the video card is damaged but what can explain the replacement of certain characters... the way he described it doesn't sound like it is from the video card's memory being fried or anything since it is just random text characters on the screen. I think somehow the raid 10 got currupted in the process of windows hanging when booting so now some bits are out of sync on the raid array. Does this sound correct?
The good news is that i shipped it fully insured so I am hoping FedEx would fully refund the price of the computer. This has probably damaged all kinds of hardware in there.

Please let me know of what you think is wrong with the machine and any advice with FedEx, I already filed the claim and they are coming to pick up the computer to inspect it.

 

[beemercer]

The video card is definitely gone, I lost my old 7800GT to water damage, and it had the same symptoms (weird colored blocks and scrambled text).

 

[Schadenfroh]

Your FedEx driver is probably an exUPS employee that got fired for being too careful and wasting too much time handling packages.

 

[Doom Machine]

maybe the buyer wanted to back out cause he suddenly didnt like it so he opened up a can-o-whoopazz on it...hey, ppl are crazy, especially ebayers, cant count how many times i got ripped off on there, even though thats not as many times as i didnt get ripped,it was enough that i had to stop shopping there

or perhaps your right and you didnt tighten the screws on that card down good enough...fedex shipping is rough and tumbly..always package well

 

[Kabob]

I'm not a big fan of FedEx, but I've never had any problems whatsoever with UPS. Fedex seems to have an affinity for roughing packages up...

 

[Pabster]

Originally posted by: kabob983
I'm not a big fan of FedEx, but I've never had any problems whatsoever with UPS. Fedex seems to have an affinity for roughing packages up...

Interesting. Around here it is the EXACT opposite. Every package I've ever had delivered UPS looks like it had been dropped and stomped on several times...While FedEx boxes arrive looking new as if no one had even touched them.

I suppose it depends on your area.

 

[smthmlk]

same here, pabster.

 

[SparkyJJO]

Originally posted by: smthmlk
same here, pabster.

And same here. Marks on a fedex box? Just some dirt and maybe a slightly roughed corner. UPS? I've had packages come no problem from them as well, but I've gotten many more packages beat up from UPS than from fedex.

I always ship bigger stuff fedex, seems to get there in one piece more often. Cheaper too, for example it was $50 to ship a Dell Inspiron 9300 to Hawaii with $1500 insurance, UPS was $75.

 

[justly]

My current job consists of a lot of packing for deliveries through Fedex and while their packaging recommendations often seem like overkill if you pack the way they describe its almost impossible for your shipment to get dammaged.

I'll bet you didn't even come close to the recommendations Fedex supplies for shipping a computer.
BTW if your packing is found to be insufficent they are not obligated to pay for damages even if you have it fully insured.

I haven't specifically checked but I think you will find that UPS recomendations are similar, in fact we switched form UPS to Fedex because of the way UPS handled packages (much worse than Fedex from our experiance).

If you haven't read the Fedex recommendations for packing a computer here is the
link
go about halfway down the page and you will see a PDF link labled
"Pointers on Packaging for Computer Shipments".

I'm sorry to hear that your computer didn't get where it was going undammaged, and I hope things work out for you. I realize the link I provided doesn't help you now but it might help you and others thinking of shipping a computer in the future.

 

[pkme2]

Had big deliveries by either UPS or Fedex in the area of computer cases. So far, not a ding in 7 years. I've shipped locally by both but when I did, leaving nothing to chance, packed the interior of my computer cases with foam & popcorn. It's sometimes a kick in the butt nasty, but it works.

 

[lobbyone]

My experiences with both Fedex and UPS has been good, although UPS tends to be days slower than Fedex even though the package being sent is within the state I live in, which really doesn't make sense. Why wait 3 days sitting in a some place when it can be moved out immediately? Man, when they say 3-5 day shipping, they really mean 5 days! Fedex ships out faster and sometimes a couple of days earlier than the expected delivery date and in perfect condition. Oh well, as long as I get my stuff i'm good with either.

 

[Mogadon]

It just depends on your area. I get stuff shipped via UPS ground (3-5day) and it'll arrive the next day, I bought $1500 worth of computer gear from the egg recently and paid $40 for shipping, it all got to my house the next evening ... that's $45 for $250 worth of shipping.

