Box Brothers of La Jolla — Local services in San Diego

Here is my personal experience with Box Brothers. I have purchased a Formula 1 front nose made out of carbon, it is a light and fragile piece. The seller has recommended this company to send the nosecone from San Diego to Miami. I need to precise that I am familiar with sending such pieces mainly between Europe and Miami. The quote offered and agreed upon was higher than what I am used to pay to bring a similar piece from Europe. Obviously, the nosecone has to be crated, but Box brothers have wrapped it. To give an analogy, it is like transporting eggs in a plastic bag instead of an egg box. Consequently the nosecone has arrived damaged. What has been quite an unpleasant experience went worse with the denegation of big brothers, they refuted any wrong doing, trying to find any excuses possible to exonerate them. The emails I received were courageously sent without a name, telling us that we damaged the piece with a forklift (we do not have a forklift). They said that the shipper did it and we had to deal with them etc etc. They have gone the extra distance to escape any responsibility whatsoever when the problem is quite simple: they simply did not pack the part well. The high cost was for a crate and not a ridiculous and inappropriate wrap. It is, unfortunately a simple case of trying to maximize a profit or lack of professionalism common sense, I am not sure which one is worse. The damages are in excess if $2,000 as the carbon piece needs to be fixed and repainted. It is our particular case and not a general critic of their work, but I would recommend for anyone working with them for delicate pieces to double check their packing process. I have purchased 32 nosecones and had them shipped, none of them ever arrived damaged because they were properly packed. Consequently to this review, I am expecting the type of answer they have sent after the incident which is to deny, deny, deny and pretend that they have done what was necessary, well if it was the case, the nosecone would have...

Almost 9 months ago Box Brothers made a special crate and shipped a piece of original art work from SoCal to NorCal by UPS. When it arrived, we found that somewhere along the way UPS had put a forklift through the crate and ruined the painting frame. Luckily they just missed the painting. It had been packed very well with heavy duty crating, but no packaging will win against a determined forklift.

For the next 6 months UPS made it almost impossible to satisfy our claim even though we insured it for $5K. They kept demanding this and that to prove we hadn't done this ourselves. Geez. Finally after over 1/2 year, UPS said they would pay the claim. Then it took almost 3 months to get our money out of them.

I write this review because the one constant throughout all this charade with UPS was Archer and Box Brothers. He stuck with it and kept hammering away at the carrier until we were made whole. Without his efforts UPS would have blown us off and we would have received zip to compensate for their rough handling despite having paid good $ for insurance.

Box Bros packaging was excellent, their service and follow through way above and beyond what I would ever expect from a shipper, and they never gave up. Can't recommend...

If they would answer the phone in the San Diego location and then get back to clients the performance rating would be 5 stars.

The man does excellent work.

But as things stand they will leave you hanging all day as it happened today. I called and listened to the recorded message that said no one was available in-store and may be on "calls" ostensibly outside the store. Leave a message and we will get back to you.

Four hours later and no call back I called the main store in La Jolla where they do keep normal business hours -- surprise, surprise.

I was told the man in San Diego left for personal reasons early this morning and did not comeback.

Ok, I can understand that, but yesterday I foolishly drove the the San Diego store store from Carlsbad to find it closed. I called and left a message.

Someone in the La Jolla store called and gave me 10% to drive to La Jolla for services which I did -- under duress.

So what is the excuse today for no call back at all and the weak story I was given that the main store doesn't answer the San Diego stores messages.

You can draw you own conclusions these business practices and NOT shady -- they are...