Ups & Shipping

[Audiobeer]

Well I just got two pieces two days in a row. The first was a Matantz 250 amp and next came a Marantz 120 tuner. UPS managed to break both . I can't blame it all on them. The 250 amp comes with 1 box, then a batch of peanuts. The seller then sets the amp on its back wrapped in wax paper surrounded by peanuts with nothing on top of it but more peanuts. The tuner comes in a walnut cabinet with newspaper wrapped round it with newspaper bals to hold it in place. BOTH SELLERS WERE QUIZZED on how they would pack after I asked to double box and use bubble wrap ect! Both stated they new how to wrap and thier Ebay Feedback was thier proof. It was high but. this time of year with the christmas rush.......Well My advice is wait! Surprisingly both sellers admitted due to thier packing methods UPS wasn't going to honor the claim so We worked out something. But as a collector of 70s Marantz garbage I now have a couple of more pieces of vintage elecronics for parts and not the collectible stuff I wanted. :banghead: :banghead: :banghead:

[AudioGeek]

Hey 'beer -

Chalk up another one for the UPS gorillas. Those idiots ruined a $4200. REL subwoofer on me, as well as a great VPI/Well-Tempered turntable rig. They wouldn't accept responsibility for the VPI, but they did end up paying for the REL. It only took them 5 months and alot of hassle on my part.

I don't ship UPS anymore unless it's something that's virtually indestructable, or if the buyer insists.

[Robh3606]

WOW sorry to hear that. I have had trouble like that too. I had a mint pair of L20T shipped in copy paper boxes. The grill got shattered on one and the corners got slammed, at least 3 on each speaker. Then I had an empty L65 cabinet shipped by Mail Box??? and they crumpled some newspaper around it. Glad I had the sense to have the drivers shipped seperately. The cabinet was in 4 pieces out of the box but the glass and grill both survived??? Shipping is always a crap shoot. Some guys do a great job others????? Hope you can get things settled quickly.

Rob:(

[Wardsweb]

When I sold my B&W 802's I had custom 600# double wall air freight containers made for them. They were wrapped in 12 layers of 1/2" bubble. The boxes were marked with arrows for this side up and handles in the sides to aid in handling. USP dropped both speakers upside down and broke the tweeters and housings. They said they are not required to keep things right side up unless they are truck freight. Needless to say they wouldn't pay. Cost me $500 to get the speakers repaired for the customer. Granted I still made money on the deal, but that was my $500.

[Audiobeer]

WardsWeb. How did you like those 802s? I have always liked B&W's. Belive it or not for the music I was listening to at the time, I liked the 604s better than the 802s and at a 1/3rd of the cost at the time!

[Audiobeer]

Originally posted by Robh3606
WOW sorry to hear that. I have had trouble like that too. I had a mint pair of L20T shipped in copy paper boxes. The grill got shattered on one and the corners got slammed, at least 3 on each speaker. Then I had an empty L65 cabinet shipped by Mail Box??? and they crumpled some newspaper around it. Glad I had the sense to have the drivers shipped seperately. The cabinet was in 4 pieces out of the box but the glass and grill both survived??? Shipping is always a crap shoot. Some guys do a great job others????? Hope you can get things settled quickly.

Rob:(

I basicaly took a cash settlement that was fair for both of us. They knew they screwed up on the packing, and I knew I wasn't going to get a 100% refund without trying UPS claims first. I settled for what I felt that they have lost in value and added shipping. This approach might not have worked had it not been because of thier high feedback. I won't buy anything from a Ebay Newbie anymore! :biting: I will say as a seller, that it's a lot easier going overkill on the spacking rather than dealing with damages.

[Wardsweb]

"Overkill" on packing is a minimum!

I've got a Sansui TU-919 on Ebay right now and I will triple box it for shipping. It will be bullet proof. :D

[Audiobeer]

Tell you what I will do! I'll trade you 3 Marantz 140's and a Tu- 717. I cannot for the life of me see why a Tuner shootout on the only Vintage Tuner Page on the web drove the costs of the TU-919s from $300 - $400 a year ago to the $900 to $1000+ range they are running up to now. Damn good tuner, but is it it $700 better than a Kenwood KT-8300. It wasn't a year ago. Then the Tuner page does a shootout and Bam! Never under esimate the power of a Web page. Imagine us talking how desperatley We all want and value, say a pair of 4311Bs. They should be available all day long for $400 - $550 in great shape. But if We had a consensus that these readily available speakers were the best thing going......they would go sky high. So do the fair thing......take it off Ebay and sell it to Me for $400! ;)

[Audiobeer]

Oh my God!:eek: I just saw your Home theater Bud! MLs and seperates that rock! Also a chess board.....I know but nobody seems to play anymore so I love seeing them! You should be proud my Man! That setup is awesome!