In my area FedEx hold your stuff until the day it's actually meant to delivered, ie. if you get 3 day shipping and the package arrives in town the next day FedEx actually hold it for the next 2 days ... that sucks.

Never had anything shipped by either FedEx or UPS to be damaged though.

 

[Pabster]

Originally posted by: Mogadon
In my area FedEx hold your stuff until the day it's actually meant to delivered, ie. if you get 3 day shipping and the package arrives in town the next day FedEx actually hold it for the next 2 days ... that sucks.

Around here (read: the sticks LOL) I can order Express Saver and still get it delivered in 2 days. But they don't have the volume of packages to deliver here that they would in a larger area and they probably figure it would cost them more to stockpile the packages than to just deliver them right away.

 

[Racer7]

We (company I work for) had a $10K Dell server and RAID unit destroyed by UPS a few months back. To make it worse, the shipping/packing company never put insurance on it even though it was paid for and is on the receipt. In UPS's defense, the original boxes had been tossed and the packing job done by the packing company was not good. You can't use styrofoam peanuts on a 100lb RAID unit.

To the OP, how well was it packed?

 

[bob4432]

there is no way i would ship a computer with a hsf attached, the pci-e card installed or anything with weight installed into the m/b. you are just asking for trouble. the mounts are meant for a stationary item, not a shipment. you should have uninstalled the hsf and also the gpu.

like others have said even it it is insured and you did a bad job packaging you are still at fault.

so fedex didn't screw up your shipment, you did, sorry

 

[unfalliblekrutch]

Originally posted by: bob4432
there is no way i would ship a computer with a hsf attached, the pci-e card installed or anything with weight installed into the m/b. you are just asking for trouble. the mounts are meant for a stationary item, not a shipment. you should have uninstalled the hsf and also the gpu.

like others have said even it it is insured and you did a bad job packaging you are still at fault.

so fedex didn't screw up your shipment, you did, sorry

if you buy a computer online from dell, hp, gateway, etc, they will all ship the entire computer with gfx, hs/f, etc attached. I don't believe the problem is that they should have been removed.

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: unfalliblekrutch

Originally posted by: bob4432
there is no way i would ship a computer with a hsf attached, the pci-e card installed or anything with weight installed into the m/b. you are just asking for trouble. the mounts are meant for a stationary item, not a shipment. you should have uninstalled the hsf and also the gpu.

like others have said even it it is insured and you did a bad job packaging you are still at fault.

so fedex didn't screw up your shipment, you did, sorry

if you buy a computer online from dell, hp, gateway, etc, they will all ship the entire computer with gfx, hs/f, etc attached. I don't believe the problem is that they should have been removed.

obviously dell and gateway do a much better job of packaging. they more than likely use huge boxes in comparison to their machines so there is cushioning to absorb such issues, and they more than likely do it to ups/fedex's spec so even if there is an issue it will be fedex/ups's claim. i am also sure that the drives and handlers have been told to take it easy with what they know are computers like dell (the big logo on the box?) since if they didn't it will cost them heavily. any time i have seen a dell or gateway in a fedex or ups truck it is usually in a protected manner. i highly doubt the op packed as well as any online retailer.

 

[50cent1228]

i have had problem like that with fedex before but not as bad as how you got it...ups is usally good to me

 

[hagi607]

The package was shipped in the box the chassis came in. It has styrofoam around the entire front and back end of the computer. In the middle of the case, I stuffed 4 bubble wrap bags rolled up, they were small bags, but i felt they were not really needed anyway. They would help hold the boxes shape incase a sharp object would hit the computer from the side. I wrote fragile on every edge of the machine, I bet the truck driver saw that, laughed and hucked it on and off the truck. A lot of people are jerks like that.

My customer (who is a friend of mine) said that the chassis was completely warped and the side panel was bent in, the styrofoam was completely broken on one side, and the graphic cards clip on the pci express slot burst out, the card was hanging half way out of the slot. My screws were tight but the impact of FedEx caused it to burst out. It is clear to me that they drop kicked that thing.

