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Shipping Hardware Cross-Country?
ae0nflx asks: "I just graduated from High School and the computer that my parents gave me four years ago has finally died. I've decided to spend all that money that I've been hoarding for a few summers on a new G5. The problem lies in the fact that for college I'll be moving to the East Coast (Upstate New York), from the foggy shores of the San Francisco Bay. Does anyone have any insight on how to ship my brand new machine cross country? Cheap would be good. I'll be flying back in late August and I don't think that I'll be able to take her back with me because I'm assuming she'll be a little big for the overhead bin... I'm not sure if I can trust this to the Postal Service alone." It may not be the same as shipping the big iron, but when you trust your hardware to any shipping company, be it Federal Express, or UPS, you do have the expectations that what you ship, will get to where it's going, and hopefully get there in one piece. Which shipping companies would you recommend for this job? For those who have done this, what experiences have you had, and what suggestions can you pass on to ae0nflx?
I'm going to college half way across the country in September (from VA to Chicago), and i'm driving it myself. I'm shipping things like clothes and anything that isn't fragile, but my computer equipment is coming with me in the car. Air conditioned, with me at all times, much less prone to damage.
you should have bought a laptop! No need to ship it, just carry it along on the plane. Plus, you can take it with you to class. Not very helpful now, I know, but maybe it will make someone else think about getting a laptop for school instead of a desktop system.
Back up your hard drive, either to another HD, or tape, or DVD. Remove the hard drive, carry it with you. Leave the backup with someone trust worthy. Ship the machine UPS or Fedex, insured for enough to replace it. The hardware is basically worthless, it's your data that has value. As long as the machine is at all replaceable, you have no worries.
But losing your pr0n collection, *that's* bad.
Pull the hard drive, then ship it UPS (or Fedex, or UPS) insured. About 50% of the time they'll trash your computer but they'll give you cash equal to what *you paid* for your computer, not what it's worth today. Think of it as regular free upgrades.
As long as you don't trust them with your data this is a much easier policy than trying to figure out a safe way to ship it.
As far as packaging, I've had good luck double boxing it (put computer inside tight fitting box packed with foam, put box inside larger looser box packed with styrofoam peanuts). The outside box ends up looking trashed but the inside box is fine. Again this is with pulling the harddrives and carrying those personally.
Airborne is late more often the FedEx who is late more often then UPS. Personally, I'd ship it UPS, and add $3K in insurance. I'd ship it ground, (it'll probably end up on a plane, but if you can deal with not having it for 5-6 days it's a lot cheaper).
Get it ensured. Keep the insurance slip. Make sure it's a must be signed for shipment, and call UPS to have it be arrange for pickup if you don't get it the first time they attempt to deliver it.
If it's not there, and you don't have a note, call UPS. Check the website.
If it's not there within 3 business days of the scheduled delivery date, you are screwed, call UPS, file a tracer. Start the process of getting your insurance money.
Every Tom, Dick and Harry on here is going to tell you their personal story about how they got screwed by carrier X, and how they will never use carrier X again. They think the carrier has some personal vendetta. It's comical. All of the carriers move millions of items a week. An success rate of 5 9's, still means a lot of screw ups a week. Make sure you have the documentation, make sure you take care of it quickly, make sure you follow up with them. You can successfully get your refund if it gets lost or damaged, sometimes it takes a little while, if you can't deal with that rent a car, drive the damn thing.
Kirby
That's all that needs to be said. It will cost quite a bit more than UPS ground, but you have a 99 percent chance of it arriving undamaged and a 100 percent chance of having any damaged covered by the insurance. That's way more than you can say for UPS.
"Eve of Destruction", it's not just for old hippies anymore...
Um, you do realize that if you wait until you're a student, if it's a large-enough school, you'll get a 10-15% educational discount on the machine. That alone (plus the fact that it'll be shipped there, plus the fact that it won't ship until August, and that's if you've already ordered one) is worth the wait.
Join the Apple Student Dev. program for an even larger discount, or make friends with someone who had/has an internship/job at Apple for more discounts.
That being said, I think the recommendations for a laptop make a lot more sense at college. You'll have more than enough desktops around the various computing labs I assume the school has, so be smart and get a laptop you can take anywhere, anytime. They really are desktop replacements these days, even the not-so-hefty ones. Get a 12" PowerBook or something.
Oh, and the other opporitunity here is to find a professor to do research/work for, and have him get you a kickass machine/laptop to "work" on.