shipping damage

[peachhead]

ACK! OK, I'm annoyed right now so I'm a bit rattled. I know we have had this discussion before, but it's never happened to me (until today). I picked up a D10S fairly cheap on ebay last week and finally it arrived today- but now it's in two pieces instead of one, as the neck is broken. Sooooooo now I'm in a quandry. I know some of you have had issues with this before. What did you do to handle it?
To be honest I think the shipper should have packed it a bit better but it was in a hard case (a cheap one, anyway), but there was no shipping foam or anything. On the other hand, it should have been able to survive a 120 mile trip from north GA to here.
I'm just disgusted.

[warren0728]

have you taken pictures of the packing and the damage? i would do that....who was the carrier...fedex, ups, etc....

ww

[ShortBuSX]

Was it insured?

Is the case damaged?
I mean can you see how it might have been damaged in shipping?

[peachhead]

I'm taking pictures of it now. Just from what I can see, there are no big holes in the box but I can see where maybe it was dropped a time or two. It looks like the neck snapped where there was no support in the case, but it didn't just snap cleanly.
I've got to go to a school open house so I will post pics when I get back.

[peachhead]

oh and by the way it's UPS.

[ShortBuSX]

Well you know what UPS satands for, right?

"U People Suck!"

I posted my rant the other day bout em..."the tape never matches"

[luvmyshiner]

Man Peachhead, that does suck, and you have my sympathy. When I had my problems with UPS I was able to file a claim online. They sent someone out to pick up the package and guitar for inspection to determine if they were at fault. I was never able to find out what they would have determined however, as they lost the guitar and ultimately ended up refunding my money. Be prepared for a long wait though. As I recall the whole process took about four weeks.

[tot_Ou_tard]

We're all feeling your pain Peachhead!

That totally & completely sucks.

[sunvalleylaw]

Ditto. I am sorry it happened.

[sumitomo]

Yea sorry to hear about that.Accidents happen just a real bummer when they happen to us.Sumi:D

[Katastrophe]

Oh, that is some serious suckage. Take pics, contact Brown and see if it was insured and file a claim. I'd also contact the seller and send him/her the pics, too.

[peachhead]

Thanks for the sympathy.
I was reading up on the claim process today, and it seems that they only deal with the shipper. So what I'm going to do is contact her (the seller), let her know what happened and maybe we can work something out. Best case is she refunds my money, takes the item back and deals with Brown to get her money back, but I dunno.

[tjcurtin1]

I would suggest the following to everyone having a guitar shipped:

- make sure with the buyer that the item is shipping insured - for UPS, it's only about $1 for every $100 in value

- Make sure that they will follow these instructions for packing (from Larivee guitar's shipping instructions):
the space in the case below the headstock should be padded out firmly with padding (they use brown paper rolled into a stiff 'donut'), so the the headstock sits right against it, and then pad out the space above it in the same manner. They say that this protects against the weight of the headstock and tuning machines causing the headstock to snap off if the guitar is dropped hard in shipping.

I hate to suggest this, but I suppose that someone could ship a damaged guitar knowingly so that they can then claim against the shipper, but clearly it is possible for unsupported parts of the neck to break from droppage forces. I have always felt hugely lucky every time a guitar has arrived to me undamaged, as it seems that odds are fairly high that something so delicate could be easily damaged in big or small ways... Sorry to hear that it happened to you.

[peachhead]

Evidence of the carnage...

http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t286/peachhead19/HPIM1448c.jpg

http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t286/peachhead19/HPIM1447c.jpg

http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t286/peachhead19/HPIM1446c.jpg

http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t286/peachhead19/HPIM1445c.jpg

I'm just guessing that maybe the box got dropped on it's head (so to speak) and the neck couldn't take it...??

[Rocket]

Did that ship without strings or any string tension at all?

[peachhead]

Yes. She told me she just took all the strings off because two of them broke and she didnt have any to put on it. Still, it should have been able to handle being shipped 120 miles south (which only took 1 day).

