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

I have been trying to collect from UPS for almost two months after they destroyed one of a pair of Quicksilver amps I bought off Audiogon. They dropped it and bent the chassis so bad I had to replace the chassis with a new one. I charged them 175.00 total for repairs and I can't get them to pay. They charged for insurance but they never want to pay. Think about this the next time you ship a nice piece of equipment and UPS wrecks it ...
autospec
porschecab
336 posts
 
I have a good one.

I sold a McIntosh MC-352, insured for purchase price, $3,000, shipped BOLTED to the plywood, all factory original crates, and left. The company somehow knocked off the binding posts, broke a heat sink, etc. I file the claim, and after 4 months of work, they paid $2,000. I wrote down $3,000, but they only charged me for $2,000. Now, the next battle will need to start. Which prevails?

Dan
bamafan
74 posts
 
Karls, I am going by what UPS told me is required to get them to honor a claim. Am passing on what I was told by a senior person at UPS.
sean
6,231 posts
 
Pretender, if these truly are "large" speakers, i would check into going motor freight. You will have better luck using that method than you would with UPS. While i'm not saying that they are the best out there, i have had very good luck over the years using Overnite Express. Their prices were lower than any of "the big three" i.e. Roadway, Consolidated Freightways, Yellow. This is probably due to the fact that most Overnite terminals are non-union, do there is less overhead involved. The shipments that i've sent through Overnite were also delivered in a more timely fashion and arrived in better shape. Since it is a non-union company, employees that slack-off or get caught handling shipments roughly or damaging property will get fired, not just reprimanded with a letter.

One other suggestion and this applies to anyone shipping speakers. Speaker terminals should be "shunted" or "shorted" together. By this i mean using a low value resistor ( 2 - 8 ohms ) connected from the positive to negative binding posts of the speaker. If you don't have access to something like this ( Radio Shack has them and you don't need anything bigger than a 1/4 to 1/2 watt ), you can use a piece of small gauge wire instead but the resistor is preferred.

What this does is "lock" the voice coils of the drivers in place. This greatly reduces the amount of movement or "throw" that the driver can make. It is being held in place by the natural magnetic field within the driver itself. This minimizes the potential for damage since the driver won't be allowed to "bottom out" or "over throw" if the package is dropped or shipped upside down, sideways, etc... The resistor absorbs any voltage generated by the driver, which WILL end up moving a little bit no matter what. It is one of those "ounce of prevention" type of deals... Sean
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autospec OP
484 posts
 
If they don't like the box you are using they should tell you before they take your money for insurance. This person sent me the amps in the factory boxes with at least 3 inchs of packing foam around it and they still ruined it. And not only that, they tell me they have to pay the shipper. So if they pay anyone, which I doubt, I will have to get it from the shipper (if they ever get it).
autospec OP
484 posts
 
It looks like the private shipper charged for insurance but didn't pay UPS for shipping insurance, so UPS payed the private shipper 100.00 total for repairs and that all they are willing to pay. So off to the Court House for the Small Claims Forms.....We will see where we go from here???
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