Packing The Sheets - Or A Small Guide To Defeating The Courier Company

We send out lots of goods each week. We receive lots of goods each week. Some of these are cameras and lenses that need to be repaired and some of them have been repaired. The common factor that runs through all of this is making sure that the repairs and goods remain repaired and good. Here's some suggestions that may help.

The manufacturers of cameras and lenses have it pretty well taped down by now when it comes to packaging their gear for transport. They put a devil of a lot of work and precision into their products and they want those products to get to your hands in fine shape. By and large they succeed. Oh, we have still had large cardboard boxes arrive from wholesalers with rents in the outer surface and in an extremely small number of cases damage to the contents. Here again the packaging of the individual units nearly always saves the gear. Any disputes are settled smartly between the couriers, the wholesale houses, and our stock controller.

So -  that gets the camera to you in good shape. You take it out and use it and give it the normal wear and tear and then after a few years unfortunately have an accident that needs repair. You determine to send it to us. How do you do it?

Firstly you go back to the storage closet and get out the original camera box with all the funny cardboard and foam packaging. You saved it, right? Wise move, that, because a camera packed into that original sales box is as well protected as when you first got it. You can make it safe in the post or on a courier truck. Failing that you find a small sturdy box, lots of packing, and pack it tight.

Then you find a bigger box - one that will let you foam pad with plastic peanuts or strip foam or bubble wrap all around the camera box. The packaging materials are available at Officeworks or Clark Rubber. Write your name and address on a slip inside the camera box, seal it well with tape, and write your name and address - and the complaint you wish rectified - on another letter that you tape to the outside of the box.

Pad it well in all six sides when it goes into the outer cardboard container and make sure that the inner box is firmly wedged in the other one - don't give it a chance to bound about inside there like a wrecking ball.

Seal the outer box with stout packing tape and put your details - and ours - on the outside and head for the post office or courier office. PAY ENOUGH TO HAVE IT SENT QUICKLY AND SAFELY. DO NOT save a few dollars by having it back-loaded on a camel train from Broome. You will regret your parsimony.

When it arrives here we will cope with getting inside the boxes - we have the sort of air chisels and thermic lances that they use to get into capsized battleship hulls - and the techs can sort out whatever the problem is. We will pack it well for the return journey. Short of alien abduction, your camera should reach you in good condition.