Best way to ship a PowerMac
I'm thinking of shipping my computer back home after college is out for the summer. I don't have the original box (dorms are small), so what would my best course of action be? Does Apple sell shipping boxes for a nominal fee? Are there any does/don'ts when it comes to shipping a rather expensive computer?
Comments
The process we use is:
Completely wrap the entire computer in large bubble wrap until it's like a pillow. Obviously there is tape involved in this. Put that inside of a 200lbs burst strength shipping box. It doesn't matter if the computer is touching the walls of this box as long as you can fit it in there. You also don't really need to have packaging peanuts in this box but it doesn't hurt. Then you put this box into a larger box with enough space to fit 4 inches of packaging peanuts on each side of the box as well as the top and bottom. If you have other perhipherals that you're going to send with it, make sure there's enough room in the outside box and that they aren't pressed up against the side of the box. Things shaking around inside of the box is bad. When you shake the box, you should be able to hear very minimal movement. If it's not packaged properly and something breaks, whatever carrier you use will not pay the claim on it.
This whole thing is kind of a pain in the ass especially if you've never done it before. I'd recommend you paying to have them do it for you. At least you'll know it's done right and you won't have to worry about it. Don't forget to insure it either! Oh and I recommend using either UPS or FedEx. Stay away from Airborne Express. I've heard nightmare stories about them and experienced their service and they suck.
Originally posted by wolfeye155
...This whole thing is kind of a pain in the ass especially if you've never done it before. I'd recommend you paying to have them do it for you. At least you'll know it's done right and you won't have to worry about it. Don't forget to insure it either! Oh and I recommend using either UPS or FedEx. Stay away from Airborne Express. I've heard nightmare stories about them and experienced their service and they suck.
Go fedex, screw UPS, of the ~10 packages shipped here by UPS well over half of the boxes were dinged and damaged, andtwo were in such a bad way that we were looking for skid marks to find out exactly how the truck ran over it.
I have shipped PCs flawlessly with fedex for warentable repairs and they are good - If it is important to you, forget the big brown truck.