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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 ..."
Would the repair be done at the depot? How is this any easier than shipping the parts and computer to a central location?
All Troll + "offtopic" mods are meta moderated as "Unfair", because you abused the system.
I imagine they actually bring them into a regional repair depot so they don't have to train their whole fleet of drivers
I have mod points and I am not afraid to use them
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Else they might lose your laptop, like they recently lost Virginia students' test answers. WHOOPS!
Yeah, this woulda been nice back in 1998 when I bought my Portege 7010CT. UPS (Pronounced: Oops) promised it would be there in five business days. Ten business days later, I finally got it. It's nice to see this, though. Of course, it could just be a way for UPS and Toshiba to make lots more money...I'm hoping that it will help boost business, though. 'Shiba makes some good laptops. (Let's just hope they get to YOU people on time and such.)
I bought a three year warranty for my HP laptop, and they promise next-day on-site service anywhere in the US. I'm sure HP hasn't got reps in every city on the continent. So how does this normally work? Where do the reps come from?
I would rather have a local STORE that can do this work and quickly too. Gateway used to have stores and the screwed that up. If they had actually stocked components at the store then they would have been able to do the repair a whole lot quicker. as it is, it would have probably taken the same time if I had UPS'd it instead of hauling it into the store. That's NOT the only reason Gateway closed their stores, but it's a big one.
Gorkman
This is either incredibly smart or incredibly stupid. It sounds like one of those business arrangements that in hindsight everyone says was brilliant or should never be mentioned again.
Developers: We can use your help.
I wish companies offered discounted DIY warranties, where they shipped you the part and a short instruction sheet and you could replace it yourself, even for semi-complicated things like keyboards.
Basically, it'd be a warranty on only parts, but you could choose to supply your own labor (instead of paying them to do it).
$8.95/mo web hosting
...trust me, this is a bad idea. I did a year as a Loader/Unloader at UPS. With the way we treated those packages I'm surporised andyone gets anything from UPS in good condition. One time the Stanley Cup came through my hub and got lost for 3 days. Management had us combing the building for the crate. And on the third day it just showed up in the international section. Whoever stole it must have realized the shitstorm they had started up. Before thanksgiving one year we had 50 Turkeys packed in ice that somehow didn't make it on the last truck (on Monday we had a small hill of individually packed rotting meat floating in water. I've got a million UPS horror stories. Trust me you don't want to ship anything UPS. And if you do ship UPS, package your stuff so that it could at least withstand being drop kicked 20 feet into a metal wall...
My days of not taking you seriously are certainly coming to a middle...
Like the article says the laptops are shipped to a central facility where the laptops are worked on. Radio Shack does the same thing, as they take Compaq laptops for repair. I should have trusted my gut on Radio Shack and stayed far away, but I brought an out-of-warranty Compaq to them that had problems turning on without a battery. So I give them the laptop and the bobo at the repair facility says they have to replace the mobo to the tune of $800. I explained to him that I thought the problem was probably with the charging unit and to try that first, but he wouldn't have any of it. I told him to pack it up and send it back.
After that I went in search of a way to repair it myself, and I found Impact Computers, which stocks just about every laptop component under the sun for a decent price (including replacement plastic covers for your more clutzy co-workers) I ordered a new charging board and sure enough it worked for a fraction of the price even if they had made a correct diagnosis in the first place. Suck on that you so-called technician!
-R
I remember when we used to have to do computer repair for UPS. Back in '95 or '96 there was quite a rash of false computer damage claims. I think someone started passing around instructions on how to rip off UPS, but it didn't take UPS long to catch on and start bringing in damage claims for assessment and repair.
I was working for a small local computer shop at the time and we didn't do a huge volume of UPS claims, but what I saw was outrageous. Yeah, there were a couple of legitimate claims - almost always loose cards or cables from vibration - but most of the fraudulent ones didn't even try. VLB cards stuck in ISA slots, toasted motherboards, junk components just jammed in a case... nothing that even looked remotely like shipping damage.
Not sure what they did to the people that tried to pull this stuff, but the claims seemed to stop almost as fast as they started.
I worked as a technician for UPS once. It's amazing what people will do to try to get their machines replaced by UPS. Some would ship really ancient machines with thousands in insurance then claim it was damaged in shipment. One guy was really upset because he had paid to have an old machine sent as a high value shipment but on inspection it was worth less than $50. Blame it on Seinfeld episodes...
