Greyhound reliability

[The Big Ben]

Six!

ONE HUNNERT!

https://youtu.be/XjT_sYUlt70" target="_blank

[The Big Ben]

None. AdBlocker!

[bort]

I hope they at least buy the tuba a burger while it's waiting around the McDonalds for the bus...

[bisontuba]

........

[PMeuph]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/greyhound ... -1.3070190" target="_blank

...

[MackBrass]

I wonder how the guys who have now given up on this thread or never posted in it to begin with who send and receive dozens or scores of tubas a year all over the country on Greyhound manage to stay in business with all the lost and damaged tubas they inevitably have, if some of you are right? Remember that one of them indicated he sent four tubas thousands of miles in different directions on Greyhound on the day this thread was started. Why would he, whose livelihood depends in significant part on shipping tubas, do such a thing?

If you're trying to make a living shipping and selling tubas (and your last name isn't Miraphone,King, or Conn etc..) i'd venture to guess you might be living in a cardboard shack. He does it, because he's trying to keep overall PROFIT up and Expenditure down and that is the cheapest mode of transport for the budget seller.

Cheapest mode of transport for the budget seller? What?
Who do you think is paying for the shipping dude? What???

Wow, this thread, um, a, .....where do i start?

Um.....

OK, well??

Here it is, after shipping around 4 thousand instruments over the past 5+ years here are my stats.

Damages and losses via FedEx and FedEx Freight are as follows;
2 lost while in transit Bass trombones, 1 damaged tuba just last month, 3 damaged french horns, 2 damaged Euphoniums and 1 tuba shipped on a pallet had a forklift facelift.

Damages and losses via Greyhound;
NONE, and this is for hundreds of tubas sent to every state in the continental US .

Yes, i do this for a living and i certainly dont live in a cardboard box, i dont think i know of anyone who lives in a cardboard box.

Using Greyhound as a low cost shipper has absolutely nothing to do with keeping profits up or expenditures down, this is not an expense to the business owner, its an expense to the customer. Last time i checked, customers were paying for shipping. Choosing who is going to transport our stuff is based off of years of experience using just about every type of carrier that exists and settling on the best for 99% of the job. Until the horn being sold is safety in the hands of the customer and the customer takes ownership, its our responsibility, the seller, to ensure it arrives safe and sound.

Having 1 bad experience the first time out, yea, its tough to overcome but what if your bad experience came from the hands of FedEx or UPS? Hmmmm.

We, Mack Brass (shameless plug), use Greyhound for most individual customers, ship via Fedex freight to schools, colleges and universities and boat when traveling oversees. The above is called picking your battles and picking the ones you know you will win.

Instead of arguing for the sake of arguing, which is what your doing, take a step back and listen to what a pro is saying, someone with 35 years experience must know something.

You can wrap and tape and pack a tuba every which way till the sun goes down, once in the hands of FedEx, UPS or USPS, all bets are off. No amount of tracking or insurance will give me peace of mind when shipping a tuba with them, ever. Take that same tuba and ship via Greyhound, yup, it will get there safe and sound. Will it take a little longer, maybe?, maybe not. like a great wine takes time before its just right, the same is true of Greyhound as Greyhound will take the needed time but in the end they do it right.

As to tracking with GH, sometimes they are so fast in their delivery, its arrived at the final destination before you get the tracking number from the shipper.

[hduong]

let's see, I've used Greyhound for receiving 3 of my tubas and all were in great shape. My music store frequently uses UPS and FedEx to receive inventory and ship things out (mostly UPS), and In the last year UPS has LOST 4 items we shipped out to customers, and have not honored any insurance policies they have. Customers have called or emailed our store telling us that UPS told them to contact the seller for a refund even though they were the ones who lost the package(s).

Greyhound seems to be a good choice to me. I hate UPS and FedEx, they'll leave items outside your door and people are able to steal them, which has happened to myself personally and my store since the driver didn't want to arrive at a later time in his route.

fwiw, UPS does offer access points in select areas, but the system they use is terrible for the small business that hosts it, which is why mine stopped.

[hup_d_dup]

My point at any point in this thread or others wasn't about damage from Greyhound.

I guess you forgot about:

I'd rather pony up and go with a trusted SHIPPER rather than a bus with luggage crushing the package and it being ripped out of the underbus storage compartments and tossed on the ground to make room for more suitcases. Seen it happen, wasn't impressed.

Hup

[Michael Bush]

I'm hoping the buyer of the tuba will pop up and tell us how bad the damage was.

If it's that tuba the OP recently offered for sale here, it's a 6/4 tuba made by a company known for thin brass, shipped by UPS in a box of no more than 165" all dimensions added... It would be almost beyond belief that it isn't damaged. It could happen, but it would be surprising. I'd like to know what it looked like when the buyer opened the box. Probably we'll never know, but still...

