Just received a shipment of ram from Microdirect, and the flexi blister pack was wrapped in one small sheet of bubble wrap in a plastic bag.

How is something so fragile supposed to survive being tossed in and out of trucks and vans for near four hundred miles?

I watched the courier retrieve it from underneath other parcels, and his van is nearly empty so there was a lot more on top of it as it thundered round the glens.

Signed U/C on his widget, but I won't even bother checking them. They are going back. They may work, but if they were flexed they may also feck my new mainboard, or pack in early in their life.

They charged £6 for something weighing 100g, and took four days to deliver where it could have been sent Special Delivery for that price.

Same delivery brought me a valve amp that was lovingly encased in a blanket, polystyrene wrap, bubble wrap, box then more padding and a second box, along with the valves in tissue and cotton wool in a shoe box.

It only came from Shetland, but the packing was exemplary, it would have made it to Tierra del Fuego undamaged no problem.

Why is it such a lottery?

From now on when I deal with companies who want to charge 'extra' for posting to the Highlands I am going to ask exactly how much 'extra' packaging they are going to give my items as they are going so very, very far to such a strange place.

because some vendors try make a little bit everywhere they can, plus if its a big company they usually have a packing department on minimum wage who couldn't care less.

What ram?

The highlands seems to attract a higher shipping charge from some delivery companies, i sold a Minidisc deck to somebody in the highlands last year and had already worked out the shipping charges but hadn't taken the extra charges for the Highlands & Islands into account, it came to almost double.

Ram man sheep.

DDR3 for an HTC.

I mean if you had a laptop sized SO-DIMM then it is very different from a full sized stick.

Posting SODIMM like that is fine, DIMM maybe not ideal but when they post stuff out in giant boxes we moan about that too...

Any normal pcb is a fragile thing and ideally should have something to offer protection such as a stiff box. (Not half missus...)

Yes, it was the recent posts about CRC using large boxes that prompted my post.

Just plugged that amp in and it sings!