I need a drop of sympathy

[Effem]

Last Thursday I packed up a Sony PS-X75 turntable ready to be collected by a courier the same day. Try as I might, I could only find a box big enough for it to go into plus a generous amount of packing, even less could I find a second box to put it inside so as to double box it, so it had to go as a single carton. Not the end of the world as I have sent quite a few TTs single boxed.

Just to make sure it was handled with care, I printed out a big sign in red ink and stuck it onto the box that on no account should the box be stacked otherwise it will harm the contents.

It arrived at it's destination of Friday morning, the recipient duly signed for it without checking the contents in front of the driver. No blame attached here because if the outside of the box appears undamaged, we tend to assume the contents are OK.

Yesterday evening I get an email from the chap saying the TT lid is now in many pieces and a hinge is broken too :( I have asked him to send some photos of the damage, PLUS a photo of the label I had stuck onto the box warning about the fragile contents.

I had paid an insurance premium, but knowing my luck the courier company will do their best to wriggle out of it :(

[Rare Bird]

Insurance is a waste of time tbh...& lids do sometimes get smashed no matter how good you pack them, especially if you leave them attached to the deck.What i do is generally advertise the deck with no lid, people generally don't mind them missing if it's a specialised deck cos they have it in their head decks sound better without..just follow the pointless insurance route to prove you have done your bit, forward anything to buyer...if you feel you packed the deck good enough don't worry, at least the decks not smashed.

[Mark Grant]

Nightmare when that happens.

To check if something is securely packaged to survive parcel depots handling do this:

Stand on a chair, lift the parcel above your head and drop it onto a concrete floor.

If it breaks then it was not packaged securely enough :)

Dont do that but you get what I am saying :)

A fragile label just means someone will take their anger out on it....


Needs to be double boxed with bubble wrap between the two boxes to help absorb the multiple impacts it will receive.
All moving parts fixed in some way.

Hope you get it sorted.

Mark.

[Will]

What you have to do is prove something pierced the parcel (show a hole) its difficult to prove the parcel was up to it and should have been transported like the crown jewels:)

[quadsugdenman]

I had an Akai reel to reel damaged in transit from Germany but the courier just was not having it. Wanted proof regarding the integrity of the package had been broken. Impact damage did not even register in their thinking!!! You have my sympathy!!!!!:(:(:(

[Barry]

The company I used to work for, often made gizmos and gadgets for use in satellites. These had to survive the enormous shock and vibration created on launch - and there were a lot of environmental specifications and tests to be passed, to ensure that the item would be fit for purpose.

These tests were expensive to do, so were only carried out on the near-finalised design. Before that stage was reached, a good and cheap test of the survivability of the item could be made by packing the item in a cardboard box and sending it return via the post. If it survived the Royal Mail, it would survive anything else!

Regards

[Beechwoods]

Neil and I have a good story about a poorly packed RT-707 reel to reel ;) I must admit that these days I am very wary of buying stuff that heavy (45, 50kg) over the internet. It takes maybe 20-30 minutes to properly pack something like that, not to mention the time to source strong boxes and oversize bubble-wrap, secure all the movable items etc. After all that time and expense it's worth driving to pick up any good stuff.

[Butuz]

If you package it so that it can take being run over by a lorry you should be ok to courier it :D

Butuz

[goraman]

Last Thursday I packed up a Sony PS-X75 turntable ready to be collected by a courier the same day. Try as I might, I could only find a box big enough for it to go into plus a generous amount of packing, even less could I find a second box to put it inside so as to double box it, so it had to go as a single carton. Not the end of the world as I have sent quite a few TTs single boxed.

Just to make sure it was handled with care, I printed out a big sign in red ink and stuck it onto the box that on no account should the box be stacked otherwise it will harm the contents.

It arrived at it's destination of Friday morning, the recipient duly signed for it without checking the contents in front of the driver. No blame attached here because if the outside of the box appears undamaged, we tend to assume the contents are OK.

Yesterday evening I get an email from the chap saying the TT lid is now in many pieces and a hinge is broken too :( I have asked him to send some photos of the damage, PLUS a photo of the label I had stuck onto the box warning about the fragile contents.

I had paid an insurance premium, but knowing my luck the courier company will do their best to wriggle out of it :(

This poster is so nieve.
A turn table is the hardest thing in the world to pack corectly.

I do have a fail safe method but it is not cheap.

First buy 2 4X8 foot sheets of 2 inch high dencity pollystirafoam(the stuff you use to side a house before you add lath and stucco).
A large roll of bubble wrap,some zip ties,heavy plastic wrap,2 doubble heavy boxes one much larger than the other.The first box should be at least 3x the size of the turntable and the second box should be 8 inches larger than the second box all the way around,and one large roll of reenforced packing tape.

First useing bubble wrap and zipties secure all moveing parts(tonearm ect...)
Remove the platter if possable or strap it in place and use bubble wrapand tape to create a gurdle around it so the platter dosent drop out and damage the whole table shifting around.Cut 4 or 5 blocks of stiff foam and use them as pillers between the plinth and lid ,then fill in the voids with bubble wrap.
Wrap the whole table in several layers of bubble wrap and tape it all up.
Then wrap it in heavy plastic sealing it with tape.Then cut the 2 inch stiff foam and doubble line the bottom of the smallest box,place the turn table in the middle of the box and cut foam to fit each of the 4 sides till it is tight and there is 4 inches of foam all the way around it ,then cut the foam top pannels of foam so that there is 4 inches on top and if there is ANY VOIDS fill them in with bubble wrap so the box closes tight then tape it at each seam at least 2 layers of tape or more.
THen cut and line the bottom of the larger box with 4 inches of stiff foam place the first box inside and cut foam to fit all 4 sides and fill all voids with bubble wrap then cut doubble pannels to fit over the top and fill in any voids to the top and tape the hell out of it all.
Forget any special stickers they only make your box a target.
I have shipped 100 pound amps,turntables,cdps and large speakers.
If the weight is over 60lbs.be sure to use heavy ply stapled cardboard boxes all the way to 150lbs. If over that you have to crate it.

What you should have in the end is a table compleatly secured and cacooned in bubble wrap and sealed in plastic,surounded by a primary layer of doublle cardboard and 4 inches of high dencity foam in all directions and secondaraly another 4 inches of foam and another doubble walled cardboard box for a grand total of bubble wrap,8 inches of foam in all direction and 4 layers of heavy cardboard with no air gaps inside.
If this table arrives damaged it's because the truck drove off the side of the Grand Canyon!
Even Mr. Bean could deliver that!!!

[Marco]

That's very thorough, Jeff. Only trouble is, I'd lose the will to live halfway through all that! :acid:

Marco.

[Rare Bird]

http://open.spotify.com/track/1Yz4f8rXtp24nC5ODB2hbf