Parcelforce now off my christmas card list

[Yan_Huriey]

Have a look how Parcelforce handled this (what used to be lovely) Squier Jazz Bass I just sold.

 

I have of course phoned the buyer immediatley and offered him a full refund, he's deciding on whether or not to turn it into a bitsa, I'll be out of pocket either way as I will be compensating him whatever he chooses.  I didn't insure it as I've never had problems with Parcelforce before, lesson learned.  Still though.....some cave dewlling tw*t managed to do this.🤬  Ruined what was a lovely instrument that the buyer should be enjoying right now.

 

I have filed a complaint and claim for damages, won't cover it all though.  'Great British Parcel Delivery' (my ar*e). I'm flipping raging, so mad I could write a letter.

[Lozz196]

This is why I won’t send instruments by couriers, I’d rather meet up with a couple of hours drive. Even if in hard cases who knows if they’ll ever manage to keep hold of it. 

[Boodang]

You sent it in a cardboard box!!! 

[Yan_Huriey]

33 minutes ago, Boodang said:

You sent it in a cardboard box!!! 

The same one it was mailed to me in.

Edited March 21, 2023 by Yan_Huriey

[hiram.k.hackenbacker]

1 minute ago, Boodang said:

You sent it in a cardboard box!!! 

Yes, I'm not seeing a case anywhere. If it was wrapped in soft material inside a box, you only have yourself to blame. Doubly so for not insuring it.

[Paolo85]

I would not be that harsh. I do not think the economics of selling Squiers in hard cases add up. I have not looked into insurance yet (I have not shipped a bass yet) but I suspect it's the same.

Last year I bought a Thomann hard case, proper crap, and it cost me some £90 all included if I remember correctly. If I buy a Squire I expect to receive it in a cardboard box and ship it in a cardboard box. We are talking stuff that cost 400 new and most of the time is on offer somewhere at 350 or less.

Buying used already means giving up on free returns for no good reason and multi-year guarantees, so the price needs to be competitive.

Edited March 21, 2023 by Paolo85

[TheGreek]

That is repairable...

 

Any good luthier will be able to put that right for less than the price of a new decent quality neck. 

 

I've got to agree with @hiram.k.hackenbacker

ASSUME THE WORST. 

 

 I  always work from the premise that couriers are idiots, assume the worst and try to compensate for that with lots of bubble wrap,  a case if possible and lots of packing. 

Sorry it took this to learn. Understand you being angry. 

[msb]

Clean break , easy glue job , but have a pro do it.

 

[Yan_Huriey]

31 minutes ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

Yes, I'm not seeing a case anywhere. If it was wrapped in soft material inside a box, you only have yourself to blame. Doubly so for not insuring it.

I Know I have myself to blame, I'm not looking for sympaty, I put this up as a reminder of what can happen so that others may not make the same mistake that I did, and like others have said I'm not spending money on a case for a cheap bass, as for the insurance, like I said in my original post 'Lesson learned'.

Edited March 21, 2023 by Yan_Huriey

[pete.young]

There would be no point in paying Parcelforce for extra insurance. They'll take your money, but musical instruments are explicitly excluded in their Ts & Cs.

[Yan_Huriey]

37 minutes ago, Lozz196 said:

This is why I won’t send instruments by couriers, I’d rather meet up with a couple of hours drive. Even if in hard cases who knows if they’ll ever manage to keep hold of it. 

This isn't possible where I live, I have to use couriers, first time I've had a problem in years, thankfully it wasn't an expensive instrument, it could have been a LOT worse, so I'll take that as a slap on the wrist.

Edited March 21, 2023 by Yan_Huriey

[Yan_Huriey]

1 minute ago, pete.young said:

There would be no point in paying Parcelforce for extra insurance. They'll take your money, but musical instruments are explicitly excluded in their Ts & Cs.

Also this....

[Burns-bass]

I recently had a vintage bass that arrived in a hard case that was hit so hard the scratch plate cracked. 
 

Couriers = bad.

 

Was fully insured and the seller sucked up the loss and took the bass back. Real shame though.

[TheGreek]

I actually benefitted from a courier's clumsiness. 

Acoustic guitar arrived with a broken headstock,  full refund from the seller,  I had it repaired and sold it. 

As I said,  a good luthier will have no trouble making that good as new.

[Downunderwonder]

The economics of shipping used cheap basses without a case points squarely at doing it differently next time.

 

Taking the neck off and packing a much smaller box makes it cheaper shipping and very much harder to do any damage.

[toneknob]

4 hours ago, pete.young said:

There would be no point in paying Parcelforce for extra insurance. They'll take your money, but musical instruments are explicitly excluded in their Ts & Cs.

I had to send something this week so looked into this carefully. The exclusions detail says "Musical instruments are excluded from enhanced compensation. Guitars and brass instruments are particularly prone to damage and should be packed very carefully, in a hard case" (ie regular compensation applies). https://www.parcelforce.com/help-and-advice/sending/items-we-exclude-compensation

 

Also (sorry I know this isn't helping at this point) "Musical instruments should be sent in a hard case. Gig bags or trapezoid cardboard guitar boxes are not suitable" (https://www.parcelforce.com/help-and-advice/sending/packaging-guidelines)

 

Still, a rubbish experience and a shame to break a perfectly fine bass - "It'll fix up ok" is no consolation, sorry to hear it happened at all.

