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Showing results for tags 'shipping'.
Found 4 results
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So I'm thinking more and more about purchasing a cello from a maker or seller online. And while recommendations for a reasonable place to do this are welcome, this post is mainly addressing my concerns for the delivery of said instrument. How are instruments shipped? (I'm in the midwestern US if that has any impact) What dealers ship reliably and pack them well? Do you guys trust online delivery and returns? Of course most sites claim to have integrity and to thoroughly pack and protect their instruments, but I'm curious if everyone's experiences are overall good or bad. Especially since Cellos are a lot riskier to ship than smaller stringed instruments. I've heard people say their setup was compromised, or that their instrument arrived safe and sound and even in tune. Thoughts?
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Hello I'm putting this out there to see if anyone can help me. My mother just moved house and she doesn't have room for the cello any more. Not sure how much it is worth but it was made by a relative in the 1880s, so I want to make sure it's not damaged. I bought a hard case for it but would like a box to protect the case during shipping. I will ship it fedex UK to USA. It's a full size cello. The case dimensions are 140 x 56.5 x 39 cm. It came in a box but unfortunately that box is no longer available. I contacted the casemanufacturer and they haven't responded. Does anyone have an idea of where I can get a box? I'll be travelling between Manchester and Edinburgh with a biggish car. If I can't get a suitable box, any recommendations on packing the cello another way? Any help you can provide is appreciated! Many thanks! Cheers, Dave -
Dear all, I am planing to ship my violin for the VSA competition by Fedex from the UK to the USA. I find the process to be difficult to understand and am not satisfied with the help I have received from Fedex: they told me that I will need to pay duties and taxes entering the US but none for bringing the violin back to the UK. When I told them, that, considering a retail value of 20 odd thousand US$ this would be a lot of money and that I was not going to sell it in the US. She recommended me to declare a lower value of 1000 US$. The violin, when imported from the UK, has an import duty rate of 3.2%. At a value of 20 000 this would sum up to 640$, at a value of 1000$ to 32$. The 32$ sounds like a viable option, but still not quite right. The other issue about declaring the lower value is that the violin will only be insured for 1000$. Is there someone who has looked into it more into depth and can come up with some suggestions, experiences? Best, Philip -
I Recently sold a violin through ebay for $2000 and went to the post office to ship one day express mail, boy was I in for a shock, This is the first violin I have shipped this year and I was told the rates went up in January this year, boy and how did they go up! First they told me the box was too big, I Informed them that their website claims up to 108" length plus girth was permitted and mine was 102" (15 1/4" x 15 1/4" x 41") then they told me Priority mail was going to be 135$!!!!! and after much complaining they told me express mail was cheaper than priority and were ready to ship it express mail insured for $2000 for $107. after much complaining I agreed to that, filled out the forms, at which point just to f with me they said they had to add $28 for insurance, bringing it to $135. at which point, with no kind words, because I knew they were just jacking up the price, I walked out and drove to the other post office, where they confirmed priority mail would cost more!! but that I was right, Express mail insured for $2000 was only $107. $107 mind you for what was only about $50 a couple years ago, to the best of my memory. The telling point is $2000 insurance is $7 for Express, $28 for priority, which implies your package is much more likely to be lost or damaged Priority mail than it is Express mail. at least if the cost is proportional to the risk. So I shipped the violin Express as I had to, by the way it would have only cost $60 insured Parcel post but takes up to two weeks, and much more likely to get kicked around, as its ground, not air.(and my customer wasn't going to be at home in two weeks) I went back and checked online, and sure enough the $107 was accurate, however if you print your own labels and pay online, its only $85, but of course you need a printer and the special forms from the post office for you're printer. I plugged into their calclulator and low and behold major reductions in package size, which put the violin at even more risk due to less padding have no effect on the price; a 12" x 12" x38" box was the same price, the only thing that was cheaper was a 10" x 10" x 36" which is hardly big enough to safely ship a valuable instrument. Am I the only one that finds this outrageous, I mean the Post office is going bankrupt, and they do need to raise their prices, but a 100% rise on violin packages while the postage stamp only goes up 5% doesn't quite seem fair......