This is not to say that UPS didn't damage stuff. THey did. Lots of stuff. Sometimes I was amazed that equipment actually arrived in working order. There was one machine that was run over by a truck -- no kidding. Footprints on boxes? Yup, many times. Pilferage. Yup.
No point to this post other than a rant. They have the illusion of high tech but their hubs are ripped right from the 1940's.
I'll post this AC for fear of being hunted down and slaughtered by my evil UPS-corporate overlords... but the rumours are true. We, at UPS, really do drop-kick your boxes. Off the trucks to the belt isn't so bad, the damages happen in the trailer. They crank the belt up so high that packages will literally start piling into the ass end of the trailer if your packers aren't working fast enough. Unfortunatly, most of the time the only way to work fast enough is to not give a shit about the packages, and just start throwing them. But of course, the managers would never slow the belts down, because then we might be a little late *gasp*. So yeah, you basically get trained to break things.
:).
;)
:)
After a while it becomes fun though, almost like a game. We do all sorts of stuff to your crap. Sit on boxes, stand on boxes, drop boxes, throw them, kick them, drop heavy boxes on lighter boxes... its a great stress reliever really! Some highlights from my UPS-trailer career include:
- Sliding on packages down the rollers like a slip'n'slide.
- Taking long, heavy automotive parts like suspension pieces, and using them as javelins to impale other boxes
- Finding the absolute heaviest package on the truck, lining it up over some other boxes, and then going "Oops!" as you roll it into the belly to smash the other boxes
- Using any sort of metallic crate, case, or box, and tossing it onto other boxes so the sharp corners rip into the packages
- Building a wall of packages until only a small, 2 ft gap is left at the top of the trailer, and then taking small, light packages, and drop-kicking them over the wall like a football player. We even keep score (honestly, we do).
- Having shotput competitions with really heavy packages. The bags we use for letters are really fun, because you can swing them like a hammer-toss for extra distance.
- Playing "smash-up-boxes", or "Darwinism". Basically two guys take random boxes and throw them at eachother and see which one survives the impact the best. The winner then takes on a new challanger. Its supposed to find the "ultimate package", but generally it just leaves a whole lot of beat up crap scattered around.
Oh, and don't bother labling your packages "fragile". For one, they don't get treated any better than anything else (the ONLY packages that get treated with kid-gloves are the specially insured high-values). For a second thing, fragiles can actually be treated WORSE than regular packages. Probably 75% of everything we move has a "fragile" sticker somewhere on it. Even if the part is an 80lb chunk of metal, you idiot customers still seem to think its "fragile" and that we need to gently carress while placing it in the trailer. So when we see boxes that are marked fragile, its kind of insulting. Especially packages that are obviously not fragile, or overly labled ("OMG FRAGIEL PLZ DONT DROP OR STAND ON END PLZ K THNX BYE!!"). We target those packages for extra abuse
Other things we hate and tend to abuse are boxes that are shitty and falling apart, or just too thin to hold their contents correctly. Since those kinds of things tend to bust open easilly, we like to drop the heavier stuff on them to see what happens. Also, be wary of heavier boxes with shifting loads. If a worker is ever injured by your box (contents shift and smack you in the face, box opens and contents fall on your foot or whatever), then your package will get the "royal treatment". Royal meaning we royally beat the fuck out of your stupid goddamn package.
Anyways, I hope that little insight into UPS was enough to convince some of you to never ship with our shitty fucking company ever again.
Cheers!
I'm going to guess that UPS uses a lot of Tosiba laptops and this made business sense for them, as they now probably get lots of parts at cost.
This is kinda like Amazon becoming a ICANN certified domain selling company.... it was cheaper for them to manage all the domains themselves then it was to go through netsol.
UPS drivers aren't replacing anything, they are simply shipping them to a center where techs replace the parts, then ship them back. While the article gives the impression that the techs will be UPS employees, they still are most likely experienced laptop repair techs, not guys pulled from big brown trucks - if only because it's probably easier to find good laptop techs then good truck drivers these days.
It isn't that unusual for shipping companies to do other loosly related stuff - for example, outpost.com outsources their wharehousing/pick n pack/shipping to Airborne - if you buy anything from outpost, it will ship from "1 Airborne Drive" somwhere in Ohio.
