Best courier for shipping a guitar within the UK?

thomasross20

Thanks!! That's exactly what I've done - it's a Martin LXM in padded gig bag. I put paper between the slackened strings and fretboard. I then put it in a bin liner (!), then covered it in bubble wrap, put it in its gigbag, put that in a cardboard box with crumpled newspaper, then that inside another box with paper & bubble wrap!

I used a bin liner because I read (and saw!) that bubble wrap can leave marks on a guitar body. Hope black bin liners don't either!!

close2u

Old thread revival.

.

What advice currently?

Have insurance terms & conditions changed recently or is a guitar still insured if in hard case within cardboard outer box?

Phil_aka_Pip

As always: if you value it, take/fetch it yourself

impmann

They am all tossers.

mort

I was impressed with DPD delivering the Amazon Gibsons - I don't think anyone on here who got one had any issues with DPD. However, I couldn't find a way of booking them myself to send a guitar. Once I'd put in the dimensions and weight, they disappeared from the options list on interparcel. I had to revert back to UPS.

Sarge

mort;936466" said:

I was impressed with DPD delivering the Amazon Gibsons - I don't think anyone on here who got one had any issues with DPD. However, I couldn't find a way of booking them myself to send a guitar. Once I'd put in the dimensions and weight, they disappeared from the options list on interparcel. I had to revert back to UPS.

Yeah same here, just could not book DPD from theor own site and they never show up on any broker site (interparcel etc) but I have recieved a few guitars from them and always get a 1 hour notice via email and txt.
UPS are superb, sent loads, recieved loads and never a problem, mostly don't use insurance due to no hard case.

Chalky

Have used Parcelforce a dozen times or so, including sending a Gibson ES330 to Dublin a couple of weeks ago. No problems.

mort

Chalky said:

Have used Parcelforce a dozen times or so, including sending a Gibson ES330 to Dublin a couple of weeks ago. No problems.

You do this in the knowledge that Parcelforce don't provide cover for musical instruments?

Chalky

I self-insure.

impmann

How dat den?

rob7890_1

Don't use Interparcel, and if you really have to at least DON'T USE FEDEX! I booked with them to ship my bass from UK to Hong Kong, booked a time slot. No one showed up. All they've said is they can't guarantee collections. In my book that's like going to a restaurant, paying for a meal, and then the chef saying they can't guarantee you'll get fed. Yes, this is probably FedEx's fault and not Interparcel in a way, but there's no recourse to discuss this with FedEx (or whichever courier) if you go through Interparcel, and IP themselves don't seem to give a dam.

kswilson89

Contrary to what most have said so far I've not had the best experiences with UPS... Mostly their service is pretty good but twice they've sent my parcel to the completely wrong city and I had to wait a further week for it to arrive. But get this.... I created a shipment with UPS online about 3 months ago... When the shipment was created UPS generated 5 separate tracking numbers for the one shipment... And charged me for all 5! When I made a complaint they passed me from pillar to post before issuing a refund... Except they didn't issue a refund, they sent me credit notes! So I get on to them again and a refund is issued... Except they send me a cheque for £97... Not the £138 I'm owed... Still trying to get the remaining £41 off them now.

funkyfraz

I'm looking at posting a guitar, and it seems generally companies have it in their conditions if you send an instrument then you're not covered for loss, damage or delayed delivery. Now, damage I can see why they might ned to put that condition in, but loss? So the company will accept something going missing in their possession? I dont get that.

Rox

More than anything, it depends absolutely on the driver.  UPS used to be brilliant - and then I had an acoustic not delivered and literally 'dropped off' at a local shop - slid down a flight of stairs.  It hit the ground with such a thump it split the top and the RCA connectors for the electronics came out.

It had been well-packed, and been around the world with the previous owner - so a real workhorse of an acoustic.  Bumps, scratches, real use - but one delivery driver in the UK breaks it.

The driver looked like he'd hijacked the UPS van, not wearing the full uniform and spent his time smoking in the driveway when he came to pick it back up to return to the seller (which took over a week as it did a UK tour of UPS depots!!).

The seller got the top repaired at Charlie Chandlers and then hand delivered it from London to Northants... but it should never have happened.

It was one of these - so not exactly one you could find easily again (A Takamine LTD2009):



Mine's much more scuffed. 

mort

funkyfraz said:

I'm looking at posting a guitar, and it seems generally companies have it in their conditions if you send an instrument then you're not covered for loss, damage or delayed delivery. Now, damage I can see why they might ned to put that condition in, but loss? So the company will accept something going missing in their possession? I dont get that.

I've always assumed that you would get paid out if the parcel went missing (assuming guitars are accepted eg UPS)

Courier

Hi Guys. We ship musical instruments with insurance for damage and total loss in transit. visit our website for further details..
  https://www.directcouriersolutions.com/product-category/musical-instruments/

Phil_aka_Pip

Best courier = yourself.

misterpete

Mention any courier and someone somewhere will have a horror story. I generally use UPS or Parcelforce 24 and they are normally very good. I always go for a next day service so the guitar is not sitting in a warehouse for a long time. I have sold a lot of high end HiFi and always used Interparcel as the agent, the two times I had stuff damaged they paid out within a reasonable time.
what is happening now is that most of the couriers will only insure up to £1000 for damage but will cover the full amount for a loss.

munckee

@TTony ;

I realise you probably have more than enough to do but surely we could arrange a standard rate with insurance with a national courier firm for members, make it easier for people selling if we had a published rate for shipments?

TTony

I have thought about it previously @munckee.

There are a couple of obstacles.

Firstly, the various intermediaries (Parcels2Go, Interparcel, et al), have already negotiated a discount rate with the couriers that they support based on their mega-volumes.  Our volumes, which might be significant to us, wouldn't even register on their radars.

Even if we did get a deal with them, it would be based on us achieving a level of volume in a given period.  As they already play off against each other, and their prices are set actively, there's more than a fair chance that a deal through theFB wouldn't always be the cheapest.  Some people "value" cheap more than reliability and would then complain that we must be ripping them off by charging for this new service because they can get it cheaper elsewhere.  And if that meant that we then failed to hit volume targets, any discount would be withdrawn.

Secondly, if we "endorse" any carrier or intermediary, we're then tainted by any failure of the carrier / intermediary to deliver or resolve any issues arising.  Given the scope for loss/damage (etc), the risk of us endorsing anyone, and the time that might then be expected of us to assist in any issue resolution, just make it unworthwhile.



So, at face value, looks like a great idea.  When you get into the practicalities, it'd cost us more time than would be worthwhile.

Of course, @courier might now come along and offer us something interesting that removes all of those obstacles.  At least they appear to offer full insurance (in contrast to most other couriers) for musical instruments.