Dr1Driver

If I was the shipper, I would be talking to a lawyer.

That's a crap shoot. The lawyer's fees would be about 1/4 - 1/3 of the settlement, IF you win. If you do win, you MIGHT get court costs and lawyer's fees, but that's not guaranteed. If you lose, you lose a lot more than the original suit. If the carrier can prove it was STOLEN rather than LOST, that's a whole new ballgame and their liability changes drastically. If the carrier can prove that they used "reasonable care" to protect the shipment...

Some days you eat the bear. Some days the bear eats you. Might be time to just cut your losses and run.

Dr.1

TLH101

My Feedback: (90)

Any carrier's (including UPS, FedEx, USPS, or a trucking company) way bill or shipping reciept always excludes them from any liability for loss or damage. When you drop it off, you automaticly agree to that.
That's just what we have to deal with when shipping. It's alwasys best to buy as much insurance as you can, though I have to admit I usually don't.[&o]

kenyaecho

Ok so I agree with Pat. I moved from NY to Cali and unknowingly shipped 20 boxes via greyhound freight. The person I placed the order with absolutely knew why I was shipping and how many boxes. I was told they should arrive within 7 to 10 days. Today is day 18. I have only received 10 so far, one was my tv and it is busted! Had I known they were going to throw my personal items I never would've done this. I have spoken to Supervisors, etc and noone seems to know where my personal belongings are. I am so distraught I cannot even tell you. There are items in there that cannot ever be replaced, not because they are of high monitary value but because they mean things to me. When I've spoken to people at Greyhound I've asked, does this happen a lot and the reply, several times, has been YES. Interesting.
I plan to contact the BBB and anyone else I can think of.
Thanks for listening....Jill[:@][&o]

Mike Bogh

My Feedback: (14)

OK, I'l chime in...I have used Greyhound a dozen times or more, never any damage, lost, or unacceptable/unreasonible shipping times. I have shipped as many as 6 planes in one cardboard box at a time, from the Great Northwest to Georgia. I always make the box just undersize of the storage area, so nothing goes on top. I also at customers request have used brown UPS , USPS and foward Air. Forward Air also 100% satisfaction. UPS, not so much.

I will continue to use Greyhound as my needs are met, always.
Can't beat the price, either.

cschmidt

Well gang, Im on my second set of problems with greyhound, I sold 2 airplanes this summer that were being shipped from Kansas to NC, it took 28 days for them to finally get there, I shipped a glider to the west coast at the same time and took 21 days. I vowed to never use them again but recently bought a NIB out of production airplane from a very nice fellow in Florida. greyhound said it would take 1 day 7 hours to get here so I thought I would give them another chance, this is the 8th day and still nothing. So it seems to be the norm here in central Kansas.
The last time I was at the station I noticed to large boxes sitting in the SNOW. I went to see if one of them was my airplane but found that they were not, BUT--- they were airplanes being shipped out by a fellow modeler who I know, today, there still sitting there in the SNOW , OUTSIDE for anyone to walk up and TAKE. 6 days later!!!
For those of you that have good luck with them, GREAT, I hope you continue to have good luck but as for me this is the last time.

BTW, As for the tracking it? well you cant.

curt

Tired Old Man

My Feedback: (1)

Old thread, but to bring the first post up to date here's the outcome. The boxes were never located. The fat insurance payment of $300.00 was paid to the shipper. He ended up only being out of pocket about another $500.00. A new plane was sent via Emery Airfreight with no problems, so the shipper ended up giving away a second prototype to dovetail nicely with the original losses.

I have a lawyer and she said, "Dad, you looked at everything there was to look at and found out everything I found out, so at this point it's better just not to ever use Greyhound again. But if you do, don't ship anything with a value exceeding $150.00 so you can file a $300.00 claim and recover some of your costs for time and labor in attempts to locate the lost parcel.

