01-17-2013, 12:26 AM
The only way I can receive anything is through the post office. Usually, if it's damaged it's because the seller was totally clueless as to proper techniques for packing fragile and/or heavy items.
That being said, USPS DID manage to virtually destroy (TWICE!) the same Pilot TV-37 set. A friend sent it to me to repair because his local shop had had it for 6 months and had not yet touched it.
When I received it via USPS, it was in pieces. The base was broken, the chassis loose from the base, all the phenolic wafers holding the front controls were shattered. The top was smashed in. Fortunately, I had various cabinet parts and was able to fabricate new wafers of heavier fibre reinforced phenolic to replace the old ones.
I spent several weeks waiting for parts then recapping, tuning, tweaking and sweating over it, and had the most perfect picture I ever have seen on one of these sets (3KP4's are NOT your basic high quality, high brightness/contrast tubes).
When I shipped it back to him, it was in a Compaq computer box, with the heavy foam rubber insert. The television was set into the insert, and then shimmed all around with large bubble wrap. It should have been indestructible. Alas, it was not.
When he got it back, the case was again broken, one tube had come out of the socket (leaving the guide key behind), and the brackets that hold the front panel (CRT, speaker and tuning dials) were bent and/or broken. He replaced the tube, turned the set on and it made a loud POP.
Now, this is NOT a heavy television. Shoot, it cost me only about $60 to ship it Express mail, insured to the east coast. How in H**l did they manage to DO that?
That being said, USPS DID manage to virtually destroy (TWICE!) the same Pilot TV-37 set. A friend sent it to me to repair because his local shop had had it for 6 months and had not yet touched it.
When I received it via USPS, it was in pieces. The base was broken, the chassis loose from the base, all the phenolic wafers holding the front controls were shattered. The top was smashed in. Fortunately, I had various cabinet parts and was able to fabricate new wafers of heavier fibre reinforced phenolic to replace the old ones.
I spent several weeks waiting for parts then recapping, tuning, tweaking and sweating over it, and had the most perfect picture I ever have seen on one of these sets (3KP4's are NOT your basic high quality, high brightness/contrast tubes).
When I shipped it back to him, it was in a Compaq computer box, with the heavy foam rubber insert. The television was set into the insert, and then shimmed all around with large bubble wrap. It should have been indestructible. Alas, it was not.
When he got it back, the case was again broken, one tube had come out of the socket (leaving the guide key behind), and the brackets that hold the front panel (CRT, speaker and tuning dials) were bent and/or broken. He replaced the tube, turned the set on and it made a loud POP.
Now, this is NOT a heavy television. Shoot, it cost me only about $60 to ship it Express mail, insured to the east coast. How in H**l did they manage to DO that?