[Wardsweb]

Wow, you have a good eye. No one has ever said anything about the chess board. My wife and kids all play. It's all toys.

[Mr. Widget]

I had a bad experience with UPS, but since the seller had taken the merchandise to a UPS owned shipping center and they were the ones who packed it... I got a check for $700.

Admittedly the packing cost $40, but in hind sight it was worth every penny.
I almost always ship by FedEx Ground. I have had very good luck with them ... so far.

Widget

[AudioGeek]

Hey Wards -

I asked you this on another thread, but you must have missed it:

"Are those ML's CLS IIa's or IIz's? I had a pair of IIa's in walnut, and intended to do the z impedance mod but never got around to it.

If you get the chance some day, listen to any of the ARC Classic-series amps through the CLS'. I used to power mine with a pair of Classic 120 monoblocks with KT-88's, and it was "hog heaven"!! I'd say that rig was one of the best speaker/amp combo's I've ever heard."

'beer -

I'm looking for another tuner as well. Probably a Tandberg 3001/01A or Rotel RHT-10. Those are two that sound good to my ears. (wish I still had my Yamaha CT-7000 :( )

I agree tho' - the "Shootout" on fmtunerinfo.com has done more to keep the prices high on vintage tuners than anything in recent memory.

Thing I don't get is: why do people take one or two "reviewer's" word for it, when they don't know if they'll like what the reviewer heard? Then someone buys a piece and wonders why they're unhappy with it. DUH!

I guess that's what keeps this hobby going...

[Audiobeer]

Originally posted by Audiobeer
Tell you what I will do! I'll trade you 3 Marantz 140's and a Tu- 717. I cannot for the life of me see why a Tuner shootout on the only Vintage Tuner Page on the web drove the costs of the TU-919s from $300 - $400 a year ago to the $900 to $1000+ range they are running up to now. Damn good tuner, but is it it $700 better than a Kenwood KT-8300. It wasn't a year ago. Then the Tuner page does a shootout and Bam! Never under esimate the power of a Web page. Imagine us talking how desperatley We all want and value, say a pair of 4311Bs. They should be available all day long for $400 - $550 in great shape. But if We had a consensus that these readily available speakers were the best thing going......they would go sky high. So do the fair thing......take it off Ebay and sell it to Me for $400! ;)

What did I tell you! I was right on about the price! Don't you wish every Ebay sale went like that one. The new Ebay record for a TU-919!

[AudioGeek]

Where's the link, 'beer? I want to check it out.

[dennis j leisz]

I received an original woodstock poster, fairly expensive, shipped by UPS, with the shipping tube folded in half. Ruined. I only ship audio equipment via 2nd day air or ground transport. Its worth the extra cost.

[Steve]

Aloha
Just reading the reports of the damage done by shipping has me cringing....
So far I have only received two speakers shipped to me undamaged out all the ones I have brought in. Those were in from different states and 5 years apart. I have now given up on having speakers shipped to me and opt. only for componets.
I have had speakers shipped, USPS, Fed Ex, UPS, ground and regular, DHL, DHX.
One that survived.... an old Altec Iconic model home made from Altec plans out, in 1957, of black walnut from CT. It was screwed down to a piece of plywood and then cardboard boxed, foamed and then a wood box around it. It was shipped ground via DHX or DHL. It was trucked all across the states, put on a boat and sailed to me and then flown from Oahu to Maui. NO DAMAGE...Shipping was $225, speaker $100.
The other speaker was a sub, Contra Bass from Chicago. That box and packing could have taken a drop from 10 feet and still be ok. I had it flown air.
I have a mint pair (were mint actually) of 846b Valencias with all 4 corners rounded, had to be the front corners on both speakers, had
Jubals with stand torn up and rounded corners, 4310's that not ony had rounded corners, but a corner that was pushed in about 2 inches, was dropped so hard that the LE5 was messed up, grills were broken up also..the list goes on. So far no $ has ever been paid by the insurance for the damage despite pictures of the packing at both ends, picts of the speakers before and after etc.

