Anyone have experience at sending large items in the post?Need help;-)

Basically, I'm completely clueless as to how to go about it. I have a synthesiser I want to package and send somewhere else in the Uk, can anyone recommend a parcel service or courier option that specialise in large items such as this.? Does anyone have experience of doing this? Advice really appreciated, thanks guys.

just get some appropriate wrapping materials (bubble wrap, brown paper etc), wrap it up really well and take it to the post office...job done.

you can also get someone like UPS, FedEx etc to come and collect it from your house and deliver it to whichever destination - I got a synth collected from Manchester once and delivered to me in London as I bought it collection only but didn't want to go all the way up there. used UPS. was not that expensive - about £35. unfortunately the process was not smooth and my synth went via Germany and was simply "lost" for about 3 days with UPS showing as much concern as if I'd told them I couldn't find my car keys... it did eventually arrive after about 2 weeks, but it was meant to be 3 day delivery. also I found their staff completely unhelpful and not remotely bothered that a package had been lost. they were just like "well, it's lost mate, sorry nothing we can do at all" - no attempts to even try and locate it. I had to phone around all the depots and find out exactly what had happened and basically sort the whole mess out myself when it was their fault! nightmare....in fact all courier firms I've ever dealt with have been uniformly poor. awful service all round. the only people who seem any good at delivering stuff I've dealt with are Royal Mail and the United States Postal Service. so if you can get it to your local post office I seriously recommend that over the UPS, DHL, FedEx etc of this world.

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wrap it up really well

this can't be emphasized enough, your package will be thrown around with utter neglect and a lot of force (i worked at the post office), package it with that notion in mind, use lots and lots of bubblewrap.

i also prefer post offices when possible, the ups, dhl and the like often function like a bad A.I.

;-)

If you have the original packaging, don't send it in that. Most of the time those things go to Guitar Centers and whatever on skids so they don't have as much cushioning or they are suspended with foam. Use 4-6 inches of bubble wrap, preferably the larger bubbles and completely wrap it. FedEx Office has a big golf bag box that might be long enough, otherwise I often telescope two boxes together (use one box as the bottom and another the same size as the lid, tape the flaps so they stand straight up or down and slide one over the other and then tape all that up). Or you can just pay them to pack it.

This is kind of dickmove, but I'm going to borrow this thread to ask a question of my own:

Do anyone have experiences with sending packages cheaply to the UK from continental Europe?

  On 10/20/2012 at 4:00 PM, eugene said:

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wrap it up really well

 

this can't be emphasized enough, your package will be thrown around with utter neglect and a lot of force (i worked at the post office), package it with that notion in mind, use lots and lots of bubblewrap.

 

i also prefer post offices when possible, the ups, dhl and the like often function like a bad A.I.

I had a Korg Polysix shipped to me once. The guy did a great job wrapping it for shipping.

If I remember correctly, he wrapped the keyboard in lots of bubblewrap first.

Then he put the keyboard in a long, thin box.

Then he put that box in a slightly larger box and filled up the space within with packing peanuts.

I think he just used the postal service too.

Just go to you local postoffice, i sent a bassguitar once to a dude who forgot it at a gig, it wasn't that expensive and he got it 2 days after, just wrap it up well with bubble plasic and paper and don't forget to send it SIGNED, it will probably cost more but then you have proof that you send the item and it can be tracked where it got lost, the dude you send it to will have a note to go collect it at the poststation

Good luck, it should be no problem, i had send many items all over the world even to the middle of nowhere and have experienced few problems

I've sent many various size items over the years, work and pleasure. The only site you need to go to now is interparcel.com. And once you send something you get discounts for all future items.

It's basically confused/moneysupermarket/gocompare .com for parcels.

And yeah, wrap that shit like you're mummifying your favourite dead pet.

Loads and loads of useful hints and advice here, thanks very much everyone.

I'd also like to hijack this for any experience on sending large packages from Europe to the US. I'd like to send a framed painting and the time is not the issue, but money definitely is.

So, does anyone know of a cheap way and still be able to track the package and all? Thanksy!