HP is NUTS?

Have a look

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=409825

and another

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07/23/enormouse/

Those examples just go to show that even computer companies will hire the mentally challenged and give them a position within their vast empire. Too bad it is in the shipping department! This kind of performance will kill the golden goose by crushing it with wasteful packaging.

Love your new avatar pic, TinderBox.

That's terrible for the environment, a waste of money, and a genuine pain in the you-know-what! :shakehead Bad HP!

I think that if I worked in shipping at some HP ware house I'd try and do things like that as often as possible.


I bet they had a good laugh while wrapping those items up.

Funny stuff!

Somebody in shipping is really enjoying himself at work. :thumbsup:

Wow. And I thought I was a little nuts taping all the edges of my packages...

Sgt. LED said:

Funny stuff!

Somebody in shipping is really enjoying himself at work. :thumbsup:

Click to expand...

They are using the eBay model for shipping....charge a fortune for nothing.

That's funny and sad at the same time.

- Chris

What's really sad is that the guy that received the package complained that he had to lug the entire thing to an elevator and other such things. He could have easily opened it up left the stuff he didn't need in the proper area I imagine which is on the ground level and take what he needed.

I'll allow him to complain about the ridiculous wasteful packing, but not about lugging it around when that could easily be avoided.

I've had a small headphone part (think in ear type) a rubber membrane that sticks in your ear, weighs about 5 grams or less and isn't much bigger than the head of a Q-tip. Shipped in a 3"x3"x6" box, the worst...I willingly payed shipping on the $5 item because it was the only way.

Cool site, this one cracked me up. I like how they foam padded the license agreements to protect them during shipment.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07/18/hp_packaging/

If HP works like a lot of other companies, then what happens is the shipping department probably gets a certain allocation of funds. If they don't use that allocation, then it gets reduced next year. So in order to keep their jobs and funding, those in the shipping department will resort to wasteful practices like this to use up their time and their funds if they have a shortage of real work (as is likely in the current economy). Too bad employees aren't rewarded for spotting waste and saving money.

To be sure, excessive/wasteful shipping practices aren't anything new. I remember a few years back ordering RAM, and then seeing a $25 shipping charge added to my order. It seems for whatever reason next day air was the usual way to ship RAM. Needless to say I shopped around until I found a place willing to ship regular first class. And my bank for a while was sending me forms I requested via FedEX even though I was in no hurry for them.

jtr1962 said:

And my bank for a while was sending me forms I requested via FedEX even though I was in no hurry for them.

Click to expand...

My (large) employer has negotiated an agreement with FedEx so that overnight shipping through them is actually less expensive than any other (parcel) shipping method, so there might be more to that.

BTW I need to save my next post count # for a really good thread...

I used to work for a computer parts importer and they had contracts with the delivery companies.
Basically, we managed to secure a 5 year contract, for a flat fee for each package regardless of the size. The downside was we had to prepay in advance the shipping dockets that we would attach to the packages.
But we could charge the customer the actual shipping cost that was listed on the shipping docket, but in fact, we initially paid for a lower cost.
We made a profit each time a customer ordered something.

So you can see, maybe HP has a contract with the shipping company for a reduced fee because they used their services so much.
So, if the packaged was listed as $XX to be sent, in fact, HP probably only paid a small percentage of the shipping cost.

So keep in mind that when they say $XX for shipping, companies are making money on those charges too, and don't buy the bull about, it cost us this much to send something because the shipping company charges us these amounts.
They most likely get special rates from the shipping companies.

We used 3 companies initially for shipping, but they would outbid each other to get our business that at the end, we settled on one company exclusively.

What a waste of resources!!

:shakehead

Maybe it's the work of a disgruntled employee getting his/her digs into "The Man"? :thinking:

I once had a flashlight company send me an F04 beamshaper in a 10" square box. Filled the space with packing peanuts. Shipping was free though.

Amazon used to send me DVDs in a box that fits like a glove. Now it is in a box so big my post lady do not bother lugging around as she knows it would not fit in my post box. So I end up going to the "nearest" post office a lot. (they never send it to the real nearest post office) Grrrr!

LEDninja said:

Amazon...

Click to expand...

My wife just received a small bottle (25ml) of crafts adhesive from Amazon. Three pairs of adult-sized shoes could easily fit in the box the small bottle came in. When she first opened the box, she even thought it was empty! Took her a while to find the bottle amongst all the packing material... :shakehead

It used to be hilarious when we did stuff like that at the warehouse I used to work at but we only did it to field techs and track shops and we also got to reuse the stuff after screwing around. But as for the HP packaging Thats a waste of resources and horrible for the environment!