On Fri, 14 Oct 2005 16:15:37 -0400, Chuck Harris wrote:

have weighed as much as the instrument. You guessed it - Timewave
reported that the control was damaged in shipment although the box
and the packing was intact.. Go figure.

Sounds like bovine excrement to me. I have dealt with companies in the past
that always found certain things "broken" on items returned for repair,
even when they weren't. It is a great way of bringing in a little extra
money, and the customer has no way of proving the lie... well, unless
the company tells the same lame story over and over again like Timewave
appears to have done.

The cost of the replacement of the control was included in the flat
advertised price of the upgrade so a) it didn't cost me anything and
b) they would have lost money by "just doing it" unless necessary.

special birthday. It went UPS insured. When it arrived, my friend
reported that there was a small crack in the glass frame and I
reported that to the shipper.

I'm betting this wasn't packed the way UPS says you should pack fragile
items:

This was done by a commercial art framer and shipper who ships
fragile and valuable artwork all over the world. I'm sure that they
knew what they were doing. The problem wasn't the way it was
shipped by them - a small crack can result from many causes
including stress relief in the glass - and is no big deal compared
to the condition that it was returned in. We had the "as arrived at
consignee destination" pictures and the "as received in return by
original shipper" pictures to prove it.

The bottom line was that UPS figured that this would be covered by
the shipper's insurance so they didn't give a flying fig about
what happened to the package as they repacked it (by their own
request) and returned it.

UPS moves quickly, packages literally fly through their hub. UPS gives
recommendations on how to pack to survive. If you don't follow them,
you are taking a very big risk.

A former neighbor retired as the regional UPS customer service chief
some years ago. The stories she told after retirement which were
similar to mine would make your hair stand up.

Perhaps they now have a better grade of handler ???? I seem to
feel that they have a better grade of delivery persons over the last
decade.

FedEX's ground operations are identical to UPS's.

FedEx Ground is the former RPM. I have never had problems with them
and lately have done most of my business with FedEx.

FedEX's air freight operations gain some protection from damage
by forcing you to use their standardized boxes.

Never had problems with them.

--
73 de K2ASP - Phil Kane