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Audiogon members poor packing and shipping damage

Need to get this off my chest and hope it will help other members avoid shipping damage claims. I recently purchased a preamp and a pair of Magnepan 3.7 speakers off Audiogon. I am going to keep this general and leave out the member names. Both items arrived damaged and IMHO the root cause is largely very poor and careless packing.

The 3.7's had the ends of the box secured with one narrow piece of strapping tape on each end which came off during shipping and the ends of the box flapping wide open along with the outer box loose where it should have been taped. With the preamp the seller did not bother to remove the tubes or install the protective screws on the bottom that protect the internals from shipping damage.

In both instances I have taken on trying to get the problems resolved, so far at my expense, and I am just aggravated at having to do this.

I would never think of letting any piece of audio equipment leave my house so poorly packed. I routinely take hours to carefully pack and also to document the entire process with digital pics so if there are any issues with shipping I have good documentation. If you read my feedback it reflects the extra effort I take. No one will ever be able to say there was shipping damage due to my poor packing job and no box I pack is going to arrive open.

I don't know how other Audiogon members feel about this or how many other members have experienced this problem but I just want to point out that sellers have an obligation to the buyers to pack the items correctly. As we all know shipping damage claims are a super pain for all involved and especially the buyer. Right now I've got one claim going with a major shipping company and it will be weeks if I am lucky to get a resolution and my money back and also get the 3.7's back from the factory.

Just a ton of inconvenience and aggravation when I should have been able to unpack, set up, and enjoy.
etmerritt33
mapman's avatar
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mapman
15,679 posts
 
In the case of audiogon, where delicate items costing thousands of dollars or more are shipped regularly, its even more important than in many cases that things be done right.

A $10000 amp or pair of speakers is too costly and risky for buyer and seller to not pack properly. The cost to do so may be significant but a small % of the total cost. WHoever ends up paying for it based on negotiation, terms, whatever it has to be done.

Its both parties responsibility but the buyer is theone most likely to suffer in the case of a problem, so a smart buyer will make sure everything is in line with the seller to best assure safe shipping and perhaps insurance before the item is shipped, ideally before even payed for. If a seller would not cooperate with me on this, then I would look for another seller.

Ronald Reagan in his infinite wisdom did say it best: "Trust, but verify".
nonoise's avatar
nonoise
4,382 posts
 
Everyone knows that shippers have the potential to really mess things up. Any package should be packed as carefully as possible. You'd have to more than a few screws loose if you just stick something haphazardly in a box and send it on its merry way.

I received something I'd won online that was used but I was happy to get it. The box it came in was bigger than the integrated itself. A few (literally) peanuts were in it. The front panel was hanging on by a single screw. A total of 11 screws were loose in the box and the unit. The unit was open on two corners. The wiring had torn away from the volume pot and there was a huge dent on the back of the unit where the speakers terminals were that matched the dent on the outside of the package where it must have been dropped from a considerable height. The reviewer who had it stated he had reassembled it properly before shipping it. Yeah, right. I was able to resurrect it with the help of a local electronics shop.

Buyer (or winner) beware.

All the best,
Nonoise
foster_9
1,610 posts
 
Ok Elizabeth, Mitch2, and Jmcgrogan2, the more I think about it, 7 days is the right amount of time. The more I think about it from the seller's point of view your're right. I take back what I said Elizabeth. I got lucky with this seller.
sabai
2,027 posts
 
Double boxing is the minimum you should insist on. I asked my shipper to do this when he shipped a pair of speakers to me overseas.

The box arrived with one corner badly compacted. It was obviously dropped. I did a prayer. I opened the 2 boxes and discovered one speaker was improperly packed with a large foam buffer missing. The speaker had fallen on the impact to within a whisker of the bottom of the box. The double box saved it from being damaged.
jmcgrogan2's avatar
jmcgrogan2
6,346 posts
 
I knew you'd come around Foster_9. :)
The bottom line is that the buyer does have to take some responsibility in the transaction. S/he needs to verify any issues in a resonable amount of time. Even after 6 weeks I offered to help the buyer recover some insurance money, but I guess he stopped responding once he figured out I wasn't just going to take the unit back and refund his money. I mean c'mon, 6 weeks!!! I'm not a dealer lending out equipment to demo.
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