TubeNet

I just bought a very nice King 2341 (new style) on ebay. It doesn't come with a case, but a gig bag is included.
The seller just wants to drop off the horn at UPS & let them package & ship it. I've already told him my concerns about the horn needing to be packed properly & sent him the link on tubenet that shows the proper way (with pictures). UPS is NOT my first choice & I told him I would prefer to have it sent by Greyhound, but he seems to only want to send it by UPS. He also claims that it would be insured by them, but how much would they cover? the full value of the horn? From what I've read online, UPS tries to get out of paying any claims if there is damage & will only pay a few hundred dollars if they do. Would any of you guys trust a UPS store to package a tuba for shipping? It's coming from Texas to California.

Any opinions or suggestions about what I should do?

Thanks,

Craig

For me, the question is, who gets the insurance money from UPS? The seller insures it, so he gets to deal with UPS in case of a problem. That isn't your problem. Your problem is recovering, from him, the money you payed plus whatever expenses sending it back etc. If he'll do that expeditiously regardless of how it goes with UPS, then you're good.

If I were shipping, for a tuba of some reasonably high value (I don't know, $2K or over?), I believe I'd go for a pallet, truck shipment from terminal to terminal (i.e., no home delivery.)

There are some problems with UPS. The tuba does not go by the shortest route or smallest number of transfers. The box must come off more than one truck and will likely be thrown off the truck. . .that is, from a height. If there is damage, the UPS inspector will want you to send pictures and fill out a form and then they will come and look at it and make a decision. There isn't any guarantee you will get your money. If the horn is packed really well, it may do OK.

By contrast, Greyhound will send the tuba by the shortest route and the tuba is put under the bus, and is never lifted more than 18" off the ground. The problem with Greyhound is their insurance limit is $1000, and that is for trips under 800 miles. Over 800 miles, the limit is $300. You need to tell the clerk what your declared value is or it may default to $100.

If it's an expensive horn, I'd go with shipping it on a pallet and hope the fork lift didn't spear the box. Usually they do get under the pallet frame.

It's always best to just go pick it up, but that's not always possible.

I've had a couple horns shipped to me via UPS store (seller drop-off, as required for the UPS store to "take financial responsibility" for the packing job). Both arrived with damaged bells. One of them (baritone) was loose in an over-sized case, and the case, itself, was loose in a box (one piece of crumpled paper as padding in an over-sized cardboard box). The case had about six inches of play in the box, and the horn had a few inches in the case. Net-net was that the bell took the brunt of the drop(s), and after numerous back-and-forths, I paid to fix the bell and dumped the horn at a loss, because it made me sick to look at it after all the vitriol of trying to negotiate a settlement.

That wide 2341 bell flare just begs for a crumple. How about a 3-day roadie to Texas to pick it up?

I forgot to mention that I own a 2341, too, that I purchased from a TubeNetter.
He shipped it via Greyhound.
Cronkhite cordura bag surrounded with lots of bubblewrap in a cardboard box. It arrived with zero damage.

The only difficulty was that there's little to no tracking. After a couple days of mounting anxiety, I called the local station and the attendant confirmed they'd had it for a few days. Someone had stashed it in a back room, and they'd forgotten to notify me of its arrival.

I received my new Miraphone 5050 euphonium two months ago and Tuba Exchange sent it UPS Freight. I was concerned about it arriving un-damaged, but they said they've only had about 1% of shipments with any damage. It was in its hard case and then packed in an over-sized-well-padded box AND strapped to a pallet. Total weight was over 100 lbs - for a euphonium. They actually delivered to my door via tractor trailer and it was fine. I couldn't imagine anyone shipping a tuba in a gig bag however.

Bought a large tuba to be shipped half way across the country. Told the seller I wanted it sent via Greyhound and sent her the Norm Pearson TubeNet Tuba Packing instructions. Paid her as if was going Greyhound. Get an email - it's on its way - here is the tracking number and btw - it's on UPS.

Aaargh! So I held my breath and prepared for the worst and hoped for the best.

Showed up in 2 days - the guy from UPS was very helpful - hauled it all the way to the garage and waited while I opened it for inspection. The UPS store had packed it exactly the Norm way and it arrived with no damage at all. Big sigh of relief. So it can be done. It must have cost the seller four times what I had given her for shipping. I guess it was worth it to her not to have to go to the Greyhound Terminal or to pack it.

I also had a 2341 shipped from Dillons via truck freight. It got lost for 10 days - some how the trucker took it off the truck at some point and it ended up sitting for a week on some loading dock in the middle of nowhere and it arrived damaged. Matt Walters (who is the best) and Dillons more than took care of it -but you can't rely on truck shipping to be headache free either.

Good Luck - hope your horn arrives intact. 2341s are terrific horns.