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Greyhound took about 3 weeks for my helicon to get from San Jose CA to Winston-Salem, North Carolina and they had very little info on tracking the box as it wandered around the country. Oversize packages are lowest priority and it could be sitting right now in ANY bus freight room, waiting for space on a bus heading generally in the direction it is going.

The good ting was that the horn was not damaged, and it was the least expensive way to ship it. You get what you pay for!

Beautiful Helicon! I'm inclined to believe that it will show up, eventually, at the Greyhound station. What is this horn, what was done to build it? Is it a King? Do tell...
Walter

Hi-
I agree with Bloke. Even with a tracking number, with 'regular' Greyhound shipping (cheaper!), you can't track the item with the number--with 'priority' Greyhound shipping (more money!), you can track the item with the number.
With the item being a helicon--in I am sure a very large box, it is probably sitting in a corner somewhere in some town waiting for the clerk to wake up to put on a bus...
good luck!
mark

Have some faith, young man. Beeee-lieve (and cross your fingers).

When my son's 3/4 Conn was shipped to Nashville via Greyhound, I was supposed to get a call when it came in. I called about it several times the next day. Nada. I finally went down there. Security took me into the back. It was just sitting, unattended, in back near where they load and unload freight. I picked it up and took it home. Nobody even wanted to check ID or anything. If I hadn't gone back there, it would probably still be there.

Be patient, Schlep. Greyhound freight moves on a space-available basis and something that size can be a real problem. If more passengers get on a bus and have stuff that won't fit under the bus... freight comes off.

If it simply 'gets lost'... it is routed to Dallas to be sorted out.

Don't get depressed yet... it will probably turn up in a week or so. When I bought my Martin Helicon it was shipped via Greyhound from New York to SoCal and it took almost a month for it to show up. Like the said above, the size of the box for a helicon will slow its travels down to a crawl. Mine apparently got hung up in Texas where it got bumped for passengers.

schlepporello wrote:

Bandmaster wrote:Don't get depressed yet... it will probably turn up in a week or so.

It shipped on the 22nd of last month. They've had 11 days so far to get it here.

Mine took over just about 30 days, so you still have 19 days to go....

I know, it doesn't make it feel any better.... does it?

I shipped a tuba from Nebraska to North Carolina two years ago, and it took a couple of weeks to get there (it was supposed to take 4-5 days).

The freight is loaded on an "as space is available" basis and big items like tubas often get left sitting around waiting for their turn on the bus.

Not having a way to track it is certainly frustrating, and all the calls I made trying to find the tuba did no good at all. It did finally arrive at its destination, but far later than expected. I'm sure I lost a few moths of my life worrying over those couple of weeks.

Just try to relax (easier said than done, I know) and have faith that all will work out in the end.

HI-
You never know with Greyhound--I had an old F tuba sent to me years back from North Carolina to Buffalo and it took over 20 days--I just sent a BBb tuba out from Buffalo to San Bernandino, CA and it took 3 days--both were sent with regular Greyhound service--go figure...
mark

I sent my King tuba via Greyhound to Seattle and Oberloh Woodwinds and Brassworks using the priority rate. It took about 24 hours to travel between Billings and Seattle. The Billings crew handled the tuba in a professional manner. I have no complaints.

I just received a horn from Cleveland to Seattle. It was shipped Tuesday and I got a call last night (Thursday) it was in - and it arrived in great condition.

Ken S.

The last tuba I shipped Greyhound showed up on time, but because the clerk had typed the new owner's name wrong on the "ticket" he was unable to pick it up. It took a couple of calls to get that straightened out, and finally they said "oh yeah, this big thing has been here for a couple of days already..." I'd give Harv a call and have him look closely at the "ticket" (his receipt) to see how the clerk spelled your name.
Good luck!

Please give them my best terminal smile!:
Klaus

Schlepp, you haven’t heard of the new self-playing silicone embouchures?

While I was at it, I could just as well try their full scale version. And as I play blokepieces on my basses, I took the one which presented the best bloke-look-alike-ness, the Josephony (please note the pronounced corners-down approach):
K

And we are not talking wrinkles. We are talking about potentials for surface expansions.

I shipped four large pieces via Greyhound on November 4th from Evansville, Indiana to Tallahassee, Florida. Three boxes 'whistled' straight through and arrived in less that 48 hours. One box got 'stuck' between hither and yon but I expect it will arrive early next week. Even though it was a 'straight thru' bus... I suspect that the one box got 'kicked off' due to passenger loading over the weekend.

Edit... I just got word that a large tuba I sent from Evansville, Indiana to Duluth, Minnesota on Thursday has arrived at it's destination.

Also... a case I sent from Evansville to Phoenix on Thursday is also there.

Greyhound just doesn't like you, Schlep!

Hi-
Greyhound = patience..
mark

Hope you get it soon! But none of this makes me reconsider using UPS Ground as my go-to... I'm 5 for 5!

I should send along some pictures of a bass trombone I shipped via UPS some time ago bort. Might change your mind...