More shipping damage with NAVL

pacray

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I had my 2nd restored game (the black Ms. Pacman) in a month that I shipped with NAVL show up with broken legs and damage to the sides. Uhg!

I usually crank the legs out to give the bottom of the game a good inch or 2 of clearance, hoping to avoid damage to the bottom edges, but I think they are trying to use a fork lift to move them around, which is breaking off the legs. It sounds like it also got bashed pretty good up top some where, but I am waiting to see some pictures.

I would hate to have to put all shipped games on palettes, but maybe that is the only way to get them there safely. I have heard of people shipping pinball games through NAVL with the legs on and head attached. And others have told me they ship large pieces of furniture and pianos without having to pack or protect them in any way.

It sounds to me like they aren't giving arcade games the same tender loving care as other things they ship. I know Michelle with NAVL used to read RGVAC, but I'm not sure if she has made the switch to KLOV. It would be great to get a definitive statement from them on how games should be packed. I will try to get a response from them and post it here, if anyone is interested.
 
Midway never shipped any games with levelers installed. In fact, all Midway games came with 1" by 2" plywood shipping slats stapled/nailed to the bottom of the cabinet. The cabinet had cardboard corner protectors taped on too. The whole game sat on 1" thick Styrofoam base and then was boxed up
 
I am sure Midway didn't use NAVL to ship their games out. I would expect rough treatment from Pilot Air or some other freight company, but I push people to use NAVL for the added care they take.

The game I shipped was beautiful, and now it has a big gash in the side. I am thinking the guys in the warehouse see a video game and they assume it is a beat up piece of crap.

Uhg, I am pissed off!
 
And you had the game in a cardboard box? And it was banded shut/together? And it was marked "DO NOT FORKLIFT---HAND TRUCK ONLY"?
 
Nope, just shrink wrapped, and no amount of cardboard would have prevented the gash it got.

I don't suppose people do any such things when they ship a piano or other large piece of furniture. My understanding was that by paying around $350 to have blanket-wrapped shipping, it would receive the same treatment as any piece of valuable furniture.

I guess I need to wait and see what they say. At least it was insured, although fixing it right will take a lot of time and money.
 
That's one of the reasons their shipping costs are so high now... they don't have control over everybody that touches the game, so somebody inevitably beats the hell out of it, then they have to pay an insurance claim which helps raise all the rates.

I haven't used them in about 3 years, it sucks too they had a good thing going there for a while but their prices went through the roof once they banged up a bunch of mint condition pinball machines and had to pay for them... then when the gas went up, the prices got unbelievable.
 
Ah, I hadn't heard about that. I did recently hear that they are limiting their insurance claims to $1500. Bummer for the pinball folks.

Their warehouse people obviously feel they can damage as much as they want with no responsibility. If they implemented a policy where you pay for the damage you cause, and track where things get damagaed, it would stop real quickly.
 
Thats too bad ray. I think its a pretty obscure hobby and people dont have the same respect/appreciation as say a '69 Camaro. People see those and know 'be careful'. They dont know the time and effort that goes into doing a resto on a game.
 
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