UPS ??? Do they ever pay a claim???

Pretender, some of the worst packed items that i have ever received came courtesy of a "mailboxes, etc" or "Pak-n-ship" type of service. The episode that i mentioned previously with the amp hanging out of the box was packed and shipped courtesy of one of these types of services. Besides doing a horrible job ( my experience ), their prices are absolutely ridiculous.

I had a piece that i was going to purchase from someone in Nevada. I told them that it would run about $12 - $15 to ship it to me here in Chicago. While they thought i was crazy with the shipping price i mentioned, they went to get an estimate. They took it to their usual shipper ( one of these "3rd party" shippers ) whom they said that they had been using for over 4 years. They were quoted $42. Needless to say, i refused to pay that amount of shipping on a very small, lightweight box. I stressed that they should go directly to a UPS terminal and do some "comparison shopping". The UPS price was $13 for the same package with the same insurance. Needless to say, they were VERY upset with the "3rd party" shipping service that had been stabbing them for several years.

Ericbee: I've seen other people make mention of this tactic. Your approach seems very well thought out and i may put it to use if i run into problems in the future. I just hope that i ( or anyone else here ) has to resort to such tactics. Sean
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Thanks Sean:

Yes, I am quite sure that I can do a better job packing my items myself. As a matter of fact, I have never had a problem yet with damages. However, I am now faced with the prospect of shipping some large speakers--and there is no way that I can double box them, or even add extra packing material. I will have to rely on the original boxes/packing. My line of thought was that if I had them actually put the speakers in the boxes, and if something were to happen, that I would have an easier time collecting from their insurance company than UPS/FEDEX...

UPS is usually very strict about electronic equipment being packed in its original containers for the insurance to cover it. They also told me that if an item has been shipped more than 2 times already go ahead and get new packing materials as it loses efficiency by a rate of 50% each time it is shipped.

I have had one claim against UPS and it was paid within a week. Only took one phone call by me. Sounds like that is an exception to the rule

Several years ago I purchased a used pair of Thiel 3.5
speakers from a dealer out of state. UPS delivered them
with one of the speaker grills broken. I filed a claim,
and got the typical runaround for several weeks, finally
an inspector came to the house to inspect the damage
and I ultimately was reimbursed. However, it wasn't easy
or user-friendly.

Bamafan, NEVER ship just in the factory packaging, always put that inside another NEW box with at least 2" of insulation all around. The reason I say this: I once shipped a CAL cd player in its original factory packaging (which was very good, btw). It was damaged and ups refused the claim, saying that they would not insure reused boxes. I got the last laugh, though. I told them to send it back to me, and they lost it on the return trip! They paid full retail immediately, since I had it insured for that. I never ship components now without putting them in a second (new) box. At least it takes one excuse away from them.