Yeah, I Won’t Be Shipping Amps Again…

[tlp1234]

The last two large items I shipped were horrible experiences. Ups destroyed a new laney 4x12. Destroyed it. Told the dude I shipped it to just to keep it and salvage what he could. He was able to keep 3 v30’s…that’s it. Ups wouldn’t honor the insurance. I sold my vh4 on here. Packed the shit out of it. In addition to plastic wrap and bubble wrap, I sheathed it in 1” foam insulation board. Ups cracked one side of it. Once again ups refused the insurance claim. So fuck ups…fuck them grudgingly…

This is how my MKVII back in March made it to me. It was "drop shipped" UPS (no pun intended) by the (local to me) dealer. The dealer is only 17mi away!! I sent them the pictures of it right after unboxing it. I drove to the dealer this time and picked up the replacement. No questions, they apologized profusely and even gave me a quad of new 6L6's. Package was packed no different than the typical stuff from Boogie.

This is on it's way from Matchless to me this week. Hoping for the best, but Matchless usually backs things to survive the worst (at least that's been my experience).

 

[tlp1234]

I will say if anyone buys from @* velcro-fly * , whatever it is will be packed to survive most things. I've never seen anyone pack an amp like this;

 

[skoora]

I’d be afraid to mark it fragile. It’s like it would spur them on to test that.

 

[TotallyRadGuitars]

won’t cover more than $999 but has a pretty good shipping cost. Amp sold for 2K. Try direct through UPS and run into another 999 wall

[Fed Ex] won’t cover more than 999 either because they consider it a musical instrument and maybe a Fed Ex depo could.

I don't understand how this happened to you. I can go ship something at either UPS or Fedex, both take my CC or paypal online in one click, I can insure up to $50,000 no problem if I'm willing to pay for it. Just did it to make sure I wasn't going crazy, took it all the way to the check out screen with a coupon applied and everything, ready to pay. Where did you hear anything about $999? Did you tell the Fedex employee that $999 was a limit, and they repeated it back to you? because that's not a thing for Fedex either.

Just FYI, NEVER insure anything for anything other than $100 increments. If you insure something for "$250," you're getting charged for $300 worth of insurance, but they'll only pay out a max of $250. Also, NEVER take it to a physical store location, those are franchises - i.e. if you go to a UPS store, they are going to sell you the UPS shipping and then immediately mark it up by 30-40% so they make a profit. The only reason to go to one of those is to drop off a box, or if you literally can't pack it yourself (which might be the case for the OP at least).

If you use Pirateship, be aware the insurance is through a third party with somewhat dodgy reviews online - but then again, insurance even through UPS/Fedex is just as bad in my experience so I doubt it makes a difference. I've had more dealings with UPS insurance from damage caused by poor packing done by a UPS Store than I have with packages I packed/shipped myself - I would NOT trust your average UPS store employee to pack an amp or guitar well.

I sympathize with the 10lb lifting limit, that really sucks, but I feel like you're making it harder than it has to be. You can even schedule UPS to come pick up the item and they'll even bring the label with them and slap it on the box for you and take it, and that only costs a few dollars.

Between guitar/amp collecting and my job, I ship stuff like crazy. If I really couldn't insure stuff for over $999 and did all of the shipping by having a franchise store pack it, I'd probably put my employers out of business lol. Anyway, ship or don't ship, whatever you prefer is up to you.

 

[MindCrime]

If you want some insurance "peace of mind", regardless the cost of the instrument...check out Heritage
https://musicins.com/

Insure it for FULL replacement value.

 

[skoora]

I don't understand how this happened to you. I can go ship something at either UPS or Fedex, both take my CC or paypal online in one click, I can insure up to $50,000 no problem if I'm willing to pay for it. Just did it to make sure I wasn't going crazy, took it all the way to the check out screen with a coupon applied and everything, ready to pay. Where did you hear anything about $999? Did you tell the Fedex employee that $999 was a limit, and they repeated it back to you? because that's not a thing for Fedex either.

Just FYI, NEVER insure anything for anything other than $100 increments. If you insure something for "$250," you're getting charged for $300 worth of insurance, but they'll only pay out a max of $250. Also, NEVER take it to a physical store location, those are franchises - i.e. if you go to a UPS store, they are going to sell you the UPS shipping and then immediately mark it up by 30-40% so they make a profit. The only reason to go to one of those is to drop off a box, or if you literally can't pack it yourself (which might be the case for the OP at least).

If you use Pirateship, be aware the insurance is through a third party with somewhat dodgy reviews online - but then again, insurance even through UPS/Fedex is just as bad in my experience so I doubt it makes a difference. I've had more dealings with UPS insurance from damage caused by poor packing done by a UPS Store than I have with packages I packed/shipped myself - I would NOT trust your average UPS store employee to pack an amp or guitar well.

I sympathize with the 10lb lifting limit, that really sucks, but I feel like you're making it harder than it has to be. You can even schedule UPS to come pick up the item and they'll even bring the label with them and slap it on the box for you and take it, and that only costs a few dollars.

Between guitar/amp collecting and my job, I ship stuff like crazy. If I really couldn't insure stuff for over $999 and did all of the shipping by having a franchise store pack it, I'd probably put my employers out of business lol. Anyway, ship or don't ship, whatever you prefer is up to you.

I did get UPS to come and get it and with UPS I ran into the 999 issue directly using their site and after failing with FedEx and trying UPS again I was able to insure for more. I couldn’t tell you why. The reason I didn’t use the Fed Ex site was the actual site would not take credit cards. They sent me to a location. It was the location that was adamant about not covering more than 999. The package is shipped and insured and on the way.

 

[311splawndude]

There are already IOT applications in the commercial world to put a hardened device smaller than a cell phone in a package to record its trip basically. I know this would not be practical for the average Joe on R-T but someday, this technology will get to the masses and become fairly normal practice for anything over say $500. That's my guess anyway. And if it has not already been invented then I will invent it. Amplifiers, cabinets and guitars are especially prone because they are heavy. I would want:

GPS tracker
Anything to record abrupt drops or abuse
Possibly a camera running
Possibly a dB or noise recorder

It could 'travel' along with the shipment and possibly include its own Return to Sender package so owner could get it back and reuse it.

 

[tlp1234]

I’d be afraid to mark it fragile. It’s like it would spur them on to test that.

I've thought the same thing!

 

[* velcro-fly *]

I will say if anyone buys from @* velcro-fly * , whatever it is will be packed to survive most things. I've never seen anyone pack an amp like this;

Haha yeah that was a chore, but worth the effort to not have a killer amp show up destroyed.

 

[skoora]

eBay really is full of shit. They said on the phone they would hold funds until tracking said delivered. Now it’s for 7 days after that. Amp was delivered on Friday and the site says estimated funds release for the 25th. I didn’t hear from the buyer so hopefully that’s good news on arrival condition but this holding payment is a crock, even if I hadn’t sold in a while on there. Under the guise of buyer protection they earn just that little bit of interest on that money. That can add up with 1000’s of transactions. You know, like Superman III….lol
I shan’t be using them again…