Shipping via Greyhound or ....

[Bill Troiano]

Although I was really hoping to sell my 621 locally, most of the interest I have gotten has been from the west coast. I do have a potential deal, but I would have to ship to CA. From reading other posts on this subject, I've seen that many have had good experiences shipping via Greyhound. In checking that out today, I found out that Greyhound won't insure anything for over $300. So, what have some of you done about that when shipping via Greyhound? It seemd like the most conveninet way to ship, as it would go on a bus in its hard case. I would think in shipping it any other way, I would have to deal with crating it. Any feedback is appreciated. Thanks!

Bill

[cctubaneeds]

I recently purcheses a 861. I shipped greyhound and they damaged my case. The Yamaha cases crack or shatter. I didn't get extra insurance which is available at a percentage. The tuba was fine but I had to glue my case. Pay the little extra money a pack it or get a better courier. I think to get greyhounds extra insurance you pay 3% more. For me it would have covered the case and still cost less.

Spend a bit more, it is worth it.

[skeath]

When I had my Alex overhauled at Oberloh, he shipped it back on Greyhound, and it was fine. He says he's had good experience with them. Personally, I wouldn't do it because of the liability issue.

I recently had an occasion to ship a tuba from Texas to NJ. I had a large, heavy cardboard box, 8 inches bigger all around than the tuba (not in a case). The tuba was packed in dense shredded paper and surrounded on all sides by styrofoam sheets, and had inflatable pouches stuffed in the bell and between the branches. That box, 65 lbs, went by Fedex from TX to NJ, fully insured, for $170.

Sandy Keathley

[Matt Ransom]

Interesting experience -

A few months ago, I sold a couple of Walt Johnson tuba flight cases. One person bought both cases, and I went to Greyhound to ship them from a nearby station to a large metro station in the mid-west. The station manager was present and recognized the cases were for musical instruments (without knowing they were empty). She asked me where I was shipping them. When I told her which large city they were headed for, she just shook her head and very politely recommended that I not ship them via Greyhound due to a growing percentage of vanishing freight. When I told her the cases were empty, she immediately said, "Oh, I'm sure they will be fine then." I very much appreciated her candor. You can take it for what it is worth. I would recommend insuring an instrument through an insurance company such as Clarion prior to shipment through any shipping company. All that having been said, I would recommend you get a big box, pack it well, and ship it via a truck freight company. That way, only you and a few forklifts will touch it. Good luck.

Matt

[Rick Denney]

Although I was really hoping to sell my 621 locally, most of the interest I have gotten has been from the west coast. I do have a potential deal, but I would have to ship to CA. From reading other posts on this subject, I've seen that many have had good experiences shipping via Greyhound. In checking that out today, I found out that Greyhound won't insure anything for over $300. So, what have some of you done about that when shipping via Greyhound? It seemd like the most conveninet way to ship, as it would go on a bus in its hard case. I would think in shipping it any other way, I would have to deal with crating it. Any feedback is appreciated. Thanks!

Anything can go bad. But I have a tuba currently being transported by Greyhound, and it's now three days late and nobody knows where it is.

You can't track packages online with Greyhound unless you have an online account and set up the shipment online. If you just show up with the box and do it in person, you won't be able to track it. I wish I'd known that before the bus drove away, but I didn't.

My tuba is insured separately, and I would never trust a shipper's "insurance" in any case, no matter who it's with. Greyhound's limit will pay me back for the trouble of filing a claim, but it also means an interesting and valuable tuba gets lost to the world.

My tuba is in a B&S shipping carton intended for a tuba larger than the one I shipped, and it's packed using the same materials Custom Music used to pack a nearly identical tuba when shipping it to me. Next time, I'll strap it down to a pallet and ship it truck freight the way they did.

I've used Amtrak in the past with no problems, but others have had problems. And others have used Greyhound a lot, and yet I'm having a problem. Like I said, anything can go bad.

There is a reason that when I went to fetch my Holton from Joe, I drove. But this one had to go a little too far to handle it with a weekend road trip.

