Before you ship your tuba through UPS...

[Thomas Maurice Booth]

I'll pay money to see someone throw a tuba all decked out in a wood crate ready for shipping 15 ft. onto a porch without putting themself into the hospital in the process...

TMB

[pierso20]

HAHA...precious....

[WakinAZ]

Sheesh, how about some video editing? You only need the last 9 seconds.

At least it was an underhand throw - didn't look that bad to me.

Eric "who thinks only the sender and receiver look beyond the address label - pack accordingly" L.

[josh wagner]

any one use DHL? which do you think is the best way to ship a tuba?

[WakinAZ]

Many, many posts on the subject available through Search, Josh. I drove my last horn sold to the buyer 6 hours one way to avoid shipping because it was a horn worth around $4K.

The overall favorite is Greyhound Package Express (GPX). DHL seems to be up and coming as a decent shipper, but the sample size is so small since they are kind of new, it's hard to tell. Here are my thoughts on GPX gathered from personal experience and digesting the various posts here on TubeNet:

PRO
*Cheap, cheap, cheap (around $75 or less anywhere in the lower 48 US)
*Horn is never more than about 2.5 feet off the ground (goes in luggage compartment under bus). All manually handled: no conveyor belts shooting the package or case into the air
*The staff never seems to be in a hurry. Sometimes this is not a pro, but at least your package is not quickly and carelessly tossed around
*Percentage of problems, judging from TubeNet, seems to be much lower than UPS or FedEx
*You can ship a horn just in the case

CON
*Greyhound's liability is limited to $200 (check current Terms & Conditions at http://www.shipgreyhound.com/); make sure you are covered some other way if the item is valuable
*NO tracking system. You do have proof you shipped the item but not sure what they do if something gets lost or stolen: how hard would they work to avoid maybe paying you a measly $200?
*There is one anecdotal case of a Greyhound employee stealing an instrument and pawning it for drugs

All this being said, there is more positive consensus about GPX than any other method discussed on TubeNet. Dan "TubaTinker" Schultz uses them exclusively, as does Dan Oberloh, I believe.

Eric "who may be able to avoid shipping on his current sale, hehe" L.

[Dan Schultz]

.... *Greyhound's liability is limited to $200 (check current Terms & Conditions at http://www.shipgreyhound.com/)

I just shipped horns from Evansville, Indiana to Hot Springs, Arkansas and Tucson, Arizona via Greyhound. The liability limit for the Tucson shipment was $300 and the Hot Springs shipment was $1,000. It depends on how many zones you are crossing what the liability limits are. The liability limit is in the form of additional insurance that Greyhound will allow you to buy at the counter. It usually only runs $3 or so extra. I think their liability limit without the additional insurance is $200. I normally buy whatever insurance I can get them to sell me. It won't cover a total loss but will probably cover such things as a wrinkled bell.... which I've never had happen with Greyhound.

No matter what carrier you use, if you are shipping a horn that has great value, you need to buy some form of stated value insurance on your own and not depend of the carriers.... who will most likely find a reason to deny any claim you might have. The only reason I buy the additional insurance is that I have this personal (and probably unfounded) theory that the carriers are more likely to pay attention to you stuff if it's insured with them. I have stuff coming and going at the local Greyhound terminal usually a couple of times a week. I get some satisfaction in the fact that I know the guys who work there quite well and feel that they will 'go to bat' for me if I have a loss. I guess you gotta trust someone!

[Alex C]

I recently shipped DHL but check the size limitations.

I took it to a DHL counter (not a store front) and they said it was oversize and refused it. I went online and was able to get a shipping bill, took it to a storefront and had it shipped with no problem.

It was double-boxed, with peanuts between the boxes and around the tuba with bubble wrap stuffed down the bell (to inhibit ingestion of peanuts). The outside box was thick and originally held a Jupiter tuba, the inner box was made up for me by a box store.

Insurance: I bought $5000 but I'm just glad I didn't have to file a claim.

I once had a tuba shipped to me in a Walt Johnson case via Amtrak. Scared me to death but it worked out fine.

FedEx and UPS have been hard to deal with lately. UPS destroyed a bass trombone I had shipped about a year ago, not recommended a shipper.

[tubajoe]

I watched a surly UPS driver in California dump my horn off the back of his truck. It was in a standard plywood hard case. It broke the case and smashed the bell of my horn. UPS paid for the damage to the horn and a new case.

Avoid them at all costs!

[Rick F]

I only used UPS ...or 'Oops' just once. That one time resulted in a crumpled bell. Never again.

[djwesp]

*There is one anecdotal case of a Greyhound employee stealing an instrument and pawning it for drugs.

Since this personally happened to me and I (as well as the poster I sent the horn too) can prove this 100%, how does that make it anecdotal?


I have shipped a trombone UPS. It was damaged, and I recieved $750 dollars for it. It was a cheap ebay trombone. This stuff about them not cashing in their insurance may be true, but they did so with mine with VERY little hesitation.

[Daniel C. Oberloh]

I suppose we all have horror stories. I too have had instruments damaged by UPS and DSL a few times. A cornet of many years ago comes to mind. It was packed in its case (mistake) and then boxed and shipped. The customer received it with slides knocked out and a big dent in the middle of the bell crook. It obviously took a number of substantial drops. UPS wanted to have the recipient of the instrument send it somewhere along with a number of other hoops to jump through. After an inspector finally looked at it, they used the excuse of it being improperly packed (not) and then made other excuses. I had no interest in shipping it wherever they had in mind and having more damage inflicted on the cornet so I instructed the client to return the instrument to my shop where I would make the needed repairs at no additional cost to him accept for the return shipping to me for the repairs.

