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UPS Shipping/Damage Claim policy experience

For your general information:

I made a claim to UPS regarding an item bought through A'gon. It arrived in what I call 4/10 condition; the shipper (a newbie) says he sent it in 8/10 condition.

I made a claim to UPS, preferring to believe the shipper that the item arrived damaged.

Apparently, in the eyes of UPS the machine still belongs to the shipper and will only pay him. Moreover, they refuse to have any scale for damage. If you send it to them as damaged, you better consider it totaled since you are unlikely to see it again.

In my case it would have been better to pay to have it repaired independently; it would have been more money out of my pocket, but I feel I would get a semblance of what I paid for. Now I may not get the item back and the shipper will end up with my money twice!!!

Hope this never happens to you, but beware of who you choose to ship with. For me, it's now always going to be the USPS.
mrfonda
traudio
123 posts
 
I have had claims with both UPS & FedEx last year which were both eventually resolved.

BUT.....
FedEx wins the award for the most careless handling of a package EVER!
I shipped a pair of VonSchweikert VR4JR speakers last summer.
If you've ever seen VSR packaging you know it's some of the best. Thick foam, surrounded by a wooden crate, surrounded by a cardboard box.

FedEx managed to destroy one of the of the speakers!
This really took some effort, it couldn't have been just a simple drop. The damage was so severe it must have have been deliberate.

The claim process wasn't great either, couldn't get anyone to talk to me. They settled with the receiver directly and didn't really involve me.
Thought they should have.
don_s
271 posts
 
Traudio and others. How do you deal with shipping paired equipment (like speakers) in different boxes? If one gets lost or damaged the other may be useless if it isn't a current model and the manufacturer will sell a single replacement unit.

Do you insure each speaker for the full value of the pair? How will UPS or FedEx respond to a claim for the full value of a pair if only half is lost or damaged?
swampwalker's avatar
swampwalker
5,138 posts
 
Don_s- I assure you that no carrier will pay the full value of a pair of speakers or monoblocks, if only one is lost and even if they cannot be purchased singly. And they will not pay the insured value if it cannot be justified with a bluebook or invoice or some other data. Otherwise, someone could insure an inexpensive item for big $ and keep shipping it until it gets lost or damaged.
don_s
271 posts
 
Swampwalker, That is exactly what I thought. Kind of scary shipping speakers, mono-blocks, or items with power supplies packaged separately.
raks
468 posts
 
Last year I purchased a pair of speakers which arrived damaged... and came to realize that there is a long and steep learning curve when dealing with the UPS's and FedEx's of the world. Everything said above about items falling off conveyor systems, and worthless insurnace coverage is sadly true.

In that experience, the most honest and helpful answers came from the person who picked up the damaged cartons to take them to the "special warehouse". That person said that anything of value has to be shipped either UPS Ground or FedEx Ground, because "Ground" is the safest way.

I enjoyed the story about meeting the shipping company on the small claims court house steps... which says to me that when someone says "see you in court" the UPS's and FedEx's of the world know their responsible for the damage.

At the same time, when you look at the newer speaker designs, a lot of them are moving away from the square sharp edge designs. I wonder if that has something to do with the manufacturers incuring shipping damage costs.
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