What can I expect in a UPS damage claim?

the 1st thing you can expect is for ups to pull a fast one,they are going to send a truck to your buyers house to pick up the speakers to take them to an"inspection center" tell ups that you need onsite inspection & that you will not allow the speakers to be transported from site.

even though you tell ups most of the time they still try to pick up the item instead of sending an onsite inspector,once ups has the damaged speakers in their hands they will send them back to your doorstep without asking you.

the second thing you can expect is for the ups inspector to deny your claim on the grounds of improper packing no matter how they are packed"unwritten policy" but as long as you know the ups packing guidelines & followed them or better than thats easy to beat.

the third thing is that after you get an onsite inspection you will no longer be dealing with ups you will be dealing with their insurance carrier,ups does not insure their own shipping its outsourced,the insurance carrier will then send you some forms to fill out & request a damage repair estimate at that time your buyer will have to do a lot of legwork lugging the speakers to a dealer for a estimate.

with electronics it isnt so bad but with speakers damage claims are a nightmare & unless your carefull everybody looses,as Kennyt said above if only one speaker received damage ups will not pay for the pair,cabinet damage can never be repaired without costing as much as buying a whole new speaker & if you didnt sell them for msrp they will only pay what you sold them for no matter how high you insured them for so cabinet repair is pretty much out of the question.

if both speakers have not recieved damage its going to be a long hard road & your buyer or you will end up getting screwed,some reading between the lines here helps,both speakers need to recieve damage for ups to pay for them both.

mike

I had a similer experince. Speakers, originaly from France, were packed exactly as they had been when bought by original purchaser in their original shipping cartons.

The box had obviously been dropped and this ruined the crossover. UPS sent a guy to me to take photos and then they denied the claim saying the pakaging was insufficent. The seller (who gets paid for the claim, not the buyer)knew someone at UPS and got them to finally pay for the damages. Not pretty.

Good luck.

For really expensive items I like to take the items along with original boxes to the authorized shipper who will also package it all up for me. I also like to request an additional box that goes around everything. I requested this of a seller of a really expensive amp and it arrived in perfect condition.

Also, I like to pay extra for fastest airfare available. I don't like ground.

Very interesting read. I bought a pair of speakers from a perfect ebay seller who said he over insured the speakers. They were damaged during shipment and it took me one call to UPS to realize I was screwed. What is your time worth? Mine is worth more than I had in the speakers so UPS wins.
I have a pair of speakers listed for sale now; shipping is not an option. If I get desperate to sell they will go very cheap before I'll ship.

Yep !!!!!!! All the above my friend. You should not have added any additional packing material. If the cartons were original and the inner packing original chances are these were approved by UPS. By adding packing this can be disapproved by UPS just as easy. I know, I have to have items we produce pre packed and sent to UPS for packaging approval. This I must do for my larger clients as we ship over 500 cartons daily. 80 percent is with UPS and 20 percent with Fed Ex. Even on thier approved packing it is always a fight to get paid if there is damage.
However, I would not give up if you used the original packing even though you may have added a little on your own.
Good Luck,
Dave