Official Luthiers Forum!

Quite telling. Hope it gets more votes.

http://www.acousticguitarforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=156398


Pat

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formerly known around here as burbank
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

It is an interesting poll, with interesting results. The only problem I see, is I believe some people there will vote based on what they've read, instead of their actual experience. I've read about a BUNCH of UPS problems lately.

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I didn't mean to say it, but I meant what I said.
http://www.brackettinstruments.com/

Having tried both UPS and FedEx, I concur with the poll results: FedEx is much better.

Why, you ask? FexEx has its own brokers in house. This means that if your guitar has to cross borders, the customs clearance will be done by FedEx personnel and there are no additional fees. I have had 2 guitars stuck in customs when shipping with UPS. They required that I pay extra for clearance and with the time it took to contact me, for me to send the payment and for the guitar to be cleared again, delivery was delay by a full week. That's 7 days of additional handling and banging in whatever cold or humid environment the warehouse is at. Not a good thing at all ...

Of course, you can pay to have a brokage firm on retainers. I think the cost was about 50$/year, but I may be off a little. The thing is I am not sure if that would still work if I was to send a guitar in another country besides the US.

So FedEx is a bit more expensive, but I have never had a guitar held up anywhere with them. You can also drop the guitar at the FedEx collection point throughout the day, while UPS has specific time frames that you must follow (and it just happens to be right in the peak traffic hours...).

Cheers

Pat

I recently shipped a guitar to a customer in Canada. He wanted me to use USPS because, according to him both Fed-Ex and UPS charge high percentage based fees to collect the Canadian taxes. USPS, which changes to Canada Post at the border only charges $5. Maybe some of our Canadian friends here can verify or explain this. The recent rash of UPS problems I've read about scares me. Fed Ex isn't very convinent for me, so I'll probably do all my shipping with USPS, at least until I have a reason not to.

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I didn't mean to say it, but I meant what I said.
http://www.brackettinstruments.com/

I ship most anything to the US using Canada Post, and then once it crosses the border its USPS. Coming this way, I always ask if it can be shipped USPS. I ordered bits from precise bits a while back - they only ship UPS - the bits were about 200 bucks. the UPS charges were over 45 (vs USPS/CP $5 - that number is correct), plus the Cdn taxes. Total cost was almost 300 ..... You have to pay those with Canada Post/USPS anyway, unless it under 50 bucks, or they let it slip thru - but not much does. I got some carbon fibre bars yesterday that were 90 US - no charges. Allied luth will ship USPS no problem.

Any time borders are involved, the courier companies add a bunch of thier own fees ...

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

When you use the courier companies UPS etc they send the shipment through a customs broker, these guys take a big bite.
A friend of mine ordered a banjo set up DVD from Huber Banjo and the final cost was almost double the purchase price. I do a lot of purchasing from the USA and will not deal with anyone who will not use USPS to ship. I also have an issue with the Ebay sellers who charge higher shipping on items than USPS normal charges. Stewmac is one of the best to deal with, they charge what the postage is not double like many sellers.

Fred

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Fred Tellier
http://www.fetellierguitars.com
Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/FE-Tellier-Guitars/163451547003866