I ordered a brake caliper lines master cyl exc so i could just bolt it on and be done with my leaky system.  Ordered from someone parting out a gs.
The sight glass in shipping was broken and all the fluid leaked out.  the whole thing was not in that good of condition.  The barke pads and caliper pistons are rusted as hell  Mad problems

Anybody ever just want to stop trusting people and order new parts?

yes, but new parts cost too much.

you win some and you lose some.

Buying used parts is a risky business. Almost all of my Most of my transactions have been positive but I have been burned and learned from my mistakes. Always ask for pictures. My definition of "good condition" is not the same as others.

Quote from: bcutrufelliI ordered a brake caliper lines master cyl exc so i could just bolt it on and be done with my leaky system.  Ordered from someone parting out a gs.
The sight glass in shipping was broken and all the fluid leaked out.  the whole thing was not in that good of condition.  The barke pads and caliper pistons are rusted as hell  Mad problems

Anybody ever just want to stop trusting people and order new parts?

Sorry to hear that!  :x  It is a risk doing things this way.  I have about 50% bad experience getting stuffs via mail through one-time seller/ebay/stranger.  My most recent one is a flywheel for my car--the guy quoted $40 shipping I calculated that would be Priority Mail so 1 week to get to me, but he shipped parcel post and pocketed the difference!  4+ weeks!  Still waiting...  

Rusty brake pads is not a problem I think.  Rusty pistons, depends on where it is rusty I suppose.  I guess you can just epoxy the sight window up--mine's so old I really can't see through it so I just guessimate the fluid level anyway.

Hang in there!

Cheers,
e.

You buy from somone here ... Sounds un likely ... but ... if so post ID ... so others dont get screwed... and I usually buy if I can see it, or buy from GStwinners ... or new...
Cool.
Srinath.

well i should post there name but i wont do that yet anyway pm me if anybody has a good caliper

To be fair, you have to realize how abused packages can get.  I got case savers from Srinath with a hole through the box; could have lost a bolt!  And I got a Givi rack from someone here (can't remember the name, but a stand-up guy), and the ripped box left a trail of packing peanuts up my steps to where the UPS guy left it.

So part of the problem, is that people don't suspect the evils that await their humble shipment.  Maybe this thread will serve as a reminder to folks here who ship: when you're shipping parts, imagine what would happen if the package is dropped from a height of several feet, onto its corner, etc.  Vigilance!  Vigilance is the price we pay for having cheap $5 shipping   .

well yes it was just trown into a box no peanuts no bubble wrap nothing its kinda fed up what people will do just to make money

Quote from: Rema1000To be fair, you have to realize how abused packages can get.  I got case savers from Srinath with a hole through the box; could have lost a bolt!  And I got a Givi rack from someone here (can't remember the name, but a stand-up guy), and the ripped box left a trail of packing peanuts up my steps to where the UPS guy left it.

So part of the problem, is that people don't suspect the evils that await their humble shipment.  Maybe this thread will serve as a reminder to folks here who ship: when you're shipping parts, imagine what would happen if the package is dropped from a height of several feet, onto its corner, etc.  Vigilance!  Vigilance is the price we pay for having cheap $5 shipping   .

They have broken the box and lost the mercdude's handlebar ... and delivered an empty box to him ...  :x  and they are stiffing me on the insurance ... we did deliver... he took it... he should have rejected the shipment if it was damaged ... dumbass mofo's - he took it to the nearest UPS and complained ... the fight continues ... I think USPS treats their stuff better ... might be mistaken, but still ...
Cool.
Srinath.

usps treats packages MUCH MUCH better than ups... u should see the crap we get from ups here at work... $5000 cisco layer 3 switches banged all to hell....

I have seen the worst of the worst.  Always package the thing like they are going to drop them 20 feet out of an airplane door, because they do.  I receive UPS packages here at work everyday and always chat with the UPS lady and see all the horrors that some people receive, even me sometimes.  Boxes that are so crunched and recrunched that they have about as much fortitude as a wet paper towel.

BTW, a "FRAGILE" sticker does not convince handlers to treat your package any specialer.

Used to work for a company called BOB, made jogging strollers for babys.  Fed Ex drove a truck over one of the strollers, unpacked the crushed stroller from the ruined box, repaced it in a nice new box, and delievered it to the poor mother.  I got a really confused phone call from her.

For future note, if anyone loses one of those siteglasses, they arent cheap, so here is a quick fix, clean the master Cyl with Brake clean, make sure all peices of glass and dirt are gone and completly dry, mix up some JB quickweld and lay a thin layer around the inside of the hole and place a Dime in the hole, fill in the rest of hole with JBweld and let cure,  it holds up well, but you will have to remove the cover to see fluid level.

They don't call themselves UPS ( pronounced OOOOPS) for no reason....

