Shipping and Damaging: Advice to Uke Buyers, Shippers, and Case Retailers

First point. Delivery people. WTF? If a package is marked FRAGILE, please don't kick it.

Second point: Uke Sellers. WTF? If you're shipping a uke, please package the Hell out of it. You know delivery people kick our ukes. Cardboard really isn't as strong as you seem to think.

Third point: Case retailers. WTF? If you're selling a $24 case, please don't try to sell it for $96. You know I'm at the mercy of violent delivery people, sellers with misplaced faith in cardboard, and ukes that are FRAGILE. Marking up a case by $72 under these conditions is pure extortion.

My advice to ukulele buyers:
When buying online, purchase a sturdy case at a REASONABLE price and have it shipped to the uke seller. Have the uke seller ship the uke in the case provided.

Failure to follow these guidelines could result in damage to your instrument, excessive mark-ups on accessories, or unnecessary dealings with the Damage Claims Department.

Thank you for listening.

I agree with all this.

In my view though, as someone who has shipped many, many ukes nationally and internationally, the weight of the burden should really fall upon the seller. Only he/she can be responsible for packing an instrument adequately. The only time I ever shipped a uke without a hardcase was nationally, and I double boxed it, padded it like crazy and wrote fragile all over the box. I recently shipped a flea internationally that was in a flea bag but extremely well protected inside and out. Really there are some basic ethics of selling that sellers need to apply to themselves: secure protection and adequate insurance. Obviously the seller can't take responsibility for what happens in transit though. I've been very fortuitous and, 5 years on, I can honestly say I've never incurred any damage as a customer or seller, though some boxes have arrived in a state of utter disrepair.

Why the rant? Have you recently had a bad experience?

Sounds like you had a bad experience - sorry to hear that. I have had two ukes shipped from Hawaii to the mainland. I am very fortunate....both ukes were packaged great and the carriers (one UPS and the other USPS) both handled the packages with respect.

This is why I always buy insurance. I have shipped one uke that arrived damaged. Luckily I bought insurance on it. I have also received one uke that was damaged. Both cases ukes were packed well.

so the key is insurance. Always buy the insurance.

Canada Post's insurance will not cover for damage. It only covers a lost package. Its up to the sender to ensure adequate packaging.

My Koaloha concert came with the box shattered, and with a little damage in the hard case. I was lucky that nothing happened to the uke. (came by USPS)

eugene ukulele said:

Why the rant? Have you recently had a bad experience?

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Without going into the specifics, I had a uke delivered damaged. Nice uke, sounds great but buzzes like hell. After inspecting the uke, it seems a brace got knocked out of whack during shipping. I inspected the thin cardboard box meant to serve as protection and identified two huge dents and a few small impact marks. Had I purchased the outrageously overpriced case that was offered, the uke would have been fine. But I didn't. I was hoping the seller would have done what Eugene outlined, a box padded inside another box. But they didn't. They were hoping the shipper would honor the label stating "fragile", but they didn't. So now I'm fussing around with the Damage Claims Inspector. Its pretty open and shut. I know the seller checked the uke prior to shipping. And from the condition of the box it looks as if somebody made several field-goal attempts with the uke whilst in the box, so the shipper has the obligation to pay for damages. Just pissed I guess. Never had a problem like this with a uke. A few months ago I had ordered a empty guitar case that arrived inside a box that was so bad the delivery guy insisted I open it in front of him. But it was just a case so it withstood the abuse. I even had a mailman try to mash a uke inside a small mailbox! Needless to say that one received a strongly worded letter in response!!

haolejohn said:

Always buy the insurance.

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Wise words. Think I'll make that my signature.

Gee, sorry to hear of your experiences HoldinCoffee. That really is shocking. It's interesting to me, because the first few ukes I received, the boxes arrived in top notch condition, but over the last 12 months or so, I've noticed considerably more damage and wear to the boxes when they arrive, as well as having people receiving my ukes tell me the same thing at their end. Always through USPS... I thought they were the good guys, and that UPS were the ones that were way way expensive and had a poorer service reputation. Is that generally right? I'm confused now. In any case, it amazes me that postal service personnel would so flagrantly disregard specific and obvious signage about the fragility of items inside the boxes they are handling. Hmmmm...where's Mailman to present the case for the Defense???

Mandarb said:

Sounds like you had a bad experience - sorry to hear that. I have had two ukes shipped from Hawaii to the mainland. I am very fortunate....both ukes were packaged great and the carriers (one UPS and the other USPS) both handled the packages with respect.

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I bet more times than not, ukes arrive safely. But its those few times when they get all jacked-up that stick out. Yeah, I've had some good experiences. And the shipping company is being respectful about it so far. I really should give 'em a chance to make it right. Thanks

v30 said:

Canada Post's insurance will not cover for damage. It only covers a lost package. Its up to the sender to ensure adequate packaging.

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Right, but what's adequate packaging? Two boxes and some newspaper? I think sellers should include a big rock in every box so when the delivery people try to punt the uke across the cargo terminal they break their foot!

