Can this ukulele be saved?

I just got a uke in the mail from a private seller. It was well packaged and insured for the full value. It was inside a gig bag, the body wrapped in bubble wrap and the rest of the box filled with Styrofoam peanuts.

But when I took it out of the box, to my horror, I discovered that the body of the uke is cracked and separating where it joins the neck. The tension of the strings was pulling the neck forward. (I've since loosened the strings.) The neck itself appears to be undamaged.

Closer inspection of the mailing box shows a big dent in the back.

Is it possible to repair an injury like this?

WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES ATTACHED

Return it.
edit- Oops, I mean get the insurance money.

By the time you would spend the money fixing this, it would cost less to replace it.

Save the pictures, print them out, and go to claim insurance right now.

Anything is possible, but this instrument is severely damaged..........send it back

I would first notify the seller and see what they respond with, then you need to have a hardcopy of the shipping insurance, then lots of pictures, and IIRC you have something like only 48 hrs to file a claim with the shipper that the item was 'damaged in transit', and likely they will want you to email all the photos, and then you wait for their reply...

also, if you paid via PayPal and 'Buyer Protection' i.e. NOT 'Friends and Family' you might also be able to get a refund via PayPal, but you have a short window to FILE your claim, and PayPal usually acts at a glacially slow pace on such claims...

Methinks with your photos and the indentation of the box you should have no problem proving that it was damaged in transit - but DO NOT THROW OUT THE BOX. You will need it for evidence.
Please report back and let us know what you decide to do and how it works out.

Best of luck on getting this resolved. It is a real shame for the damage, but it seems that the neck heel is the weak spot on these Kala thinline travel ukes, and I've seen a few posts here of the these over the years with exactly the same 'break point'.

My Thinline Tenor, which I offered to -E- (something I wasn't sure about anyway...not -E-, but selling it) has a dent or chip or something in the face, and I don't remember doing it...I think I bought it that way and didn't notice. I was still pretty new to ukuleles when I did. It doesn't change how it plays...but back to the soprano in the picture...that is more than the heel...it also took out part of the top, too. If it was a clean break, it would be possible and perhaps even economical to fix...this is crazy.

Sorry to see this.

If it was mine I'd first be chasing the insurance. It's a write-off, would cost more to get professionally repaired than to buy new. Then I'd make a simple jig to hold the neck straight while I glued and clamped all the broken bits back together. Chances are you'll end up with a perfectly playable though cosmetically challenged ukulele. Plus your money back.

Anything can be fixed. Sometimes its a very bad idea to exercise this rule.

As a repairman of string musical instruments, if this uke came into my shop, I would not repair it for any amount. Its plywood, it would cost way too much and it would not be worth my time or your money for what you get in the end.

I had a guitar shipped that sustained a lot of damage due to the seller (who was an ahole) not packing it correctly INSIDE the case, so it rattled around in there for days and bashed itself up with every kick and hard drop. He also did NOT insure it for full value. I got a repair estimate because I wanted to keep it. It was a 1920s Brazilian rosewood body with a spruce top.

I took a ton of pics of the damage including all the damage to the box and filed an online claim for the maximum insurance that was purchased ($150 on a $650 guitar) with USPS. USPS processed the claim in a day or two and sent me the money I requested for repair. My mistake was in not repairing it myself however. McCabes did it and did a crap job.

I would file the online claim, which is pretty easy and you upload those pics, and ask for replacement value.

Some of the shipping companies can be on the hard side when it comes to claims. In fact many of them refuse to insure musical instruments, they've put them on their exclusion list. I think they first started excluding them around 10 years ago. I once asked why they had placed instruments on their exclusion list and I was told that far too many claims were coming in from guitars bought from Ebay and then sent very badly packaged.
As a minimum it should have a hard case and a sturdy cardboard box. I also line the inside of the cardboard box with cheap thin plywood, then a minimum of 2" of bubble wrap all around the instruments hard case. Nothing should be rattling around. If they can damage that kind of protection then I guess they really have mistreated it. So far I've been lucky. One slight mishap that resulted in a broken wooden friction peg. It wasn't even worth claiming for. It might be hard to believe but the packaging for a guitar costs me £25- custom cardboard box, the plywood and the bubble wrap. Much cheaper for a Uke though!

This is a rather aprehension inducing thread to someone who has a ukulele travelling the world as we write this. Here's hoping...

