Rate these shipping services for me, please!

[Number Of The Priest]

I'm thinking of selling up to four of my guitars within the next month or two (keep your eyes peeled on the Classifieds section) and want to evaluate various shipping methods I can use to send the guitars with if I can't get any local buyers.

Please give pros and cons of each of the following shipping services if you've had experience with them as far as GUITARS go. Talk about prices, package care (or lack thereof), speed of delivery, border/brokerage fees and taxes, and overall satisfaction/dissatisfaction. Thanks!

1.) FedEx

2.) UPS

3.) Canada Post

4.) Purolator

5.) Any Canadian service I may have forgotten to mention

The recipient of the guitar(s) must be in Canada or the USA preferably.

[mariner99]

Re: Rate these shipping services for me, please!

In the past couple of years, I've received and/or shipped about 30 guitars via both FedEx and UPS, without any damage from either. In one case, UPS delivered a guitar to the wrong address - something I didn't find out until nearly two weeks after it shipped. I called it in and in less than 24 hours, they recovered and delivered the guitar to me, then followed up with two phone calls, a letter and two visits to my door to insure that I had received it satisfactorily. I recently shipped two guitars from one end of the continent to the other. The FedEx price was about 30% less than either UPS or USPS.

Hope this helps [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

[Newc]

Re: Rate these shipping services for me, please!

I only use USPS for shipping guitars to Japan and small stuff that can fit in a standard mailbox, but UPS for everything else. Mostly because there's no FedEx place around here that I've found, anyway - might be close since they can get here pretty well, but I've not found it.

Airborne Express has fewer outlets than UPS/FedEx, and I did get a package through them but they had to drive almost 100 miles to get to me (rural area).
UPS and FedEx know this area like the USPS (maybe better) but what you find with the USPS is lazy carriers who bring you a PickUp note rather than any package that is bigger than 15" long (except for the one instance where the disphit stuck a poster-size mailer with a guitar neck in my mailbox, and it hung over the road a bit).
The old carrier we had would pull up in front of the house and honk the horn to deliver packages in her car, but the new guy in his brand new pickup truck is a lazy fucker who just leaves the PickUp slip [img]graemlins/brow.gif[/img]

I've had damaged guitars received and sent by UPS and FedEx (neither guitar that went to Japan got broke), and I've sent many different models all over the country - Warriors to Florida and Ohio, Soloists to Florida, Fusions to Florida and Boston, Vees to Cali, etc etc. The only report of a damaged shipment I sent (that I recall) was for a Soloist that had stress cracks in the head, but I never could figure out if they were there when I got it or were put there by UPS when I shipped it (I mean, it was pretty well beat when I got it, but then anything's possible).

I will say that UPS's Customs paperwork is a bit time-consuming if the clerk has no experience with it, but the USPS' form is fairly easy. I realise you don't have a USPS in Canada (yet [img]graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/poke.gif[/img] ) but if you ship it via Canada's postal service, they'll probably hand it over to the USPS for delivery.

Newc

[Number Of The Priest]

Re: Rate these shipping services for me, please!

Originally posted by Newc:
but if you ship it via Canada's postal service, they'll probably hand it over to the USPS for delivery.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I presume that's true because Canada Post delivers USPS stuff to my house. [img]graemlins/toast.gif[/img]

Feel free to add more opinions, guys! Thanks!

[sully]

Re: Rate these shipping services for me, please!

i use fedex b/c it's close by, inexpensive (shipped a guitar over the weekend for under $20) and i've never had a problem with any guitars arriving in pieces. then again, i've never had any issues with ups, either, other than the fact that the people who work at the ups store near me are complete unhelpful pricks.

usps is fine for the smaller stuff.

sully

[vwall]

Re: Rate these shipping services for me, please!

This wasnt an option here but I use almost exclusively DHL.
Very fast and reliable.
Never had a shipping prob yet.
I still keep my UPS account open for stuff and still use the USPS when its economical..
But the waiting lines are insamne at the post office.
What I love about DHL anmd UPS is they will come to my front door to pick up my packages and I can print out the UPC code sticker from my PC.

[Number Of The Priest]

Re: Rate these shipping services for me, please!

I've never heard of DHL before. I don't even think my city has any DHL outlets. [img]images/icons/frown.gif[/img]

[RacerX]

Re: Rate these shipping services for me, please!

Duhhhhh [img]graemlins/fart.gif[/img]

DHL Canada http://www.dhl.ca/

[Number Of The Priest]

Re: Rate these shipping services for me, please!

You don't think I bothered to Google for a website? [img]graemlins/poke.gif[/img] You know me better than that by now! [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

It's just that I've never seen their vehicles or outlets or anything in my city before. I always see Canada Post trucks, UPS trucks, FedEx trucks, and Purolator trucks around, so that's why I asked about those. [img]graemlins/poke.gif[/img] [img]images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]

[Newc]

Re: Rate these shipping services for me, please!

DHL handles the international stuff for the USPS, so I know they're reliable. It's just that you see more UPS and FedEx trucks than DHL (around here, anyway). I know they were "it" for a while, but then UPS/FedEx started their ad campaigns and, well, you know how it goes - the squeaky wheel gets the grease [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

Newc

[RacerX]

Re: Rate these shipping services for me, please!

Originally posted by Number Of The Priest:
You don't think I bothered to Google for a website?

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Hey, you walked into that one full force, buddy boy! [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]