Speaker delivery woes

[jackiechansthem]

of course, wike = wife..........but you all knew that, right? All other typo's are the responsibility of the St Austell brewery and their darned nice Doombar

[sq225917]

Russ, it is the sellers job to get them to you in satisfactory condition. It's not your job unless you arranged the delivery. Send em back let them worry about it.

[linnfomaniac83]

Originally Posted by Minstrel SE

Its the feeling that these lads in courier warehouses have a mundane repetitive job to do and I cant exactly see them handling the stuff with all due care. Ive seen them in this sort of situation unloading vans in a human chain of chuck the parcel.

I know exactly what you mean, however it's not acceptable, we pay them to transport our goods and get them to their destination intact, I don't go to weatherspoons and expect the barperson to throw my pint at me and the waiter to smash the plate containing my meal on the table because they resent thier job.

My past experience of couriers!

I have had a very, very rare XTC dac and transport get "lost", I demoed one of these when I was 16 at sound academy in bloxwich but couldn't even dream of affording it, xtc seemed to dissapear off the face of the earth shortly afterwards but about a year later when I was earning money I spotted one for sale in a dealers listing in hifi world magazine, I stumped up the money, got all exited and then never saw it.
Some theiving get must have got their hands on it somewhere along the line because it was a little on the big side to get lost and was in two boxes!
Luckliy I got a refund and brought a karik from a dealer 3 miles away from me.

I have also had a linn lk140 get lost on it's way to me in 2009, to the credit of the dealer they dispatched another one to me immediately and took up the claim with the courier without bothering me.

I have also had cyrus cdxt sent to the wrong destination on the way back from service at cyrus, I did get that one back due to the honesty of the person at the address it was sent too!

I recived a brand new loewe lcd TV with the screen punctured back in mid 2006, I wasn't at all impressed !

Oh and I have recived a couple of LPs bent too.

I have had many more positive experiences though.

[Minstrel SE]

Originally Posted by linnfomaniac83

I know exactly what you mean, however it's not acceptable, we pay them to transport our goods and get them to their destination intact, I don't go to weatherspoons and expect the barperson to throw my pint at me and the waiter to smash the plate containing my meal on the table because they resent thier job.

My past experience of couriers!

I have had a very, very rare XTC dac and transport get "lost", I demoed one of these when I was 16 at sound academy in bloxwich but couldn't even dream of affording it, xtc seemed to dissapear off the face of the earth shortly afterwards but about a year later when I was earning money I spotted one for sale in a dealers listing in hifi world magazine, I stumped up the money, got all exited and then never saw it.
Some theiving get must have got their hands on it somewhere along the line because it was a little on the big side to get lost and was in two boxes!
Luckliy I got a refund and brought a karik from a dealer 3 miles away from me.

I have also had a linn lk140 get lost on it's way to me in 2009, to the credit of the dealer they dispatched another one to me immediately and took up the claim with the courier without bothering me.

I have also had cyrus cdxt sent to the wrong destination on the way back from service at cyrus, I did get that one back due to the honesty of the person at the address it was sent too!

I recived a brand new loewe lcd TV with the screen punctured back in mid 2006, I wasn't at all impressed !

Oh and I have recived a couple of LPs bent too.

I have had many more positive experiences though.

I agree but I can only assume they dont think they will get caught or that any damage will come back on them. If one of them is having a bad day heaven help my parcel. Ive seen this culture of lads messing about where its more important to act cool and have a laugh than do a careful job.

There is often an anti management feeling and the management in turn often employ the cheapest available people. Just like the royal mail there are more than a few lucky dippers because it must seem like Christmas every day for the dishonest.

There dont seem to be enough tracking checks becuase it must be simple to work out where the item went "missing" and hold a full investigation. Because you have to state whats inside its easy for theives to pick the valuable items.

Im not above these people who do an important job. I understand if you are pushing boxes round all day for the minimum wage it gets highly tedious without proper incentives.

I was reading about the driver incentives and they have to race round for a small fee on each parcel. Its a case of the management piling all the responsibility and little of the reward on the lowest paid. Therefore its no wonder problems arise.

