ksdaddy Posted July 19, 2010 Share Posted July 19, 2010 Somewhere in the 250 mile journey they manged to snap the neck. Never again, Fedex. Not one more dime out of me. Ever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daveinspain Posted July 19, 2010 Share Posted July 19, 2010 Damn.... Sorry to see that. Hope it was insured... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swleary Posted July 19, 2010 Share Posted July 19, 2010 Oh KsDaddy , I'm so sorry see what they did...I hope there (sure there was) insurance on it. I know that's not the point because you can't put insurance on sentimental value. I'm with you on fedex..the drivers are nothing more than morons. I almost got cremed by one a few months ago. He broke the law (running a yield sign) and when I confronted him , all he told me was "oh well" . I called the company, gave them the truck number and they said they'd track the driver down. Never heard back from them either... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gilliangirl Posted July 19, 2010 Share Posted July 19, 2010 That looks suspiciously like an Ovation. Can you repair the dear old thing? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twiz Posted July 19, 2010 Share Posted July 19, 2010 Aw, that sucks. Sorry man. I hope it was insured. A friend of mine had a similar problem with UPS. A LP arrived with a busted headstock (the seller packed it really bad). UPS wouldn't honor his claim. -Something about they won't insure musical instruments (I think it was just stringed stuff, I'm not sure). The good news is he was able to get his money back (it was a pain in the @$$) through PayPal. That's a major bummer though. It looks like a sweet guitar. I imagine there are few things worse than getting a guitar delivered, and then finding a busted neck when you open up the box. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silenced Fred Posted July 19, 2010 Share Posted July 19, 2010 Well, I am sure UPS and FedEx are similar, but I do the shipping in a factory, and whether it is Freight, or regular ground, UPS is more cautious with boxes, FedEx throws stuff around, on and off the truck. I will never ship anything FedEx that is sure Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ksdaddy Posted July 19, 2010 Author Share Posted July 19, 2010 Well, here's the whole deal. I thought I had the world by the _____ and I ended up getting them slapped instead. I put a want ad in craigslist for trashed Ovations and Applauses. I like fixing them up. No apologies for that; I like rooting for the underdog. A guy emailed me with an '83 1674 Country Artist. Friggin' dead mint. It's a shallow bowl nylon string with pickup and preamp. Beautiful sunburst, cutaway, just a peach from the get-go. He had removed the pickup and preamp because they stopped working years ago, sent them away to be fixed, and never got them back. So it sat in the closet. He offered it to me for a hundred bucks, shipped. A friend in Germany is sending me the correct preamp, all I do is pay shipping. I contacted Ovation for the correct saddle/pickup but they're shut down for their regular summer 2 week break. Thought I had the world on a string until I opened the box. Can I fix it? S---, yeah. I've fixed them ten times worse. But I know I will never erase the initial damage; it's just not going away. If it were laquer I could airbrush it but not Ovation poly. At this point I plan to send it back to Ovation for a new neck. I don't really care what it costs, I want it done. If I walked into a pet store or animal shelter and there was a kitten with one bad eye and a limp, you KNOW which one would come home with me, DON'T you???? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milod Posted July 20, 2010 Share Posted July 20, 2010 My Country Artist is plain top and close to 10 years older. Preamp works fine. It's a lovely player too. It also had an interesting trip, but with UPS for which I paid over $100 to send to the factory for a "fix" on the top. When it came back, yeah, Ovation did fine - but the box in which the original case was placed was pierced by about a half-inch hole of some sort. The "hole" actually bashed in the original case with a rounded indentation that just barely did not actually get into the whatever padding that tightly holds the guitar body. I was lucky - but I've also concluded one can't quite trust any shipping firm nowadays. FedEx used to be super. Now, not so super. UPS... I dunno. My guitar experience made me a bit more of a cynic. m Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tazzboy Posted July 20, 2010 Share Posted July 20, 2010 Ouch I hope seller insured. