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UPS - Your Computer Repair Depot?
dcsmith writes "UPS and Toshiba are entering into an agreement to have UPS provide warranty service on Toshiba laptops. Might not be as weird as it sounds -- they claim that the bulk of the effort in a computer repair is moving the computer and the necessary parts together. The actual repair itself is often trivial. I'm not sure I'm onboard 100%, but if its a faulty display or a bad CD drive, this might actually work ..."
The repair labor is outsourced to UPS's facility.
UPS is adding services above and beyond shipping. I remember 8-9 years ago having them do warehousing and packing.
It is handy for a growing company to just buy more space from UPS, than having to build ever increasing warehouses.
A while back I got a laptop with a broken display handed to me, and managed to get my filthy fingersesss on a nice LCD screen that would fit it.
It was pretty damn hard and timeconsuming to replace that monitor, and I broke off a couple of plastic hinges. I thought I was treating it fairly well, but it required some force to get out. And I've worked tech support(yes hands on) for 5 years, for the Duuuude. Never with laptops though, I'm a server guy.
Getting back to the point - na, I dont think I'd like them to replace that part. But it's an interesting idea. Logistically it's not a problem at all, ANYTHING can be delivered "Next Business Day", as that's been used for years already. Most people that buy their own computer parts never see that, though, but if you buy your system with a nice system warranty from a serious vendor it's handy to know it'll be fixed the day after they send you a tech. Infact this is almost how it is today, except the courier doesn't replace the hardware at present, just exchange it with the customer. Imagine a disk fails in your server system and you wanna replace it yourself - ask to be sent just the new disk, and a courier brings it. Replacing a disk like that is not hard, though, so if you DON'T wanna do it yourself - why not have the courier do ALL that work and skip sending expensive technicians?
I just got an order of books from Amazon today, shipped using their free Super Saver shipping, which ended up being UPS Ground in this case. I'm in Wisconsin, it came from Kentucky. I ordered Monday, they shipped Tuesday, they arrived Wednesday. That's pretty damned fast.
Mod down posts with a "Free Mac Mini/iPod" sig, they're spam!
Now UPS can read your hard drive as well as open your packages.
Apparently, the only reason that the specific search in the linked case was questionable was the fact that the UPS employee opening the packages would sometimes allow DEA agents to assist her if they were on site and the package was difficult to open.
Of course, a "Toshiba repair shop" would likely be free to do the same, as they are also a private entity. (Only government entities are "required" to abide by the Bill of Rights.)
Read, L
According to the linked article, the repairs are to be done at a central location (in Louisville, Ky) run by the UPS "logistics outsourcing division". This is really more of an outsourcing story than a shipping story.
I worked for a company years ago that did pretty much this same thing. It was a freight and logistics company and one of the customers was Apple Computer. We coordinated supply chains for the parts and brought the assembled systems, packaged and all, to where the end customer or store was. Less bother for the manufacturer.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
i read about this 6 months ago in Fast Company, a management magazine... Go figure...
They claim that the bulk of the effort in a computer repair is moving the computer and the necessary parts together.
Hey! UPS' own incompetence is finally paying off!
1. Obstruct and make shipping process as difficult as possible.
2. ????
3. Profit from Toshiba
Skiers and Riders -- http://www.snowjournal.com
Another original use for UPS (UPS Stores, actually) is as a drop-off point for stuff to sell on eBay. You don't even have to have an eBay account - this company will take care of everything for you (for a commission, of course).
Toshiba, Dell and everybody else doing mail order know how their boxes get treated by the shippers and design their packaging accordingly. We ship computers with UPS and Fedex all the time, and we never had a problem shipping in the original packaging. I've heard stories about boxes with forklift holes and tire tracks on them, and I've also seen the results of inadequate packaging. I know it's a huge waste of space, but just save the original box and foam. If you pack it in that, 95% of the time it gets there safe.