I would be extremely upset if they don't pay me for at least the damaged hardware. Now I am out of my Quake 4 rig and no longer can get a laptop like i had planned since I have to pay my rent with this money. I cannot be sure if it is only the graphics card that is fried at this time. What the hells the point of shipping it insured if they wont give me money for it? These big corporations are very greedy, if I worked for them I would give the customer the benefit of the doubt.

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: hagi607
The package was shipped in the box the chassis came in. It has styrofoam around the entire front and back end of the computer. In the middle of the case, I stuffed 4 bubble wrap bags rolled up, they were small bags, but i felt they were not really needed anyway. They would help hold the boxes shape incase a sharp object would hit the computer from the side. I wrote fragile on every edge of the machine, I bet the truck driver saw that, laughed and hucked it on and off the truck. A lot of people are jerks like that.

My customer (who is a friend of mine) said that the chassis was completely warped and the side panel was bent in, the styrofoam was completely broken on one side, and the graphic cards clip on the pci express slot burst out, the card was hanging half way out of the slot. My screws were tight but the impact of FedEx caused it to burst out. It is clear to me that they drop kicked that thing.

I would be extremely upset if they don't pay me for at least the damaged hardware. Now I am out of my Quake 4 rig and no longer can get a laptop like i had planned since I have to pay my rent with this money. I cannot be sure if it is only the graphics card that is fried at this time. What the hells the point of shipping it insured if they wont give me money for it? These big corporations are very greedy, if I worked for them I would give the customer the benefit of the doubt.

unfortunately here is the reality of the shituation (knowing a thing or 2 about shipping having shipped for a machine shop for 3yrs and worked for usps for over a decade):

the shipping container you used was probably sufficient for a empty case, but not a full blown computer with senesitive electronic components. they need to be packed differently. plus you have to realize that your package is not handled by a person 90% of the time - you see fedex, usps and ups as the delivery driver and you think that is the end of the line but in reality their warehouses are full of high speed automated equipment that handle thousands or tens of thousands of parcels an hour - they run fast and ususally even if your package is not the one that is f*cked at the beginning but is around a f*cked parcel, the machine will take out up to 10 others due to their speed and the fact that the operators of the machines can only react so quick and see so much when their machine is 50yrds long. sorry to say but in the whole scheme of things when you consider how many packages and/or letters the big 3 do it is amazing there are so few issues, it just sucks when it happens to you.

the big 3 have requirements for shipping sensitive electronics - most people don't follow them and get away with it - hell i even had a person send me a p3 skt370 cpu in a envelope and some how it didn't even have a pin bent and worked fine - on the flip side i sent out a $2000 mountain bike professionally packed by a bike shop in the same manf box that the same model came in and it got ran over by the truck - these things just happen. don't think that your box was deliberately drop kicked - this just doesn't happen as the people who work there need to have high productivity - they can't be caught playing hacky sack with parcels as there is usually days worth of work at any given time - you never see the end of it as items are always coming in. so you may think this is a personal attack on you but it is not, grow up and reailze these people don't know or care who you are just that they need to get that box loaded on the truck and get it out for delivery.

if you worked for one and had your attitude they would either fire you or switch you to a different job depending on the state or if they have a union - what they are looking at is the bottom line and if there is a doubt it usually goes to the company, sorry, but this is the reality of the situation.

if you are not happy with the outcome you can always appeal it and write a letter explaining your situation and the strife it has caused - they usually don't want to deal with that and that usually helps you get a "agreeable" ending.

 

[hagi607]

thanks for walking all over me. =] I'll try and mature up. I guess I was just trying to vent out some of my frustration saying they drop kicked my computer... i was only joking. I still haven't heard from them.

 

[JasonCoder]

Originally posted by: SparkyJJO

Originally posted by: smthmlk
same here, pabster.

And same here. Marks on a fedex box? Just some dirt and maybe a slightly roughed corner. UPS? I've had packages come no problem from them as well, but I've gotten many more packages beat up from UPS than from fedex.

I always ship bigger stuff fedex, seems to get there in one piece more often. Cheaper too, for example it was $50 to ship a Dell Inspiron 9300 to Hawaii with $1500 insurance, UPS was $75.

Same here. Fedex no problem... UPS has time and time again stomped on my parcels. Had water damage one time (still scratchin my head on that one), another time it looked like the morons had opened it up to have a look see. UPS is terrible.