TubeNet

What are the best ways to send a tuba across the country? Plane, train, greyhound. And how much would it cost to do it? Thanks.

Greyhound Busline is the cheapest way to go. But, slow, hard to track and I believe you must " self insure"...UPS is probably the most expensive , yet safest way to go. Safest being a relative term . They have a 50 % damage free delivery history with me, on 4 separate horns....cross country UPS - $120 , Greyhound $70 , prices are only estimates , based on previous experience .
Whatever you do, overpack the horn ! There is no way to guaranty a damage free delivery.

Recently, I had a tuba go back & forth from Rhode Island to San Jose, CA. Greyhound was cheap ($70) and easy. Plan on a week or more. Insurance was $300 max. Dunno about tracking; I didn't try to track it. They called me when it got here.

Fed Ex gound is faster, but more expensive; easier to track.

Either way you go, make sure you pack your tuba correctly. If you don't know how to do it, ask me, I'll be HAPPY to help you!!!

I've shipped with Greyhound before, and I *think* they have a tracking system (bus destination-based, not object based).

Joseph

I prefer Greyhound. Their liability limit for less than 1,000 miles is only $1,000. Over that distance, their liability drops to $300. That being said... I think their service is the most reliable of ALL of the other shippers. Greyhound freight moves on a space-available basis. Passengers and their stuff goes first. I've shipped many items to as far away from Indiana as California and it's never taken more than four days.

Fedex ground worked great for me. It was a bit pricey, but it was worth it to be able to constantly track the horn.

There's some information I posted a while back in this thread...

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=33780&p=297305&hili ... ng#p297305" target="_blank

Mike Milnarik

I really like Amtrak. I've shipped and received several horns via Amtrak and never had any problems. It's cheap and quick, too.

I would avoid UPS (or Oops). Only used them one time and the horn came from a commercial vendor — who packed it correctly. Arrived with crumpled bell.

I concur with Greyhound. Pack it to the max, declare your value, and be patient.

The advice I got was to go with Amtrak, and if the destination is served by rail I'd do that again. My experience with Greyhound was not so good, and after visiting their respective baggage counters ... when you pay the very least, I guess it should be no surprise that you get the very least. Amtrak was very professional.

They can, however, encounter difficulty sorting out their own policies. The rate may be determined either on a weight/volume equivalent basis, where basically you get charged extra because it's big, or on weight alone which will be much cheaper. I got either story on the phone. When you get to the counter, hope the supervisor is not out on lunch break or something, because she'll be more familiar with actual practice on unusual stuff like this.

I wrote "fragile" all over my box, and then was informed that for that reason they wouldn't insure it. I'm not sure what's up with this, I think the guy who advised me on this said he does that and insures the shipment for big bucks too. I didn't push it, at that point I was happy enough I wasn't going to have to take the thing over to the Greyhound station.

Naturally all this stuff is apt to vary, from one station to another at least much as it does from one clerk to another.

The problem with going by Amtrak is that they won't take the package at every station, PLUS it has to be under 50 pounds. Here, in San Jose, if the package doesn't fit through their baggage check counter, they won't take it either, so it has a SIZE limitation.

I also concur with using Greyhound. If you're shipping to a major metro area, Greyhound will get it there usually in 48-72 hours. The key is making sure its properly packed!

JJ

I'll repeat the same old story I've repeated 10 times.

I sold a euphonium to a tubenetter and we decided to ship it Greyhound. It arrived at the greyhound station for the guy to pick it up, but before that, the greyhound clerk decided to steal it and sell it for drug money.

Days and days passed and finally I got a hold of the manager of that specific station. He informed me they caught the guy stealing it on camera but had no way to find out who the parcel belonged to. They prosecuted the kid for stealing the horn, but he DIDN'T GET FIRED.

When you ship greyhound, you are blindly sending expensive instruments into a world of night time travel, shady greyhound stations all over the US, no tracking system, no insurance (regardless of what they tell you or you may think).

Parcels that don't fit under are stored up top, as well as if the cargo bay is full. This gives greyhound riders an opportunity to steal your stuff or tamper with it as well. Your stuff also can sit, yes, I quote, "up to about 20 hours" on the tarmac where ANY CUSTOMER OR EMPLOYEE CAN TOUCH IT.

Pay the big bucks and send it UPS. Send it a certified packing store and damage is 100% gauranteed.

I'm in the middle of a "shipping experience" with Greyhound that supports some of the concerns expressed previously on this thread. A tuba that I bought was brought by the seller to the Greyhound station in Blytheville, Arkansas 15 days ago for shipment to southern California. So far it hasn't arrived and there's no way to find out where it is. All I know is that it apparently left Memphis (one of three planned transfer points) sometime around Aug 16, i.e., if it is really the "large blue item" that the Greyhound employee in Memphis remembers seeing leave on a bus "sometime around last Monday". What happened to it between Blytheville and Memphis for ten days is anybody's guess. And there's no way of knowing if that's actually the horn. My call and email to the seller to verify that the horn fits that description have so far been unanswered.
The tracking number does no good since their system apparently only tracks numbers that were obtained through their internet site, not those that were obtained by walk-in service at their stations. Even the helpful Greyhound employees at the San Fernando, CA station have been unable to track it except for the reported sighting of the large blue package at Memphis that was determined by their phone call.
Hopefully, the horn will get here within the next few weeks or months without any damage and all will be well. But I'll be reluctant to Go Greyhound in the future for a shipment of that distance.

