Lapslah
Super Member
I had a good shipping experience recently that I thought I'd share. I was shipping my telescope for some upgrades and service. The guy at the other end, who gets scopes shipped to him all the time, told me that UPS breaks more scopes than anyone, so he recommended FedEx. The problem with that was that I've had some very bad experiences with FedEx, in which I shipped some speakers that arrived broken, and even though I paid extra for the insurance, FedEx refused to pay. So I was debating what to do, thinking I'd probably have to bite the bullet and use FedEx despite my misgivings. I even checked with my homeowner's insurance, which would have covered the scope in shipping, but has a $1000 deductible... Then I happened upon an independent shipping store and went in to see if they had the supplies I needed. I told them my situation including insurance worries, and the owner says, "Yeah, all of the major shipping companies will try to deny your claim. We ship via FedEx or UPS or whoever, but we have our own insurance to supplement theirs."
WHAT? Maybe this is common knowledge, but it was new to me. So I used this independent to pack and ship the scope. They worked with me to determine the proper value for insurance and strategized with me to find the right way to pack it so it would be safe and I was comfortable. I packed the scope in bubble wrap inside a padded soft case and took it to them for the rest of the packing. Their insurance requires that they do the packing, which was fine with me since I was going to have to buy the materials from them anyway. They packed my case in a box, then double-boxed that inside a heavy duty, thick-walled box that had internal foam corners, so the inner box was floating inside. When the telescope guy received it, he emailed me right away to say that it was so well packed that "the US Army couldn't have gotten into this thing". The scope is now back home in perfect condition. I didn't have to test the insurance.
So my recommendation for those who need to ship something fragile is to not go to the FedEx or UPS storefronts, but to find a conscientious independent shipper.
WHAT? Maybe this is common knowledge, but it was new to me. So I used this independent to pack and ship the scope. They worked with me to determine the proper value for insurance and strategized with me to find the right way to pack it so it would be safe and I was comfortable. I packed the scope in bubble wrap inside a padded soft case and took it to them for the rest of the packing. Their insurance requires that they do the packing, which was fine with me since I was going to have to buy the materials from them anyway. They packed my case in a box, then double-boxed that inside a heavy duty, thick-walled box that had internal foam corners, so the inner box was floating inside. When the telescope guy received it, he emailed me right away to say that it was so well packed that "the US Army couldn't have gotten into this thing". The scope is now back home in perfect condition. I didn't have to test the insurance.
So my recommendation for those who need to ship something fragile is to not go to the FedEx or UPS storefronts, but to find a conscientious independent shipper.