I have blog like everyone else
the package for $300, which was a few dollars less than it was worth. They paid the claim almost a year later. UPS seems OK for most things, but I will never send anything fragile or irreplaceable by UPS again.
The idea is utterly preposterous. United Parcel Service is clueless about computer issues, if my experience is any guide. UPS WorldShip software is amazingly poorly designed, and the installation is primitive. I needed installation instructions, and had to write them myself: UPS Online WorldShip Software Installation and Un-installation Instructions. No one at UPS has thought to put the instructions online. One UPS tech support rep. told me that was because they wanted to have as many people calling them as possible, so they could keep their jobs.
Yep.... Granted, this was at least 5 years ago, but one of my good friends worked for UPS and told me a story about their loading dock here in the midwest.
He said they had been short on space, so they were ordered to stack boxes up in a 6 or 7 foot high "wall". When it came time to get these boxes loaded on the trucks, a supervisor came along, ordering them to "tear it down!". They just let the whole thing fall all over the concrete floor, without any concern as to whether or not boxes near the top of the pile were "fragile".
The last thing I want is some moron rushing through a $3000 laptop repair, losing parts and breaking things in the process!
Honestly, whom do you think Toshiba employs in their repair shops now? You can be sure it's not an EE. Six of one...
Besides, you all aren't reading TFA. They aren't going to be doing computer repairs in the local UPS hub or depot, all of the repairs are going to one central UPS shop in Louisville, KY. So it's either morons who work for Toshiba in God Knows Where or morons who work for UPS in Kentucky, what's the difference from the consumer POV?
http://ascendantmedia.com/ups/
They man-handled the box so roughly that components came loose from their sockets on the motherboard.
And we never got a dime on the claim we filed for damages.
IANAUPSE (I am not a UPS employee), but I used
to be a customer. Never again.
(1) on the delivery dock of my employer when
$15K worth of Compaq servers were delivered,
and signed for. The product was originally
destined for a company across town.
(2) packages marked "Signature Only" delivery
left on a neighboring business's doorstep
(3) package marked (all over) "Fragile Glass"
arrived with a smashed corner & tinkled:
$6K flatbed scanner (in original factory
box) was dropped from a height of 6 feet.
(The same packaging protected same equipment
on 12K mile trip from Japan.)
Why would anyone trust such a delivery company?
IMHO, UPS is good for one thing only: stress
testing MIL spec ruggedized equipment.
Reminds me of this poor guy who shipped his mac with UPS ground (and yes, the images are still online).
They took care of his computer all right...
Precisely. This is what separates crappy second-rate carriers like UPS and FedEx from true professionals, like World Courier. If a package says on the outside that it needs to be kept at -20C, then I expect a halfway decent courier to keep that package at the stated temperature, regardless of whether someone was present at the lab at 8pm on Friday night (because the courier was running behind schedule) to receive the package or not. If the courier doesn't give a crap about the integrity of the shipment, then why bother picking it up in the first place? Why not just dump the package in the nearest waste bin as soon as possible after pickup is made?
Despite what Fedex and UPS would have you believe via their large advertising budgets, both of these companies are viewed as talentless barbarians in the life sciences world. Neither seem to be able to ship time or temperature critical samples quickly or effectively, and neither seem to want to take any type of responsibility for them either. I have just today taken delivery of a Fedex shipped package of E.coli (carrying yeast expression plasmids), which had been stalled in Australian customs for over a week, due to Fedex misplacing the required regulatory paperwork. Thankfully E.coli are built like Abrams tanks, and a week at room temperature shouldn't be too harmful. This, unfortunately, was not the case last year when we lost ***2 years*** worth of time course mouse brain samples, which were being shipped from San Francisco. For some completely unknowable reason, the samples were held in Hawaii for 3 days. During this time, even the copious amount of dry ice which was packed with the samples evaporated, and by the time the package arrived in Sydney and cleared quarantine, there was nothing but a proteolytically degraded soup left for us to analyse.
Frankly, I'd rather eat a bucket of my own crap than entrust the likes of UPS or Fedex with important biological samples. They simply don't know what they are doing. They're unprofessional. Their call centre staff are idiots. Avoid at all costs.