 

Edited March 21, 2023 by toneknob

[Geddys nose]

These do insurance much cheaper than the couriers and do pay out-

 

https://www.secursus.com/en-gb/

 

Not much use for you but future postage with the RM/PF.

[Boodang]

10 hours ago, Yan_Huriey said:

I Know I have myself to blame, I'm not looking for sympaty, I put this up as a reminder of what can happen so that others may not make the same mistake that I did, and like others have said I'm not spending money on a case for a cheap bass, as for the insurance, like I said in my original post 'Lesson learned'.

... and yet you're blaming parcelforce! I've got some sympathy, the economics of shipping something like a Squier is difficult but that doesn't make the bass any less delicate. I do like the idea of taking off the neck, haven't thought of that before, would make all the difference. 

[Paolo85]

2 hours ago, Boodang said:

... and yet you're blaming parcelforce! I've got some sympathy, the economics of shipping something like a Squier is difficult but that doesn't make the bass any less delicate.

I look at the classfield regularly for basses in the £100-£300 range. Never bought anything more expensive here. You'll find that most adverts say something like "pickup xx but I have a box and I can ship".

Thst being said, I also agree that the neck off is a goid idea in principle. With some concwrns.

With an old battered Squier taking it off and putting it back on, carefully, caused a crack in the poly finish near the screw. It was probably a latent issue, the finish had many other cracks already. Personally I could not care less but these would be embarassing conversations to have at point of sale/purchase. Sure, less embarassing than a brocken neck.

I remember somebody selling a Squier body here with a big chip in the paint, he said it came off with the neck removal. 

Maybe there's something with Squier's poly finishes?

Edited March 22, 2023 by Paolo85

[uk_lefty]

After having a bass roundly abused by DPD, sent all over the country and eventually returned to me looking like Tom Hanks in Castaway I'd always do the following: double-box, it's a pain in the backside but most couriers insist on it; some kind of firm case, doesn't have to be a hard case because that often takes the length beyond what a lot of couriers will take but Thomann do a foam case relatively cheap... I'd either get one of them or find the scabbiest, cheapest hard case possible on gumtree just for the shipping. 

 

Although I live somewhere quite accessible I have a family and don't have time to be driving for pickups, I've been left waiting at services for hours like that before. Also, being left handed there's a very limited market and often what I sell has lots of enquiries from abroad.

 

Sadly, couriers are able to just get away with shoddy service and there needs to be some kind of clampdown on their awful terms and conditions that are incredibly bias against the paying customer.

[BassBunny]

9 hours ago, Geddys nose said:

These do insurance much cheaper than the couriers and do pay out-

 

https://www.secursus.com/en-gb/

 

Not much use for you but future postage with the RM/PF.

+1. Used them a number of times and not just for PF. Very reasonable although fortunately I've not had to claim.

[jonnybass]

16 hours ago, pete.young said:

There would be no point in paying Parcelforce for extra insurance. They'll take your money, but musical instruments are explicitly excluded in their Ts & Cs.

Interesting this..if you tell them before you insure it that it’s an instrument and they recommend you insure it, I’d say theres a case the “sales agent” has accepted liability outside the product T&C’s.

[Paolo85]

I think Parcelforce says you have to ship instruments with a hard case, so shipping without it I guess would invalidate the insurance?

[uk_lefty]

2 hours ago, jonnybass said:

Interesting this..if you tell them before you insure it that it’s an instrument and they recommend you insure it, I’d say theres a case the “sales agent” has accepted liability outside the product T&C’s.

Right or wrong it would be impossible to get anywhere trying to argue it unless you felt it worth it to go to small claims court. 

 

I had Tufnells book a pickup and 48hr delivery. Driver showed up three days late after loads and loads of chasing, so the bass was late being delivered. Barely got an apology, terms and conditions exclude them from any responsibility whatsoever but no refund, full or partial, because the terms and conditions basically say YOU PAY, WE MIGHT OR MIGHT NOT DO WHAT YOU'VE PAID FOR, TOUGH SH!T WHEN IT GOES WRONG.

[Beedster]

Couriers will break stuff that isn't packaged bomb-proof, and to be honest we should recognise and respect that reality when we sell things to fellow musicians, if we choose not to then we have to accept the potential risks. Couriers are like baggage handlers, they have to assume that the package is secure (and don't forget that strong bass cases are called 'flight cases' for this reason).

 

My gripe with couriers at present is that whole some appear to have really upped their game with timing and tracking - for example with DPD and Parcelforce not only do I know with certainty which day and between which two hours it's coming (as long as the seller has ticked that box), I can also see the vehicle in real time on a map and get updates if there's a delay - others such as EVRI seem to think it's OK to lose about 50% of packages sent to my home and then literally ignore any attempt by the sender to resolve issues, simply putting up a wall of impenetrable tech. 

 

As others have said, the bass is repairable, or at least you have some parts to sell on, with EVRI it would have a 50% chance of having been stolen, lost or misdirected, you's have no bass and no compensation. Oh, and on the off chance it had got to you, it would likely still have been broken