[plasmacrack]

Before I start, please withold any flames of stupidity (read further), as I already feel crappy enough .


I purchased a Sony PFM 42B1 from a friend and had it shipped across the country via FedEx. We had the original packaging, but did not place it on a pallet. It was insured for $6000, and was in great working order when it left San Francisco.


Being a neophyte, it was shipped simply in the original box. After 3 days via FedEx, it arrived. After opening the box, however, the horror of seeing numerous cracks across the underlying screen (not the top layer, the layer above the pixels) broke me.


After plugging everything in and trying to fire it up, there was no picture nor light -- the unit was dead.


So of course I will be trying to get the value of my insurance, but other than that, can anyone offer any suggestions? I have been lurking this forum and it seems that once its cracked, the plasma is gone? Are there any service centers that can fix this?


With that being said, I really wonder about mail ordering a new unit. Do all new mail ordered units arrive on a pallet?


Thanks for your help.

 

[Brucer]

plasmacrack-


you may or may/not want to look at this (it's not good news):

http://www.fedex.com/us/services/ter...abilities.html


Sorry to hear.

 

[doody]




that really sucks, dude.


the first rule of thumb is to NEVER ship anything that fragile via one of the standard carriers. you want to ship via someone who knows how to handle this stuff. BAX is a good bet, usually.


i can speak a bit to the pioneers (at least the pro1000). my dealer received my unit via BAX. it does NOT ship palettized to the dealers, as best i can tell. maybe if there are N to a palette and the dealer gets N they come that way, but definitely not one-off.


the PDP was protected by styrofoam at the four corners and that was in a box. that box was further in a box with styrofoam along the sides at each of the four corners. the box was labelled up the wazoo not to be transported in ANY manner except upright.


i ended up buying local instead of mail order through the PB in part because i didn't want to deal with the shipping concerns (and they had it on-hand, which was obviously a plus!).


that said, a LOT of people on this board have bought mail order and haven't had problems. my guess is that it has a lot more to do with the carrier than the packing.


good luck.


doody.

 

[billharris4]

No, not all arrive on a pallet. I got my Panasonic from www.pactive.com and it was shipped in its original box via Watkins Freight. I believe it came from California, and I live in Austin, but everything arrived just fine. In my case, the set was 10K at my local dealer (the only one, hence the list price) and only $7500 including delivery via the Internet, so it was enough of a price advantage that I took the risk. Plus, when you buy something new, it's the seller's responsibility to get it to you in undamaged condition, so I would think that you're protected.

 

[rogo]

Um, Brucer, the ts & cs you sent plasmacrack to are not bad news. They are not liable in excess of the declared value. But he declared the value to be $6K and insured it for that amount.


FedEx will provide all that money after investigating to make sure to their satisfaction that the unit was intact when they picked it up.


Mark

 

[dreamer]

Rogo,


What Brucer is referring to is a problem that was identified a few months back and had exhaustive threads on. You can search for them and find them.


Basically, FedEx is accepting insurance premiums but the fine print limits the recoverable loss to $500 -- regardless of what you decalred the value to be -- if the item is in their list of "items of exceptional value". That list includes Plasma displays, plus most anything else anyone ere on AVS Forum might ship. A lawyer looked into it thoroughly, and FedEx can et away with this.


The bottom line is that you need to look for third-party insurers that specifically offer coverage for this type of item. The insurance offered by FedEx is worthless beyond $500.

 

[plasmacrack]

Guys,


Thanks for your support. I will let you know how it all pans out. But right now, I'm not expecting much. FedEx has told me that it will take 4-6 weeks (!) to process the claim. Which means that they may have someone investigating it, and so I need to store this box for that amount of time.


Which then brings up the question: Are these things repairable? Should I even try? I will try contacting a few registered Sony repair houses here in NYC.


I certainly do not hope that FedEx is liable only up to 500 -- I wish I had known about that when I shipped it.


The only upside to this story is that I got a very good deal from a friend (4k), so if only 500, I am out 3500. Which I guess is better than 5500. And considering all the other stuff going on in the world, if these are the problems I'm dealing with, then I'm pretty damn lucky .

 

[hk29]

PlasmaCrack,


Rah, Rah ... I am happy to see you have a good perspective. If i remember correctly they can not be fixed easily, check this link:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...ghlight=repair


You can always sell it on ebay for a few hundred dollars

I am sorry for your loss.


Hanwook

 

[Compromise]

Just a comment on FEDX. They lost a proposal that my company wrote worth over $2M (yes million). It needed to make the deadline the next day. You know "when you absolutely have to get it there overnight" We tracked it to the local dispach near the agency that was to receive it, and they found it but couldn't get it there ontime.


Too bad they said. Try recovering the weeks of work that went into that thing.


So, our company hasn't used FEDX since (over 3 years).


Anyway, sorry to hear about your heart breaking problem.


Peter

 

[RandyL712]

Hey no shipping company is perfect, but UPS ain't perfect. They lose at least 2% of my packages (but do pay the small claims each time).

 

[RobbyD]

I admit that no shipping company is perfect but I have never had worse service than what I've experienced with UPS. Just abysmal. And I'm not the only one - check these out:

http://www.vcnet.com/%7Erossde/ups_sucks.html
http://www.awebplus.com/ups-sucks/


FedEx has not always been perfect but they're the best that I've dealt with so far by a long shot.