How to ship a heavy and sharp edged copper mat from Russia to Seattle- NOT

[Ki Choi]

[Ki Choi]

The kicker was the last photo of the plastic pouch where his official justification was it was for protection from water... go figure. Has he ever heard of thing called box?

The edges were all banged up and would require regrinding - reducing the diameter of the mat - leaving gaps when installed.

Time to start the dreaded refund process...

[david k]

You should see how some people pack heavy speakers for shipping! About 80% of my overseas speaker purchases arrive damaged or completely destroyed, sadly for the most part they're irreplaceable !

david

[Rob]

what a waste...hopefully you used paypal or similar payment method with buyer's recourse.

[Ki Choi]

Yes, it was an eBay purchase paid with Paypal so I believe I am protected. However, it is still a pain in the butt to go through the motion. When I sent a message to the guy to inform him of the damages after I had specifically requested for proper protection of the mat's sharp edges and his reply of - yes, it will be packed like a "tank," I got the above. He then implied I had done the damage on my own and demanded to see a video of how the package was opened by me just after I had received it...

I would never attempt to ship speakers. I had enough shipping damage sagas in receiving heavy tape machines in pieces.

[MylesBAstor]

Is that saying something about Russian tanks???

[Johnny Vinyl]

Video? That's a weak request and completely unnecessary given the condition of how the product was packed and packaged. This should have been shipped securely in a box because of the product's fragility and weight.

[rockitman]

That's terrible. Hard to source component I know, but for me, I would never do business in the Russian Federation.

[david k]

Its not just the Russians, Germany, UK, good old US of A, ignorance is universal!

david

[Bill Hart]

I had ordered a decent sized isolation transformer and asked that it be shipped overnight (it is for my air compressor). The best the vendor could do was 2 day. It didn't arrive, and the shipper claimed they weren't required to deliver for 5 days- I tried to get that expedited while still in the process, and thereafter got a call from the shipper-- it was now lost! The vendor was able to magically send a replacement overnight. The "lost one" turned up in a lump on my front porch- the self-contained wooden pallet (bolted together) was destroyed, the box torn and broken down in several places- it was embarrassing that someone would deliver something in that condition and think they were doing their job. I was required to 'box' it to have the vendor's shipping agent pick it up for return. It went into triple box, packed with Gorilla Tape- you know, the stuff that lets you tape people to walls.....
Meantime, shipment from Kuzma in Slovenia, get an email that it has left the factory, arrives the next day before noon by pleasant courier, clean, unmolested, proper packing.
There is no moral to this story.

[MylesBAstor]

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Here's that dislike button would come in real handy!

So sorry to hear of you woes Ki! Was it for your turntable? At least from what I hear, though it make take some time, Paypal does come through in the end.

[MylesBAstor]

Being a reviewer, I, like David, have pretty much seen and not seen everything in the book. Customs might take the prize hands down as the absolute worst. I've heard from several speaker cable manufacturers about customs sawing their cables in half. UPS, FedEx or you name it, are total jokes. And taking out insurance is a total joke. It's just a big game for them to get out of paying the insurance. I know quite few manufacturers--or at least the old timers--who ship a few products and check to see if it survives shipping, before officially releasing the component. There's a reason, sadly, that if you need to reorder a box for shipping from a manufacturer, that it costs so much nowadays.

Cartridges have arrived with missing cantilevers (one was due to customs deciding to open the package, breaking the cartridge and the distributor not opening the box before shipping; the other, an unscrupulous dealer who asked the distributor to listen to the review sample before it came to me, broke the cantilever and then reboxed the product and shipped it to me hoping to claim the insurance money). An Audionote DAC arrived, plugged it in, light was on but no music came out. Turned out FedEx had cracked the circuit board. Many years ago, my colleague Tom Miiller had ordered a pair of Avalon speakers in a special finish and had to wait six months for them to get that wood. Avalon ships the speakers, the shipping company delivers his order and he looks at one of the boxes. The shipper had driven a forklift through the side of the box and right on in through the side of the speaker! Like he wasn't going to notice. Years ago, I sold a cj amplifier, packed in its original box and it arrived destroyed. The only way the damage could have happened is if they dropped it five stories. The power transformer was mostly sheared off the chassis, the faceplate destroyed, etc.

The most egregious example of UPS damaging a product and then weaseling out of paying happened years ago when I was reviewing these behometh, dual mono, 50K Alchemist solid-state amplifiers designed by Tim de Paravicini. The amplifiers in big wooden crates a la Wilson W/P were shipped from Canada, were delivered and accepted by my doorman and then I brought them upstairs when I got home. I unscrewed the top of one crate, and used the enclosed lifting straps to remove the amplifier from the wooden crate. As I was lifting the amplifier out of the crate, I heard this rattle inside the amplifier. Experience has taught me that's never a good sign and I immediately lowered the amplifier back into the box and unscrewed the top of the amplifier. Lo and behold, UPS had sheared the power transformer off the chassis and it had rattled around the chassis, crushing every circuit board. Now came the fun part trying to report the damage, have the shipper file the claim, etc. Long story short, UPS sent an inspector over the view the damage and their final report was that I had damaged the amplifiers in bringing from the lobby of my building to the 17th floor on the elevators and refused to pay the claim. Are you kidding me?!?!

[Ki Choi]

Myles, say no more...

[MylesBAstor]

Sorry it had to happen to you buddy. Hope it gets resolved real quick!

[c1ferrari]

I wouldn't be surprised that we have all been scr**ed by unscrupulous shippers, vendors, etc., at some point. Sad and disgusting situation.

[MylesBAstor]

The drop kick at 2:03 is special!

[Rust]

You wouldn't think they could damage what amounted to a chunk of 416 alloy steel, but they did.

[Rust]

Ki - Why send to Russia for something like that? Probably a dozen machine shops within a few miles of you.