We were just talking about this in class the other day. Its not all that new. UPS has been building many Dell's computers for awhile now.
Business News and Resources: www.usasource.net
I'd be more inclined to agree with you, if we were talking about DESKTOPS here, but we're talking NOTEBOOKS!
I don't know how many notebook computers you've personally repaired, but I've worked on quite a few - and I'd say it's by far the most challenging type of computer repair out there.
Among other things, it takes lots of patience and care, because you're dealing with lots of very small screws (often several different sizes for different parts of the system) that can easily get lost, along with fragile ribbon cables, etc. Outer plastic shell parts are often tricky to snap apart without breaking off tabs, and sometimes you have little pieces that have to be carefully placed in just the right spot before snapping other pieces closed around them (CPU cooling ducts and the like).
The last thing I want is some moron rushing through a $3000 laptop repair, losing parts and breaking things in the process!
Is it rocket science? Of course not. But like anything involving tiny parts crammed into small spaces, you have to be CAREFUL.
99% of the computer repair I do is spyware removal.
--Gentoo Baby!
The Louisville plant is a pretty new facility and operates a heck of a lot better than some of the older ones (like 81st street in Indy, yes, I've worked there.)
81st street hub in Indy is ran horribly. I've been in a trailer where there were two of us loading (and we were 2 of the fastest loaders in the building), and we still couldn't keep up with the flow and because of crappy equipment boxes kept getting jammed in the slides, etc. So after about an hour we had no way to get out of the trailer except to climb on boxes and step on them, or you would get a 70 pound box flying down the conveyer and run into something fragile that was stuck against every other box that had piled up.
Most of the UPS plants in the country are older and not at all like the one in Louisville. Keep in mind that it is more than likely your package will go through one of those plants on its way.
Oh, and if you send something 2nd day air it's not going on a plane unless it's travelling well over 1000 miles, so you might as well pay for ground. (From Indy we serviced all 2nd day air by truck from Iowa to Kansas to Florida to upstate New York.)
=]
What?
Evidently you are lacking the Toshiba laptop repair and service guide. Toshiba actually have a book on how to replace any part on any Toshiba model that is in the book.
Not only that, but Toshiba number their screw holes and the guide of which screw size to which hole is in the guide.
Toshiba have got it right, most internal parts are either clearly labled, or the diagram in the service guide is clear enough to follow to the last screw. The guide even covers how to put it all back together with notes on the tricky parts.
I would actualy wager that you could use the guide and order all the parts seperatly, and build your own Toshiba laptop...
NeoThermic
Use my link above, or to view my server, NeoThermic.com
Dear Shit for Brains,
You didn't convince me of somthing that I didn't alreay know. Almost every company has some disgruntled workers - perhaps fifteen percent of their workforce. But the majority of their workers are hard working honest people who take pride in their work. Sure, they may have a few gripes but they do the best they can do and many, perhaps most - really stretch to go the extra distance.
Too bad that small percentage - the people like you - hurt the reputation of the majority! If you worked flipping burgers, you would be the asshole that spits on the burgers. Jerks like you are everywhere and you hurt the honest hardworking people who only want a decent day's pay for a decent days work.
You can't possibly convince me that you are more than a small percentage of the workforce. I get laptops shipped to me every day and of the thousands that I have handled over the years, I have yet to have had one damaged in shipping. You should see some of them I get too. At least once a week, I will get one in a "letter box."
One of your competitors has delivered a laptop in working condition to me that had the shipping label pasted directly on the computer!
I'd advise you to find a better attitude, the one you have now does not serve you well and will prevent you from getting somewhere in life.
Did you ship them overnight? In my experience with antibodies (used for flow cytometry), they always go next day air. Did you not track the package online? If it really was a red (overnight) shipment, it should have been there by noon (at least that is the case in the states). You did not stick around for the UPS man?
Here is a hint: If you will not stick around to wait for the package, don't order expensive-dry ice packed things at the end of the week.