Shipping an oasys?

[Rohan_of_Arc]

My Oasys was sent internationally by...UPS.....
I was worried too as I had read some of the UPS horror stories on here, but it arrived here in the UK in perfect condition.

This would be in large part due to it being in a hard case which was then packed by the UPS store in a large cardboard box with foam.

I suppose that, regardless of the courier, the top tips would have to be:

1: Case it if you can, and then get the shipper to package it at store. Then if there is any damage at least you have a case for compensation as the store will have packaged it themselves.

2: Original box etc- as someone pointed out, if the manufacturere considers this adequate protection for worldwide shipping, then if it all goes wrong, once again this should help in the fight to get money back.

3: ALWAYS MAKE SURE ITS INSURED! Amazing how some people don't follow this simple rule.
A friend of mine had a bass guitar custom made in Germany by Basslab, their basses can easily cost £2.5K or more, this one was no exception.
There were a couple of faults with it and hes sent it back to them to sort out....uninsured.

Don't ever be that stupid please. There are few enough Oasys' in the world as it is! (I'm sure no-one here would be).

[jayS]

Thanks for your replies again, Sag and Rohan.

I wish I had a case available, but I don't. FedEx decided that they can't package the beast, so the UPS is doing it (only other option) and it will be going freight. Hopefully all will end well. They're telling me that they package keyboards and similar things all the time and that they arrive safely, and that they'll package it like they're child. The only other thing I know to do is to do the quickest shipping option that I can afford in order to keep truck time/switching/handling to a minimum.

Any other thoughts? No factory pack or case. I think that they said they were cutting styro to fit it in the box that they're packing, and they're going to have the manager (franchise owner?) check it and seal it up before it goes out tomorrow.

[offshoretechman]

I had recently purchased a 88 key M3 that arrived damaged by UPS. I guess it got shock loaded and the keybed was messed up, keys hard to push down and others that were stuck down.
I replaced it with a 88 key oasys that was also shipped by UPS but doubled boxed, double bubble wrapped and both boxes stuffed with peanuts, the box was a lil damaged and had some holes poked thru the first box but never made it thru the second box....
I think the next time I do something like this a flight case will be my only option

[jayS]

I was going to go double box, but the owner of the UPS store franchise that it shipped from explained that if I were to do overnight it would be loaded into a truck at that store and driven straight through to my local hub where I could pick it up or have it delivered to my address.

They did about four layers of bubble wrap, then custom built a styrofoam box/mounts to put it in. Then that was placed in a large box filled with packing peanuts. I think between that packing and it going overnight (minimizing handling and damage potential) it will arrive safely. It left around 6pm and will be delivered to me by noon tomorrow, hopefully that's not enough time for it to be damaged.

We'll see. Thanks for the comments.

[jayS]

Arrived unharmed! I'm now an official Oasys owner!

[MrT-Man]

Glad it worked out, congrats!

[ollie78]

Yeah, so when I purchased my Oasys 88 from guitar center it was shipped via UPS with complimentary foot prints that broke through the tape on the top of the box..........REALLY?!?!? Fortunately no damage was done to the board itself......But, footprints.......really?!?!? At that time, UPS was the only option that Guitar Center allowed----even as a UPS employee, I was wary of this and I would rather that either FedEX or another carrier handle this most precious shipment.

I worked as a line haul driver for UPS Freight for a short time and I could not even estimate the total number of claims that I saw generated at that terminal, alone. They were a constant, unacceptable accumulation at a large portion of the dock. UPS pays its dock help very little and does not allow them any benefits or the possibility to become full-time(at least in a dock-help capacity), in both the freight and small pack divisions.

Of all of the carriers I would rank the U.S. Postal service as the best for parcel, followed next by FedEX. For freight, go with Old Dominion.

UPS sucks!!!!!!!

[jayS]

Glad it worked out, congrats!

Thanks!