8mm Forum: Worst packing job you have ever experienced?

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Topic: Worst packing job you have ever experienced?

Alan Rik
Film God

Posts: 2211
From: New York City, NY, USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted January 25, 2011 12:39 AM

I purchased a set of Elmo Speakers a few weeks ago from a private seller. The speakers arrived and had no packing material whatsoever! Only the original box which had the speakers in them (No styrofoam or other packing material) and then placed into a 2nd box which was like a second skin (no packing material between the 2 boxes).
Consequently because it had to travel overseas the speakers arrived damaged! Who packs like that?
So I found another set of speakers and they were shipped to me from California.
I had a sinking feeling when the box arrived and it looked a little "worn".
I opened it up and found....the speakers with around 15 sheets of loosely wadded newspaper!! Another bad packing job.
This one was lucky however in that the speakers arrived in good condition even though the box was almost open on one side!
This is 2 for 2 for bad packing jobs. It rivals the GS1200 which was shipped with No Packing material and then arrived with the metal casing cracked.
Does no one know how to pack items for shipment anymore? Its crazy.
What is the worse packing job you have experienced?

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Antonis Galanakis
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 191
From: Europe Greece Athens
Registered: Jan 2009

posted January 25, 2011 08:56 AM

Once I received a projector with terrible (almost none) packing. Of course the projector was cracked badly and in many pieces.
On the opposite side you have to meet Jean-Marc Toussaint from France. His packing can survive the 2012 disaster! The box I received from him was 5 times the size of the 16mm projector!!!
Antonis

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Steve Klare
Film Guy

Posts: 7016
From: Long Island, NY, USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted January 25, 2011 09:34 AM

I had an Elmo ST-800 go sour once and found one on E-bay just like it allegedly in mint condition. I figured I'd use the "new" one and keep the "old" one for parts.

The guy sent it with a scattering of styrofoam peanuts via UPS.

(-Which is like letting the Marine Corps move your china closet.)

Sure enough: it arrived after having been dropped so hard the center foot bent the frame upwards almost half an inch. A lot of stuff that needed critical alignment no longer had it, and the machine kind of leaned to one side like it had sprained an ankle.

The wearable parts in the "new" machine really were like new, so I had a change of plans. I stripped both machines down to the frames, picked the best parts out of the two batches and installed them on the "old" frame. The remainders went into storage. The resulting machine works very well.

Things worked out fine in the end, but I would gladly have skipped the day of Surgery!

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All I ask is a wide screen and a projector to light her by...

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Dino Everette
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1535
From: Long Beach, CA USA
Registered: Dec 2008

posted January 25, 2011 11:55 AM

I just recently bought a Pathe Baby Model A here in the states, and the seller (who had antique something in the name) popped it in a priority flat rate box and off it went...In my feedback I said "Original glass survived 80 years but not sellers' shipment"

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"You're too Far Out Miss Lawrence"

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Mark Mander
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1236
From: Dunstable ,Bedfordshire.
Registered: Jan 2005

posted January 25, 2011 12:10 PM

I bought an Elf/Eiki 16mm machine a few years back and it was just sent in a black bin bag with no packing at all!!! Apart from a cracked speaker cover it arrived in one piece amazingly!!Mark.

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Elmo GS1200 1.0 lens
Elmo ST1200HD 1.1 lens
Sankyo 800 1.0 lens
Elmo 16CL
Elf NT1

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Bryan Chernick
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 654
From: Bothell, WA, USA
Registered: Mar 2010

posted January 25, 2011 12:35 PM

I bought a Bolex 18-5L on ebay that had minimal packing in a flimsy cardboard box. When I pulled it out the back cover was pushed out from where it should have been. I thought it was destroyed but it popped back into place and works great. That says a lot for Bolex but not the person that packed it.

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Gary Crawford
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 979
From: Manassas, VA. USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted January 25, 2011 02:15 PM

wow..some horror stories there. I've had one come in with the back legs totally bent...had to have hit something with tremendous force. I've had them in flimsy boxes....and all sorts of shabby packing. I even had one damaged when it was shipped by famous USA Elmo repair buy, Leon Norris. The swing out gate had been hit so hard it wouldn't stay closed and was totally off kilter..... We worked it out and it's fixed...sort of. A lot of folks 1. don't care once they get payment. 2. do care, but not enough to do a good job of packing. and 3. Have no idea how delicate projectors are.

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Adrian Winchester
Film God

Posts: 2941
From: Croydon, London, UK
Registered: Aug 2004

posted January 25, 2011 02:55 PM

This makes horrifying reading and I'm greatful that I've received a few projectors through the post (including 16mm Eikis from USA and France) without significant problems.

This helps convince me that when eBay introduced their ratings for speed, etc, they really should have included one for packaging.

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Adrian Winchester

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Claus Harding
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1149
From: Washington DC
Registered: Oct 2006

posted January 25, 2011 03:58 PM

Want ugly? Here's my GS-1200 when it arrived from Buenos Aires...

One box, with one layer of styrofoam (well on its way out.)
One more way station and the thing would have come to pieces [Frown]

Miraculously, only one of the feet was slightly bent.

Claus.

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"Why are there shots of deserts in a scene that's supposed to take place in Belgium during the winter?" (Review of 'Battle of the Bulge'.)

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Dino Everette
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1535
From: Long Beach, CA USA
Registered: Dec 2008

posted January 25, 2011 06:04 PM

Ahhhh good ole fedex....We had a metal 2 reel goldberg case returned by them flatter than a pancake...They had run over it with their plane, and it contained a recently preserved film...They had to spend about $5,000 replacing the 2 35mm reels they damaged.

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"You're too Far Out Miss Lawrence"

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Alexander Lechner
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 118
From: Leoben, Austria
Registered: Apr 2009

posted January 26, 2011 12:45 AM

Received a camera once floating around in a box without anything to protect it. Camera was cheap and didn't take any harm, luckily.
Some of the cases you are describing have more to do with very bad handling; I mean how do you want to protect a 15 kg projector from guys who throw boxes on a truck or don't want to bend and drop it from half a meter height? You'd have to send it in a hard case leaving enough space for a 30 cm air cushion around the projector ...
If it is a responsible seller he packs decently (but also economically clever) and also has to take the risk of transport with a refund when it goes wrong.

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Alex

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Lee Mannering
Film God

Posts: 3216
From: The Projection Box
Registered: Nov 2006

posted January 26, 2011 08:00 AM

My worst buying experience was in the early 80’s, having purchased an optical sound base for a Pathescope Gem silent projector. The item was sent wrapped in two sheets of newspaper which also had stains of fish and chips on and a little bit of string to hold the lot together. Not ideal but still raises a smile today... [Eek!]

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