The repairs were made. The blemishes in the lacquer where the dents were raised were unacceptable to me so I stripped the lacquer, polished and re-sprayed the horn. The cornet was repacked and shipped USPS. :-PpPp on you UPS. Yeah I know that's childish. I gave it some thought and came to the conclusion that I needed to pack my stuff better than I had already because I finally understood that the shippers (whoever they may be) do not care a tiny fraction about my packages as much as I do.
So I do all I can to protect and insure for loss and complete destruction when using UPS and most other package delivery services. I don't use junky boxes, I put considerable effort into how well I pack the items. I use good packing materials and keep in mind that inertia can cause as much damage as solid impacts and pack accordingly based on size, weight, etc. Big stuff (for me) goes by bus, train or SEKO World Wide (local folks). Tubas are too big to ship via methods that use conveyors. I like to go by train and bus where the recipient will pick up. They use old hand trucks and carts and though not perfect, seem safer to me. To date, they have not lost or damaged a single tuba. Yeah, they don't always have tracking ability or offer adequate insurance but tracking was not available with UPS and the others awhile back. And what good is insurance if you have to go into battle to receive what is rightfully owed? There are ways to insure such items other then by the carrier. I suppose there are no foolproof ways short of delivering it door to door yourself, but if you take the time to cover your rear, use a reliable carrier, pack and label it properly, the odds are still pretty good it will reach its destination in good order.

Daniel C. Oberloh
Oberloh Woodwind and Brass Works
www.oberloh.com

[WakinAZ]

Since this personally happened to me and I (as well as the poster I sent the horn too) can prove this 100%, how does that make it anecdotal?

To you it is fact, of course. Since you told us through your post, it is anecdotal to the rest of us. Anecdotal in this case does not imply untrue, just, as yet, undocumented other than by hearsay. Please don't offer any additional proof - I believe you, and I'm sure everyone else does too.

I think getting flamed here and there has made you defensive.

Eric "who never doubted your story and who does not want to get into a dictionary battle" Linthicum

[WakinAZ]

Case in point about the best offense being a good defense: I received this box today at GPX:



While not quite "Hall of Shame" material, I was concerned when I saw this. Because of Dan "TubaTinker" Schultz's excellent packing job, the nice little Olds 099 inside was undamaged. This is the closest I've come to having a problem over about half a dozen GPX transactions.

Eric "relieved" L.

[sungfw]

*There is one anecdotal case of a Greyhound employee stealing an instrument and pawning it for drugs.

Since this personally happened to me and I (as well as the poster I sent the horn too) can prove this 100%, how does that make it anecdotal?

Um ... you might want to look up the definition of "anecdote."

anecdote (ăn'Ä­kdÅ

[WakinAZ]

dik-shun-air-ee stuff

Too much, too late.

troll

Eric "said it wasn't a battle of the definitions; read the whole thread" L.

[josh wagner]

i'm assuming that the tuba i send FedEx a few days ago made it rather well. But i did not have any problems, i'm not sure what the guy or how the guy packed it or anything but the guy i sold it to didn't say anything about it looking like a hunk of scrap. But i am still leary about shipping things, i would rather personally deleiver or actually have a reliable way that won't get it messed up. oh well

[The Jackson]

I'd say the most effective means of shipping a tuba is my molecular transport.

Of course, though, there are some people who like it done the "old-fashioned" way.

[tubatom91]

you guys are stressing me out. I got a tuba in the mail as we speak .

[MaryAnn]

I have some hearsay (gossip) about UPS. What I hear is that the only thing of importance is how many packages can get transported and delivered for the least money, because that is what competition is all about. So the more they fall behind in business, the worse they treat their people and the less they pay them for actual work done. Now, this is how business everywhere is going nowadays....you can't outsource a package delivery business to Taiwan or China because that isn't where the deliveries occur; you have to use people who live in the delivery area. So you pay them less and less, demand more and more of them, and you theoretically get customers based on how low you can get your price. And so far UPS still has people willing to work for them under these conditions, just like the USPS does. (Someone close to me works for USPS.)

I buy stuff online, and the fragile items are being packed more and more securely over time. Interesting.

Shipping of special items like tubas has to go to a business that doesn't have this focus, and that is why you have to either pack it so it can survive being thrown down a flight of stairs or take the consequences.

Someone recently mentioned Old Dominion freight lines....I got a tuba from Dillons (NJ) shipped to me (Tucson) with them, and when I got the box it looked brand new. Tubas I've gotten that were shipped via UPS or FedEx had boxes that looked like they had been put through a crusher. So did the tubas inside. Never tried Greyhound; Amtrak was ok but they changed their local schedule so that the office is only open between 11 PM and 5 AM.

MA

[GC]

During the short time that I ran a business putting stuff up on eBay for a friend, I shipped almost everything USPS & UPS. I never had a single problem with anything shipped UPS, but fully 10% of the packages I shipped with the post office were lost or damaged.

I only shipped three packages of tuba size and weight. All of them came through unscathed, fortunately.

I've had four tubas shipped to me over the years, two Amtrak and two truck freight. Zero problems. Amtrak seemed to have the best personal touch.