Question about UPS claims

jephdood

Had a pair of relatively small floorstanders and a center channel delivered to me yesterday and one of the towers showed up with a crunched top corner. The other two speakers were fine. They were all shipped in the original factory packaging with foam at each end of the speakers and plenty of void space in the box around the speaker. The box in question shows that it was obviously dropped on a corner.

My question is... how does UPS handle a claim on one speaker of a pair?

Here's another thing to contend with... the shipper, for whatever reason, put the entire 3-speaker insurance value on ONE of the tower boxes. I'm not sure how that happened. Luckily, the insurance ($450) was put on the box that was damaged.

I filed a claim yesterday, and UPS showed up tonight to pick up the speaker for inspection. They didn't tell me at all that they were coming, though, and I didn't have the speaker boxed up and ready to go. They're coming back tomorrow.

I'm really reluctant to just hand over half of a pair of speakers, damaged or not. I can just see them denying the claim for who knows why... then bringing the speaker back to me in even worse condition. Am I being too pessimistic? Or, giving me 1/3 of the total insured value and they keep the speaker. What then?

I guess it comes down to asking those that have filed a claim with UPS on damage to just one of a pair of speakers... how do they handle that? What's been your experience in getting a claim honored?

I've only had to file one claim with a shipper (FedEx) and it was for a single center speaker. That claim went through totally painlessly. I'm not sure about UPS.

F1nut

Tell them they can inspect it in your home, there's no reason for them to take it anywhere.

They were all shipped in the original factory packaging with foam at each end of the speakers

Factory packing material often does not meet the requirements of UPS, which is a minimum of 2 inches everywhere. If the foam you spoke of is the white Styrofoam type, it's worthless.

westmassguy

F1nut wrote: »

Tell them they can inspect it in your home, there's no reason for them to take it anywhere.

I've NEVER had UPS, FedEx or USPS take an item. Hi-Res Photos of the damaged speaker, the outside of the box, and the packing material were the only things ever required by all three. Something sounds fishy.
Whenever I've filed claims on speakers, even if only one was damaged, the claim was filed for both, since the undamaged speaker is essentially useless without the other.

SCompRacer

I've had a UPS driver take a damaged item back to terminal for inspection. A poorly packed amp, claim denied. I knew it would be denied but had to follow along and settle with seller afterwards. You can request on site but you may not get what you want.

http://www.ups.com/content/us/en/resources/service/claims/hlp/damage_process.html

2. UPS Inspects Package if Required
UPS will inspect the damaged package to determine the cause of damage and verify proper packing materials were used (in accordance with the shipping terms). UPS may inspect the package at the shipper's or receiver's site, or may collect the package for inspection at a UPS facility.

Old news, but this was it. I got a break from seller, was able to straighten it but it left a mark...

boston1450

Ouch........... I bought a receiver through Ebay & was at home when the truck arrived. I saw him drop the box. Moron. I told him what was in it & he just glared off like big deal. ALL the lights worked as pictures showed it. Now i cant see what channel its on unless i look hard, light doesnt work. NOT THE SHIPPERS FAULT....

Polkie2009

This has happened to most of us who've had something shipped to us. I'm no fan of these shippers and prefer nowadays to just buy from someone within driving distance so I can pick it up in person. If you do buy from a fellow CP member, hopefully they will package it to survive a nuclear blast.

jephdood

I just called, and they're sending someone to do an on-site / in-home inspection. I'm not giving it back to them to punt around again.

polkfarmboy

Damaged goods? Its happned to me 3 times

mrbiron

^^^Someone dropped you?

pitdogg2

polkfarmboy wrote: »

Damaged goods? Its happned to me 3 times

mrbiron wrote: »

^^^Someone dropped you?

Now we know "The Rest of The Story".....

pitdogg2

Polkie2009 wrote: »

If you do buy from a fellow CP member, hopefully they will package it to survive a nuclear blast.

That has been my experience. Best packers on the planet right here!!!

newbie308

UPS will undoubtedly deny the claim. it is their standard operating procedure. The insurance is worthless and they know it because invariably they refuse the claim anyway. My company is a systems integrator for Fanuc robotics, and I witnessed a UPS driver drop a $7000 robot cpu in my doorway and then kick it through over the threshold even though the box was wall papered with FRAGILE labels! Ugh! I just can not tolerate the careless gorillas that work for these companies!

jephdood

I got the call from UPS today. She told me to box up the speaker for pickup, and I reiterated my desire to have the inspection on-site. She said they could do it via email with pictures instead. Um, okay.

So, I sent them everything they wanted... I shot 32 pics. If they deny the claim, I'll just tell them my next move is to file a small claims case. If that doesn't change their tune right away, I'll actually file for litigation and serve it to them via certified mail.

Your move, Brown.

rtart

jephdood wrote: »

I got the call from UPS today. She told me to box up the speaker for pickup, and I reiterated my desire to have the inspection on-site. She said they could do it via email with pictures instead. Um, okay.

So, I sent them everything they wanted... I shot 32 pics. If they deny the claim, I'll just tell them my next move is to file a small claims case. If that doesn't change their tune right away, I'll actually file for litigation and serve it to them via certified mail.

Your move, Brown.

That's probably your best move. Simply insist that they pay up, and that they accepted the shipment as-is, in good condition. I've had to threaten to sue twice, and in both cases they paid up. Shipping in manufacturer's packaging is certainly defensible....obviously one of the major shippers (probably them) accepted it as packaged by the mfgr. at one time or another. BTW, I now only use FedEx for shipping electronic gear. A lot of stuff arrives at my home via UPS, but nothing that I ship goes out that way. I take photos before packing, and before drop off.