I've read a few threads about people who have suffered devastating losses when their equipment was damaged in the shipping process. This thread is for anyone who has ever shipped their cue or had a cue shipped to them. In today's world, I'm guessing that encompasses 99% of this forum.
I'll give you the long and short of it, people. I work for one of the major shipping companies (probably shouldn't say which one) as a supervisor. I oversee the handling and processing of literally thousands of incoming and outgoing packages per day, and I will tell you this: pack your cues VERY WELL if you're going to ship them. This is not to say things are being purposely mishandled, but most warehouses operate under suffocating time constraints, thus, care and delicacy have a tendency to be sacrificed.
Most packages that go through our system are on two or three different trucks, and/or two or three different airplanes in a 24-hour period in order to get them where they are going. They get handled by several people, and to be quite honest, some people just don't care.
What I would suggest if you are going to ship your cue:
-Overdo it. However much precaution you think you need to take, take more. Using those triangular tubes is fine, but wrap your cue in bubble wrap first. Stuff newspaper at one end of the tube, put your cue in, and FILL the remainder of the tube with newspaper, paper shreddings, packing peanuts, more bubble wrap, anything. Make it so you can shake that tube with a vengeance and not disturb your cue.
-Consider enclosing your cue in some kind of hard tubing (like PVC pipe) and then using a triangular shipping tube. Again, the less the cue moves when you shake it, the better. Wrap it in old towels if you have to.
-Use a lot of tape to seal the edges of your box.
-Never, ever, EVER, tape two of those triangular tubes together to ship anything. I can't tell you how many times I see one half of a tube go down the conveyor belt with the other half trailing 30 feet behind it because it separated.
-Get insurance on your shipment. Declare its value when you ship it. Keep your receipt.
-You can write things like "Fragile" on there, but you have to understand that thousands of packages being handled, thus making it understandable that no one stops to read every package. Also, everyone writes that on their package. Package handlers become desensitized to the word "fragile" quite quickly. What I would suggest is writing 'FRAGILE - GLASS" and "DO NOT BEND" on it. No one wants to accidentally break glass at work, it's a nightmare. People are always cautious when they think there's glass in a box.
-If you are getting a cue sent to you, plead with the shipper to use the precautions I have outlined here. Offer them more money to ship it overnight or two-day. Don't worry about spending an extra $15 on shipping to protect the $600 cue you just bought. You'll be glad you spent the extra money now as opposed to spending it to ship it back because it's broken.
-Don't ever have your cue sent with a ground service. It'll sit in trucks for the better part of a week, and you'll be lucky if it gets to you in one piece. Some of those ground services are union, and the drivers are plain barbarians who just don't care.
-Bottom line, after it's all shipped up, you should be able to throw that box down a flight of stairs with no worry of harm to the cue. That's your rule of thumb for how well you should package your cue.
Sorry this got a little long, but if it even helps one person avoid the heartbreak of a $2000 cue that arrives as a pile of splinters, then it was worth it.
I'll give you the long and short of it, people. I work for one of the major shipping companies (probably shouldn't say which one) as a supervisor. I oversee the handling and processing of literally thousands of incoming and outgoing packages per day, and I will tell you this: pack your cues VERY WELL if you're going to ship them. This is not to say things are being purposely mishandled, but most warehouses operate under suffocating time constraints, thus, care and delicacy have a tendency to be sacrificed.
Most packages that go through our system are on two or three different trucks, and/or two or three different airplanes in a 24-hour period in order to get them where they are going. They get handled by several people, and to be quite honest, some people just don't care.
What I would suggest if you are going to ship your cue:
-Overdo it. However much precaution you think you need to take, take more. Using those triangular tubes is fine, but wrap your cue in bubble wrap first. Stuff newspaper at one end of the tube, put your cue in, and FILL the remainder of the tube with newspaper, paper shreddings, packing peanuts, more bubble wrap, anything. Make it so you can shake that tube with a vengeance and not disturb your cue.
-Consider enclosing your cue in some kind of hard tubing (like PVC pipe) and then using a triangular shipping tube. Again, the less the cue moves when you shake it, the better. Wrap it in old towels if you have to.
-Use a lot of tape to seal the edges of your box.
-Never, ever, EVER, tape two of those triangular tubes together to ship anything. I can't tell you how many times I see one half of a tube go down the conveyor belt with the other half trailing 30 feet behind it because it separated.
-Get insurance on your shipment. Declare its value when you ship it. Keep your receipt.
-You can write things like "Fragile" on there, but you have to understand that thousands of packages being handled, thus making it understandable that no one stops to read every package. Also, everyone writes that on their package. Package handlers become desensitized to the word "fragile" quite quickly. What I would suggest is writing 'FRAGILE - GLASS" and "DO NOT BEND" on it. No one wants to accidentally break glass at work, it's a nightmare. People are always cautious when they think there's glass in a box.
-If you are getting a cue sent to you, plead with the shipper to use the precautions I have outlined here. Offer them more money to ship it overnight or two-day. Don't worry about spending an extra $15 on shipping to protect the $600 cue you just bought. You'll be glad you spent the extra money now as opposed to spending it to ship it back because it's broken.
-Don't ever have your cue sent with a ground service. It'll sit in trucks for the better part of a week, and you'll be lucky if it gets to you in one piece. Some of those ground services are union, and the drivers are plain barbarians who just don't care.
-Bottom line, after it's all shipped up, you should be able to throw that box down a flight of stairs with no worry of harm to the cue. That's your rule of thumb for how well you should package your cue.
Sorry this got a little long, but if it even helps one person avoid the heartbreak of a $2000 cue that arrives as a pile of splinters, then it was worth it.
)