Adafruit Industries Deos Not Know What a Box is!!

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westfw
 
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Re: Adafruit Industries Deos Not Know What a Box is!!

Post by westfw »

I like envelopes too. Especially when it enables lower cost shipping options!

The most excessive packaging I've experienced recently was on an order from Freescale (one real order and one samples order, IIRC.) Envelope-safe IC tubes inside padded boxes, inside BIG boxes with additional packaging... Sigh.

magician13134
 
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Re: Adafruit Industries Deos Not Know What a Box is!!

Post by magician13134 »

Although, I have to say, SparkFun knows their boxes. I ordered 7 SOIC to DIP converters, one SD card breakout board and one FT232RL breakout, came packaged NICELY all in a... maybe 4"x2"x1" box. I love getting those bright red boxes in the mail; they ALWAYS have something fun inside!

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rafiki
 
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Re: Adafruit Industries Deos Not Know What a Box is!!

Post by rafiki »

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

Keep up the good work.

ziplock
 
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Re: Adafruit Industries Deos Not Know What a Box is!!

Post by ziplock »

magician13134 wrote:Although, I have to say, SparkFun knows their boxes. I ordered 7 SOIC to DIP converters, one SD card breakout board and one FT232RL breakout, came packaged NICELY all in a... maybe 4"x2"x1" box. I love getting those bright red boxes in the mail; they ALWAYS have something fun inside!
Yeah, those red boxes are so cool! I used on as a storage tin for my Arduino's, my ProtoShield (Thanks Ladyada!), and my ExtenderShield. I just stopped using it because I filled it with screws from a hacked-up nerf gun I'm working on.

Anyway, ranting aside, out of the two times I've ordered from Adafruit, my stuff can nicely padded in a box, and if needed, also in an ESD bag. My first order was an Arduino Starter Kit, and the second was a breadboard, FT232 cable, and an Xbee breakout board.

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SneakyNeko
 
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Re: Adafruit Industries Deos Not Know What a Box is!!

Post by SneakyNeko »

Well, while were on the subject of excessive packaging. I ordered some stuff from digikey over the summer and one of the things just happened to be some heat shrink tubing (2 feet of it or sumsuch). I assumed they'd roll it up and put it with the rest of the stuff I ordered, but nope. They sent it in this big long triangular box by itself full of padding (it sounds a bit less excessive in text then it looked at the time). The heat shrink cost me less then 2$, I wonder how much the shipping for it cost >_<.

Too bad the pictures from the mangled kit (from the opening post) are gone. Too bad, I'm sort of curious to see them now.

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mkanoap
 
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Re: Adafruit Industries Deos Not Know What a Box is!!

Post by mkanoap »

You can see the pictures at http://awaitinginspiration.com/1229/fedex-will-it-blend . Well worth checking out.

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SneakyNeko
 
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Re: Adafruit Industries Deos Not Know What a Box is!!

Post by SneakyNeko »

Thank you for the link.

Wow :!: , that's... stunning. It's like they ran over it with a fedex truck, then backed up and ran over it again just for good measure...

jbyrns1993
 
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Re: Adafruit Industries Deos Not Know What a Box is!!

Post by jbyrns1993 »

Adafruit has been great with thier packaging. For the record, my order was double boxed: a shell made out of brown paper and brown tape with a cute (yes, I called a box cute) little brown box inside, which contained my order.

Now, I looked at those pictures and to me, it looks as if your order was placed in a mortar tube with a 12 inch firework and left to fend for itself. How FedEx managed that type of damage is quite a puzzling matter, though. I'd sue thier butt off.

JDickens
 
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Re: Adafruit Industries Deos Not Know What a Box is!!

Post by JDickens »

that ... looks like fork-hoist damage, and if so, nothing short of being in an inch thick steel crate could have saved it .. and even that could be breached given enough momentum.

sorry, but no amount of boxes is gonna save that, although it explains why a number of companies do over package their product.
Not to stop damage occurring, because that just won't happen, but to avoid accusations of negligence in how it was shipped.

Of course the customer carries all this extra cost, because a few people are unreasonable enough to expect that the vendor should be able to control what goes on, inside the premise of a completely different company

I've had parts from overseas come in nice an safely in that kind of padded envelope, so, it would seem, that as long as the shipping company takes due care ( which is outside the control of the vendor, and lack of isn't going to be saved by pretty much anything), then they are just fine

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johngineer
 
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Re: Adafruit Industries Deos Not Know What a Box is!!

Post by johngineer »

I ordered some industrial hook-and-loop (velcro) and some torx screws from McMaster-Carr. It came in a shoebox-sized package, 95% of which was air. It cost $10 to ship it -- I should I have just picked it up.

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pneumatic
 
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Excessive packaging....

Post by pneumatic »

I know we've wandered pretty far from the original topic, but the most egregious example of excessive packaging remains this story mailing 64 bits. Not drill bits, not 8 dollars, a 16 digit hex number.

ObComment:I've ordered stuff from a number of kit makers, and I appreciate it when it comes with minimally excessive packaging. I'm trying to take it to heart as I try to start my own kit business. It's a bit of an art. Some engineer once said that any fool can build a bridge that won't fall down, but a really good engineer can build a bridge that just barely stays up. ;-)

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embedded
 
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Re: Adafruit Industries Deos Not Know What a Box is!!

Post by embedded »

Looks just like the bubblepack got either under a forklift or slipped into the conveyor system.

UPS does worse because they assume the weight of packs is higher than FedEx.

This kind of damage only appears to happen to the lightest envelopes that fly...... Yes I have had tubular crystals do the identical trick. Fortunately (12) 6mm tubular crystals have less to break.

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