Rick "with a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach" Denney

[Matt Ransom]

Rick -
FYI - Greyhound ships on a space available basis unless you pony up for priority service. So, your tuba could be sitting on a loading dock in a transfer city waiting for enough space to get it on a bus. If you can define the route, you may be able to have managers at other Greyhound stations look out for it. Worth a try. I have heard other instances where tubas have suddenly appeared after nearly two weeks in transit. Good luck.

Matt

[bort]

I've only shipped/received via UPS ground. Both times, I helped the driver load/unload the box from the truck, no trouble either way. Not cheap, but it worked just fine (coast-to-coast both times).

Rick -- ouch, good luck, we've all got our fingers crossed for you!

[David Richoux]

Greyhound is cheap and even larger boxes are accepted - but they are not great for cross county shipping. I had a light (50lb) and large (4x4x2 ft) package containing a 1918 Conn Helicon to go from San Jose CA to South Carolina. Large or very heavy boxes get lowest priority and there is no real tracking available. Greyhound has divided the country into 3 major zones and there is poor communication (and no insurance) for 3 zone shipments.

My package roamed all over the country, sitting in various depots for days (for a total about two weeks) before it finally got to the South Carolina depot. It arrived in good shape and it only cost about $50 to ship - so balance cost vs. performance. They may have improved their system - this was 3 years ago - but I have not used them since then.

[Rick Denney]

Rick -
FYI - Greyhound ships on a space available basis unless you pony up for priority service. So, your tuba could be sitting on a loading dock in a transfer city waiting for enough space to get it on a bus.

I have defined the route (I think), and I'm hoping it's just waiting for space. The shipping is cheaper than truck freight (by a considerably amount) and it's much more convenient on the receiving end, unless you can receive at a place with a load dock. The box was too big for the regular shipping companies.

Fact is, there's no good and reliable way to ship something. Any of the shipping approaches can turn sour in any one case. Tubas are just poorly designed for shipping, and there are no good enforcement mechanisms with the shipping companies.

Rick "fingers crossed" Denney

[Donn]

All that having been said, I would recommend you get a big box, pack it well, and ship it via a truck freight company.

Me too, if it's worth more than a few hundred bucks. Based on recent Greyhound experience, my opinion is that any package carrier, with no exceptions, poses a serious risk to a large musical instrument.

It has been a few years since I had any dealings with truck freight, but at that time I believe the company was Jetstream, and they were economical and great to work with. The truck freight companies I found in the yellow pages were considerably more expensive.

[Rick Denney]

All that having been said, I would recommend you get a big box, pack it well, and ship it via a truck freight company.

Me too, if it's worth more than a few hundred bucks.

There are two problems with using truck shipping: 1.) packages often need to be able to be lifted with a fork truck, meaning the box has to be strapped down to a pallet. 2.) If the recipient lives where access by a semi-truck is difficult, the burden of inconvenience will shift dramatically to the recipient. Instructions to the delivering driver virtually never make it all the way to his ears, and being written is usually of no value.

When I receive a truck shipment, I usually have to drive 35 miles to the depot to pick it up, meet a cooperative driver in a parking lot to transfer the load, or chase the guy all over the county trying to catch him at his next stop.

That's one reason I preferred Greyhound--the recipient can just go to the bus station and pick it up.

But I think it works best for Greyhound shipments that have only one leg, so that the sender can watch it go on the bus, and the recipient can watch it come off the bus. For me, if the distance is that short, I'll just drive.

Rick "hoping his tuba isn't getting soaked on the platform in Baton Rouge or wherever" Denney

[JCalkin]

All that having been said, I would recommend you get a big box, pack it well, and ship it via a truck freight company.

Me too, if it's worth more than a few hundred bucks.

There are two problems with using truck shipping: 1.) packages often need to be able to be lifted with a fork truck, meaning the box has to be strapped down to a pallet. 2.) If the recipient lives where access by a semi-truck is difficult, the burden of inconvenience will shift dramatically to the recipient. Instructions to the delivering driver virtually never make it all the way to his ears, and being written is usually of no value.

