Slashdot Mirror
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.
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
99% of the computer repair I do is spyware removal.
--Gentoo Baby!
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.