Kate told me a couple of weeks ago that she'd decided to ship her old computer to me. She'd been thinking about bringing it as checked luggage next time she comes to town but decided it wasn't worth the hassle. [Aside: she bought a new iBook and was shipping her old iMac to Austin so I could set it up for her folks to use.] She no longer had the original packaging so was shipping it via UPS (getting them to box and pack it up for her) to me at work. I didn't really think about it again until I got an email message from the receptionist on Wednesday:

You have received a UPS package. There is no PO number. It is on the table in the copy room.

That's a rather innocuous message, eh? A package. The computer had arrived. I promptly forgot about it, though. We were busy and I never made it down to the office. Yesterday was the first time I'd gone into the mail/copy room since I got that message. I spotted a large and quite dilapidated box on the table and realized it was mine. It was in bad shape. I did not have a good feeling about the prospects for the computer. I grabbed a cart and took the box up to my office. I started to unpack it and then realized that I should really snap a few photos and document the condition of the package, in the likely event that we'd have to file a claim.

And, I thought back to Kate's description of her conversation with the UPS guy. It went something like:

Kate: I need to ship this to Austin.
UPS guy: No problem. We ship computers all the time.

Wow. That's a rather stunning claim. I guess it's true. I bet he's never seen one of his boxes at its final destination, though. Otherwise, he'd use more substantial boxes. And, perhaps, some of that Instapack Quick foam that molds itself to the item being packaged. Instead of that, though, I got this:

I suppose the Instapak stuff costs more than packing peanuts. But, I wager lots of people (most of them?) would pay for it. Note the corners of the box. Packing peanuts were coming out of all four of the bottom corners. It looked like the box had been used as a bowling ball. Note the "Fragile" stickers. There was one affixed to each side of the box. And, one on the top. It's impressive the way UPS deals with fragile cargo, eh? So, I opened the box. And, here's what I found inside:

I'm guessing it was packed to the rim with peanuts when it left the UPS store in Oregon. I'm guessing. It wasn't even close to full by the time it got to Austin, though. I was stunned -- actually, beyond stunned -- that the iMac did not seem to be damaged. Note that the rear end of the computer is sticking up out of the peanuts. The way the box appears to have been tossed around, it's a wonder the case wasn't cracked. And, here's what everything looked like once it was out of the box:

I brought it home in that state. I was a little afraid to cut the bubble wrap off. But, I did. And, everything seems fine. I've yet to try and power things up, though. Yikes.

Posted on August 6, 2005 by Joanna