YOWWWWW....

I just ordered 13 4 x 8 sheets of Lauhala and a bale of 5 inch moso sawed to 6' to do the ceiling in the Paradise Room. Total $271...cheapest anywhere...Shipping? One-hundred and sixty-one dollars (say this like Doctor Evil, pinky at corner of mouth). Everything oversized. You coulda knocked me over with a palm frond.

Oh, Sorry....from Oceanic Arts, God bless 'em. I know they can't help what a shoddy, shitty company UPS is. (I depend on shipping for my living and have yet to have a good experience with UPS, they are just the absolute gutter lowest common denominator in the shipping business, so FedEx and USPS get my business). UPS managed to destroy a very well packed Fender Custom Shop Vibro King guitar amplifier (these things are BUILT) I sold on E-Bay (1800.00). They sysyematically avoided contact on two claims filed for this one (they "lost" the records on the first claim) and never paid a cent for their negligence....I gave up on hearing back after 9 phone calls and a year of waiting. UPS managed to LOSE a 500.00 vintage toy order sold to one of my most honest, reliable customers. Yes, I said lose. So did they. But apparently in their bylaws they are not responsible for lost packages. They dropped a vintage Weltron space helmet radio while delivering it to one of my customers (clearly labeled "fragile" and packed in 2 inches of bubble wrap and four more of peanuts, yet they still busted it to crap right before his eyes and avoided my customer's and my calls and letters on the insurance claim...never paid). Small wonder their stock is dropping while others gradually recover. AVIOD UPS AT ALL COSTS.

BK, I'm dying to see what you come up with. When I did the ceiling in my bar, it was a big improvement.
Mahalo,
Al

On 2003-04-29 22:19, Basement Kahuna wrote:
AVIOD UPS AT ALL COSTS.

BK, I can second that from personal experience and third it from refurb printer seller who stopped using them years ago.

I think we should all be in the shipping business...

That way we could over-charge for lousy service, then have plenty of money available for tiki remodeling. I've done bamboo matting on my walls, but haven't quite convinced my wife the ceiling will look as good. :D

Damned right. I could do it better with a cart and a good donkey, and probably charge less. :)

I feel so fortunate to have Oceanic Arts just 10 minutes from home!

:tiki:

Traderpup,

Don't you mean you feel fortunate to have home 10 minutes from OA?

UPS makes their business on fast, not careful. From talking to people that work there, I know the level of package throwing that is required to keep your job is very high. I'm sure damage is a margin detail and the less they work at that, the better.

My father-in-law is a Vice President of FedEx and he agrees "AVIOD UPS AT ALL COSTS"
:)

". I've done bamboo matting on my walls, but haven't quite convinced my wife the ceiling will look as good. "

--THE Ugh House Tiki bar has sections of Tapa cloth hanging from the ceiling supported by a simple cross frame of approx. 1 inch thick bamboo poles. It is a good look.

Most people don't find tapa cloth at the flea market like mrsmiley did!

I just favor the big Moso beams and Lauhala (ala Trader Vic's). I want to keep it very tailored, very exotic, and very lush and plush with the quality, so I usually wait until I can throw a good chunk of money at it, step up to the pump, and take big small steps..The two 7 1/2 foot 50's Imperial Luau tikis were my most recent big expenditure prior to my OA order. They were not cheap, but boy do they look good! I'd love to get some more Tapa on the walls, though. I now have to figure out how to map mark the hook locations for our 14 big glass floats, a cobalt saki bottle, a five-foot New Guinea Paupuan Gulf war shield, a Duke Kahanamoku signature model uke, 2 18-inch Puffer Fish Lights, a Dayak blow gun, a ship's lantern swag lamp, and big Cook Islands war club..Problems, problems...

[ Edited by: Basement Kahuna on 2003-04-30 22:46 ]

On 2003-04-30 06:54, Traderpup wrote:
I feel so fortunate to have Oceanic Arts just 10 minutes from home!

:tiki:

Oh, and how is that juvenile correctional facility these days?

:--)

(sorry, couldn't resist!)

Well, for an update folks, UPS has kept their perfect record of botching every shipment I have ever been involved with by incorrectly routing my packages. Delivery has been resheduled not once, but twice, which, at 161.00, leads me to believe I could have personally drove the stuff from California faster.