My experience was similar to Nancy's, but with UPS. They had no idea
about the status of the instrument, it got stuck in customs, and the
buyer got stuck with a huge tax bill for a bunch of things of which we
were never made aware. It also arrived with a small amount of damage to
a peg. I don't know about the US Postal Service (I'm in Canada), but
I've always found Canada Post excellent for shipping such things.
Efficient, cheap, and they know where thing are. UPS also vastly
overcharged me for packaging, which was done with something less than
skilled hands.
FedEx might be the way to go, but I'd also see if the Postal Service
offers a comparable service for a reasonable price.
Best,
Graham Freeman
On Mon, Mar 21, 2011 at 5:08 PM, Nancy Carlin
<[1]na...@nancycarlinassociates.com> wrote:
I have sold a couple of instruments on Wayne's list in the past
year
and bought another, which was shipped to me from the UK. The onen
from
the UK came DHL last December and there was a week when I am
pretty
sure DHL did not have a clue where it was. I called several times
a day
and can guarantee you that their employees are trained to say
reassuring things. I finally got the instrument when a wonderful
lady
in the San Francisco warehouse heard my story, found the
instrument and
put it in her car on her way home from work to hand deliver it to
me in
the local Starbuck's warehouse. About 2 months later I got a
letter
from DHL asking me to pay some duty and recently I have had a
letter
from the California tax people wanting tax because I bought
something
from outside the country. I don't mind paying, but it seem that
they
are very disorganized not to ask for the money before I got the
instrument.
The 2 instruments I sold were shipped Fed Ex ground and things
worked
great. The only challenge was getting a box big enough to put the
instruments into with a lot of bubble wrap and packaging around
it. I
called a local luthier and he recommended the biggest box that
UHaul
sells and it worked great.
Nancy
At 01:29 PM 3/21/2011, howard posner wrote:
Wondering if anyone's shipped a big instrument lately, and has any
recommendations.
To get on or off this list see list information at
[1][2]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
Nancy Carlin Associates
P.O. Box 6499
Concord, CA 94524 USA
phone [3]925/686-5800 fax [4]925/680-2582
web sites - [2][5]www.nancycarlinassociates.com
[3][6]www.groundsanddivisions.info
Representing:
FROM WALES - Crasdant & Carreg Lafar, FROM ENGLAND - Jez Lowe &
Jez
Lowe & The Bad Pennies, and now representing EARLY MUSIC - The
Venere
Lute Quartet, The Good Pennyworths & Morrongiello & Young
Administrator THE LUTE SOCIETY OF AMERICA
web site - [4][7]http://LuteSocietyofAmerica.org
--
References
1. [8]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
2. [9]http://www.nancycarlinassociates.com/
3. [10]http://www.groundsanddivisions.info/
4. [11]http://lutesocietyofamerica.org/
--
Dr. Graham Freeman
Ph. D Musicology
University of Toronto
[12]freeman.gra...@gmail.com
--
References
1. mailto:na...@nancycarlinassociates.com
2. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/%7Ewbc/lute-admin/index.html
3. tel:925%2F686-5800
4. tel:925%2F680-2582
5. http://www.nancycarlinassociates.com/
6. http://www.groundsanddivisions.info/
7. http://LuteSocietyofAmerica.org/
8. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/%7Ewbc/lute-admin/index.html
9. http://www.nancycarlinassociates.com/
10. http://www.groundsanddivisions.info/
11. http://lutesocietyofamerica.org/
12. mailto:freeman.gra...@gmail.com