Amtrak is probably the best, but if you or your shipper are a long way from a station . . .

Greyhound is next best and cheap, but has little in the way of guarantees. I've seen many good stories about shipping with them, but there are horror stories, too. Fedex is good but very expensive.

Both instruments I've had shipped to me by UPS were damaged, and their insurance doesn't pay. They immediately claim incorrect packaging and refuse. Posts about problems with UPS are all over this board.

USPS can be problematic. Fully 10% of the items I've shipped USPS have been damaged in shipment or disappeared completely. My favorite story: I shipped a couple of identical heavy wooden speaker components with identical weight, packaging, and labeling and shipping costs. I dropped both off at the same time at the P.O. and got paperwork for both. One speaker showed up in the USPS tracking system quickly, the other never showed up at all. Calls to customer service were useless; they flatly refused to attempt to track the missing item down for two weeks, and after two weeks said that the only way that they could have possibly found them would have been if they had initiated a search immediately. When I told them that I had called and been flatly refused, the person on the phone called me a liar. It took months to settle the insurance claim. @#$#@ the USPS.

djwesp wrote:I'll repeat the same old story I've repeated 10 times.

I sold a euphonium to a tubenetter and we decided to ship it Greyhound. It arrived at the greyhound station for the guy to pick it up, but before that, the greyhound clerk decided to steal it and sell it for drug money.

Days and days passed and finally I got a hold of the manager of that specific station. He informed me they caught the guy stealing it on camera but had no way to find out who the parcel belonged to. They prosecuted the kid for stealing the horn, but he DIDN'T GET FIRED.

When you ship greyhound, you are blindly sending expensive instruments into a world of night time travel, shady greyhound stations all over the US, no tracking system, no insurance (regardless of what they tell you or you may think).

Parcels that don't fit under are stored up top, as well as if the cargo bay is full. This gives greyhound riders an opportunity to steal your stuff or tamper with it as well. Your stuff also can sit, yes, I quote, "up to about 20 hours" on the tarmac where ANY CUSTOMER OR EMPLOYEE CAN TOUCH IT.

Pay the big bucks and send it UPS. Send it a certified packing store and damage is 100% gauranteed.

You take the same chance with UPS or FedEx--I can regale you all with stories of damaged/destroyed/lost packages at the hands of both over the years (and have you been to a "typical" UPS terminal? The one here in Houston I would NEVER attempt to go after dark) and both will look very HARD for ways NOT TO PAY FOR DAMAGES including dragging out the process as long as possible.

IMO, the very best way to ship a tuba and have a good bit of "peace of mind" is via a trucking freight company (Old Dominion or ABF, for example). They are NOT cheap but you know it will get there and they will pay for any damages.

TUBAD83 wrote:and both will look very HARD for ways NOT TO PAY FOR DAMAGES including dragging out the process as long as possible.

I have shipped 25+ instruments via UPS and had 4 claims. They were resolved in a matter of minutes.

When you ship from a UPS store and use the Guaranteed Packing it has gone, for me, without a single hitch.

TUBAD83 wrote: IMO, the very best way to ship a tuba and have a good bit of "peace of mind" is via a trucking freight company (Old Dominion or ABF, for example). They are NOT cheap but you know it will get there and they will pay for any damages.

Now you're talking. The expense might be an issue if you were going to send every old beater that way, but I believe that's how the big guys do it - WW&BW, for example, unless they've changed their act.

It's a shame normal shipping is so nearly suicidal for instruments you'd think were relatively robust, like tubas, trombones, baritone horns etc., so we are treated to the spectacle of your instrument arriving on a flatbed truck as if it were some unmanageably gigantic thing. And flying, not to bring up another sore point, but the current state of affairs seems to be you can't fly with your tuba, and you can't ship it via any normal consumer carrier. Wonder if folks would pay extra for shipping, and airline tickets, given the absurdly minimal promise "we won't smash your stuff?"

My employer has Sousas and Tubas shipped through Greyhound regularly and we have never had an issue with them.

On the other hand you are shipping something of great value that you want to be able to track. Insurance is also another very important issue. While it is terrible to think about, accidents do happen with packages. So pack the item as best as you can giving special attention to the bell flare area. Fill the bell flare with bubble wrap to try and maintain the shape if the box gets dropped. It should help absorb some of the shock of the fall. It is my opinion that one should never use packing "peanuts." Use the large bubble wrap. You can purchase this from Kinkos in a large roll.