Re: UPS Shipping/Insurance Follow-up


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Posted by Gus Pratt on November 18, 2001 at 19:21:14:

In Reply to: UPS Shipping/Insurance Follow-up posted by Erik on November 18, 2001 at 16:09:38:


Your assumption is not necessarily true. A few months ago I had a tuba shipped to me that was damaged in shipping by UPS. What will usually happen is UPS will make a trip out to inspect the box and the packaging contents. One thing they will look for is damage to the outside of the box that shows whether or not the package was mishandled or not. I got lucky on my claim. There was $250 of damage to the horn, but because I live out in the boonies they didn't want to waste the time to come out and approved the claim so they did it over the phone. The tuba was in a large box that was reinforced with cardboard. All the shipper had for cushioning material was shredded newspaper. I was expecting them to decline the claim because of the packaging, but it was approved.

I think the biggest problem is that there is a discrepancy between how people expect UPS to handle a package and how UPS actually handles packages. People package their instruments expecting that UPS isn't going to drop packages or throw packages, where reality is they do. Or other people don't want to spend the money to buy bubble wrap and styrofoam peanuts so they package it cheaply thinking that since it's insured if it gets damaged they'll get their money back.

As far as packaging a tuba, I'd wrap the entire horn with about 4-6 inches of bubble wrap and then fill around the entire horn with styrofoam packagig peanuts.

I recently shipped a Conn 24J from Seattle to Atlanta. To package the body of the horn I bought some 1 x 10 pine and some masonite and made a crate, then reinforced the sides with 3- 1x4's. After placing the body in the crate I rolled up cardboard and placed it around the edges and anywhere there was going to be an air pocket.


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