OT: UPS are EVIL!!!

[silverburst]

I've had at least 5 guitars broken by UPS and FedEx. In every case they weren't packed worth beans.

[Chris C]

I've concluded that a lot of it is just luck. I've gotten a guitar literally shipped in only its hard case (no boxing around the case) with a band of packing tape around it to keep it closed and a label taped to the plastic shell--it survived without a scratch.

I used to work in the shipping/receiving department of a local music store. We would get damaged guitars in quite often. And in many cases, it was obvious stupidity/neglect on the part of the carrier. I once got a strat that had been impaled. It had a half inch hole through it. Something had gone through the side of the box, through the body of the guitar and out the other side. Caused by poor packaging? No way. It takes some force to go through an inch and a half of solid ash.

We had stuff damaged so much that I started packing electric guitars in Cello boxes. It was the largest box UPS would accept. I'd line the box with 1 inch thick fiberboard "armor," pad the hell out of the it, with the guitar in a hard case, in the center of the padding. There would be 8 to 12 inches of firm padding in all directions. Paid a mint to ship them this way. And you know... we still had to file a couple of claims for damage. There is no way the guitars could have been packed any better. The crate was at the size limit for UPS--still... damage. You can't blame that on crapping packing.