Since the time of the original post, the shipper has lost several more planes sent to customers using Greyhound and won't use them again unless asked specifically by the customer. Each time that happened it took dollars out of the shippers pocket and he had to raise the price of his products a bit to offset the losses. So everyone gets to pay for bad business practices due the the carriers negligence. $300.00 per claim was in each case less than the wholesale cost of the products shipped.

You folks that have never had a problem with Greyhound, well, lucky you. Lets hope you manage to maintain that run of incredible luck. For me and others, I doubt we'll be inclined to give them a second chance. I figure they've been in business long enough by now to know what and how they are supposed to do things. If they haven't learned, then I have to believe the negligence or disregard for the property of others entrusted to their care is intentional for whatever reason they may have.

If you elect to use Greyhound you can't say that you weren't warned.

tailskid

My Feedback: (34)

Another sad story....shipped an ARF (BIG box) and insured it for $200....they 'lost' it and now it has been over 5 months and still no Box, no $$$.....in fact I had to show some 'invoice' (w/name, address, phone #, etc.) of where I bought it....not likely as it was a swap-shop deal. Why should I have to prove ANYTHING, they lost the BIG box and it was insured. Heck, it could have been a box of rocks as far as I'm concerned...if it was insured, pay up!!!!

I'm still waiting, but not holding my breath.

Jerryballs

My Feedback: (19)

Wow...wish I would have read this thread prior to shipping a $4k 33% Extra to Bowling Green, Kentucky. Phoenix put it on a bus to Memphis in route to Bowling Green...I talked to the Express Package man in Memphis and he remembers transferring it on to the bus to Bowling Green two days later. It was a big wooden crate 72 inches long by 36 inches wide and 30 inches tall. How do you "loose" something that big? It never made it to Bowling Green. They put a "tracer" on it...I'm not holding my breath. How do you "loose" a crate the size of a coffin??? Does Greyhound loose people?

Darkbird

My Feedback: (7)

I said it before. Greyhond moves people. Their luggage gets first priority above any packages. Shipped with them one time due to not knowing any better. got my stuff fine but late. took twice as long as it was supposed to. It was sitting outside the terminal when I got there. Have since seen alot of terminals, alot of them are nothing more than a small office in the corner of a gas station. From now on I'll stick with shipping companys.

wl7cpa

Greyhound restrivts to 30x47x82 boxes. Any ideas on where to find boxes big and tough enough for RC airplanes?

JollyPopper

My Feedback: (6)

It's kind of amusing how all the folks who were trying to make Tired Old Man the heavy in this and assuring him that he was going about it all wrong and that they could get it done dropped out of the thread somewhere after he offered the reward to anyone who could get it done. I wonder how many tried.

tailskid

My Feedback: (34)

For larger boxes, go to a furniture store and 'make' you own from some of those cardboard boxes they throw away.

dirtybird

My Feedback: (5)

I once made a box of the maximum size and shipped it to a fellow in Atlanta with no problem. I think I had no problem because I put wheels on one end and a handle on the other end. That made it easy to handle. Like a suitcase.If you make one and its hard to handle a lazy worker might not want to tackle it.
TOM made good comments in the beginning but in the end he should have changed his signature to NOM. Nasty old man.
Anytime a newby asked a question he would berate him for not finding his answer by searching the threads.
A search engine is not always easy to handle. You need to know what you are looking for, know the common name and be able to spell it.

SPADinfluence

My Feedback: (1)

I shipped an Extra 330L to a member here a while back via Greyhound. (The one in my avitar) Florida to NY in two days, perfect condition. I did make my container from coroplast, the stuff signs are made of. $8/sheet at my local sign shop. (4 X 8 sheet) and a few yardsticks from Wally World and some gorilla glue. Pretty sound container. No issues whatsoever. I took pictures of it at the station when I dropped it off, and the buyer took pictures of it when he got it. No change. IIRC I had a tracking number I checked online.