What courier do you trust for shipping HiFi?

Hi All,

I occasionally buy and sell HiFi privately but the last item I sold got damaged by Royal Mail who then refused to payout on the claim despite me sending photo evidence which left me having to send money to the buyer to cover repair costs. Most recently I bought a NAP250-DR and I’m not convinced it wasn’t dropped or something because the casework was slightly wonky when it turned up. DHL seems recommended on an old thread I found over on an AV Forums though only insure up to a £1000 which costs nearly £80 to send an amplifier using that service.

A question for the people who frequently ship HiFi - any recommendations on trusted couriers?

For heavy HiFi items, on selling I tend to use UPS. I also double or tripple box for added safety. For purchases I have no choice, but I typically get them sent direct to “Class A” for a service, so that I can have full confidence in the device afterwards.

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Thanks, I’ll get a UPS quote too and double box.

I never know whether to just send in original packaging or not. The last time I sent something in original packaging was a lovely pair of Monitor Audio speakers which suspiciously vanished between me dropping them off at the DPD drop off point (a Sainsburys) and the DPD van itself though fortunately DPD did pay out.

Double box with a filled space seems to work well.
Insurance is a bit of a joke with all the standard couriers though. They seem to have a 4 week wait time if the item is lost, and then offer a paltry amount for the lost item. I have twice, with different couriers, traced the lost package and then informed the courier that I would inform the police as to where the item must have been stolen from, in both cases the item was suddenly found and returned to me. The issue seems to be that you book with courier A, who then subs to courier B who may then sub again dependent on destination. One of those ‘lost’ items had been through 4 carriers before I found its last known location.

UPS has not had any problems for me with international sales or purchases.

The last hifi type thing I sold was a pioneer av receiver, so a fairly large unit. I will always try to box and box again so the outside box takes the knocks but inside, the original box should be safe. But this was £150 I’m not sure what I’d do with something more valuable like a nap 250; probably the same but definitely take up extra cover.
I’ve used ups and dpd without problems.
I’ve delivered speakers before, that’s the safest way but not always practical.

I had a lot of difficulty getting a refund for a parcel damaged by UPS. In the end I emailed the CEO and got fobbed off with a partial refund but I pursued them aggressively and finally managed to get a full refund months later. :no_mouth:

Sounds normal for the industry.
:frowning_face:

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UPS definitely my first choice.

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Well the original box is designed to withstand a certain amount of transportation knocks, so in theory should be enough. Also it will have all the correct logos on it for transportation. However I prefer to add another layer or two, which preserves the original packing a little more.

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Proper packing is the answer as any of the couriers are capable of mistreating a box, and the heavier the box the more likely it is to fall out of someone’s hands or arms.

Use plenty of bubble wrap, and I would not recomend the use of ‘peanuts’ unless they are completely filling the voids inside the box. Double boxing essential, and does preserve the original manufacture’s box, seemingly important for Naim equipment.

The advantage if using the manufacturers packing boxes is that the inserts, if present and not disintegrated polystyrene (the worst stuff, brittle and easily broken and difficult to glue) will hold the equipment right in the box. Still worth double boxing.

I have had scientific equipment sent to me with just a few bits of newspaper, or perhaps some broken pieces of polystyrene vaguely filling the space between the instrument and the box, often a beaten up three ply box well past its best. No use for safe travel.

Stronger 5 ply cardboard boxes are available, and will be the best. I have sent fragile equipment to Australia and the Far East, and been careful to pack well, and every package has arrived without damage. I cannot account for lost or stolen packages, happened twice and been fortunate to get compensation, but choose the service.

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I live in the US, so Fedex followed by UPS.
When I buy expensive HIFI stuffs, I explicitly tell my dealer my choice of courier.

None. Just pray. And for insurance, I once had to make a claim and the cost in my time was astronomical so I also decided insurance for items under about $4k isn’t worth it since I lost that much in time dealing with the claim.

Regarding couriers, we used to ship these encryption devices to banks all over the world. They go for about $25k each and are standard 1U rack mount devices. We used to get incredibly high numbers of customers reporting them as being DOA (25%!) despite operational tests before going out and plenty of packing materials. So we then attached shock labels to them which turned from blue to pink if the carton had been roughed up. But all customers reported 100% arrived with pink labels when using UPS, TNT, FedEx or UPS. So our Logistics manager arranged to observe items coming in at the local depos for the 4 couriers we were trialing. The outcome: apparently every box was thrown, dropped dinged and bashed.

So we abandoned the shock label approach since every customer was demanding a refund when they got a pink label even if the unit worked. Just picked the cheapest courier. And switched to shipping the devices to local offices in multiple countries in bulk on aircraft pallets we prepared ourselves (so they handled by forklift only and individual boxes are not manhandled at all.

My experience is about the same. When sending stuff overseas back to the UK for repair, about 25% doesn’t make it in one piece back to me when shipped as separate boxes.

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Good courier - largely pot luck. Few points to follow -

  • Use parcel wrap to conceal any box
  • Avoid shipping over w/end / b/hol (ie not Friday)
  • If valuable arrange own insurance
  • Remember you may be honest, many are not, so don’t expect instant sympathy from any courier company
  • Use a drop off service - ideally couriers own depot
  • By using a booking agency (a few Naim dealers do this), like Interparcel , who don’t reveal your name on the shipping label + offers a choice of courier, so you can encourage the recipient to choose their preference, so they take responsibility for delays. [This doesn’t shift any damage or total loss to them, just the delay hassle / grief]
  • Essentially if you can’t afford to loose it, don’t ship it! Simples (regretably)!
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How did you trace it?

Local DPD office dreadful.

I happen to have a nice lady who delivers eBay stuff from Evri, which I think was formally Hermes, but their supply chain is rough.

I always use Royal Mail, avoid Parcelforce, and double wrap.

Not hifi related, but when sending high value items we put an apple AirTag in the box
Martin

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I personally only trust the boot space of my car for anything that is not a cable. Driven all the way from Brussels to Hamburg and back over a weekend to avoid couriers!

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Nightmare and a lot of patience. Contact the courier and get on to a help desk with a person to talk to. Complain and they pass you to a dedicated complaint person. Tell them what you already have and ask them to let you know when it left the last known address and where it went to. When they say where ask them what time it arrived. They have all of this info. Keep going with each courier company or processing depot they have passed it to. Eventually when you find the last known recorded delivery address, go back to your original courier and complain that you know where the parcel was last and that you are informing the police to record the parcel as stolen at that depot. Meanwhile do not accept any offer of insurance unless it covers the full cost. In both cases within 48 hours the parcel had been located.
I suspect that there is an attitude within the industry that says that insurance payouts are minimal and ‘lost’ items generate an income at auction (undelivered items go to auction) which covers their internal costs. There is no incentive to spend time on locating the items, or to spend money on resending them on or returning to the original sender.

I try not to send hifi by courier.

Since having some speakers seriously damaged, I only do collection or if not to difficult, deliver it myself.

Does limit buyers but less stressful.

Unfortunately that is difficult for Naim items in France. Limited choice so buying or selling in the UK is necessary. The additional processing time in a customs shed since the B word adds another level of concern.

On the plus side I have had my D9.2’s, P8, 552 and glass shelved hifi rack all successfully bought new in the UK and delivered to France, pre Brexit.

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