Chosen Solution
Hello all, I’ve been working on Macs for quite a while, but in this case I am seeking a greater level of empirical evidence. I recently helped a client acquire some 15-odd MacBook Pros–all mid-2012 13" 2.5GHz machines, for a project. They then shipped them off without really discussing how they would go about it. They evidently stacked several machines on top of each other and strapped them very tightly together using something like a belt. Now they seem to be having some issues with a few of the machines functioning properly, though they were not entirely clear on the details of this. Unfortunately, the client is feeling more inclined to blame me for the issues, though I’m liable to believe the manner in which he shipped them was a recipe for a disaster. I would personally /never/ ship them by tightly strapping them together–I usually pack them in foam-partitioned Benson Boxes. I did mention this to the client, but he is stubbornly maintaining that the issues are not his fault. I was hoping someone would be able to provide more detailed information if/how shipping MacBooks in such a way might damage them, along with any relevant cases.
Why was the client shipping these, do you mean you got them 15 MacBooks, then they sold them to someone else? If so, were they tested and proved working when they were sold to the client? What issues are they saying they are experiencing? If you just gave them a source to buy the MacBooks from, and they just shipped them to whoever, you have no liability for the damage whatsoever; you didn’t pack them or sell them to the client. I have resellers who send me 10-30 MacBooks at a time sometimes, many of which are stacked in a box with minimal bubblewrap. When I receive them, they always have the same issues as the reseller says they do. The box will either need to suffer heavy impact, to cause shock damage to components on the logic board, hard drive, etc, or they would have been strapped tightly together to a point where it would actually crush the MacBooks, which isn’t really possible and in both cases external damage would be evident. As an example of how much damage these can withstand; I have had a number of MacBooks run over by cars, some of which have been working fine other than screen damage/body damage. Most likely the MacBooks had issues in the first place, or the client is lying to get a discount or refund. If there are multiple with issues, there will probably be some obvious damage to the body of the MacBooks.
