Best way to ship a PowerMac

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
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

  • Reply 1 of 7
    scottscott Posts: 7,431member
    If you want to pay for it you can take it as is to one of those shipping places. Let them pack it and insure. That way if it get damaged it's not on you. Maybe pull the hard drive and keep it with you incase the computer gets lost?
  • Reply 2 of 7
    wolfeye155wolfeye155 Posts: 425member
    I work at a UPS Store and we ship out computers all of the time. I'm not sure about the other stores but I know at our store we put extreme care into all the computer we ship. It's expensive but worth it. We only use shipping boxes with at least a 200lb burst strength if not more. If you don't want to pay for it, you can buy all the materials yourself but it might be just as expensive.



    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.
  • Reply 3 of 7
    bungebunge Posts: 7,329member
    The best thing you can do is send it to my house.
  • Reply 4 of 7
    I would just ship it and insure the heck out of it with the hopes that you get a latest and greatest version. Just remove your HD first.
  • Reply 5 of 7
    a_greera_greer Posts: 4,594member
    the best way to ship a power mac is in my direction
  • Reply 6 of 7
    a_greera_greer Posts: 4,594member
    Quote:

    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.
  • Reply 7 of 7
    wolfeye155wolfeye155 Posts: 425member
    You're right about that. UPS pays a hell of a lot more in claims each year versus FedEx.
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