kx250rider
03-30-2006, 11:02 AM
This is old news, but I thought I would post about it... About 4 years ago, a fellow collector bought a good RCA 12AP4 (pre-war 12" TV picture tube) from someone here in Los Angeles on eBay. I was asked to pack and ship the tube, which I did, via FedEx Ground. Packed excellently, shipped fully insured as "Antique RCA Picture Tube". I had used a privately-owned Post box store as the FedEx pickup agent.
Weeks went by, and the tube was not delivered. I checked the tracking number, and it was dead-ended. Without going into details, I basically went through the whole lost claim process using my green FedEx receipt. All they could do was prove to themselves that they had accepted the package, but had no idea where it went. I had no grief with that store, because the tracking number proved that FedEx had indeed received the box from the store.
To make a long story short, FedEx denied the claim because I used the word "ANTIQUE" in the contents list, and FedEx will not cover loss/damage of "ANTIQUE" items. A personal agreement was reached among Dave, the buyer, the seller of the tube, and myself and Dave was repaid, no thanks to FedEx.
To add insult to injury, the rare 12AP4 showed up back at the seller's apartment with a snapped neck in the remains of a wet, battered box MONTHS AND MONTHS later, with 1/2 of the address tag missing, and all of the FedEx markings destroyed. Since the time for a claim had long expired, and it was an "ANTIQUE", we could do nothing.
Now since I said all that, I must also say that I have used FedEx Ground for 100s of other shipments of vintage TV items, and very few problems. The trick is, if you ship a rare vintage item, call it what it is without using the deathwords "VINTAGE" or "ANTIQUE". So had I called the missing smashed tube "1939 RCA TV picture tube type 12AP4", I bet the seller and I would be $750 ahead today.
Charles
Weeks went by, and the tube was not delivered. I checked the tracking number, and it was dead-ended. Without going into details, I basically went through the whole lost claim process using my green FedEx receipt. All they could do was prove to themselves that they had accepted the package, but had no idea where it went. I had no grief with that store, because the tracking number proved that FedEx had indeed received the box from the store.
To make a long story short, FedEx denied the claim because I used the word "ANTIQUE" in the contents list, and FedEx will not cover loss/damage of "ANTIQUE" items. A personal agreement was reached among Dave, the buyer, the seller of the tube, and myself and Dave was repaid, no thanks to FedEx.
To add insult to injury, the rare 12AP4 showed up back at the seller's apartment with a snapped neck in the remains of a wet, battered box MONTHS AND MONTHS later, with 1/2 of the address tag missing, and all of the FedEx markings destroyed. Since the time for a claim had long expired, and it was an "ANTIQUE", we could do nothing.
Now since I said all that, I must also say that I have used FedEx Ground for 100s of other shipments of vintage TV items, and very few problems. The trick is, if you ship a rare vintage item, call it what it is without using the deathwords "VINTAGE" or "ANTIQUE". So had I called the missing smashed tube "1939 RCA TV picture tube type 12AP4", I bet the seller and I would be $750 ahead today.
Charles