I used t work for this corporate dinosaur. Infact I used to work in the PC Company for a time. Your interesting packaging is typical of the inefficiencies and wastage. While in the PC Company of IBM the wastage and ineptitude that existed there was cancerous. The corporate cancer I found existing in the PC Company was thriving in IBM Australia where I took up a management position. Oh the stories I could tell of repeated monumental screw ups, prehistoric legacy systems, and Dilbert type management meetings.
I suppose like many oversized corporations IBM is sick. It has been unwell for a long time. like the dinosaurs which relied solely on their matchless size & strength so to IBM and other gigantean corporations continue to do the same….And we all know what happened to the dinosaurs!
I had a similar thing happen to me when I ordered new styluses (styli?) from HP for my iPAQ. They would have easily fit in a padded envelope (although the package did have a wide base on which it could stand), yet they put it in a box that Amazon could easily use to send a stack of small books.
I wanted to buy a piece of software from Macromedia. The website was unusable so I called and asked to pay on the phone and get the serial number by Email.
The first lady said that if I purchase via phone they MUST send me the software box (to Israel) but they will charge me. The second lady said that they MUST send me the box but they will not charge. I said OK but when the package arrived, the shipping company called and told me to prepare a check for customs and airport charches. I asked Macromedia and they wrote back “just refuse the package”.
So, an unwanted box travled from the US to Israel and back. Macromedia probably doesn’t have a procedure for reusing the box so it will probably find its way to the garbage.
What I cannot understand is this: If Tom Friedman was such a prophet of free market economy as the cure to all earth’s ills, why hasn’t it taken care of this problem?
I’ve resented wasteful overpackaging for decades, and find it goes up with the size of the organization. I often order books from amazon, which come hermetically sealed and cushioned in a large sturdy box. But when I order from the small used bookstores via amazon’s network, they come directly from the smaller vendor, packaged with elegant — but always totally effective — efficiency and economy. Those anti-trust people long ago may have been onto something — just sayin’
I’m with you on being most angry and frustrated by the rigid plastic. My best tool for attacking it is my kitchen shears — sturdy enough for most packages but not as dangerous to fingers or the product as a meat cleaver.
I also have ordered nubbins from IBM and they were shipped from China to the west coast of the US. It was kind of fun to watch the package tracker and see the package wend its way across the Pacific.
I could think of 100 reasons why they end up using a box. Here a few off hand based on experience shipping smallish items… (1) The item may have routinely ended up squished when they used padded envelopes, so they decided to always send in a box. (2) A percentage of small envelopes get lost. If their margin isn’t high on this part, it could be a drain if they have to resend x% of them, not to mention customers get upset and blame IBM. Boxes get there, especially when dealing with USPS. (3) Their parts shipping facility is probably automated to some extent and boxes are easier for their machines to deal with than padded envelopes. (4) Retail prices of padded envelopes vs. small boxes aren’t much different. (5) Maybe they typically use small boxes, but they ran out that day. Sometimes it’s less expensive to overkill a little and ensure the customer gets the package fast.
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I used t work for this corporate dinosaur. Infact I used to work in the PC Company for a time. Your interesting packaging is typical of the inefficiencies and wastage. While in the PC Company of IBM the wastage and ineptitude that existed there was cancerous. The corporate cancer I found existing in the PC Company was thriving in IBM Australia where I took up a management position. Oh the stories I could tell of repeated monumental screw ups, prehistoric legacy systems, and Dilbert type management meetings.
I suppose like many oversized corporations IBM is sick. It has been unwell for a long time. like the dinosaurs which relied solely on their matchless size & strength so to IBM and other gigantean corporations continue to do the same….And we all know what happened to the dinosaurs!
I had a similar thing happen to me when I ordered new styluses (styli?) from HP for my iPAQ. They would have easily fit in a padded envelope (although the package did have a wide base on which it could stand), yet they put it in a box that Amazon could easily use to send a stack of small books.
God forbid those little red nibbly things somehow got damaged in transit! Someone might sue!
;)
I wanted to buy a piece of software from Macromedia. The website was unusable so I called and asked to pay on the phone and get the serial number by Email.
The first lady said that if I purchase via phone they MUST send me the software box (to Israel) but they will charge me. The second lady said that they MUST send me the box but they will not charge. I said OK but when the package arrived, the shipping company called and told me to prepare a check for customs and airport charches. I asked Macromedia and they wrote back “just refuse the package”.
So, an unwanted box travled from the US to Israel and back. Macromedia probably doesn’t have a procedure for reusing the box so it will probably find its way to the garbage.
What I cannot understand is this: If Tom Friedman was such a prophet of free market economy as the cure to all earth’s ills, why hasn’t it taken care of this problem?
I’ve resented wasteful overpackaging for decades, and find it goes up with the size of the organization. I often order books from amazon, which come hermetically sealed and cushioned in a large sturdy box. But when I order from the small used bookstores via amazon’s network, they come directly from the smaller vendor, packaged with elegant — but always totally effective — efficiency and economy. Those anti-trust people long ago may have been onto something — just sayin’
I’m with you on being most angry and frustrated by the rigid plastic. My best tool for attacking it is my kitchen shears — sturdy enough for most packages but not as dangerous to fingers or the product as a meat cleaver.
I also have ordered nubbins from IBM and they were shipped from China to the west coast of the US. It was kind of fun to watch the package tracker and see the package wend its way across the Pacific.
I could think of 100 reasons why they end up using a box. Here a few off hand based on experience shipping smallish items… (1) The item may have routinely ended up squished when they used padded envelopes, so they decided to always send in a box. (2) A percentage of small envelopes get lost. If their margin isn’t high on this part, it could be a drain if they have to resend x% of them, not to mention customers get upset and blame IBM. Boxes get there, especially when dealing with USPS. (3) Their parts shipping facility is probably automated to some extent and boxes are easier for their machines to deal with than padded envelopes. (4) Retail prices of padded envelopes vs. small boxes aren’t much different. (5) Maybe they typically use small boxes, but they ran out that day. Sometimes it’s less expensive to overkill a little and ensure the customer gets the package fast.