When I receive a truck shipment, I usually have to drive 35 miles to the depot to pick it up, meet a cooperative driver in a parking lot to transfer the load, or chase the guy all over the county trying to catch him at his next stop.

That's one reason I preferred Greyhound--the recipient can just go to the bus station and pick it up.

But I think it works best for Greyhound shipments that have only one leg, so that the sender can watch it go on the bus, and the recipient can watch it come off the bus. For me, if the distance is that short, I'll just drive.

Rick "hoping his tuba isn't getting soaked on the platform in Baton Rouge or wherever" Denney

I shipped a tuba from Nebraska to North Carolina this past fall. Using Greyhound it changed buses three times, in Omaha, Chicago and Dayton (IIRC) Ohio. The estimated shipping time was four days, and it took nearly two weeks. I was making frantic phone calls near the end of that time, and while the people in Omaha "vaguely remembered seeing" something like I described come through, no one was of any real help. After calling each depot, the national headquarters folks told me that there had been issues with vanishing cargo off and on along that route, and if stolen (lost) there was little if anything that could be done. Failing that, my best hope was that it had been misrouted or the shipping label lost, in which case it would wind up in a kind of "dead letter office" in Texas.

I was mentally preparing myself for a (probably fruitless) drive to Texas when I was called, and the tuba had arrived safe and sound.

It had just been sitting on loading docks waiting for space on full buses for over a week, even though no one at the depots in question could seem to find it.

On the other hand, I received a tuba via greyhound from the same location I sent my horn to and it arrived on time with no issues whatsoever.

Ya pays yer money and ya takes yer chances.

[Matt G]

Is Amtrack still a viable alternative?

[Paul Evans]

Be very careful shipping cross country via Greyhound. They lost a very much underinsured MW2165 that I was shipping from Tacoma, WA to Rochester, NY several years ago. No tracking system, little liability, means that any Greyhound employee with a poor value system can feel free to take any item that they deem of value with little repercussion.

Unless you have your tuba insured by other means, NEVER ship via Greyhound!

Paul

[Donn]

There are two problems with using truck shipping: 1.) packages often need to be able to be lifted with a fork truck, meaning the box has to be strapped down to a pallet. 2.) If the recipient lives where access by a semi-truck is difficult, the burden of inconvenience will shift dramatically to the recipient. Instructions to the delivering driver virtually never make it all the way to his ears, and being written is usually of no value.

When I receive a truck shipment, I usually have to drive 35 miles to the depot to pick it up, meet a cooperative driver in a parking lot to transfer the load, or chase the guy all over the county trying to catch him at his next stop.

WW&BW used to ship big stuff to your door via truck; don't know if they still do, but if they don't, plenty of others do, and I have to believe they have at least occasional success at it. For me, it was just a big cardboard box, no pallet, which I'm sure cuts cost, but now we're back to package shipping and I'm not sure there's a clear advantage. When I think of truck shipping, the picture in my head is a box strapped to a pallet (the last one I got had its box cleverly specially cut to be higher on the bell side, which coincidentally made it impossible to stack anything on top.)

The last time something was delivered to me via truck, I opted to forego residential delivery, and picked it up at their site near the airport. The secretary met me in the front office, told me to back my '50 Plymouth onto their floor, and ran around and jumped on the forklift and did a very smooth job slipping the pallet into the back of the station wagon. I had no idea what to expect, but it was deluxe.

In contrast, the Greyhound station is a dingy, care-worn building downtown with very little parking, smelling of cigarette smoke inside. Even if they hadn't mangled my horn, the experience was not one I would have minded missing.

I think one of the key factors in my pleasant experience with truck freight is that in every case it was arranged by someone who knew what they were doing (i.e., not me.) If there's someone among us who does this a lot and wouldn't mind sharing some recommendations, that might be very helpful. Like I say, I think the outfit I dealt with was Jetstream, but that was a few years back.

[Rick Denney]

WW&BW used to ship big stuff to your door via truck; don't know if they still do, but if they don't, plenty of others do, and I have to believe they have at least occasional success at it.

