FedEx strikes again...
 

It's been awhile since the latest shipping horror story hasn't it? Well, not long enough if you ask me.

First off, my latest eBay purchase:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=5803939060

Although this MJ1035 didn't have the accessory speaker, it seemed a solid unit; the seller friendly and helpful. It came with several nice features, including an external Wave Magnet. I wasn't in the office to receive the package (I always tilt 'em while the driver is there, and if something sounds bad I'll make him wait) but the exterior of the box told the story: Heavy crush damage. Once inside, I discovered the upper right hand corner of the cabinet dented, and this is no small feat, because these Zenith cabinets are pretty sturdy. The force of the blow was so great the chassis ripped itself from the cabinet, breaking the little plastic feet off the bottom, which were still held to the cabinet by the screws. Pulled the mounting screws off too. The tuning shaft was sheared off and the tuner, plus the dial cord is broken and/or shattered. The whole bottom of the box was littered with broken parts, springs and busted plastic bits. Is there a war zone somewhere between Arizona and Kansas I don't konw about?

I am furious at Fed Ex. Will I ever learn? NEVER AGAIN. Note this Zenith was packed well; double boxed, bubble wrapped and well fitted. Too bad, because I can tell this was a very nice set.

I have been looking for this radio for months. I think I need a hug.

Currently jumping through the claim form hoops in hopes of reimbursement, but I'm not holding my breath. One fine old Zenith, taken out before its time.

Sorry to hear about your radio. I think those Zeniths were some of the best consumer electronics ever made.

That's too bad about your radio....maybe next time ask the seller to take the back off and stuff it full of plastic bags or such as this will help immobilze anything such as the chassis from generating a force due to gravity and moving around and breaking stuff inside the cabinet.

It's not just FED EX that can do this...had something similar happen with a TV shipped by another shipping company. Chassis sheared off from the cabinet and the CRT broke loose too! Huge amount of damage. It was well padded from the outside too but all that momentum caused by tumbling the package did it in.

I wonder if Greyhound may be a better way to ship? The only places the package gets moved is between the baggage compartments of the busses and then into the bus depot at its destination. There wouldn't be all the hazards of package sorting and truck loading that plagues truck express services I would think.

HMMM, Maybe it's time to switch to DHL, I notice the local theatre uses them for movie shipping and they come in unschathed. IMHO, shippers are more careful with commercial shipments, consumer shipments are always $hit on!! :no:

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Nolan, Sorry to hear this. Shipping is a crap shoot at best. I will keep my eye open for a replacement.

I bought a Dynakit ST 70 on Ebay a few months back. This one was in excellent condition BEFORE it came my way. It came via UPS and had a dented chassis, torn-off output transformer and a totaled cage. After a little cajoling, I got the owner to admit he had given the amp to his UPS driver to ship!!! Hello! Why would a driver understand how to pack a cumbersome backheavy item like this? The amp. was just floating around loose inside a double box with a good two inches per side. Dumbest thing I may have ever seen. One less classic amplifier in the world. I got a full refund thank God.

Ouch ! ! !
 

Nolan -

I am very sorry to hear that your Zenith radio was destroyed in shipping. The damage sounds incredible. The MJ1035 was a very good set in its day, from what I understand (I've never owned one personally, just seen pics of them here in this forum and on ebay). What I can't figure out, try as I will, is why on earth the set was damaged so much if it was double boxed, bubble wrapped, the whole nine yards. I would think anything packed that well should withstand anything thrown at it, put to it, etc. The only thing I can come up with that makes any sense is that the box must have been hurled around, dropped, and maybe kicked across a floor a few times before being loaded onto the truck. I've heard that packages are often subjected to such abuse by FedEx and even UPS, although all but one of my antique/vintage Zeniths were delivered by UPS and every one of them arrived here without a scratch. (The one set that was delivered by USPS Priority Mail, my R-70 Zenith portable, also arrived here in good condition, with only normal wear on the case around the tuning dial.) My K-731 came to me from Miami (over 1000 miles) and was in excellent shape when I unpacked it (the seller had bubble-wrapped it and packed it very well).

You have my sympathy. I hope you get things straightened out as far as damage claims, etc. are concerned, and also, I hope you find another MJ1035 on the 'bay soon. That model isn't scarce (yet, anyhow--I see them every now and then in my frequent searches of Zenith radios), so you may find another one fairly quickly if you do a little looking.