Yes. My advice is to pack them as though you were sending an expensive antique vase. It might cost $20 + more but if the instrument has any real value I think it worth it. It's also worth taking a few pictures of what is used in the packing and how it was packed. I always do that just in case there needs to be a claim.
Damage does happen of course. Thankfully it is a very, very small percentage. Sometimes it's because of inadequate packing and sometimes it's the fault of the couriers. There's a limit to how much you can do. If it happens to be thrown from a height of 30 ft or something that weighs 70 kilos lands on it . . well it might sustain some damage but at least you've done your bit.
Don't forget: Uke in hard case, not rattling around in that case. Don't use bubble wrap to pad the case out, it can react to some varnishes. Use some other form of packing like a soft kitchen tissue paper instead. Plenty of bubble wrap around the outside of the hardcase, the hardcase not rattling around inside the cardboard box. Line the inside of the sturdy cardboard box with thin plywood if possible, 3 or 5 mm ply is adequate. It only really needs the areas that correspond to the back and top of the instrument lining, so two pieces.

One thing to note is that Styrofoam peanuts allow items to settle through the peanuts until your item rests on the bottom of the box, offering no protection.
If you use peanuts, pack them into plastic bags, like little cushions, this will keep the peanuts in place!
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The insurance label on the outside of the package states "To file a claim for damage or loss of contents, the article, container and packaging must be presented." So I repacked the uke the way it was when it arrived, took it to my local Post Office on a weekday when they weren't busy and told them I wanted to file a claim. I was told "We can't help you. You have to file a claim online and you will be given instructions on what to do." I pointed out the instructions on the label. "Don't pay any attention to that. We can't do anything here." A couple of different postal employees offered their opinions. One said that the original shipper had to file the claim. I said "But they can't prove the item was damaged. Also, they already received my payment for it, so why would you refund the insurance amount to them?" So then the manager said "Then I guess you would have to provide the information to the seller, and then they will send you the refund when they get it." That approach doesn't seem very efficient, to say the least.

If I send the box back to the seller, would I need to insure it again? Because something different could happen to it on the return trip. And how could he prove that the damage was caused during the first shipment? And to whom is the original insurance claim due? The person who bought the "policy?" (the seller) Or the person who owns the property once it's been paid for and put in the mail? (the buyer) No wonder the insurance industry hires so many lawyers.

So I went online to the USPS site, and after hunting around for awhile, finally found the link for "File a Claim." I filled out the form, attached a few photos, and got this email:

Thank you for submitting your claim for 13xxxxxxxxxxx on 10/27/2016.

The U.S. Postal Service® will review your claim and contact you if additional information is needed. Upon completion of our investigation, you will be contacted with information regarding next steps.


So I guess all I can do at this point is to hope that the people processing the claim know more about the process than the folks at my local Post Office do.

fingers crossed.

PS the original seller has been very responsive. He sent me a picture of his original insurance receipt and has offered to do whatever I need to get the insurance claim settled. The uke was well packed - the body was wrapped in bubble wrap so it didn't move around inside the box at all, and the peanuts filled up the area around the neck. I don't think he was negligent in packing it. He just "misunderestimated" the hazards that could befall it along the way. (Like dropping an anvil on the outside of the box in the precise location where the neck joins the body)

I hope you have better results than I did. I've made claims to USPS that went nowhere, in my opinion one of the most unorganized, haphazard services I've ever dealt with. The personnel I've encountered don't give a crap and couldn't care less about taking care of customers. They find a way to shrug it of to someone else, running the customer in circles.

kohanmike said:

I hope you have better results than I did. I've made claims to USPS that went nowhere, in my opinion one of the most unorganized, haphazard services I've ever dealt with. The personnel I've encountered don't give a crap and couldn't care less about taking care of customers. They find a way to shrug it of to someone else, running the customer in circles.

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sorry to push into a tangent -

In both of my closest local USPS locations, the people that work there act like they not only hate themselves, but as if they hate life itself, and are an example of literally the 'bare minimum' amount of effort to likely get paid minimum wage.

I dread going there each time, whereas OTOH the UPS and FedEx locations are happy places, efficient, and sometimes significantly less expensive to ship something insured. YMMV.

Good Luck AmyDee! I hope you can get a happy result from this madness.

Despite the poor treatment I received at the Post Office, submitting the claim online seems to have worked. I just checked the claim status, and was astounded to see that the claim was approved yesterday. I won't declare victory until I have received a check, but I have hope!

fingers crossed!

Booli said:

sorry to push into a tangent -

In both of my closest local USPS locations, the people that work there act like they not only hate themselves, but as if they hate life itself, and are an example of literally the 'bare minimum' amount of effort to likely get paid minimum wage.

I dread going there each time, whereas OTOH the UPS and FedEx locations are happy places, efficient, and sometimes significantly less expensive to ship something insured. YMMV.

Good Luck AmyDee! I hope you can get a happy result from this madness.

Click to expand...

I keep thinking about your comparison between the atmosphere at any USPS with the mood of a UPS and FedEx store, and I totally agree! But I wonder why it is so? Jobs at USPS are highly sought after for being secure. But at what cost? I wonder what UPS and FedEx stores do differently to keep their employees happy.