[Rocket]

The neck should always have tension when shipped... should only be tuned down about 1/2 - 1 Cent.
http://www.cbguitars.com/Packing.htm

[just strum]

The neck should always have tension when shipped... should only be tuned down about 1/2 - 1 Cent.
http://www.cbguitars.com/Packing.htm

Good info, saving this for future reference - someday I just might decide to sell a guitar.

[M29]

peachhead,

From what I can tell it looks like a clean break and it may be able to be fixed if absolutely nothing else works out. Do not disturb the broken grain at all not even the tiniest grain when moving it about until you get some answers.

M29

[duhvoodooman]

Call me suspicious, but I really have to question if this really happened in transit. That looks like a pretty beefy case, and I have trouble believing that enough force could be generated through mishandling to snap the neck like that inside the case.

Perhaps a bit of fraud going on here?? I accidentally break my guitar, so I put it up for sale, ship the broken guitar to the buyer, and then submit a damage claim to the carrier when it arrives "broken in transit"?? Hope I'm wrong, but people are a constant source of disappointment to me....

[Rocket]

Call me suspicious, but I really have to question if this really happened in transit. That looks like a pretty beefy case, and I have trouble believing that enough force could be generated through mishandling to snap the neck like that inside the case.

Perhaps a bit of fraud going on here?? I accidentally break my guitar, so I put it up for sale, ship the broken guitar to the buyer, and then submit a damage claim to the carrier when it arrives "broken in transit"?? Hope I'm wrong, but people are a constant source of disappointment to me....
I'll agree... that would explain shipping without strings too.

[aeolian]

Looking at the pictures I'm curious too as to whether there is deception going on.

Did you find the nut in the case with the guitar? The reason I'm asking is because it appears that the nut is no longer attached to either the headstock or the neck, if the neck broke in the case the nut would have fallen off inside the case. Otherwise it will look suspiciously like someone put the broken pieces into the case before they shipped it but did not put in the broken off nut.

[tjcurtin1]

I have to say that this looks like the damage that could occur - as Larivee suggests - from there being no support under the headstock. A hard drop and it's whiplash time - especially without any string tension pulling the other way.

On the other hand, it seems to me that if this was the result of another kind of accident before it was shipped, then there would likely be an impact mark somewhere on the neck or headstock - given the nature of the break, on the front of the stock if it was struck there, or on the back of the neck if it were struck there.

[peachhead]

Hmmm..lots to answer here.
I did see a pic of the guitar before it shipped (with no strings) and it looked to be in one piece. Yes, the nut is in the case. I have tried not to mess with it too much. I have considered taking it to a shop here to see if they could fix it- but then I wondered, how much do I want to put into it? I was writing up an email to send to her proposing that I ship it back ot her, she sends me the $100 back and deals with UPS. I'm tempted to ask her for a partial refund, let her deal with UPS and see if I can get the neck fixed.
Of course if I do that then I find out that it will be more than I could put into a new one to get it repaired, then I'm screwed again.
Any ideas/suggestions, before I send this email off?

FYI the case is a standard Washburn case, semi-beatup on the outside but ok internally.

Yes I agree it should have been packed with neck support. Yes, I agree it should have had strings but then again like I said, it was a pretty good deal at the time....

[Rocket]

To have that repaired, you'll end up spending 4x the value and 2x the price of a new D10S... and still have a damaged low-end guitar.
Why even consider it?

[SuperSwede]

Speaking of shipping damages...


http://gcaptain.com/maritime/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/container-ship-heavy-weather.GIF

[tjcurtin1]

Have the seller get in touch with UPS and make a claim, and ask for her to reimburse you as soon as UPS agrees to pay on the claim (or talk her into a payback now and let just her do the waiting). I assume that you've sent her the pics to furnish to UPS. No sense shipping it back to her until you get square with UPS, who may just come and take it once the claim is settled(does anyone know what UPS does with damaged merch in these cases?).