The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #26

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    No, there is no safe way to ship guitars, not even CONUS.

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    The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
     
  3. #27

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jimmy blue note
    Thanks for weighing in, it puts a human face on the whole unfortunate incident. And it's a cautionary tale for others, myself included, when shipping a guitar.
    I've been in the business a long time and have seen a lot of packing jobs. The ones that arrive safely are the ones packed in annoyingly 'over packed' ways.
    There might be some utility in a thread on professionally packed guitars. The area of the headstock AND the body MUST be absolutely immobile if you want to assure safe delivery beyond the reaches of Luck and a Prayer. I wrap, wedge, pad and bubble INSIDE the case, remove string tension, cradle the neck/headstock, bubble and peanut the case immobile -bubble at both ends-peanuts all around, and then Double box with a layer of peanuts between boxes. Tension off, paper around strings, floating bridges packed separately, all photographed before. Even so, I've had a guitar run through by UPS and no, they never compensated me (Their small print is the means with which they wiggle out).

    Just curious: What delivery service did you use? I have had terrible luck with UPS (brown truck) with a high incidence of evidence of abuse. I use FedEx and so far I've had good luck.
    Yup...UPS
    I've had bad experiences with Fedex over the last couple of years.

  4. #28

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    Fed-Ex will at least cough up your insurance money if something goes wrong, at least, they used to. I won't ship anything of value with UPS as I got burned real bad on a guitar sale before. However, I prefer to receive items via UPS out here because I have a really good driver who serves this neighborhood whereas my local Fed-Ex is utter trash. I can't begin to tell you how many packages from every single carrier, especially Fed-Ex here, have peek holes ripped into them, appear to have been opened, or just didn't show up. That's aside from the meth heads who finally got caught stealing everyone's mail.

    As for the post office, I consider USPS to be an actual thieves guild now. Unless I have baby chickens being overnighted that is one horseshit government program there. Big surprise. I literally watched the driver throw the package out her car window the other day when she could've opened her door and set it on the ground. That'd be too much work.

  5. #29

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    My experience is a little different. USPS is the most reliable. Fedex is okay. UPS sucks. I had a driver stop down at the other end of the block, got a message that my package had been delivered, then watched him drive by my house and wave as he went by. I was working in my yard, and saw the whole thing. I finally got reimbursed, but it took awhile, and I then had to reorder and wait for delivery. With USPS, the package often comes earlier than the estimate. That has never happened with UPS, and late happens more often than on-time.

  6. #30

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    Peter, thank you for responding. I never doubted the guitar was in perfect condition when shipped and informed Reverb of this. To all, this guitar was in beautiful condition except the damage. Words on a forum cannot express how badly I felt about the guitar. Not just my loss but the guitars loss.
    It was a great loss to the marketplace of really nice available instruments. When reverb informed me I would receive a full refund, my response to them was I did not feel like the winner. I lost (and the seller) a truly nice instrument that I have been looking for for some time.

    Reverb has been a great place for me to purchase items not typically available in my area. After this incident I'm a bit gun shy to go this route again.

    Sorry it had to end this way Peter. Just as sorry as I am that I did not receive what I had hoped for and the loss to future players.

  7. #31

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    To the seller and buyer: Thanks to both of you for sharing your accounts, and glad to hear it worked out.

    Regarding shipping services, my worst experiences have been with Fedex and USPS. Both of them have lost packages multiple times, and falsely claimed to have attempted to deliver guitars. I've never had any issues with UPS. We have a further problem in my apartment building -- there's no safe place to leave packages, so delivery services just leave them in the lobby, whence they are sometimes stolen by people who sneak into the building (a common problem in apartment buildings hereabouts). Amazon and UPS both do this. I've never had this problem with UPS because they always bring packages to the apartment door. So does Fedex (except when they never take it off the truck in the first place and lie about having tried to deliver it). My takeaway is each of these services is better in some places than in others.

  8. #32

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    Quote Originally Posted by John A.
    falsely claimed to have attempted to deliver
    Sadly that appears to be a worldwide issue, one I have even had here in the house (DHL and ChronoPost the latest ones IIRC) in which I'm living, with a reactive dog as a predictive doorbell and almost always at home. Nowadays I chose GLS when I can; after a couple of bad experiences in the very beginning they have become very professional, even sending an SMS to alert that the driver is about 15 min. out.

  9. #33

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  10. #34

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    I'm shocked! Shocked, I tell you!

  11. #35

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    Quote Originally Posted by sgosnell
    I'm shocked! Shocked, I tell you!
    Claude Raines, Casablanca.