Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I think there can unfortunately be a great difference in service between a small dealer and a big box store, (on many levels). Personally I assumed that the guitar in question had come from a large dealer and had been damaged on the floor and not noticed by the staff when it was shipped out. Such a scenario would have been unlikely with a small dealer such as Chris who knows their inventory intimately and may even be involved in the packing/shipping process.

This has been an informative thread from so many points of view. Most of us have used a courier service for one reason or another and we often have little choice but to rely on them. My heart is in my mouth when I ship and receive any guitar, let along a Rickenbacker. There are at least three learnings here for me.

1. Examining what goes wrong during shipments such as this one is a reminder that "routine" shipping also brings with wear and tear of significant proportions. That we pay a significant amount of money to insure that our product is shipped safely can no longer be taken for granted, if ever it was. The slightest movement of a guitar inside a case is placing the instrument at risk. We must find better ways to pack. A further lesson, and I realize that this is also no guarantee, may be that shipping over the fewest number of days possible may reduce the handling of the product and other hazards of exposure especially during severe weather.

2. Bringing negative shipping outcomes to the attention of others is important and invaluable information to those who also avail themselves of the same service. Those highlighting the difficulties through their own personal misfortune are to be commended. Long may they live. We need to encourage them to comment and support their willingness to discuss the events.

3. Each failure of a shipping service that ends in damage requires careful and systematic analysis in which the rush to judgment is best withheld until all of the facts are in. Acting on incomplete or inaccurate information may result in conclusions that inadvertently harm others in ways that we cannot fully measure at the time.

Guitar shippers should use something like Shock Watch
http://www.uline.com/Product/ProductPop ... 1053_L.JPG

86kubicki wrote: I'm still hoping to make it to MARF so I can thank him personally!

I am going to MARF to apologize to Chris personally!

It's been 5 months; anyone know how this turned out? If Chris got UPS to pay on this damage he should write a how-to book.

While at MARF III Chris showed me the guitar; the damage was not nearly as bad as those photos indicated, the photos exaggerated the damage!

I was refunded the full amount of the guitar. The reason the photos appear to exaggerated the damage is they are macro photos which make the guitar appear larger. I could have put a ruler in the photos for scaling.

I think part of it was the flash angle made the damage look a lot deeper than reality; the macro made it look ultra realistic, too.