Spot Posted November 16, 2011 Posted November 16, 2011 Just took a guitar I sold to get a costing for UK shipping at the local MAILBOXES Etc store. I was genuinely horrified by the price they quoted me! The best they could offer from DHL, TNR, FED EX or UPS was £75 for a TNT Express Service with another 3% Insurance premium on the value of the guitar as an option, For a guitar worth £1,000 that's £75 + £30 Insurance = £105,.....WTF?????? PARCELFORCE, the Royal Mail service is a non-starter for Insurance reasons. They ONLY will cover a Musical Instrument up to £150. A lot of people are un-aware of this fact as they never read the detailed Terms & Conditions. Using my £1,000 guitar example,... if it where to get lost or broken by PARCEL FORCE you would basically only get back #150,.....loosing £850!!! How do all you UK peeps send your guitars?
BT Bob Posted November 16, 2011 Posted November 16, 2011 Have you tried DHL? Used to be able to send with them at your local Staples. Not sure if they are still agents for them, or if they'll take something the size of a guitar, but I did use them to send a bass guitar a couple of years ago and they were fine.
S t e v e Posted November 16, 2011 Posted November 16, 2011 Have you tried DHL? Used to be able to send with them at your local Staples. Not sure if they are still agents for them, or if they'll take something the size of a guitar, but I did use them to send a bass guitar a couple of years ago and they were fine. i've used dhl and parcelforce 5 times in the last year and never bought insurance, guitars all arrived safely and i never paid any more than £20 for uk 48 hr delivery. and they collect it from you. try these guys, i use them... parcel2go
milod Posted November 16, 2011 Posted November 16, 2011 About 8 years ago I sent a cased and boxed Ovation nylon string to the factory via UPS. It cost somewhere around $80 US as I recall - maybe what at the time, 45 sterling? It got there okay; the return trip even better packed - the company paid for it - something zapped the box en route and put about a half-inch dent on the guitar case that broke the outer plastic casing. Not enough to complain about, though. My $80 did include insurance for $2,000 I seem to recall since it was a first model AE Country Artist.. Then again, that was relatively a long time ago. m
Spot Posted November 19, 2011 Author Posted November 19, 2011 i've used dhl and parcelforce 5 times in the last year and never bought insurance, guitars all arrived safely and i never paid any more than £20 for uk 48 hr delivery. and they collect it from you. try these guys, i use them... parcel2go ..I've used DHL, UPS, Parcel Force and TNT in the past and only had one issue with UPS and a broken Texan neck! This was the sellers problem as he sent the guitar though so he had to deal with the claim.. You guys are missing the point of my post - there is no reasonable priced way to ship a guitar in this country! In the UK, you have two options if you want to SELL a guitar and ship it on EBAY:- 1. Royal Mail Parcel Force 2. The Other Couriers (DHL, TNT,UPS, FED Ex, etc) Many people use the cheaper option which is PARCEL FORCE for a cost of b/w £30-50 but are completely unaware they they are assume all the risk, bar the £ 150 that Royal Mail would pay out if something were to happens!!! That's a big risk to take on a £1,000 guitar or higher!!!! The second option above will have Insurance , if you pay for the additional cover, however at £ 105 on a domestic UK shipping, what EBAY buyer is going to spend more than 10% of the price of a guitar on shipping? Not many so the SELLER is left with no option but to use PARCEL FORCE and take a huge risk!!! I'll give you an example, I recently had a potential buyer in FINLAND who was very interested in my Epiphone USA Texan but could not understand why I was asking £150 for Courier to Finland. He said that Royal Mail only charged less than £ 50. Yes, this may have been the case for a basic non-insured non trackable service but what the buyer is not understand is that he is not responsible should something go wrong. The SELLER will be the one liable and is exposing hinself with such a postage option! Not good in my opinion...
S t e v e Posted November 20, 2011 Posted November 20, 2011 ..I've used DHL, UPS, Parcel Force and TNT in the past and only had one issue with UPS and a broken Texan neck! This was the sellers problem as he sent the guitar though so he had to deal with the claim.. You guys are missing the point of my post - there is no reasonable priced way to ship a guitar in this country! In the UK, you have two options if you want to SELL a guitar and ship it on EBAY:- 1. Royal Mail Parcel Force 2. The Other Couriers (DHL, TNT,UPS, FED Ex, etc) Many people use the cheaper option which is PARCEL FORCE for a cost of b/w £30-50 but are completely unaware they they are assume all the risk, bar the £ 150 that Royal Mail would pay out if something were to happens!!! That's a big risk to take on a £1,000 guitar or higher!!!! The second option above will have Insurance , if you pay for the additional cover, however at £ 105 on a domestic UK shipping, what EBAY buyer is going to spend more than 10% of the price of a guitar on shipping? Not many so the SELLER is left with no option but to use PARCEL FORCE and take a huge risk!!! I'll give you an example, I recently had a potential buyer in FINLAND who was very interested in my Epiphone USA Texan but could not understand why I was asking £150 for Courier to Finland. He said that Royal Mail only charged less than £ 50. Yes, this may have been the case for a basic non-insured non trackable service but what the buyer is not understand is that he is not responsible should something go wrong. The SELLER will be the one liable and is exposing hinself with such a postage option! Not good in my opinion... failing all that, i'd deliver it in person if i sold it within the uk...for petrol money.
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