That only works if the truck can drive up to the house. I live on a dirt road, at the end of 1000 feet of driveway, with a turnaround barely large enough for my 23-foot motorhome.

And the nearest depot to here is at Richmond (130 miles), Fredericksburg (75 miles), or Winchester (40 miles). And that's if the particular trucking company has a local depot. Washington is not a city where people make things except stacks of paper and gaseous bloviation.

Getting the truck driver to meet me at a parking lot usually works--I'm two for three with that approach. Of course, it was the other B&S where that didn't work, and I ended up chasing the truck all over the county.

Rick "not to mention getting to a drop-off point" Denney

[Art Hovey]

Bill,
Your 621 is not as big as most tubas, so it has a pretty good chance of making the trip safely, assuming that it has a hard case. Stick a soccer ball or a volley ball into the bell and inflate it firmly while in the case so that it can survive dropping on the bell, and put the whole case inside a cardboard carton loaded with foam peanuts. Then take it to DHL. You can get a price from their website, but it does not always turn out to be correct. They will insure the instrument for its full value, and they do pay off damage claims. They also give you accurate tracking info. For a long trip like this I think it's worth a few extra bucks to get the job done right. Good luck!

[Bill Troiano]

Thanks for all of the advice, everyone! At this point, I'm leaning toward bringing it to FedEx and letting them pack it and ship it. They will also insure it. Art, I never heard of DHL. I'll look into that too. BTW - what happened to you Thurs. night? Your brother called me to sub for you, but I was doing a brass clinic at Five Towns College. I think Jeff ended up playing for you.

[MaryAnn]

I'm having my own shipping anxiety attack. I won a gorgeous satin silver bell-front baritone on ebay and it has to come from NC to AZ. The owner is not experienced at shipping this kind of thing....she played it in college in the early 1970's. I talked to someone (husband, maybe) who would be packing it and told him to put lots of bubble wrap in the case especially around the valve set, and to make sure the case was in a box with several inches of peanuts around it. With a bell-forward, I wasn't sure what to do about it...putting a blown-up ball of some kind in the bell might do more damage than not if they dropped it on the bell, because of the angle. If I were packing it myself, I'm sure I could make it work, but telling someone on the phone, especially someone you don't know at all, gets difficult. I don't know how they would have packed it if I hadn't talked to them. Mabye worse, maybe better, who knows?

They were really fond of this baritone, it was in stellar shape, but I'm afraid all I'm going receive is a pile of pretty but twisted metal for my $$. They are going first for USPS priority mail, but I bet they freak at the cost, so it will likely end up UPS-d or Fed-Ex-d to death. I'd go there and get it if it were within driving distance. Shoulda thought about that before I bid on it.

Phooey.

MA

Update: sure enough it arrived full of dents. I TOLD THEM to put SEVERAL INCHES of peanuts between the case and the box. But noooooo.....they stuffed the case in the smallest box they could fit it in, to the point where I had trouble getting it OUT of the box....and sure 'nuf the predicted result. We'll see where it ends up. It's playable, it's just that I got about 8 dents that I didn't purchase with the horn, and what's the point of buying a satin silver with gold wash bell if it's all full of dents? I have yet to see someone without an engineering degree (or equivalent innate talent) who can pack a brass instrument worth a damn. How much do you want to bet that USPS denies the insurance claim?

[Donn]

With a bell-forward, I wasn't sure what to do about it...putting a blown-up ball of some kind in the bell might do more damage than not if they dropped it on the bell, because of the angle.

Not to feed your anxieties, but the instrument of mine that Greyhound selected for a toy for their gorilla was a bell front baritone, with lots of bubble wrap. From what I heard about it, a ball might have helped, but in the end I'm not sure it isn't better to let the bell absorb the damage, rather than pass the impact on down. Just add a couple hundred to the shipping budget, to cover rolling the bell back out if necessary. It's all part of the Ebay experience! The drama of bidding, the thrill of doubt as to whether the seller is going to send you anything at all, the horrors of UPS, and if you're lucky, the joy of getting a sweet horn for cheap. You can't win if you don't play!