I do believe the solution is as mentioned above, have the UPS box stores do the packing, so they can't claim the packing wasn't up to par.
I have followed a similar thread on computer forums.... same BS in getting claims filled. Even a movie of a driver dropping and kicking and moving the box with his feet to the door didn't help.
I know that any thing of value I purchase and have shipped I will demand they get it packed at the UPS store....small increase of price compared to the frustration, blood pressure increase and time lost....let alone a fine collectable.

Steve

[JBL Dog]

Originally posted by Mr. Widget
I almost always ship by FedEx Ground. I have had very good luck with them ... so far.

Widget

I'm with you on FEDEX, Widget. I've never had a problem with them. Gotten lotsa stuff from "brown" damaged. Most was a packing problem. I was successful in filing a claim with UPS on a McIntosh MC7270 amplifier. Broken glass and a meter ended up costing them $376.

This message comes from JBL Dog :band:

[Audiobeer]

Originally posted by dennis j leisz
I received an original woodstock poster, fairly expensive, shipped by UPS, with the shipping tube folded in half. Ruined. I only ship audio equipment via 2nd day air or ground transport. Its worth the extra cost.


http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3063167082&category=3282

[Mr. Widget]

Who knew anyone would want one of those?

I guess I don't need one as my sole radio usage is NPR.:D :D :D

[Daniel B]

I wonder if any of these companies has a program where a client could ship a box in one of those reusable plastic amp racks for a flat rate. Foam padding and all. They could dress up the old Samsonite gorilla in a brown uniform for the commercial. Now that’s a movie I’d like to see.

Tagline:
"When it absolutely has to get there... in one piece."

Then again, that might only encourage them to be even more reckless.

[Audiobeer]

I was told and you guys correct Me if I'm wrong.....If you insure for either $1000 or $1500 the item stays with the seller while UPS makes thier decision. In otherwords UPS actualy has to come out to where it was shipped to evaluate. Also is there anyway a seller can have the claim process handled between the reciever and the shipping company. I always felt screwed whenever as a buyer not only had I paid for an item that the shipper gamaged but now i may never see the damaged item or the refund!

[Mr. Widget]

My claim was for $700 and a UPS claims adjuster came out to my house and examined the damaged goods and the packaging. It took weeks, many follow up phone calls by both the recipient (me) and the shipper to UPS and several rounds of multiple pages of paper work to be filled out by both of us. He assigned the payment to me and I received the $700 check directly from UPS.

[Wardsweb]

Originally posted by Audiobeer
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3063167082&category=3282

Hey I remember that auction - :D

It will be triple boxed and shipped on the Buyers Fed Ex account.

[JBL Dog]

Originally posted by Mr. Widget
My claim was for $700 and a UPS claims adjuster came out to my house and examined the damaged goods and the packaging. It took weeks, many follow up phone calls by both the recipient (me) and the shipper to UPS and several rounds of multiple pages of paper work to be filled out by both of us. He assigned the payment to me and I received the $700 check directly from UPS.

My claim of $376 for the McIntosh amp involved:

1) Contacting UPS making them aware of the situation.

2) Repacking the item and having a UPS driver pick it up for a claims rep to examine it.

3) Having the seller fax a letter releasing any settlement to me.

I believe the unit was packed at a UPS store in California, so "finger-pointing" was in one direction. They told me to get the unit fixed and send them a bill. It took about four months from start-to-finish only because the Mc repair center had to wait over two months for the 7270 glass. I sent UPS a copy of the bill and they promptly issued me a check.

:D

This message comes from JBL Dog :band:

[thevott]

I have shipped many items including loudspeakers and tube equipment. Though I too prefer FedEx I have generally ship via UPS out of convenience. I have had two items damaged out of the several hundred I have shipped in the last couple of years (both claims were settled with out too much trouble). I largely attribute this success to my packing methods though dropping the item off the back of the truck or running it over with the rear wheel will likely damage or destroy it (yes I heard a story of a smashed guitar with a 'tell-tale' tire track on it!). Anyway, Items of mass MUST be firmly packed with at least 1" of polystyrene beadboard (preferably 2") which I purchase in 4' by 8' sheets at 'The Home Depot'. Packing popcorn is simply not suitable for receivers and other heavy stuff. Cartons must also be thoroughly taped on every seam to achieve maximum rigidity.
On the other hand, of the handful of audio gear that I have purchased on Ebay, at least half of the items have been packaged below my own standards. I am not excusing UPS, but it is important to expect the worst and pack accordingly. The amount of polystyrene beadboard surrounding an item must be directly proportional to its mass.

thevott