Shipping. Hard Lesson.


I'm selling some high end audio gear for the estate of a relative who passed away. I've never done this before. I'm using C's List, eBay and A'gon. It has been a lot of work and not a lot of fun.

Tons of scammers on C's list but excellent experience selling to a local audiophile.

Got a sale pending here at A'gon. Not too bad.

One good experience on eBay.

But then the Bryston 9B SST2 amp sold on eBay. I had actually about decided to purchase it myself when it sold via eBay. Super nice, experienced buyer.

Took the amp to UPS. It weighs 65 pounds. Asked them to double box and was ready to pay the price but the clerk convinced me that there was no need. They would wrap it well and the box she chose was supposed to handle 85 pounds.

Well, it gets to the buyer and he sends me a picture and it looks like the box has rolled down a mountain. The handles are broken off of the amp and it is dinged all up. Have no idea if it works or not. I'm not sure double boxing would have mattered in this case.

We insured it for the price paid. Buyer was very understanding but disappointed of course. I will get paid (by UPS) what I was going to get paid anyway but both the buyer and I commiserated over a fine piece of equipment destroyed. Or at least marred.

Anyway, sorry about the long sad sop story but I will probably have other gear to ship in the near future possible even the gorgeous Aerial Acoustics 5Ts which, even thought they are bookshelf speakers, are large and heavy.

So all of this is basically to ask: Who do you use for shipping large heavy delicate audio gear?
n80
I understand the frustration my wife is an attorney and I can’t remember the number of times she’s told me to be patient or it’s gonna take longer and cost more. Sometimes you just want to say to hell with it and do it anyway.
My wife (not an attorney) is saying the same thing. I get caught up in the principle of things and sometimes end up tilting windmills. Sometimes I think if more people were willing to fight this sort of thing that the offending parties would be more responsive.

Good thing dueling is outlawed.
My wife went back up there. The local manager said that she did not know why it was taking so long and called the higher up again. Couldn't get her on the phone (which is what happened every other time as well). This time she persisted and finally got someone who said the claim was approved they were just waiting on the fax from the local manager. The manager told her it had been faxed to them last week and she had confirmation. The higher up apparently said, "Oh, that fax machine. We never check that one." They assured the local manager that the check would be in the mail by tomorrow morning and they would call to confirm.

So it sounds like clerical errors were the hold up and nothing more. At least that's the positive spin I'm putting on it now. However, if we had not continued to pester them about it who knows when they'd have found the mistake.

It looks like dueling banjos and litigiousness are on hold for now.
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