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heymisterk Posted July 20, 2010 Share Posted July 20, 2010 I am really sorry to see that. I have worked for both FedEx and UPS in the mid-'90s. At the time, UPS was a pretty awful place to work: they did not scan their packages, and used to play mind games with the people loading the trailer - me for instance - by placing a package in your truck that was NOT going where the truck was going to make sure you were reading the labels. If you didn't catch one, they would shut the belt down, come and yell and you, dig the package out, then resume. It seemed terribly inefficient. If you missed three labels in a night, they sent you home. One night, I missed three on purpose just to piss them off - I was sick of them TRYING to mess with me - and I went home, never to return. I moved over to FedEx. At the time, FedEx was much more well-run. All the packages were scanned and there was more professionalism where I worked and better treatment of the workers. I enjoyed my job, and pre-9/11 as it was, you could fly for free in the plane's jumpseat as long as no one else higher up than you was going where you were going and took the seat. In the last decade, UPS has moved into FedEx's specialty - overnight air - and FedEx has moved into UPS's - lots of ground shipments. The two companies generally hate one another. Having loaded both trucks for UPS and giant bins for shipping on aircraft, all I can tell you is that this accident was just as likely to happen at UPS - or USPS or DHL or whatever - as it was FedEx. There is tremendous pressure to get the freight loaded and get the freight out on time. My advice to anyone shipping something valuable - and I have shipped a few guitars in my time - is to pack it as if it were eggs you were packing and insure the hell out of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ksdaddy Posted July 20, 2010 Author Share Posted July 20, 2010 The running joke in my house is whether an incoming package is "Scott Packed".... I've been on ebay for 11 years and have parted out 300 or 400 motorcycles, plus dealt in probably 100 or more guitars, in addition to flipping yard sale finds. I'm quite meticulous about shipping. This guitar was not "Scott Packed". It was wrapped in some bubble wrap but it was in a weak trapezoid guitar box. If it had been in a real guitar box it would have survived many a toss with no damage. Clearly it wasn't boxed properly but at the same time looked like it had been bent in half. Sad, really. Not boxed right, not handled right, and I easily could have driven the 250 miles to pick it up. Ovation is on their 2 week summer shutdown so I will have to wait until they're back to work before I get a quote. Word on the street is that they do stellar repair work and I'll find the money somewhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thundergod Posted July 20, 2010 Share Posted July 20, 2010 That sucks, hope you get her back in good shape soon, from what I've seen you are more than qualified to it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EVOL! Posted July 20, 2010 Share Posted July 20, 2010 So sorry to see this happen, brother. Hope you are able to get this rectified in a timely manner. (know I am going to regret saying this, but...) Seeing that crack on an Ovation did not surprise me. I have yet to play an Ovation that did not have a cracked or warped top. Made me think their necks suffer the same design flaws. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ksdaddy Posted July 20, 2010 Author Share Posted July 20, 2010 I really prefer the old US made Applauses with laminated tops, bumper car binding, and aluminum necks. Friggin' undestroyable and sound better than you would ever expect. I must have 8 or 10 of them around here. No worries about cracked tops... loose bracing and pulling up bridges maybe but I'm getting damn good at fixing those problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShredAstaire Posted July 20, 2010 Share Posted July 20, 2010 Sorry to hear it ksdaddy! I can vouch for FedEx drivers being morons...one of my old high school friends (who is a moron) has been a FedEx driver for the last 5 years or so. I haven't heard any stories of him breaking stuff...but...he's a moron! I'm sending good vibes to your guitar! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TommyK Posted July 20, 2010 Share Posted July 20, 2010 Is the neck replacement going to be on FedEx's dime? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ksdaddy Posted July 20, 2010 Author Share Posted July 20, 2010 After everything I've read about Fedex refusing to pay for damage, I'm not even going to bother trying. In fact I was so worked up about the whole mess I stuck it on ebay for a hundred bucks; maybe I can get my money back out of it and walk away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
retrosurfer1959 Posted July 20, 2010 Share Posted July 20, 2010 I had Fedex snap a guitar neck during shipping a few years back on a guitar I had sold on Ebay it was double boxed and wrapped in all the packing from the factory and they still got it there was a huge footprint on the box where somebody had obviously stood on the box or used it like a ladder. The good news was the footprint was so clear and so obviously neglect the paid the claim without any delay. Weird thing was they let me keep the guitar all they wanted was the box they were either going to do a cinderella type search for the size 13 work boot or they just didn't want me to be able to show it to anyone else,, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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