Shipping/Receiving Guitars... Your Best and Worst Stories

I’m really curious to know everyone’s best and worst experiences when shipping/receiving guitars (or other instruments). I’ve personally shipped over 50 guitars in the last decade and have had a lot of different experiences. I know a lot of people prefer UPS but I have used FedEx almost exclusively and have had extremely positive experiences.


Best: I receive a heavy discount with FedEx and was once able to overnight an extremely large and heavy bass guitar all the way across the country for $24. I’ve also shipped a Vox AC30 to the middle of nowhere Texas for just $16. Downright astonishing considering the size and weight at almost 5 feet wide and over 75 pounds.


Worst: Two years ago I bought a guitar from Ukraine. Yeah... call me crazy I know. To make matters more intense, it wasn’t just any cheap guitar. We are talking an original 1959 telecaster. The seller was fantastic and the guitar was had for a great price, but there was a miscommunication along the way. I don’t speak Russian or Ukrainian and he didn’t speak English well. I was hoping to get the guitar quickly and paid for high end proper international shipping with full insurance and tracking. However, the guitar was shipped via the snail mail. By the time the seller understood what I was saying, the Guitar had already left his possession and was probably in the back of a soviet era military truck now labeled "Postal Service of Ukraine". Although I got my money back for the shipping and handling, the damage had been done. To make matters even worse, the guitar was not fully insured at its proper value (not my choice). For over two months there was no information updated on the Ukrainian Postal Service website. The only information I could figure out is that they did appear to have the package. At the three month mark I was beginning to contact my bank in order to get my money back as I was worried I had been involved in a scam or that the Postal Service had lost the guitar. But just as I was about to file a claim, I finally received an update that the United States Postal Service now had the guitar. It was like two tortoises running a relay race. Unless you live outside the USA, I shouldn’t have to explain to you how inconsistent and slow the United States Postal Service can be. For three weeks the guitar sat at a customs facility in Chicago. I started to wonder if one of the employees moonlighted as a musician and was giving my guitar a go at some Chicago dive bar. After a few dozen phone calls and emails to nearly every postal service employee I could contact, the guitar eventually cleared customs but continued to sit at a facility in Chicago. After nearly five months of anxiety and one stomach ulcer later, I decided I would take matters into my own hands and drive 5 hours to Chicago to see what the hell was going on. I eventually found the facility I believed had my guitar. After arguing for 20 minutes with an extremely unhelpful employee I was able to meet with the postal manager. After explaining the situation to him he told me to wait in his office while he took a look. No more than 30 seconds later he appeared with a large guitar sized box covered in Ukrainian writing. After five months, countless emails in horribly translated Ukrainian, 5AM phone calls to kiev, and a 10 hour round trip to Chicago, the guitar was finally in my hands. All of that struggle for one parcel. You better believe I opened it right then and there in that post office. OH... and it turned out the postal manager was a guitarist after all. Wonder if he moonlighted as a guitarist too?


What are your best and worst experiences when shipping or receiving instruments?

ForeverFabFour said:

...and a 10 hour round trip to Chicago, the guitar was finally in my hands. All of that struggle for one parcel. You better believe I opened it right then and there in that post office. OH... and it turned out the postal manager was a guitarist after all. Wonder if he moonlighted as a guitarist too?

Click to expand...

So, was the guitar intact or no? |And was it what you thought you were getting?

I haven't done a lot of shipping of guitars personally - the only time I bought one (an 8-string bass, actually) off Ebay it came in with the neck busted out of it's joint.
It was pretty cheap, so I wasn't overly angry. I was a bit peeved that when I emailed the seller, I didn't hear anything back.
However, a bit of epoxy, dowels and steel neck inserts later it was fine. |And I got some experience playing with that stuff.
Other than that, I used to work (20 years ago) for a rather large chain of guitar stores. Most of what we received came in fine, though we had one instance of a Marshall Cab coming in with a hole the size of a forklift skid all the way through it. UPS claims they don't use them, but I don't see Marshall allowing a box with a hole like that out of their shop.
Another time, our UPS driver tossed a PRS box the length of his truck - a 26-footer. Fortunately I was standing at the end and caught it before it hit the ground.
Lots of complaints were filed against that guy, I can tell you.

The "best"? Bought a Goldtone Paul Beard resonator off of Ebay. The guy taped up the case, slapped a shipping label in the outside & sent it off via USPS. The guitar came through fine.

The "worst"? I sold that very same guitar just a few weeks ago. Packed it up very well and padded nicely in a guitar shipping box. It was a sale on Reverb and was shipped via UPS. What happened? They broke the headstock!
Sold a silverburst custom for a friend on Reverb last year. It was packed very well in a guitar shipping box and the guitar itself was in a Gibson protector chainsaw case for crissake. What happened? They broke the headstock on that one too?

Never use UPS

jrgtr42 said:

So, was the guitar intact or no? |And was it what you thought you were getting?

I haven't done a lot of shipping of guitars personally - the only time I bought one (an 8-string bass, actually) off Ebay it came in with the neck busted out of it's joint.
It was pretty cheap, so I wasn't overly angry. I was a bit peeved that when I emailed the seller, I didn't hear anything back.
However, a bit of epoxy, dowels and steel neck inserts later it was fine. |And I got some experience playing with that stuff.
Other than that, I used to work (20 years ago) for a rather large chain of guitar stores. Most of what we received came in fine, though we had one instance of a Marshall Cab coming in with a hole the size of a forklift skid all the way through it. UPS claims they don't use them, but I don't see Marshall allowing a box with a hole like that out of their shop.
Another time, our UPS driver tossed a PRS box the length of his truck - a 26-footer. Fortunately I was standing at the end and caught it before it hit the ground.
Lots of complaints were filed against that guy, I can tell you.

