Coolpick87

I bought a frame and fork off ebay. Anyways it took the guy 8 days just to ship it.

So today I finally received the frame. I open the box and the frame was just zipped tied to the side, no packing, and the fork was zipped tired to the other side which did not hold and ripped the small area of cardboard holding it and just basically left to rattle around in the box. This is only my second bike/frame I have had to shipped to me, but my first one I thought was inadequately packed, until I saw this one.

I dont know if I should raise hell about it to the seller or what. I dont know how structurally sound the fork is now. It shipped from CA to MO, so who knows how much rattling around could have happened. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. The pic is kind of at an bad angle but the fork is just laying loose on the bottom.

bykemike 

I've sold and shipped a number of bikes on E-Bay and I would never ship one like that. I am not as anal as some of the inmates here but some padding all around is certainly in order and I usually plastic wrap the entire assembly just to keep anything from breaking loose and moving around.
Give the guy who sold it some feedback about his shipping method. The reason I pack mine as well as I do is I am not looking to get any bad feedback.

Mike

Fizzaly

Ditto ive sold a couple of frames on ebay and would never ship it like that, leave feedback stating his poor packing job. That is just lazy, granted my boxes i use are not the prettiest but i use plenty of padding and loads and loads of packing paper so the frame wont shift around, im guessing the paint is pretty much ruined from the zip ties?

Jeff Wills

As a former professional bicycle frame and parts packer... that is an EPIC effing FAIL!

At least the frame is kind of supported off the bottom, but letting the fork rattle loose is inexcusable. The fork is probably OK structurally.

Coolpick87

The bottom bracket housing was resting against the the bottom of the box. I sent the guy an email.

531phile 

At least he used a dropout holder. But that's just a lazy packing job. Who's the seller?

metabike

Wow, that is an amazingly awful effort - best of luck to you in resolving any paint damage.

XR2

I bought a bike from CL and the packing was horrible. Damaged dropout,tweaked stays,scratches and missing small parts. Didn't even bother attempting to do anything about it. It is a steel frame and I repaired it. Gonna paint it this winter and the rest straightened out well. Don't believe I'll buy off CL again or eBay for that matter.

wahoonc

Unfortunately bike packing seems to be a crap shoot. I have taken to only buying from people that I know can pack a bike. I had one that was "professionally" packed, all they did was take the major components off, tape them to the frame with packing tape, dump the bike in a box and fill it with Styrofoam peanuts. Unfortunately Ooops dropped the box and the rear dropouts were folded over at a 90 degree angle! Given the value of the bike it was not worth hassling over, but the seller only got a neutral feedback.

And in answer to the OP, no that is not an acceptable packing job, in fact it looks like the person was pure lazy.

Aaron

knobster

I had an old touring bike shipped to me that way. No issues, but I was really pissed off when I got it unboxed. I gave the guy a poor feedback because of this.

drmweaver2

Rate the seller 1 for packing/shipping. That's about all you can do unless the frame was actually damaged.
It IS eBay afterall.

electrik

Indeed, this is an individual selling a frame, not a corporation where there is some shipping policy. That is a lazy job, but packing material costs money sometimes and shipping weight is increased. The zip-tie is funny, but it could easly scratch the paint whle in the back of a truck vibrating across the country.

JonathanGennick 

Heck, at least it came in a *box*. I received a frame last week that arrived in plastic wrap. The guy had wrapped the entire frame in clear plastic wrap. Then he wrote my address on a 9x11 envelope and taped that across the front triangle. That was it. The dropouts weren't even protected with a dropout holder.

Amazingly, the frame came through completely undamaged.

Jeff Wills

Yeah, next time you'll get something handled by the Samsonite gorilla...

When I shipped 80% of a bike I sold (no wheels- the buyer didn't want mine), I wrapped the frame and fork, then taped them together so they wouldn't move. Then I cushioned the handlebars & stem and taped them to the frame so they wouldn't move. Then I wrapped and boxed the crankset and taped them to the frame so they wouldn't rattle loose and damage anything else. Then I built cushions for the corners of the frame box, made sure everything had a gap between it and the outer box and filled the gap with bubble wrap. After inserting the frame with attached components, I gave the whole shebang a bounce or two before I sealed it all shut with two layers of packing tape. I checked with the buyer after it got there- it took him several hours to unpack everything, but nothing was damaged in transit. He was happy, so I was happy.

fietsbob

put a spreader in the dropout, in place of the rear wheel, so at least that dropout spacing, didn't get crushed.

I suppose the fork was zip tied to the other side of the box.