Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!bu.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!uflorida!reef.cis.ufl.edu!bb
From: bb@reef.cis.ufl.edu (Brian Bartholomew)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.hp
Subject: Re: have i got my 822?
Summary: Corroboration
Message-ID: <25270@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU>
Date: 6 Nov 90 02:24:32 GMT
References: <1307@ria.ccs.uwo.ca>
Sender: news@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU
Organization: UF CIS Dept.
Lines: 77


In article <1307@ria.ccs.uwo.ca> lrb@rrivax.rri.uwo.ca writes:

> back in august (late) we ordered an HP 822S. we were told a 10 week
> lead time. fine. after about 4 weeks I started asking questions such as
> "how many boxes will this thing 1) arrive in , and 2) consist of after
> assembly.

> when i ordered my last 7937 it came in 2 boxes, and being as this 822
> has LOTS of disk, plus a system box and ....  i really had no idea the
> size of the final product or shipped product.

> I got answers ranging from 1 box to 5 boxes, with an assurance that
> "when it hits customs we can know for sure".  well it must have jumped
> right over the border because on wednesday i got a box labelled "1 of
> 1".  It was an AUI cable. jokingly we asked each other how many more
> 'shipments' to expect.

>    thursday morning box 1of4 through 4of4 arrived.  thursday afternoon
>    another box 1of1 arrived.

> this is ridiculous, when i order a system worth of 50,000 dollars (CDN)
> i expect to know when it has arrived. I phoned my HP rep, after two
> days he got back to me and said to the effect "hmmmm, i'll have to
> check the database."  apparently he is still checking. he has had 5
> weeks to check since i first asked.

> seriously though, when our Vax arrived, we got it all in one big lump,
> oh yes, the tty's were on a distinct pallette, and each of the big
> cabinets were a box unto themselves, but the DAMN THING ARRIVED ALL AT
> THE SAME TIME with a nice 'system list', (NOT a bill of packing) that
> listed box 1 of 6000 through box 6000 of 6000.

> HEY HP! THAT IS HOW YOU SHIP A LARGE COMPUTER take a lesson from
> DIGITAL, even from DELL!


Yes, this is another story that I can corroborate, at least for the
hardware.  When we got our 8 HP's, most of the hardware boxes arrived
over the span of two months.  They were actually shipped to the wrong
building and department, so we had that building's personnel collect
boxes for us until we got a big enough batch to retrieve.  We were
only able to guess about when we had enough equipment to form a
complete computer by the size of the boxes, as we had no packing list,
or phone call from HP when all the equipment was supposed to have
arrived.

On the other hand, we got all our software and paper documentation at
once, in a *700 pound* crate.  The shipping department drove it down
the road on a forklift, up to the dock on our building.  The binders
were packed in boxes about 1 foot cubical, which in turn were packed
in a large crate-sized cardboard box, with foam peanuts.  Each binder
box had markings like "Box m of n", and an arrow pointing to the next
box in numerical order to be unpacked (very useful for searching in
foam peanuts).

So, I think HP did this 1/2 right; 100% for software and
documentation, 0% for hardware.  I don't care if HP wants to drop-ship
things from their own internal departments, but the salesbeing should
take charge of the final delivery.  Specifically, they should make
sure that each item the customer ordered is there by checking them off
against a packing list.  Then, they should bring over the entire set
of equipment at once to the customer.  Then, the customer can be
assured that he is not wasting his time, space, and energy unpacking
obviously incomplete systems.


"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Brian Bartholomew	UUCP:       ...gatech!uflorida!mathlab.math.ufl.edu!bb
University of Florida	Internet:   bb@math.ufl.edu

--
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Brian Bartholomew	UUCP:       ...gatech!uflorida!mathlab.math.ufl.edu!bb
University of Florida	Internet:   bb@math.ufl.edu