well i just recently built a circuit board for a old roomate. he has a cool looking LED fan and i mada a strobe circuit for the fan to make it look like it was spining super slow or even backwards. its way cool when it works. anyway here is what happened. when i finished the board i put it in a static bag and then i put that in bubble wrap. then i put that in to a large envelope and wrote all over the outside of that DO NOT BEND. basically i just proved a theroy of mine. there must be some postal workers must be illiterate because i thought my label was clear. well i will let the pictures tell the rest.
This is why I always pack important things into a cardboard box of some sort or another... I feel for ya, but I suppose youve learned your lesson-albeit the hard way
That happened because you were cheap. You should have sent it in a box, or put that circuit in very thin box and then into that envelope.
I concur - Probably should have packed it in a box. Even if you made one out of some old cardboard and pack it with bubble wrap. That aside - Surely you can take it up with your postal service. Its clearly written on there so you should be entitled to some form of compensation. I know AustraliaPost has some system for doing this.
Next time put on "X-ray sensitive" that will route it to the X-ray machine instead of the bender, or perhaps "extremely urgent"; then it will take two weeks, but neither be bent nor X-rayed. Any postal workers in this forum? Ohhh, please don't shoot me, it was just a joke.
I used to use the post a lot for a small business I ran and I was going to use it to deliver designs on card. The first few I put in the post and wrote 'DO NOT BEND' on, they all arrived smashed to bits. I decided to test the GPO and mailed myself six cards, three with 'Fragile' or 'Do not bend' on and three plain envelopes. The three that were marked got trashed the others were unmolested, lesson: Don't tempt a bored postal worker, its like writing 'DO NOT PUSH BUTTON' above a bright shiny red button.
Thanks for the life lesson Awoken. Although I have recieved one unbent thing marked do not bend, it had a big cardboard reenforcement in the envelope. Take your findings to the post office and see what they say... Or write on the package: If contents are recieved bent or broken, fingerprint samples will be taken to trace the postal worker(s) involved in the incident, who will then be put in front of the firing squad after having the broken contents thrown at him/her/them. A bit lengthy but it may make your point better
I would say put an old CD in there, and write "Bend the **** out of this package" on the front. See if it arrives broken, and imagine the look on the PS worker's face when the CD shatters .
Yeah i think some postal workers have some form of do-the-opposite-of-what-it-says disease that when they see Fragile or Do Not Bend on a package they without skipping a beat run over it with a truck. That sucks though, that looks like it took a lot of time to make
They never read whats written on parcels, like other people have said it should have been in a box really!
you should put a load of stink bombs ( i'm talkin 20-30 ) in an envelope and write 'do not bend, i you value your life' or 'fragile, bend it and your dead' and then mail it to yourself and see what happens....when they hear that glass crack and then the smells starts....that would be so funny to see; childish but funny none the less.
My dad is a postal worker so I can confirm that they do need something to do during the day. So why not test the patience of people who have fragile packages. In Reply to #1: My theory is that it was processed through a machine, and I know they can't read! It might have also gotten stepped on by acciedent. I think that we should put a camera in a box marked "Please step, crush, and treat this package as much like s*** as possible". Then if it comes crushed, remove the sticker, take the camera to the worker and his boss, and show him the tape of the treatment. Simply claim that the sticker was never there. Or you could make a circuit that beeps REALLY LOUD. Mark it so they crush it, and have it be pressure sensitive so it will go off once they step on it. They will be scared and feel really nervous. Kids can be so cruel
Box it... A simple wooden box will save you a lot of grief next time. Line it with high denisty foam.
Where I am, most of the parcels labelled 'do not bend' etc. tend to arrive in good condition. However, this may be partly due to our local parcel - delivery postman, who has been commended to Royal Mail by sereral local people because he is a genuinely nice guy and goes out of his way to deliver the parcels. (Probably a real rarity!) However, I do agree that some postal workers cannot read... for about 3 months, we kept on getting other peoples letters. And not very much of our own. This is despite the fact that all the mail had nicely typed, very clear writing. More of the mail was delivered to us by neighbours than by the postman Was it some sort of bad practical joke by the postie? It turns out that the postman delivering the mail was dyslexic!!!! How he passed the interview is anyone's guess... I reckon it's one of those discrimination / equality things, a bit like colourblind electricians. (no kidding.) Sorry about your parcel though. Wrap it in a reasonably solid cardboard box next time, and it will probably be ok. As joecaprini said, parcels are way safer, because they cannot be processed by machines, some of which are designed to squeeze the letters in order to grip them.
Not a good idea - Dubbya'd probably send you off to Guantanamo Bay. About the packing thing. What I do when I send this type of stuff is sandwhich the item between two plastic sheets. I get thick plastic sheets from my local model shop and cut pieces out of them to the size of the article being sent and then rubber band the lot together as plastic sheet-item-plastic sheet, maiking sure to pack the item in bubble wrap to cushion it. Never fails.
At least it's repairable. Nothing a little glue and jumperwire won't fix. Or some stiff, solid copper wire to reenforce the "traces" of solder.
I think my postman is like the postman for #14 He/she seem to be late half the time and the other half we get the worng mail. But I agree with the people who said it should of been in a box. But then again i shipped some ram via USPS in just a static bag and bubble wrap it got there fine. I guess it was the insurance or something
that's a bit too threatening to have your own address on it Lonearchon, of course they respect it if it has the insurance, they're then actually responsible for damages The Bodger, I'm pretty sure that those anti-discrimination laws are ignored if it the applicant wouldn't be able to do the job correctly (or safely in the case of an electrician) due to the disability or wahtever.
To all USPS people: You can order unlimited amounts of free packing supplies (boxes, shipping labels, "Fragile" labels, Express Mail stuff, packing tape) on their website, you just have to search for it real hard. Most everything I've shipped in an actual cardboard box has arrived in working order, just so long as I also packed it with bubble wrap and newspapers and such.
