Who knew mailing something would be this complicated?

Feral

Man, this is the stupidest question ever.

I have two rackmount servers I need to ship from San Francisco to Chicago. They're both about 4 in x 20 in x 30 in, 60 lbs and I have no suitable boxes for them. All the freight companies I've contacted want over $1,000 to ship these things.

So I need a suggestion for either a company that will pack and ship them without raping me in the ass, or a place where I can buy a goddamn shipping box of appropriate size.

... I told you this was a stupid question.

Monolithic_Dome

I have definitely purchased boxes with a footprint bigger than 20" by 30" at wal mart. They were cube-shaped, and therefore much taller than you need, but that is what packing peanuts are for.

At the local wal mart they were in the office supplies section by various types of tape.


alternatively, go raid the cardboard recycling dumpster at a local fast food restaurant. They get boxes in all shapes and sizes. You can also ask nicely for boxes, if you don't want to go dumpster diving. They tend to get shipments on a regular schedule, so it will just be a matter of showing up at a particular place and time.

Xaquin

liquer stores are also great places to get boxes.

Feral

Monolithic_Dome wrote: »

I have definitely purchased boxes with a footprint bigger than 20" by 30" at wal mart. They were cube-shaped, and therefore much taller than you need, but that is what packing peanuts are for.

Great, thanks.

Arikado

Let me check my UPS WorldShip program really quick...
60lbs with 4*20*30 dimensions via UPS Ground

Hrm...from our company location to our Chicago affiliate, it would cost around $40 each box. Of course, this varies a bit depending on if it is a residential site and what service you are using. Definitely wouldn't break $100 per box if it was insured and still sent via Ground. I wouldn't recommend shipping via Freight unless it is on a secured pallet.

Try to find a nearby UPS Store and check to see if they have appropriate boxes to us. The one near us is usually really nice and provides us shipping boxes for free but I've never shipped anything with those dimensions before so I'm not sure if they have big enough boxes. You might have to scavenge big enough boxes on your own. Supply stores should carry big ones, though.

Advent

Definitely avoid LTL carriers for anything you can move by courier. As an aside, pack them to death. Peanuts/Bubble Wrap/etc. Whichever service you use, it's likely going to be put through the proveribal wringer on the way to the destination. I've also had better luck with fedex for not having my packages damaged in transit.

And if you can fit them in the same box and have the gross weight not exceed 150 lbs, try to ship them together. Single packages cost less to send.

Bowen

Having worked at UPS, and my friend having worked at FedEx, we both agree that FedEx is the better of the type. And price wise they're better than all those courier type places like G.O.D. and such. I definitely recommend FedEx.

Erandus

If at all possible I would avoid actual packing peanut type packing material. All those little plastic/foam thingies jiggling around and rubbing together can generate a whole lot of static electricity (just think of how many usually stick to shit you pull out of them) and that can be death to delicate electronics like your servers.

We've had people from our business' outer offices ship PCs to us for software issues, and if we leave it up to them and they pack in peanuts, we have had them show up as paperweights.

Try to find any sort of non-static material to pack in, if you possibly can.

Mr. Pokeylope

My company gets all it's packing materials from uline

http://www.uline.com/

Most stuff can be shipped ups but you may end up with more than you need.

Feral

Pokeylope, I love you and I would escort you through a meat circus any day of the week.