Irregular package or not? From UPS

[wyomingrocks]

Hello group, do you guys select irregular package when shipping with UPS. It is defined by any package that requires special handling. By the looks of some of the amps I have bought they are not doing anything special to guard against injury. If I select irregular package do you think that would help a package arrive more safely. I always do a tight snug cushioned wrap and haven't had any breaking problems but just thought I would ask if you use that option? Thanks for any feedback

[Gtr_tech]

My only advise....pack it like you expect it to be dropped from a plane....'cause thats essentially what happens to it. *Don't* have it marked "fragile"....thats just putting a bullseye on it

[R.G.]

Here's one of my posts from another forum on the topic of shipping amps, which I would extend to shipping largish speakers.
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What follows is my reply to "When I'm shipping an amp, should I remove the tubes and put them in a separate box, or leave them in?"
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I have done some amp shipping. You'll be fine if you remember these simple rules:

1. Carton handlers at UPS are either off-duty gorillas bored with the zoo or demented sadists with forklifts. Box your amp assuming it will be knocked off a three foot high pile of other boxes onto any surface or corner or skewered with a tempered-steel forklift fork at 20mph and you'll be fine.

2. The handlers in (1) regard well packed boxes as a challenge, and are limited in their attempts only by their keepers... er, I mean bosses who glance into the warehouse every hour or two and fire any handler who's caught abusing boxes and making the bosses pay the insurance claims. This sometimes turns a gorilla into a demented sadist. The best ones are SNEAKY demented sadist gorillas, and the workplace conditions select for this in a Darwinian way. You might not recognize them for what they are if you met and talked to them.

3. The bosses are mildly civilized weasels who hire lawyers to provide a legal defense against paying insurance. They force the lawyers to show a profit over their salaries by proving they've avoided paying at least their salary in refused claims. Expect to have a camera ready when receiving your amp and take the pictures right then and there, and MAKE THE DELIVERY GUY SIGN A PIECE OF PAPER NOTING ANY DENTS, DINGS, RIPS, TEARS, OR FRACTURES ON THE PACKAGE. You have a lawyer to defeat. If you make it obvious to him or her that it will take too much of their time, you will force them to go on to an easier target.

4. Box in preparation for 1, 2, and 3. You need at least two cardboard boxes, sheets of polyfoam sheeting bought in the roofing and insulation department of Home Depot and a sheet of 1/4" luan plywood also from Home Depot.

The inner box should be a good fit to the amp. Remove the tubes, put them in small cardboard boxes with foam, peanuts, bubble wrap, etc. The tubes should not rattle when you shake the box. Put this box inside the amp with enough fluffy stuff like crumpled newspapers (not peanuts or styrofoam to get into the speaker(s)) to keep the box from rattling around and poking into the speakers. Put a flat piece of cardboard over the front of the speakers, back of the amp, and control panel. Put a plastic bag or plastic sheet over this whole mess and put the assembly into the first box. Add enough styro sheet to keep it a nice fit in the box, preferably some sheeting on all sides of the amp, distributed evenly.

Cut the luan plywood into six pieces, one piece suitable for lining each of front, back, sides, top, and bottom, fitting within about 1/4" to 1/2" of each other. Tape these pieces to bottom, sides, front, back. The outside box should be large enough for you to get at least 2" of styrofoam sheet thickness between the inner luan lining and the inside box and the outside box on all surfaces. More is better, but over 4" is probably diminishing returns. Make sure the thickness is about even on all sides. If not, the sneaky demented sadist gorillas will be able to figure out which is the thin side to ram the forklift into or drop it onto.

When you're done with this, put in the top luan plywood sheet, close the box and tape it shut. Tape all of the box seams with at least two thicknesses of clear plastic packaging tape. If you possibly can, find a place that can put a couple of plastic packing bands around it. Now you're ready to ship.

