My daughter will be starting school in 3 weeks. We live in Florida and have decided to fly to Cornell. We will be buying things from Bed, Bath and Beyond and picking the items up in Ithaca.( love this service) However, my daughter has some things that we will need to ship like her tv, guitar, record player and vinyls, Has anyone had experience with the Big red service that is affiliated with Cornell?
We used Big Red Shipping and Storage just two weeks ago for my D who will be a freshman. It is a student run organization. We live in Chicagoland and we are driving, but we have to move our two daughters in to two different colleges that weekend (fun fun), so we don’t have enough space in the van, so we we used Big Red to ship two large boxes of stuff to Cornell.
Once we signed up for a pre-arrival contract on their website, they emailed my D a barcode to take to any Fedex location. We packed A LOT of stuff into the largest size box available and they scanned the barcode, printed out the shipping label and off they went to Ithaca. I had to pay for the boxes and packing material, which I think amounted to about $30, but I did not pay for shipping at the Fedex office. I am still waiting to be billed from Big Red for that, as I believe we get a discounted rate if we ship via Fedex. We did receive confirmation from Fedex that the boxes arrived, so just crossing my fingers that they will be in her room on the 21st!
Thank You! I have to check and see if they can ship oversized items. Good Luck to your daughters!
@lisaol yes, I think on the Big Red Shipping site they give you dimensions and prices for each. By the way, the bar code that my daughter received was good for 10 boxes. We only used two of them. The bar code has an expiration date, so if you don’t use it by the end date, then you need to contact Big Red and ask them to email you a new barcode. I also think there is a deadline for shipping in order to guarantee that it will be in the dorm room upon arrival. Good luck to your daughter. Mine will be staying in Balch this year.
I’m not sure I’d ship actual records - seems to me that they’d be too likely to break. The benefit of having your music in computer files is that they are easier to transport, won’t break, and won’t warp. I’d leave the vinyl at home, probably. The TV might not be necessary - don’t they say somewhere that not all dorm rooms have TV, and that students should just use the internet to watch shows? You might want to wait on that, until you are sure it will work (and that she has time for it). The guitar, also, could be quite fragile. Pack it in a sturdy case meant for shipping. A better idea is to carry the guitar on the plane and ship things like clothes or blankets, instead. Don’t check the guitar, take it as a carry-on. It will fit in some overhead bins or in the suit closet on the plane. Then you will know that it made it safely. My daughter has a nice guitar, and we’ve flown with it several times. It can be a pain, but it is better than having it broken.
@tamara6, flying with a guitar is easier than flying with a cello! My oldest D always has to buy a ticket for her cello to fly in the cabin because it won’t fit up top, and there is no way we will check it underneath. It’s much too expensive.
@TiggyB62, I believe that! My son plays the cello and will not be taking it to Cornell because it is just too hard/expensive/awkward to do so. My daughter, who plays the guitar, does take it back and forth to college. A little foresight on our part would have been nice - maybe we could have directed him towards the violin or a small wind instrument - something portable. Too late now! I wonder if Cornell has someplace where you can check out/borrow/rent for a few hours a cello. I’m sure he won’t have time to play much, but he might like having the option to play a little. Hmm, I’ll have to check on that.
@tamara6, my cello daughter does not go to Cornell, but she is a dual degree major cello performance/stats at Carnegie Mellon and at their music school you can make arrangements to rent one although most of the music kids have their own with them. Pittsburgh has many fine luthiers because of the Pittsburgh Symphony so there are plenty of instruments in town. Not sure about Cornell, though. My Cornell daughter is a violinist; much easier transport!
Thank You! Well, she has music on her computer but according to her it’s just not the same as her vinyls. We decided to take the guitar in our carryon and pack the record player in our suitcases. We will buy a tv once we get there if needed.