UPS Destroyed My Rhoads

[chef_jackson]

tell me about it my thoughts exactly

[Axewielder]

Thanks everyone for the comments...I got an update they have one in the factory just as I ordered it, the only snag is some "ARTIST" is supposed to be coming in to pick out 2 guitars and the one they should be overnighting me this frickin minute is one of the ones he will be looking at...if he doesn't select it I get it, if he does I play the waiting game again.

This sucks. Maybe you can slip those UPS goons $20 to go rough up that "artist" before he makes off with your fiddle.

[Newc]

Don't suck too hard on FedEx's cock:



The value of this beauty was forever ruined when F'edEx decided to play lawn darts with it and split the nose.

While it was an easy fix, that's entirely beside the point. It shouldn't have happened.

Both shippers hire from the same pool of apes and have the same idiot supervisors yelling "faster faster, we're losing money by doing it right".

[Slik_Karl]

I'm not a fan of fed-ex either. DHL is very good, they seem to care a bit more

[Casket]

yea dont trust either one of them
fedex took 2 months! to ship my RR3 and it had a crack in the headstock but that was because i bought it used

[Axewielder]

FedEx Home/Ground (FXG) drivers aren't quite as ape-ish as UPS. I've done some contract work for them, and have visited their headquarters in Pittsburg. FXG was formerly RPS, and has an innovative business model. Unlike UPS where the drivers are basically union employees, FXG drivers are mostly contractors/entrepreneurs who front the money to rent their equipment and buy their routes. So, they have a little more invested in making sure things go right. That being said, sometimes those contractors buy multiple routes and sub-contract them out. Yes they still drop boxes sometimes, but do the math.

[Phantom Hawk]

Hey man, sorry to hear about your guitar. Hopefully they'll have some good replacement news for you.

Now onto FedEx ........ I used 'em a lot but things have changed. I went Monday to ship a guitar and was told they now have a new policy. The guitar and case must be shipped separately if you want it insured. Yeah, you read that right ... shipped separately ! Apparently they've had too many problems with guitars bouncing around and getting damaged inside the case. I thought the lady was kidding, but the manager came over and told me it was true. I, of course, said thanks but no thanks and went to the post office.

[Brooke]

Hey man, sorry to hear about your guitar. Hopefully they'll have some good replacement news for you.

Now onto FedEx ........ I used 'em a lot but things have changed. I went Monday to ship a guitar and was told they now have a new policy. The guitar and case must be shipped separately if you want it insured. Yeah, you read that right ... shipped separately ! Apparently they've had too many problems with guitars bouncing around and getting damaged inside the case. I thought the lady was kidding, but the manager came over and told me it was true. I, of course, said thanks but no thanks and went to the post office.

Post ofice is always the best way, but sometimes the case is too big : ' (

[Jayster]

Now onto FedEx ........ I used 'em a lot but things have changed. I went Monday to ship a guitar and was told they now have a new policy. The guitar and case must be shipped separately if you want it insured. Yeah, you read that right ... shipped separately ! .

I will look into this Friday, sounds fucking crazy ..... and I know a guy!

[Shibs]

This proves my point, UPS IS BRUTAL!!

FedEx did this to me with a Paul Reed Smith Hollowbody 1 about 2 years ago. I even paid for the insurance and they would only pay 50% of cost, I would get my cash back and try elsewhere only if it was a production model, If it was custom in some way... well, it will be hard to find an exact replacement!

[Bluedinky]

yeah i've seen that issue before with a jackson.
this is the guitarist from whitechapel's guitar
jackson sent them this to record "this is exile"
and this is how it showed up to them.

http://c4.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/64/l_30c2ba4ae239d4f2f2044bf4c7173e2b.jpg

[roodyrocker]

UPS skewering musical gear with forklifts seems to be on the rise lately. They gouged two white Rhoads 4x12 Marshall cabs being delivered to me last summer. One arrived damaged and was sent back only to have the same thing happen to its replacement. The second one went back and the third cab finally arrived safely. A couple weeks ago a friend ordered a road case for 32 channel mixing console. They punched hole through that road case, a replacement was sent and they again punched a hole through that one. We ended up taking the bottom half of one road case and combining it with the top half of the other to make one good road case out of them since they damaged opposite halves. Fedex isn't really much better. I got a USA Rhoads in a discontinued color. It was Interference Splatter, string thru. The package was so caved in on one corner that I was afraid to even unpack it! Turns out they caved in the case at the corner closest to the long fin and I had to use a prybar to get the next latch to open. Luckily the guitar itself wasn't damaged, just the case.

[BayRocker]

Thanks for calling me a goon and an ape, folks, I was one of those UPS drivers for 21 years, now I work with damaged packages, specifically HazMat damages. You'd be amazed at the shit-ass job most people do at packing their stuff, and are surprised when it doesn't get where it's going in one piece.

A quick FYI, UPS does not, I repeat...DOES NOT use forklifts. Most packages that have been skewered as someone put it, are a result of some other shipper packing things improperly. They puncture their own box, and go through yours. See it a lot with flat screen tv's. Any one who thinks you can wrap a guitar in bubble wrap and slap it in a box and it'll get there ok is fooling themselves. It is a fragile piece of equipment, spend the extra time and cash to pack it properly.

Whoever said going via Post Office has got to be kidding, right. Wow. No real tracking, it'll get there when it gets there kinda attitude.

Fed Ex drivers are no longer independent contractors either. Fed Ex runs their operation the same as UPS. If you've had luck with one, and not the other, it's just that...luck!. Someone said Fed Ex took two months to ship a guitar...BS! This is a ploy that shippers use constantly...blame the shipping company. Two months was...7 weeks til the shipper shipped it, and the at max...6 days for it to go Fed Ex from east coast to west coast. That's the longest shipping time UPS or Fed Ex has(within the continental US)...6 days! When a shipper claims to have shipped something, demand a tracking number. If they can't give it to you, it hasn't shipped. When you get your package, grab the tracking number off it and track it. It will tell you the exact day it was shipped (generally not the day the shipper claims).

If a guitar in a guitar case, cannot support a load on top of it, then it is not packed properly just because it's in a case. A case protects a guitar from dings and such while you are carrying it, or hauling it in your van. PACK IT FOR A LONG HAUL in an 18 wheeler with 5000 other packages in it. Don't expect your package to be hand carried with white gloves from point a to point b, it just doesn't happen that way. It's not realistic for the $30 you are spending.

I would estimate that 99% of the damages I see daily are due to improper packaging. Damages due to drivers is almost non-existent. Almost all damages occur before those packages ever get on those little brown trucks. Most damages occur inside the large trailers due to shifting loads. Pack em right people.

Sorry to hear about your guitar, I'd be upset too.

[Phantom Hawk]

Post ofice is always the best way, but sometimes the case is too big : ' (

Yeah man, 108" total dimensions. Measure at home before you hit the post office. It can save you some aggravation. Been there

[StukaJU87]

Thanks for calling me a goon and an ape, folks, I was one of those UPS drivers for 21 years, now I work with damaged packages, specifically HazMat damages. You'd be amazed at the shit-ass job most people do at packing their stuff, and are surprised when it doesn't get where it's going in one piece.

With all due respect, do not come on here and try to pretend that UPS handles packages with any sense of respect to what is in the box. Some of us have friends who have worked the docks at UPS. We have been told the horror stories of how they were forced to load trucks so fast that they had to throw and drop stuff as they were loading just to keep up with a shouting supervisor.

Oh, and let's not mention the drivers who have been witnessed dropping fragile amps and such from the back of the truck to the street.