If this sounds expensive and difficult, imagine that you're on the other end of the shipment and you have a forklift thrust through the front of the amp chassis - not the speaker, that's too easy to fix - or that the bottom 1/3 of the package is accordioned flat, the impact having broken the speakers and transformers loose to chatter around inside the amp with every bump on the road. In that condition, what WOULD you have paid to have it arrive intact instead of in the condition it's in now?

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You should note that I'm only mildly kidding. Items 1, 2, and 3 are deadly serious. 4 is probably too mild a suggestion.

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That being said, I recently repaired and shipped an amp by a NON-UPS carrier's ground service. I followed my own suggestions as outlined in #4, including the extra plywood layer. When it arrived, it had been dropped so that the bottom-front edge of the amplifier met a sharp metal edge. The extra plywood, cardboard, plastic packing AND FRONT EDGE OF THE AMPLIFIER were crushed in about 1" in a triangular dent on the bottom front edge. The amp itself was one of my Workhorse amps, made of 18mm (3/4") hardwood plywood with a routed groove and the speaker baffle glued into the groove. The indentation stopped when it ran into the baffle, as the crush strength there is probably large enough to support a car.

The recipient noted the problem, took pictures of the amp and packaging, saved the packaging, etc. as recommended in 3. I had insured the package for $1000 when I shipped it.

The NON-UPS shipping service took one look and said, sorry - not our problem. You didn't notify us in writing quickly enough with all of the attachments, statements, yada, yada, yada.

We're still working that one.

[Chuck H]

You know... It's un freeking believable how certain services have the general public over a barrel and seem to intentionally exploit it. If anyone I know did their job as consistently poorly as the shipping companies they wouldn't have a job. The only reason the shipping companies get away with this is they have postured themselves within laws that have too much gray area. How did that happen??? You'd think they were big government contractors with greasy palms for all the crap they get away with. But I digress to avoid changing the subject.

I use foam and plywood much as described though I only use one exterior box. And FWIW I usually leave the tubes IN the amp. Sure they may be knocked around, but they're secure enough in the sockets that they don't fall out and any impact that jarrs them is limited. Fewer bent pins and broken base alignments from user installation at the other end.

Worse than any shipping company is the airports. Holy crap have I had problems with flying gear I'm traveling with. I swear that I have NEVER checked a piece of gear and gotten it back undamaged. OK, I never had a guitar broken. But I've had them scratched, locks busted off and all the cases I ever traveled with are wasted. I ALWAYS gate check my guitars now and this seems to work out fine.

R.G. is spot on that there MUST be people working in the industry that are in it for the challenge of whether or not they can compromise the durability of your packaging. What else do they have besides moving cardboard containers from point A to point B. I guess it's maddening because you'd have to think some of the outrageous torture these parcels are subjected to is intentional. I have seen forklift scars into the face of packages that actually cracked the plywood I put in there. I've actually started the practice of packing my amps backward (relative to what the ship labeling suggests) so that intentional abuse to the "front" of the package is more likely to damage a back panel than a baffle or speaker.

Oh... A nice stock of those crush zone, impact resistant packing corners is a must have.

[wyomingrocks]

Thanks for the feedback. I have bought and sold quite a few of amps, I currently have 4 amps to sell. When I got to the part on ebay, that ask was the package irregular, I didn't really remember checking that option last time I sold an amp. I can barely move these things and they toss them around like they were feathers. When ever I buy a new amp, it don't seem like they use two boxes most of the time. Just one box and some fancy foam packing. I hate shipping!!! Do you guys buy bulk boxes somewhere? I have done some research on that in the past. I may end up buying a few different sizes to double box in the future. I don't live near a guitar center or anything. I have had pretty good luck except for a road king that I took the tubes out of a few years ago, individually wrapped and labeled the tubes and when it arrived the kid said two of the tubes were bad and wanted me to replace them. I did, <sucker> just so he wouldn't ding my rating. If I don't declare it as irregular , that is probably UPS way of denying a claim, If I do and have the same luck as R.G. they deny you. I wonder if a guy really can win with there rules.