another horn ruined in shipping

[marcapra]

I just hope you had insurance!

[Steve]

I just hope you had insurance!

What difference would that make to the horn? Have you ever tried to get money back from an insurance company? The phrase "trying to get blood out of a stone" springs to mind.

On a similar note I am waiting for a horn to arrive from France - I'm not very hopeful. The shipping cost was less than it would cost to send a packet of Smarties within the UK, let alone from France! I did query the seller's proposal for packing (Jerry) and asked for it to be sent in a double-thickness over-sized carton with plenty of protection around it. The shipping offer remained the same and the seller stated "packing will be good as always". Hmmm....I'm not hopeful. I've had a horn machine sent from France wrapped with some ladies undergarments (knickers, in case you're wondering) in a flimsy box with a few loose peanuts inside, no onions or cheese though. Luckily it arrived unscathed.

Fingers crossed for my horn!

[n2wheelies]

Man, I hate dealing with people like that. Once they have your money, they just don't care how the stuff arrives. If that was an eBay seller, please tell us who it is so that we can avoid him like the plague.

oregonrootersgeorge

[gramophone78]

Man, I hate dealing with people like that. Once they have your money, they just don't care how the stuff arrives. If that was an eBay seller, please tell us who it is so that we can avoid him like the plague.

oregonrootersgeorge

So to play the devils advocate, the seller has a (23) for feedback and a year with Ebay. Clearly not an experienced seller of Phonograph horns... .

Based on the sellers pics, the horn already had an issue in that area (see the bulge). Certainly something some of us would have asked to see better before making any offer.

I think many of us would have provided detailed instructions when wanting a already fragile item shipped. In fact, I would have asked the seller to take it to a UPS store to have packed....knowing they are very new at this.

Attaching a note stating "pack carefully" with your PayPal payment is very vague instruction to a non-Phonograph seller with little experience. A little weak on your part IMHO.

Since this horn sold for very little.....I wonder if you would have wanted to pay for such packing costs..??. Sometimes, the cost to pack is just not worth the hassle to purchase.

Not sure if it's appropriate to start naming sellers like this on our forum. Might be better if done through PM's... .

Again, just looking at the whole picture... .

[n2wheelies]

all very true statements and I appreciate you taking the time to offer your suggestions and will use them going forward. I would have never noticed anything in those photos, it looked like a sound horn to me. no pun intented...

Also, I could have scrutinized his feedback. It seems he has shipped insufficiently packed items in the past and received negative feedback.

[Covah]

eBay? Send it back, get a full refund. You have to pay return shipping but you can put broken horn in smaller box. Seller will eat the entire cost and have a broken worthless horn for his trouble, which is what he deserves.

Insured? Again, that is seller's problem.

[Marco Gilardetti]

I'm sorry you had to learn it the hard way. Just as I did, by the way. What people can do with postage and the total lack of common sense that affects many is simply unbelievable.

I also had to take the vaccine, but needed the recall booster later.

Many years ago, a lady from Spain mailed to me a valuable Nikkormat camera by simply slapping it into a paper envelope. And by "paper" I mean "made-with-plain-paper", not "bubble-padded" or whatever else. Paper. The kind of envelope where non-retarded people would just put written letters, and nothing else.

I then began writing annoying lengthy messages to all people with whom I dealt with concerning packing, padding, and so on. But lately I kind of gave up on that as it was boring and at risk of being offensive: adults usually don't like to be treated as schoolboys. Of course I've been immediately punished: just before summer I received a rare and valuable 78 RPM with a WWI trench song in a plain bubble bag, with absolutely no cardboard or anything else to protect it. At least, in this case, after a flamed letter the seller apologized and refunded me in full (shipping costs included). But alas the record is gone forever, which is what aggrieves me most.

[Steve]

The worst, bar none, packing I've been on the receiving end for was for a transportable "F.T.A." gramophone purchased from the States. It's the same very example that is featured in one of the Fabrizio & Paul books, originally owned by Garry James. I don't recall the seller's name so I won't speculate on who it might have been but he sent me the machine in at least three different parcels, including the delicate soundbox and arm in one parcel which was a pizza box with zero protection or packing around it, just a lightweight plastic bag! The box was barely even taped up. The soundbox arrived crushed into a flat oval shape with broken off screws, broken mica, springs etc. If something remotely heavy had been placed on that flimsy box it could easily have done that damage. Luckily I manage to salvage the important parts and restore the soundbox bezel back to shape. If it hadn't been made of brass the machine would have been irreparably compromised.

I then somewhat incongruously received the cabinet in another box separately - never mind that the ENTIRE machine was designed to be securely packed away into its own heavy duty leather carrying case! Why not simply pack a TRANSPORTABLE machine into its designed travelling form and then securely pack that in ONE box?!!! Is that too obvious for some people?

But where was the leather case anyway? M.I.A., that's where. I had to contact the seller to request he send me the third parcel because somewhat unbelievably he'd forgotten to include the original outer carrying case that it was all designed to go in. How could he forget that?

As a result of this gross incompetence of the highest order, I received one totally and unnecessarily damaged machine that cost me THREE TIMES the amount of customs charges due to the overall value of the machine being stipulated on three totally separate packages sent at different times. To this day this seller wins my Muppet Of The Decade Award for rank stupidity above and beyond the call of duty.

[FloridaClay]

I had a similar experience with an Edison horn. The seller did box it, but what he did was put the big part in a box that held most of it. That left the neck sticking out. He covered that with a small box just joined by a little tape at the bottom, which of course was promptly knocked asunder taking the neck of the horn with it in a very similar fashion as yours now shows.

I was a bit more fortunate than you, though. My seller was very honorable and contrite and gave a partial refund and I had a kind neighbor skilled in metal work who put everything right again and would take no payment for doing so.

Clay

[n2wheelies]

Ebay ruled in my favor, and seems to have issued a return label without charge to me. A 24 inch diameter horn sans end piece fits nicely diagonal in a 20 x 20 x 20 inch box. I would have happily split the difference on the loss with the fellow if he had only been cooperative, instead of suggesting it was damaged after unpacking.