Good luck.

Kind regards,

I shudder everytime someone sends me anything via FedEx, I never get a chance to make the driver wait because they drop it (literally) outside the garage door and take off. Then when anything is damaged they refuse to pay no matter how much insurance the shipper has paid for. UPS is not 100% perfect, but when they damage something I have shipped they make good.

It got so bad with FedEx, DHL and USPS simply leaving packages outside the garage door that I installed a wireless doorbell and a sign asking them to at least ring the bell. My big mistake was assuming that they could read.

Rob

Thanks everyone, for the sympathetic replies. More than anything the thought of a perfectly good, high quality radio being needlessly destroyed is what bothers me most.

Chad, last night I was halfway kicking around the idea of sending you the Zenith for evaluation. If it were repairable, that might be something I’d be interested in doing. If not, it is full of valuable parts. Obviously, you’re in a better position to distribute or use them than I. Let me know.

The seller is upset too. He told me if he would have known this was going to happen, he never would have placed it on eBay to sell. Some money was spent to upgrade (re-capped, etc) and it’s been in his family for years. In the light of current world and national events this is small potatoes, but it's tragic nonetheless! Back on the hunt I guess...

Shipping mess
 

Watch out for DHL, too. I've been working on a claim for damage they did to a well-packed Predicta back on July 1st. Tore it to hell. Insured, but what recourse do we have if they refuse to pay? Anybody ever took them to Small Claims Court?

Here's another weird thing that the post office is doing to Predictas-breaking in the pkg. and unplugging the CRT socket! It's happened on several I've personally shipped AND on one recently shipped to me that I bought on eBay. Guess they think they"re 'disarming' it?? Talk about troubleshooting ones sent to good-paying customers!

Sorry to hear about that radio getting smashed :( I think most people at AK have had a few things damaged from shipping what makes yours so odd is it was packed well.

I have had very good luck with Fedex and have switched from UPS mostly because of customer service, office hours, UPS wanting to inspect my packages and not taking anything glass at the customer counter any more, etc. Fedex has been friendly and have not broken anything. They did lose one pkg. real bad for a couple weeks but they found it, and it was partially my fault due to a bad zip code. I guess it depends on your experience with your local people. I am disappointed to hear they smashed a radio though. I always heard UPS was worse on that and still believe it.

The more I read about these things, the better I feel about driving my new speakers 1300 miles across the country myself.

I had a pair of skis in a cargo hold on a plane that were damaged in such a way that I think a truck or some other tarmack service vehicle must have literally run over them! Maybe something similar happened to the radio? Watch out for those wild forklift drivers!

I have had so many damaged items from all shippers, but the best is a set of head gaskets that UPS gave me at my door that were in a shape of a U with a tire track down the middle. I could not believe he was even trying to deliver them.
The items that make it like my RCA 621 was double boxed with old auto seat foam everywhere. Box was now almost round and bounced like a ball.
TV made it fine.

Zenith radio
 

Hi. I need several days to heal from an infected foot, but, may have some good news for you. Get me the model no. I have a slightly ratty one, but, not broken. Between the 2 you can make one good one. If it's the right model, and you want it, you may have it for the cost of shipping, and packaging. I DO NOT use Friz EX.. By the way, other speaker they talk about has the output of other channel, as well. It was an optional extra by Zenith. 'Tis true. That radio plays pretty good. :banana: :yes:

Bill, please read my PM for details, but let me give a public thanks for your generous and kind offer. Good folks hang out around this place! I already knew that, but this gesture is a nice reminder. Thanks again everybody-

I've had my fair share of stuff shipped to me, and so far have had pretty good luck with it all, only a few minor damages to report. But one story bears telling - I had bought something on ebay, a Zenith Z-19 computer terminal (I collect old computers too). This is one of those all in one, monitor/keyboard mounted together computer terminals. It's kinda heavy, probably about 30 pounds. I was at home when I heard a loud >WHAM!< at the front door. I open it, only to find a battered Viewsonic monitor box, upside down, on the doorstep. I opened it, and lo and behold, the terminal had made it through intact. It was packed very well, with hard foam and carpet padding, and bubble wrap to boot, and the terminal itself was inside a heavy garbage bag, taped around to keep out foam crud. I was glad it was so well packed, but amazed at the amount of noise that it made when it was delivered - they really must have thrown the thing at the door! There was even a smudge on the door where the box must have hit it. Amazing. That was UPS. United Parcel Smashing, I think.

