I'll share my FedEx horror story. I live in the suburbs of DC, about 35 mins or so from Dennis Murphy. I listened to the Salk lineup in his secret lab and decided to order HT2-TL's before I left for Afghanistan. So I put down a deposit with Jim.
On Audiogon, a pair of custom bubinga HT3's show up at a good price (considering they were bought in 2006 originally) over the summer. So I buy them, and have Jim transfer my deposit over for SongTowers for my home theater. The HT3's have to make it from Tennessee to Northern Virginia, about 435 miles if I remember. So I'm overseas and my wife emails with photos saying the top corners are mashed in, the two rear corners on the one speaker, and one of the rear corners on the other. I'm pretty crushed, but I call Jim and he says no biggie, can patch it up.
So FedEx tells my wife they will have the driver help pack them up, since they are so large and she is by herself. He shows up the next day, expecting the boxes to be sealed and curbside (down a flight of like 20 steps on my townhouse) for him to throw in the truck because he can't help pack, its not policy. Doesn't happen and he walks off saying its not his problem, he will stop by the next day to see if they are ready to go out of the kindness of his heart. So I call back pretty upset and by some miracle he comes back the next day and my wife had them packed in the box by herself (although he had to carry them down the stairs). The next 3 weeks is a gaggle of "who has the speakers and where are they" as FedEx tells me they are going to Michigan, the seller they are going to me in VA (what FedEx told him), and online one is listed in both locations. Official policy is they are supposed to go to the seller unless otherwise directed (in a damaged goods scenario), and despite being otherwise directed, they went to the seller. In any case, the seller drives a half hour over to his local FedEx, where the manager is kind and helpful. In a 2nd miracle, *both* HT3's are there and he simply has them shipped to Jim.
So eventually they get to Jim. He pulls them out of the box, and they are pretty much totalled. All the corners were mashed in on both speakers, one of the ribbons was ripped, and the 10" woofer on one was completely crushed, he said it look like someone had just kicked it in. The box didn't show any additional damage to those areas, just the corners as they originally showed up at my place. The only useable part in a rebuild would be the pair of Seas Excel drivers.
In any case, not a fun experience, and I'm back to HT2-TL's and SongTowers. But I'm thrilled nonetheless!
