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How to Determine Whether or not a Loudspeaker has a Horn


BEC

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Never really thought about this being much of a problem before, but now has become quite a problem to me. I received a shipment of 15 inch woofers by UPS freight. UPS decided to inspect the shipment and their inspector determined that the contents were "LOUDSPEAKERS WITH HORNS. Why does this matter so much? It matters because freight is about 50 percent higher for shipping "LOUDSPEAKERS WITH HORNS" compared to LOUDSPEAKERS WITHOUT HORNS".

I spoke to the inspector today. He stands by his determination. He said, "Those speakers have horns and I took pictures as evidence when I made the inspection".

I have attached one of those pictures below. I can't see the horn.

Anyway, the only way to challenge his determination is a printed catalog page showing the item and stating clearly that the LOUDSPEAKER DOES NOT HAVE HORNS. There is no such catalog page, of course, and even is there was, it is no more likely to state that the LOUDSPEAKER DOES NOT HAVE HORNS than it is to state that a LOUDSPEAKER DOES NOT HAVE CATS. These Woofers do not have lots of stuff. In fact they don't have horns, whistles, cats, dogs, wrenches, winches, wenches, and so on, but I doubt I could find any official UPS acceptable document to prove that none of those things are in the box. If the inspector says it is there, IT IS THERE.

I have submitted my picture of the woofer as proof it does not have a horn and the inspector has submitted his picture as proof the woofer does have horn. Essentially the same picture has been submitted by both of us. For right now, officially according to UPS, this woofer has a horn.

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I can understand why he would state it has a horn based on what the non technical definition of a horn is like the wiki. It looks like a horn but it also looks like a ufo. are ufo's cheaper to ship?

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Here is a woofer....it certainly looks like a woofer...whats the shipping rate for woofers. a woofer is not a loundspeaker since a woofer only reproduces a portion of the audio band and a loudspeaker reproduces the entire band. therefore, a woofer should only cost a portion of what it would costs to ship a loudspeaker.

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Doesn't UPS charge by size and weight of the package, not by what it contains?

In any case, another good reason not to use UPS.


Also, I wouldn't mind paying 50 percent extra for speakers that came with wenches...

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The shipper (in this case Eminence) determines the freight class. Eminence has shipped a few woofers and they determined the freight class to be LOUDSPEAKERS W/O HORNS. The shipper determined rate class stands unless a UPS inspector disagrees with that. That is what happened this time. The UPS inspector determined that they were LOUDSPEAKERS WITH HORNS and changed the freight class. What he is saying is, in effect, Eminence was cheating on the shipping and trying to get a lower cost rate on these LOUDSPEAKERS WITH HORNS. That is the inspector's job, "to catch cheaters and get more money for UPS". His words there in quotes.

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Is he mistaking the woofer cone for a horn?

I don't know what he is doing. He is looking at the back of the woofer just like in the picture I have above and declaring it has a horn. Now, I can't even think of a logical reason for a large rate increase for with a horn. I do know that if you put a cabinet around that loudspeaker and have some horns in it that it drops back to the ordinary freight class with a low rate, SPEAKER IN CABINET is that category.

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The UPS inspector determined that they were LOUDSPEAKERS WITH HORNS and changed the freight class. What he is saying is, in effect, Eminence was cheating on the shipping and trying to get a lower cost rate on these LOUDSPEAKERS WITH HORNS. That is the inspector's job, "to catch cheaters and get more money for UPS". His words there in quotes.


Sounds like Eminence has a good reason to stop using UPS as well.
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Doesn't UPS charge by size and weight of the package, not by what it contains?

In any case, another good reason not to use UPS.


Also, I wouldn't mind paying 50 percent extra for speakers that came with wenches...

+1[Y] As long as they are comely wenches!

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whats the shipping rate for woofers. a woofer is not a loundspeaker since a woofer only reproduces a portion of the audio band and a loudspeaker reproduces the entire band

So bose should not be called a loudspeaker, sounds fair. [:P]

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Eminence has shipped a few woofers and they determined the freight class to be LOUDSPEAKERS W/O HORNS.

I would guess they have shipped a few...

Perhaps THEY can bring a bit more weight to bear on UPS. I'm sure they wouldn't want ot lose a customer.

Bruce

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Eminence has shipped a few woofers and they determined the freight class to be LOUDSPEAKERS W/O HORNS.

I would guess they have shipped a few...

Perhaps THEY can bring a bit more weight to bear on UPS. I'm sure they wouldn't want ot lose a customer.

Bruce

Actually, yes Eminence shipping manager is quite upset about it and has yelled at their UPS Area Rep. He has tried everything he can think of to resolve this (a several million dollar account to him). He (the area rep) has now told me he will make this right somehow out of his own funds if he has to. It has become a bit more than that to me now however. According to UPS, a freight inspector is ALWAYS RIGHT. That is his job, to keep everyone honest. But I keep saying, what happens if he is wrong?

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Bob,

That is one of the most outrageous things I've heard. Does the UPS inspector seem to be on a power trip or something? Sounds like he's a misplaced talent and should be working for TSA.

Is there any way to go over this guy's head to appeal his determination? I had no idea UPS cared what was in the package ( except hazardous materials ) and freight cost was a matter of weight and dimensions.

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Dee,

I spent two days working on getting to talk to the inspector. Finally got to talk to him today. He has agreed to take the evidence that the shipment had horns to his management tomorrow to see if they agree with him or with me. I really thought that if I ever got to talk to the inspector, we would have a nice little chat about what was a horn and what was not a horn and he would change his inspection results (and rate class). Did not work out that way.

How I got to talk to that inspector was a whole "nother story" I might tell sometime.
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According to UPS, a freight inspector is ALWAYS RIGHT. That is his job, to keep everyone honest. But I keep saying, what happens if he is wrong?


Well, part of this quote That is the inspector's job, "to catch cheaters and get more money for UPS". , the "get more money for UPS" part, suggests that Mister Honest Inspector is crossing the thin line between catching cheaters and being a cheater, in the holy name of UPS profits.
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