Overland Express Guitar courier service

mort

Just seen an ad for this company, anyone used them?

Sounds promising if they ‘specialise’ in musical instruments as prices from £9.99 plus vat and cover up to £3000

https://www.overlandexpress.co.uk/musical-instrument-courier

rossi

any one using this ?

mort

I’d not heard of them before, from the lack of responses it appears no one else has either!

stonevibe

If it works, they will get a lot of business from us lot!

FelineGuitars

they are merely brokers (there are an increasing number of them) using UPS/DHL/DPD etc
they may have a good business model though.....selling courier services at a discount if they can get the numbers up. 
it may be that they have an insurer willing to cover musical instruments though.

mort

FelineGuitars said:

they are merely brokers (there are an increasing number of them) using UPS/DHL/DPD etc
they may have a good business model though.....selling courier services at a discount if they can get the numbers up. 
it may be that they have an insurer willing to cover musical instruments though.

I’m assuming from their info that it’s the specialist  ‘insurance’ part of the equation that sets them apart from the likes of Interparcel etc. Otherwise they would have no USP and be, as you say, just another broker.

rossi

i have a Midtown I want to sell as its a bit big for me but dare not sell until I can insure it .

stuartm1962

Good morning all. Yes we are brokers, but have negotiated full insurance cover for musical instruments and HiFi equipment. The idea behind it is that we can offer you better rates (based on the volumes that we send) than what you would get going directly, plus we offer full insurance cover. Only requirement is that the instruments must be sent in a hard case. Other than that, no catches. This week we will have the option of APC for UK deliveries, who are a network that we have used for the last 12 years and have negotiated full insurance cover, up to £3000, for a cost of £10 per £1000 of cover. We can insure them through DHL as well, but they are more expensive at 3% of the value and a minimum charge of £20. So yes we are brokers, but hopefully we can add something different to the equation. Please pm me if you have any questions, or you can email us through our site https://www.overlandexpress.co.uk/musical-instrument-courier

mort

Thanks for the info, very interesting. Are there any stipulations regarding packaging other than a hard case? I bought a Les Paul on EBay a few years ago that was just sent in its case, with no other packaging, and arrived with a broken headstock. I got my money back but the seller had his claim refused by UPS due to “inadequate packing”. Would your insurance pay out in this instance?

stuartm1962

Good morning, i didn't push UPS, as we have had bad experiences with them. They offer the insurance, but will try anything to get out of paying. DHL and APC on the other hand are far more cooperative. We have detailed pretty comprehensive packing instructions on our site to help with packing. We ship for Gray guitars each week and have done for the last 10 years. Have a look at our Google reviews if you are in any doubt, as they are independent reviews, rather than paid for, where you can "select" who receives the review requests.

mort

Thanks for that - interesting view on UPS as they are a forum staple when it comes to shipping recommendations. 

stuartm1962

We use them a lot and the majority of times they are perfect, just not great at processing insurance claims.

stuartm1962

Good evening all. Just to let you know that the APC service is now live on the website and full insurance cover is only £10 per £1000 of cover.

tomajoha

I used Stuart last week to post a guitar Germany. Recommended.

stuartm1962

Thank you for the thumbs up Tomajoha!!

imalrightjack

Brilliant.  Bookmarked!

bacchanalian

This is good news for those of us living at the extremities

John_A

A bit late, just paid Interparcel postage cost + £31 for insurance for a £800n amp.  Bookmarked for next time

1979

Used these to deliver a guitar, no problems and very easy to deal with 

stuartm1962

Thank you very much for your comments 1979, glad to be of service.

Jimbro66

I have a few guitars to send over the next week or two within the UK and to Europe. I had a look on the Overland Express web site and it was simple to get basic quotes but not easy, I found, to get the true final quotes including insurance. I had to choose one of the basic quotes then go through the whole procedure of completing sender's and recipient's details before moving on to choose insured value. Tedious.  @stuartm1962 would it not be possible for the initial form to request not only size, weight and region/country but also the required insured value? Then the quotes shown would be the actual amount payable and would compare the courier services on a like-for-like basis. If not on the initial form perhaps on the next page before completing all sender/recipient details?