I'm not swallowing this whole yet. But The Register is reporting that one of their readers just received 32 documents from HP in a box that could have held around four million sheets of paper.
It's hard to imagine how this kind of stupidity might occur, and I doubt we've heard the whole story here. But, really? According to the email the Register received the box contained sixteen boxes that each contained two sheets of paper. There were SEVENTEEN total boxes in the package.
Apparently the two sheets of paper, each licenses for software that the business had purchased, were very fragile, and could not be mixed. Each license (two pages long) was not only in its own box...but wrapped in foam. The only reason this isn't worse than those book-length iPhone bills is because they only did it to one person (that we know of).
I mean...really, really? The really ridiculous thing is...couldn't they have just emailed PDFs?
Via The Regsiter
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written by Dan, July 18, 2008
Couldn't be mixed up....they heard of staples...or paper clips...maybe even tape?
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written by Hank Walker, July 18, 2008
It's obvious that you don't know nothing about modern storage and delivery systems in multi-national cooperations.
And neither do I.
This is ridiculous. The hollow phrase "market economy does not allow inefficiencies like governmental bureaucracy does" comes unbidden to mind.
And neither do I.
This is ridiculous. The hollow phrase "market economy does not allow inefficiencies like governmental bureaucracy does" comes unbidden to mind.
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written by Brad Shorr, July 18, 2008
I've actually had experience supplying packaging materials and equipment to large distribution operations, and while there can be some limitations on box sizes in the interest of efficiency, I've never seen anything like this! They have some serious but fixable issues.
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written by The Food Monster, July 19, 2008
http://thefoodmonsterblog.blogspot.com
This is mind boggling. PDFs, or one boxes with post it notes, or envelopes, do they still make envelopes?
This is mind boggling. PDFs, or one boxes with post it notes, or envelopes, do they still make envelopes?
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written by EcoWarrior, July 19, 2008
Emails aren't legally recognised documents only if it sent by fax would the licensing agreement be legally valid, stupid to use that much packaging but necessary in this case.
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written by Monica, July 19, 2008
That's ridiculous, I'm sorry. If they had to mail it so it would be legal, why didn't they just use envelopes, and then stick all the separate envelopes into a big one and mail that?
Stuff like this gets on my nerves in a big way.
Stuff like this gets on my nerves in a big way.
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written by I need to be annon, July 19, 2008
pppppppppppplease get and editor. Lurn how to spel two!
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written by Computer Less, July 20, 2008
Hank,
To me it's obvious that they didn't send a PDF as they didn't have a working computer. Silly how we just assume everybody has technology available. Geez.
(H.P.= Hoards of Paper, right?)
To me it's obvious that they didn't send a PDF as they didn't have a working computer. Silly how we just assume everybody has technology available. Geez.
(H.P.= Hoards of Paper, right?)
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written by TL, July 20, 2008
I sent an email with a link to this article to HP. I asked HP who is responsible for making this decision. Maybe HP would like to post a comment here?
More effective than posting comments is sending the offending company an email.
More effective than posting comments is sending the offending company an email.
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written by George, July 20, 2008
I'm sorry to say, I'm now removing the bookmark for EcoGeek from my daily sites to browse.
With such an inane post about some 'scoop' you got about a shipment of paper documents at a big company, the site has reached a new low.
You are now counted among the ranks of the alarmist, angry mob style of every other blog.
I'm sort of saddened, this site had pretty pictures. I'm sure I'll find countless other outlets for environmental issues that aren't quite so crass or sensational.
With such an inane post about some 'scoop' you got about a shipment of paper documents at a big company, the site has reached a new low.
You are now counted among the ranks of the alarmist, angry mob style of every other blog.
I'm sort of saddened, this site had pretty pictures. I'm sure I'll find countless other outlets for environmental issues that aren't quite so crass or sensational.
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written by Anonymous HP customer, July 22, 2008
I have a couple of times received a big box full of small boxes holding one envelope each holding one piece of paper each. Some of the papers require you to log on to the HP web site with your secure customer credentials to enter license keys so you can get activation keys emailed to you.
This is worse than just an old habit from the '50s to send licenses in fancy boxes (btw they are not fancy now a days) since they could just as well have sent the original PDF's (yes you can download the same documents from your customer login at HP).
I have told my reseller that we are contemplating switching from HP to IBM if this is how HP looks at resource management. I know we only buy HP products for about $1M/year so chances are they wont care, but that is all I can do.
This is worse than just an old habit from the '50s to send licenses in fancy boxes (btw they are not fancy now a days) since they could just as well have sent the original PDF's (yes you can download the same documents from your customer login at HP).
I have told my reseller that we are contemplating switching from HP to IBM if this is how HP looks at resource management. I know we only buy HP products for about $1M/year so chances are they wont care, but that is all I can do.
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written by guest, October 06, 2008
if i had to send 32 documents to someone i would ship them in a large man-sized safe with each paper encased in 2 inches of plastic.
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written by Slrman, May 12, 2009
This kind of thinking illustrates why their products are so bad. I have never had any kind of H-P product that was not a terrible POS.
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written by Jaziel, May 13, 2009
There are these things called Sheet Protectors, plastic sleeves that can hold around 30 sheets of A4 paper. The benifits of those over an envelope is that a) they're see through so you can see the contents easily and b) they have a strip with holes in it conveniently located on the side which enables storage in a binder book. Maybe HP should investigate...
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written by Etum, May 13, 2009
I have recieved shipments like this at work too. Pretty sure IBM are just as bad though, and probably others as well.
Another example is Electric cables. computer (server) manufacturers tend to include every single type of electric cable in the world, rather than the one appropriate in the region at hand.
At one occasion a large server manufacturer, and I'm afraid I've forgotten which one, unfortunately, but one of the large ones, Dell, IBM, HP, SUN, included 12 power cables with a server. We used two of them, and had to throw the rest away. :(
Another example is Electric cables. computer (server) manufacturers tend to include every single type of electric cable in the world, rather than the one appropriate in the region at hand.
At one occasion a large server manufacturer, and I'm afraid I've forgotten which one, unfortunately, but one of the large ones, Dell, IBM, HP, SUN, included 12 power cables with a server. We used two of them, and had to throw the rest away. :(
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