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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
riffer
362 posts
 
How is this UPS' problem?

Sounds to me like you were taken by the seller.
s7horton
1,077 posts
 
I shipped a pair of Martin Logan speakers through UPS in the original manufacturers packaging.

They punched a hole through one of the panels. They openly admitted that they damaged it, but claim that the packaging didn't meet their requirements, so they would accept no responsibility.

I now ship everything through Fedex.
ihcho's avatar
ihcho
609 posts
 
Two turntables I received were damaged. I was lucky that the two sellers were very cooperative. I report to then what happened with photos. They agreed that there were damages. I asked them to file damage claims. Both did, but only one claim was accepted by UPS.

One TT was packed by a local UPS store (it was very securely packed except the weight not removed and the toneare not secured, causing scraches on the surface from the needle. The needle was bent.) UPS admitted their wrong doing. I got a full refund from the seller, and the seller got a refund for the damage (I don't know how much) from UPS.

Another one was fully insured, but it was not packed by the original packaging material. The TT cover was cracked, the hinge was broken, a coner was dented, and most of all, the needle body part from the sumiko blue point special cartridge fell off from the impact (might have been droped or banged on a wall?). It clearly looked like the TT was mishandled by UPS. I don't think the TT would have survived from such impact with the original packing or any packing. UPS declined the claim due to non-original packing. The seller did not want to get the TT back, but I settled down with the seller with a partial refund. The TT was still operational.

Without original packing, one should prove UPS that his/her own packing was at least as safe as the original to get a full refund for the damage.
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