I've received some crappily packaged parts -alledgedly packaged up by the UPS store.  I received  the stuff all piled together in one big box  (Gauges in with nice  heavy metal parts with a few pieces of tissue paper  in  the box to protect it.) really packed  poorly. Speedometer is pretty much ruined  which was one of the main reasons I bought the load of parts (for the speedometer..) ...the other part I wanted mainbly was damaged too- so had I known I would have passed on the whole deal.

It's a GsTwin member-he says  the place packed it for him - Haven't heard anything back from him recently reguarding the insurance.  Think I'll send him another email.

...well, some years ago, (ha, tempted to add... in a land, far, far away...) when shipping goods to impatient customers paid the bills, the frequency of damage to packages used to be less.  The major cause of damage now (not negating the sheer increase in volume) is the increase in weight limit for packages.  A two pound box is rumbling around with 70 pound (or is it now a 100 pound limit ?) monsters.  Double box, tightly package and securely tape anything you hope to arrive intact.  It doesn't always work but is does make the "evidence" of mishandling more apparent.

Good luck.

Gene

Some things you can do:  

Any rods of metal can become javelins.  Pad the ends of rods using wads of cardboard.

Put metal things into Tyvek envelopes.  You can often pick up (ahem) a few of these from a Fedex or UPS drop-off box.  The Tyvek is great at preventing the metal from scratching through.

Tape nuts onto screws.  Or tape all small parts onto a piece of cardboard.  I usually lay-out a piece of packaging tape, and stick various washers to it, then stick it across a piece of cardboard.

Tape-down the lower flaps of the box, from edge-to-edge.  You don't want any of your contents slipping underneath a bottom flap; they'll slide to the end and bust the tape on the end.

Fill the box with paper or peanuts so that if you spin around, there is no shifting of the contents.  If you have solid metal parts, you need to fill with something more substantial than peanuts; wads of cardboard are good (then fill in-between those with peanuts).

Tape the edges of the box from corner to corner.  When you tape over the long seam, run the tape completely around the box (360 degrees) in one piece and overlap it by a foot.  If the contents are too heavy for the box, then circle the box with parallel bands, a few inches to the left and right of the center (else the top flap can bulge open and slip past the packaging tape).  12 extra feet of packaging tape is cheap compared to the shipping cost.

The goal is that the box should be able to arrive at the destination, wet, and in the shape of a football, but still be held in one piece by tape, and without damage inside.  But maybe my perspective is skewed, since the last time I did shipping as part of my job, I was shipping 5 gal. drums of "ink" (more or less kerosene), packed into cardboard boxes.  And the tape was free (I was working for 3M ) .

ok just for the sake of the argument i work at UPS and in my time there (2 Years now) i have noticed that a poorly packed box fairs much worse than a tightly packed you should remember this, we fill loads ,(semi's) from the floor to the top 70+ lb. boxes up to 150lb's are alloud to be stacked to chest height then from there to the top 70lb or less, so a mostly empty box on the bottem (  it rarely if ever dose not crimp and buckel  oH!! and TAPE dont skimp on the tape. when you tape the flaps down the less they can move the less flexing the box dose and they will hold up much better.
The biggest thing is to fill the box all the way, leave no empty space dont care if you newspaper peanuts POPCORN (YA popcorn ....microwave popcorn) trash fix-a-flat whatever . but if you package something loose it'll beat the snot out of the box from the inside out..
and yes there are allways the unfortunate accadents , sometimes a package gets in the wrong place at the wrong time. i apoligise on behalf of UPS, thou it dose no good now, we really do take great measures to prevent this. sorry



,
Devin

Hate to semi-hijack your topic, but don't blame all damages on the shipping company. Some people genuinely don't know how to pack things well for transit.

Don't leave a lot of 'loose air' in the box... it's better if the parcel is 'solid' so there isn't room for holes to get poked or for it to get smushed. Basically, if you wrap a brick in brown paper and ship it, it will arrive in better condition than if you put it in a box of peanuts. Packages go through major hoops to get to their destinations (belts, slides, chutes, cages, package cars, trailers, planes). Everytime a package changes direction, it encounters a chance for a snag so pack it solid!




and yes, I work for a major shipping company. :mrgreen:

Here's a VERY realistic idea of what goes on:

What would you say if I came to your house at 3am each day and told you I would give you $36 to unload multiple tractor trailers BY HAND for 4 hours? A typical paycheck for package handler is $180/wk (roughly) but the amount of work that is required would make most desk jockeys quit by the end of the first day.

..oh, and just for reference... many shippers handle millions of parcels of various sizes/weights per day and YOU, dear end-user, paid for it to be there by a certain date. Therefore, statistically speaking, most carriers fair VERY well in that only a very few parcels per car arrive 'damaged'.

If you still want to complain about damaged packages, go give it a try... go work for a shipper and see if handling & properly sorting/loading 2000+ parcels in a 4 hour time frame doesn't give you a different perspective... like how WELL and how hard those companies work to get crap delivered on time. People get up at ungodly hours and get paid squat to go load package cars so that drivers can be delivering to your company by 8am.