To be fair I have had some excellent service. I am very wary about having rare or delicate items sent especially as I havent seen how they have been packaged.

[linnfomaniac83]

I too have had a lot of exellent service.

Loosing that xtc cd combo really got to me though, I was gutted as I knew it could never be replaced, they are that rare, it's almost impossible to even find any info about them online now but I can tell you it looked and sounded exellent!
It was also the size of a typical krell pre power so it wasn't going to fall down the side of a drivers seat.

[Mongeddavid]

The packaging is at fault here. Whilst im sure we all hope that whatever we send by RM UPS etc will be treated with kid gloves ( and apart from the Italian Mail system ive had no problems. ) Some knocking about should be anticipated and items packed accordingly. Pipe lagging is pretty compressible and with no other protection a drop or knock on a corner is going to end in tears. I would send them straight back to the seller.

[alanchamberlain]

It's definitely worth going out of your way to collect or deliver if at all possible - I usually suggest a half-way meet and only charge for petrol. Or sometimes a cheap day return can be worth it. A claim has probably no more than a 50% chance of success and in the case of my last claim (£50 for a turntable lid) cost me at least 10 hours of my time. I was quite lucky with a recent delivery of a glass shelf which was left out in the rain by the courier. Judging from the ruined packaging they assumed it was knackered and returned it to the sender who found to his amazement it was OK and then sent it back to me. But it just shows what idiots we have to put up with. Needless to say the courier did not apologise either to the sender or to me.

[domfjbrown]

Originally Posted by Interzone

I was on the southbank recently and saw a guy 'unloading' parcels from his truck by being stood in the back chucking them 6 feet to the floor......

Aaaahhh... ...the warm glow of nostalgia as I remember the two night shifts I once did for Royal Mail. Some of the things I saw there were truly sickening - parcels and packets being thrown, etc. I was also made to go into a loading dock with no hi-vis or safety boots despite the rules, and managed to run over my foot with a 250kg trolley with no sympathy. Never again!

Hope that UPS claim gets sorted quickly by the way. UPS by name, oops! by reputation.

[jackiechansthem]

Well, I had an email from UPiSs this morning saying my claim has been approved and they've offered me £75! Because they only cost me £150 (yeah, I know I robbed the guy) they are offering half the cost for the severe damage to one speaker.

I'm not sure if I feel insulted or lucky to get an offer......... I'm keeping them (of course, they're no good to anyone) because they make enjoyable music but I couldn't replace them for £75 notes. I guess I could strip the crossovers, ports and drive units to sell on when/if I want rid and get a good price on fleabay.

What's the consensus - take the cash and run, or reject their offer and hope for the best?

I'm thinking that in making an offer, they've conceded that they screwed up and if it were to go to Small Claims I'd have them. Then again, maybe not?

Of course I'll make my own decision but the wisdom of the collective would be helpful.

Cheers, Russ.

BTW, the guy who sold them wanted collection only - I asked him to pack and arranged the courier myself. I wasn't going to drive to Hull for £150 speakers.

[Rodrat]

Go back and explain they are matched pairs and it is not possible to buy a single matching speaker. Offer them both backnto them. It may only be a relatively small amount of money but don't let them screw you over.

[jackiechansthem]

Cheers Rodrat and everyone else for comments and support.

I did just that and they came back to me fairly quickly and offered £110 plus keeping the speakers, so I agreed - if I couldn't raise £40 for the pair or for the complete set of parts if they get moved on then I won't sell them!

In the meantime, I'm enjoying the sounds they're making and when I've finished my subwoofer I'll see what I can do to tart up the duffed in corner. Mrs J will remain happy and I get cudos I think some Egyptian cloth covers will soon appear on the speaker tops, along with one of one of my wife's granite sculptures!

Thank you all.

Originally Posted by Rodrat

Go back and explain they are matched pairs and it is not possible to buy a single matching speaker. Offer them both backnto them. It may only be a relatively small amount of money but don't let them screw you over.