[The Big Ben]

It wasn't THE point, sure that will always be in the back of my mind with any shipper..the thing I had the biggest issue with was the tracking system and lack of urgency Greyhound takes with packages.

If that is the issue, your choice should be clear- UPS/FedEx.

It doesn't appear that the Friends of The Dog are going to be persuaded away any time soon.

[The Big Ben]

It wasn't THE point, sure that will always be in the back of my mind with any shipper..the thing I had the biggest issue with was the tracking system and lack of urgency Greyhound takes with packages.

If that is the issue, your choice should be clear- UPS/FedEx.

It doesn't appear that the Friends of The Dog are going to be persuaded away any time soon.

That's fine and where we should leave this conversation.

Agreed.

[Michael Bush]

Perhaps the admin can kindly scrub this forum of this thread now that we're done so that perhaps folks genuinely looking for answers don't happen to come across all this nonsense and get the wrong idea about either shipping outlet and make their own decisions.

I surely do hope not. People need this thread in order to make an informed decision. Especially if OP's buyer shows up, as I will continue to hope happens.

[Biggs]

Perfect thread to come back to after a week off the TN grid.

[KembleTuba]

I didn't read the thread, but I'm here to post my story with greyhound.

I traveled the country on a greyhound from San Fransisco to Maine. I was forced to ship the tuba that I brought rather than take it as luggage. The policy with greyhound (which may or may not change depending on who your bus driver is) is that luggage is more important than shipped items. With big items this makes them the last priority. Long (6 days to be precise) story short, I ended up in Maine five days before the tuba arrived.

I was separated from the tuba in Salt Lake City, but prior to that I observed them chuck the tuba into busses disregarding the "fragile" and "this way up" signage on it. It ended up with a massive dent in the bell when I opened the case back up. Obviously(?), they don't take liablity for any damage to things that they ship unless legal action is brought up.

Costumer service and package tracking? I called several times to inquire about where my tuba was and was told that the instrument could be in Texas for all they knew. I realized I was on speaker phone once when the manager along with the entire office laughed at the story then hung up.

I also don't recommend actually riding their busses, but that goes into more stories and near-death experiences.

Tldr; Poor delivery time, mishandling of packages, lousy costumer service, and the non-existence of a modern package tracking service are the reasons that you should NOT use greyhound.

[bort]

Maybe next time I will sell on consignment, and let someone else deal with all that hassle.

[SaintPeteTuba]

I didn't read the thread, but I'm here to post my story with greyhound.

I traveled the country on a greyhound from San Fransisco to Maine. I was forced to ship the tuba that I brought rather than take it as luggage. The policy with greyhound (which may or may not change depending on who your bus driver is) is that luggage is more important than shipped items. With big items this makes them the last priority. Long (6 days to be precise) story short, I ended up in Maine five days before the tuba arrived.

I was separated from the tuba in Salt Lake City, but prior to that I observed them chuck the tuba into busses disregarding the "fragile" and "this way up" signage on it. It ended up with a massive dent in the bell when I opened the case back up. Obviously(?), they don't take liablity for any damage to things that they ship unless legal action is brought up.

Costumer service and package tracking? I called several times to inquire about where my tuba was and was told that the instrument could be in Texas for all they knew. I realized I was on speaker phone once when the manager along with the entire office laughed at the story then hung up.

I also don't recommend actually riding their busses, but that goes into more stories and near-death experiences.

Tldr; Poor delivery time, mishandling of packages, lousy costumer service, and the non-existence of a modern package tracking service are the reasons that you should NOT use greyhound.

That sounds similar to a lot of experiences I've heard about. I have had a couple pretty good and one bad experiences with the hound and agree they are a little rough with things when they want to be.

[SaintPeteTuba]

Maybe next time I will sell on consignment, and let someone else deal with all that hassle.

Isn't there a shop out west that sells tubas on consignment for people?

[vespa50sp]

I just purchased a tuba from a Tubenet member, shipped by Greyhound from El Paso to St Paul arriving yesterday. I thought I'd throw up my experience.

The Tuba weighed 32 lbs, left El Paso on Jan 10, went through Dallas and Kansas City, and arrived in St. Paul Jan 15

$74 to ship w a little insurance. Shipped in a strong cardboard box. Tuba was in a gig bag with some additional packing in the box. No damage.

The good
Good price, quick enough service and no damage (good use of duck tape may have helped : )

The bad
Greyhound tracking is the pits. They can tell you when it leaves and call you when it arrives. So I suffered a little anxiety wondering where it was.

All in all a good experience for the price.

[bort]

Glad it worked!

WHAT"S IN THE BOX?!

[vespa50sp]

Glad it worked!

WHAT"S IN THE BOX?!

EMC's 4 valve Eb La Sete. Nice little player. Picked up an Eb Herco mouthpiece off of Ebay that was a perfect fit also (small shank tuba size), so I'm a pretty happy camper