Posted by Will Traphagan on November 19, 2001 at 09:24:49:
In Reply to: Re: UPS Shipping/Insurance Follow-up posted by Matt on November 18, 2001 at 19:44:34:
I would guess that the viability of Amtrak for shipping tubas depends entirely on where you are. My own experience (at the end of last week) in trying to ship a tuba did not have a very satisfactory outcome. Relatively small east-coast city, large railway station, 1 (one) clerk selling passenger tickets was the only person on duty in early weekday afternoon. He did not know how to do the shipping paperwork, made it plain that he did not want to be bothered, e.g., "we don't take musical intruments," "you can only insure it for a max $2K," and several other statements that I knew to be incorrect from reading Amtrak's web page. All this after spending some 40 minutes the day before trying to secure information from Amtrak via telephone, without success. Bottom line? I had absolutely no confidence that the tuba would actually even be placed on a train, so I took it back home. I went to a shipper on the way, but $250 was a little too much for my wallet. Next week I will make an 8 hour to deliver the tuba. So much for Amtrak. I'm sure they provide a wonderful shipping service in some places, but around here they are difficult to reach, uninformative, unwilling to provide the service they advertise, and surly, to boot. No wonder they are not solvent!