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Shipping. Hard Lesson.

I'm selling some high end audio gear for the estate of a relative who passed away. I've never done this before. I'm using C's List, eBay and A'gon. It has been a lot of work and not a lot of fun.

Tons of scammers on C's list but excellent experience selling to a local audiophile.

Got a sale pending here at A'gon. Not too bad.

One good experience on eBay.

But then the Bryston 9B SST2 amp sold on eBay. I had actually about decided to purchase it myself when it sold via eBay. Super nice, experienced buyer.

Took the amp to UPS. It weighs 65 pounds. Asked them to double box and was ready to pay the price but the clerk convinced me that there was no need. They would wrap it well and the box she chose was supposed to handle 85 pounds.

Well, it gets to the buyer and he sends me a picture and it looks like the box has rolled down a mountain. The handles are broken off of the amp and it is dinged all up. Have no idea if it works or not. I'm not sure double boxing would have mattered in this case.

We insured it for the price paid. Buyer was very understanding but disappointed of course. I will get paid (by UPS) what I was going to get paid anyway but both the buyer and I commiserated over a fine piece of equipment destroyed. Or at least marred.

Anyway, sorry about the long sad sop story but I will probably have other gear to ship in the near future possible even the gorgeous Aerial Acoustics 5Ts which, even thought they are bookshelf speakers, are large and heavy.

So all of this is basically to ask: Who do you use for shipping large heavy delicate audio gear?
n80
n80 OP
2,153 posts
 
Update: My wife went back to UPS Store. Still no check. They call the central office while she is there, they say the claim has been approved and that we'll get the check soon. They say 5-10 days is typical. It has been nearly a month. Anyway, its in my wife's hands and she seems infinitely patient.

However, they gave her the amp.

I got it in the original shipping box. It was a regular box. Imagine a basic moving box. Very flimsy. The unit had been wrapped once with the large bubble wrap stuff. The ones with the big individual air bags. All of them were flat. Buggers the imagination.

On the amp both of the handles on the rear were bent inward. This amp is a tank and I had to use large pliers to straighten the handles. One of the plastic speaker terminal covers is cracked. There are dents/scuffs on all four corners of the face plate.

Otherwise it looks fine. And guess what? It works. All five channels.

At this point I'm not sure what to do with it. I've decided that I do not want it. It just does not fit well in the room and is overkill for my purposes.

Not sure how something like this would sell but I might stick it on Craig's List and see what I can get for it as-is. Even $500 would be something.
northman
279 posts
 
I'm sorry about the check but that's great news about the amp! I've owned Bryston amps and I'm not surprised. They're built like tanks, as you say. No reason for it to go into a landfill; it probably has twenty years left on it.

Good luck to your wife dealing with UPS. 
n80 OP
2,153 posts
 
Still no pay out on the amp. My wife goes by the UPS store every other day. Every time they say the claim has been approved. But last week they told her that they had only just then assigned an adjuster to the case (a month after the claim!) and asked her to sign a statement that the amp was un-repairable.

Why they are asking my wife, who knows nothing about audio equipment whether or not a complicated piece of electronics is repairable I have no idea. She signed it, which I think was the right thing to do. The amp is no longer in production, cost $7500 new and was sold for $2500. I suspect Bryston would charge more than that to replace the full cabinet and face plate and speaker terminal to get the amp back into the condition it was in before they trashed it. Plus, even then it would still never be worth $2500 as a device that has been damaged in that fashion.

Anyway, my wife remains patient and persistent.

At this point I'm just documenting this in the hopes that anyone reading it will avoid using UPS.
markpao
533 posts
 
Any update on this issue?
n80 OP
2,153 posts
 
Last week the UPS Store said the check was cut by UPS and would be at the UPS store for us to pick up later this week.

My wife went by there today and it had not arrived.

So it has been over two months since the claim was made.

As mentioned above, my wife is handling this. She remains patient and optimistic (I cannot believe she married ME and has stayed with me for 32 years!).

In any case, I still feel like UPS’s behavior in all of this has been dismal and shameful.

Also, I still have the amp and it does work. Any idea what I should ask for it if I decide to sell it? I don’t really have a use for it. Bear in mind I would be up front with anyone who bought it about what happened to it. It was $7500 new. I sold it for $2500. It has large scratches on all four corners of the face plate and the handles on the back have obviously been completely bent in and then bent back out. Would $500 be too much?
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