HoldinCoffee said:

I bet more times than not, ukes arrive safely. But its those few times when they get all jacked-up that stick out. Yeah, I've had some good experiences. And the shipping company is being respectful about it so far. I really should give 'em a chance to make it right. Thanks

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Oh, I would be upset as well if my uke came damaged and the packing box was all beat up. I hope you get things resolved. Good luck.

fabioponta said:

My Koaloha concert came with the box shattered, and with a little damage in the hard case. I was lucky that nothing happened to the uke. (came by USPS)

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eugene ukulele said:

.... over the last 12 months or so, I've noticed considerably more damage and wear to the boxes when they arrive, as well as having people receiving my ukes tell me the same thing at their end. Always through USPS... I thought they were the good guys, and that UPS were the ones that were way way expensive and had a poorer service reputation. Is that generally right? I'm confused now.

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My guess is that it goes back and forth. A few people like me report damage claims, they have to pay out a bunch of damage claims and then they implement 'service excellence' training or something. Things improve for a while, they get some more business as a result and then fall back to their old ways. So UPS or USPS? My best experiences with shipping has been FedEx. Never had a problem with them EVER!

HoldinCoffee said:

My guess is that it goes back and forth. A few people like me report damage claims, they have to pay out a bunch of damage claims and then they implement 'service excellence' training or something. Things improve for a while, they get some more business as a result and then fall back to their old ways. So UPS or USPS? My best experiences with shipping has been FedEx. Never had a problem with them EVER!

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I have terrible experience with FedEx. My ana'ole came to me via fedex and it was damaged and my most recent Mele was shipped fedex. The box had a nice puncture init but luckily no damage to the case or the uke. I avoid FedEx like the plaque.

HoldinCoffee said:

Without going into the specifics, I had a uke delivered damaged. Nice uke, sounds great but buzzes like hell. After inspecting the uke, it seems a brace got knocked out of whack during shipping. I inspected the thin cardboard box meant to serve as protection and identified two huge dents and a few small impact marks. Had I purchased the outrageously overpriced case that was offered, the uke would have been fine. But I didn't. I was hoping the seller would have done what Eugene outlined, a box padded inside another box. But they didn't. They were hoping the shipper would honor the label stating "fragile", but they didn't. So now I'm fussing around with the Damage Claims Inspector. Its pretty open and shut. I know the seller checked the uke prior to shipping. And from the condition of the box it looks as if somebody made several field-goal attempts with the uke whilst in the box, so the shipper has the obligation to pay for damages. Just pissed I guess. Never had a problem like this with a uke. A few months ago I had ordered a empty guitar case that arrived inside a box that was so bad the delivery guy insisted I open it in front of him. But it was just a case so it withstood the abuse. I even had a mailman try to mash a uke inside a small mailbox! Needless to say that one received a strongly worded letter in response!!

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Was it insured? If not, they usually only give you up to a certain amount.

Fedex is still not a good option for international uke players. And, as said, also has problems sometimes.

I think we have to consider that there has been a huge increase in volume of personal goods purchased over the Internet worldwide in recent years, and growth of the post offices are not following the same rhythm.
Deliveries are increasingly out of time, or the edge of it, and the most of the postmen do not receive $ as they should, even with the high prices we pay for shipping by the post service...

I would be sooooo upset if a uke arrived injured. Today I received the flea that Eugene spoke about sending out, there was absolutely no damage to the box and my lovely postman carried it to the house as though it were a babe in arms - he's always careful and clearly it was treated with care all the way through the mailing process.

I hope you get your uke sorted okay and get satisfactory outcome from the shipping company and seller.

You use the USPS?
express mail or priority mail?
express would be more carefully...

I'd be worried that if I bought a case for shipment to the seller and insisted that the seller use the case I provided and then the uke got damaged, the seller is likely to deny liability for the damage by arguing that he/she used the case I insisted he/she use, and that if he/she had been able to pack it in the case he/she wanted me to buy, it wouldn't have been damaged. My advice would be for people at UU to always share their experiences about how sellers pack their ukuleles for shipment and for everyone to make a point of avoiding those sellers who do not pack their ukuleles well. And always buy the insurance.

For many years my preference has been FedEx - still is though the difference is not as great as it once was. i've had many, many bad experiences with UPS - so much so that I really avoid using them when possible. UPS will drop stuff on the porch and run even when it's supposed to be signed for. I've found broken open packages full of musical instruments, digital cameras - in one case about $3k worth of Canon camera and lenses in a box so badly broken open you could see the contents from the street when it was left on the porch - not sure how long it had been there when I discovered it - and I was home the whole time! Many years ago I worked for an entertainment company and we had to ship a lot of very expensive equipment all around the country to our various sites. We stopped using UPS when they wouldn't pay the claim on a $7k projector that was broken in shipment. We'd paid an exhorbitant amount to insure it, when it got where it was going there were tire tracks on the shipping carton and they wouldn't pay the claim because it was "not in it's factory packaging." It wasn't in it's factory packaging because the factory packaging was very skimpy and only intended for shipping several projectors banded together on pallets. We'd had special shipping cartons, heavily padded with double heavy cardboard cartons, specially made for shipping projectors. Didn't matter to UPS that there were tire tracks on the outside carton - it "wasn't packaged properly."

It used to be that USPS parcel was slower than winter molasses but stuff got where it was meant to be without being roughed up. The last few USPS parcels I've had have been slow and looked like they were dragged across the country behind a truck. The most recent was a uke in a hard case from the marketplace. The box had "fragile" marked prominently on every side but it appeared that all that achieved was ensuring that the USPS attempted to crush every side! And now I read that somehow they're overlowing in red ink and my tax dollars are probably going to be used to bail them out. Cretins!

John