Click to expand...

The telecaster ended up being completely fine. In fact even the vintage case it was shipped in was relatively unharmed. Thankfully the seller packaged everything extremely well. The telecaster ended up being everything I hoped it would be and even more. Its my main Fender now and I suspect it will be for life. A truly happy ending to an intense saga. Believe it or not, after all that trouble I would probably buy another guitar from that seller in Ukraine… I would just be very specific about using DHL or FedEx international!
Your story of the UPS driver tossing a PRS box off of his truck is all too familiar. I once witnessed a UPS driver delivering a couple dozen boxes to guitar center. Tossing each one out of the back of his truck like it was used garbage.

Oh, I almost forgot to post this... Courtesy of my friend whos new (used) Epiphone Casino came to him like this. Viewer discretion is advised.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/189811766@N08/50235010246/in/dateposted-public/

Quite apt topic for me today. I have no issues so far either sending guitars or receiving them. I have sent a J45 to france from the UK, arrived all intact. However, We have one courier in the UK who I have had terrible experience with for other things than guitars, An R8 is on its way to me via that courier. Already had two contradictory messages from them. One they haven't collected item, seller says they have, and another message from them saying they tried to deliver today. I am sat in the front room remote working, in full view from the driveway. No one has been, no card left. So that might count as worst. What I suspect will happen is it will be stuck in a depot somewhere over the weekend and god knows what can happen over that time. They are only an online presence who do not have anyway to talk to anyone.

Worst: FEDEX! They snapped the headstock on a Collector's Choice guitar and refused to deal with me. Luckily PayPal would.

Best: Pearly Gates shipped in a single layer of bubble wrap with just the handle out. Received without a scratch.

They are the only two that stand out, although there were countless shipping time outliers that were either received incredibly fast or incredibly slow.

duaneflowers said:

Worst: FEDEX! They snapped the headstock on a Collector's Choice guitar and refused to deal with me. Luckily PayPal would.

Best: Pearly Gates shipped in a single layer of bubble wrap with just the handle out. Received without a scratch.

They are the only two that stand out, although there were countless shipping time outliers that were either received incredibly fast or incredibly slow.

Click to expand...

OUCH! Makes my stomach hurts just hearing the words "snapped headstock" and "collectors choice" in the same sentence. What happened with the guitar in the end? Return to sender or did you have it repaired?

Best? I bought an 80-year-old guitar and had it shipped to me. The seller packed up the guitar extremely carefully with bubble wrap all around it inside the case, padding under the headstock, luan sheets on each side of the case, padding outside of the luan, a custom box built out of heavy cardboard, and packing tape on the outside to bind it all together, and sent it off to me. It arrived the next day. As I unpacked the box, I shot pics:



With the luan removed:


Inside:


Completely unwrapped:



Worst? I bought a Leslie G37 Rotary amp and had it delivered. I took time off to receive the package. I watched the driver tip the package off the back of the truck so that it landed upside down on the pavement.



It mushed the foot switch that was sitting inside both the main box and within a second protective box:


and dislodged the optical sensor inside the cab that was used to control the speed of the drum. The dealer kind of went into paralysis. I called Hammond USA and they took over. The tech rep walked me through some tests. First, we exchanged the foot switch. That gave control of speeds, but the drum wandered even when it was supposed to stop. They gave me the name of a repairman in my area and paid to have him re-align the sensor. Done. Great company.

Bob

ForeverFabFour said:

OUCH! Makes my stomach hurts just hearing the words "snapped headstock" and "collectors choice" in the same sentence. What happened with the guitar in the end? Return to sender or did you have it repaired?

Click to expand...

Neither the seller nor FedEx would communicate with me in the matter, so I have a strong feeling it was actually sent that way. Luckily, Gibson Custom Shop had 2 spare necks on the shelf left over from that exact run, so I sent it to them for replacement. PayPal stepped up and covered all costs for the (rather expensive) repair and It remains one of my favorite playahs til this day while both PayPal and Gibson Custom have a fan for life!! :salude

I've had solid luck with the USPS... great tracking and pretty quick. UPS ok. Most of the time FEDeX has been good.

But FedEx is responsible for my worst gear shipping experience.

I bought a Wandré on reverb that shipped from Italy. At the time there were 3 similar guitars available at a similar price point.

The Reverb seller is a shop shipping guitars all over Europe and to the US so all should be good.

Guitar shipped, made it through customs and then went offline. I let it slide for a week, as the internet told me to. When I called the guitar could not be found. I called every day for a week. Nothing.

Then I called every day for another week, most of the time never being able to connect to a person. Finally I was able to connect to a person, told her that the guitar was not something that had an off the shelf replacement etc. She put me in touch with the correct direct dial department. They told me that I should probably just put in a claim. YIKES!!!

I kept calling... finally got a woman who actually knew what guitars were. Got an email address, sent pics and she found the box!!!

She did say that without pics and without calling it would've never made it to me.

The best part is that they said they would call me for drop off. They didn't call.. I got a text after it was dropped off. In sub zero temps to an empty house.

No damage. No problem.

I bought a ‘72 Gibson EB-4L a while back. It was packed well by a reputable dealer. The UPS driver grabbed it from his truck to through it over his shoulder. It ended flying over his shoulder & landing on it’s headstock right in my driveway. I told the guy you just dropped my guitar on it’s headstock! He said “So.....” & drove off. Luckily it was fine. It makes you wonder what goes on when you aren’t watching. I’ve bought quite a few guitars by mail, so far nothing broken. CME is sticking a shock detector on their boxes. I bought an ES Les Paul bass a while back. After it was delivered I noticed the shock detector indicated shock (it popped or whatever). The bass was fine.....