Also - a question for El Predicta - what did you say the postal service has been doing to predictas? Are they actually opening the packages or do they just have the knack for dropping them at the right angle to knock the CRT socket loose? Please elaborate - this could be some postal service plot to control our television viewing habits. Or not. But it sounds interesting...

-Ian

I always have things shipped by parcel post whenever possible. I've had a Webster-Chicago wire recorder damaged by UPS and a Ampro reel-to-reel damaged by Fedex.
Luckily the damage was minor in both cases and easily repaired. A friend of mine had an Orthophonic Victor phonograph arrive in pieces once though, courtesy of UPS.

Predicta CRT sockets removed
 

This happened 5 times in 2005. One, going to Japan through customs, is understandable. Others, like me shipping from Texas to Atlanta, or from Texas to Memphis, or to Calfornia, is not. Since I'm the shipper and not the recipient on the above-I have no way of checking how USPS (4 times) and DHL-got into the well-packed boxes. Another time I was the USPS recipient on one sent me from Arizona. Same weird deal-as you may know, some effort's required to do this to a Predicta, remove the screws holding the plastic cover, etc. On the one I received, I made it a point to ask the sender if the crt had been unplugged before shipping; SHE assured me it had not. Lately, I've been using Fed Ex & no unplugged crt's!!

Space is best Protection
 

What ever you ship, ask seller to use big double boxes, ending up being 3-5 times bigger than item shipped--- with plenty of packing. Label fragile and insure very well, these companies may handle items differently if must pay out large insurance claims,--- & at least someone will get their @ss chewed for DROPPING that expensive item off tailgate.


:D

Never use the words, Vintage, Antique, Rare, Old, and some others, in a claim, if you do they will only insue it for $100 !!

Every Zenith radio I've gotten on ebay to date was shipped to me via UPS, and arrived here without a scratch. :yes: The radios were also packed well, no complaints about that.

UPS has never thrown anything at my door. I live in a small town; maybe UPS is more careful about package handling in these places well outside metropolitan areas? :dunno:

BTW (for Nolan Woodbury): I saw a Zenith MJ-1035 AM/FM/stereo FM radio on ebay the other day (two days ago, IIRC) and thought of you when I saw it. I don't know if it's still there, but if you're interested, have a look at it. If it has already been sold, I'd just keep looking. I know you're looking for a set like this to replace the one that was wrecked on its way to you last year. The MJ-1035 isn't especially rare, but they don't turn up every day on ebay either. I see more K-731s on the bay, however, than '1035s or even C845s. Those '731s (not to mention Zenith's other 1950s wood-cased AM/FM radios) must have been very popular in their day if they show up so often. I wouldn't dream of selling or otherwise disposing of any of my Zeniths, especially the K731 atop my refrigerator. These radios are pieces of history today, the likes of which we will never see again--unfortunately. The worst mistakes the Zenith Radio Corporation made, IMHO, were to quit making radios and to leave Chicago for Korea.

I appreciate the thought Jeff...from one Zenith aficionado to another! But I did get one, and it's a beauty! Check the Threads in Forum menu ("Here's my newest set") dated 1-17-06 for pics and details. Yeah, I found it on eBay and I was sweating bullets ‘till it arrived safely.

You don't have to be a rocket scientist to realize that big, heavy radios like the MJ1035 are more susceptible to shipping damage than other sets, Zenith or otherwise. On the MJ, the chassis (receiver and main speakers) are fastened to the cabinet by the same four screw/plastic nut method as all Zeniths of the era. But because it's heaver (more tubes, more transformers, more everything) it is more fragile and specific blows -especially ones from the side or corner- can really take their toll. This is what happened to my first MJ; the blow from the side was so severe it ripped the chassis from the wood with a force so severe it shattered the tuner and snapped the volume shaft in half. Ouch. Sure, it's great to have a parts radio but I didn't feel so cheery when it happened. It is wise to know what you're getting into.

The whole eBay/shipping thing for antique radios is a mixed bag. eBay is great for finding specific sets or models...after all, how many times have you walked into an antique shop or second hand store and found the EXACT radio you're looking for? The flip side of course, is the shipping and the possible rip-offs that occur because of it. If the set was valuable enough, it might make sense to hire a dedicated shipping firm for delivery, but that opens a whole new can or worms. You buy the radio, you roll the dice...