Actually, there are several "niche" shippers who regularly ship large, heavy
items with great care. They ship antique or expensive furniture, Artwork,
lamps, electronic equipment, glassware, or even pianos. Of course, I hope they
do a little better than Laurel and Hardy did in their hilarious piano moving
skit.
Anyways, we all know there are piano movers (who have also expanded to moving
large screen TV's). They do a fine job and can arrange to have your piano
shipped to Tokyo if you like.
But, there are also great movers for smaller gear. I sent in a very
expensive spectrum analyzer for repair and cal. The unit was relatively large
but
weighed 100 pounds. Much like an Alpha 77 Amp. I put it in a huge box and
sent
it via FedEx ground. It arrived safe and sound. The cal lab insisted on
sending it back in an even safer fashion and recommended a company called
"Craters
and Freighters." They picked up the instrument, crated it, and sent it back
to me. The packaging was phenomenal, and the cost to ship from TX to Chicago
was about $150...or only about $50 more than UPS would have charged (without
packaging).
Now, the crate arrived in a normal delivery truck. Nothing special. And,
the were happy to hang around while I pried open the wooden crate to check for
damage (even though the crate was in perfect condition). They even helped! It
was obvious to me how C&F works...crate an item so well that there is
virtually NO WAY that it could be damaged. That is really their secret. They
want
to pick up the item without any packaging so they can handle all the packaging
(and crating on heavy or precious items) themselves.
I was impressed and I would certainly use C&F again...or any of the other
great shippers out there. Bottom line is this: If I am sending a jacket to my
niece for Christmas, sure, UPS is perfect. Fedex Ground and USPS are also
superb. But if I am sending something more precious and I don't have a
suitable
box, then these speciality houses are just the ticket.
When I bought my Alpha, I kept the original packaging box. So, when I later
sold the amp to a fellow in Canada, I repacked it in its original box and
built a new wooded crate for the transformer and gave it to the USPS. And, I
insured it. It arrived without a problem. But, of course, it had 3" of foam
in a
heavy duty box and you could have dropped the transfomer 25 ft and it would
have survived in it's 2X4 and plywood box!
I'm no fan of them and UPS will mistreat just about any box. It's up to the
shipper to properly package an item for shipment. Period.
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