Help! Spakers damaged during shipping?Paid insurance (with proof)being told not Insured?

I know in my case, the seller was given a claim representative that maintained contact with me and the seller letting me know what they needed as documentation. It was a drawn out procedure, but they maintained contact throughout. All you (I) needed to do was give them what they wanted, ie. picks of all sides of outside box and picks of inside box and packaging. Probably 3-4 months until they paid the claim.

I bought big and heavy floor standings for my daughter from audiolab a couple years ago. They used some small, unknown shipping company. Upon delivery the OEM boxes was so weak and damaged, wholes and ruptures was all over it. When I saw the boxes on my porch for the first time I thought this is total negligence, but when I opened it the speakers inside were crispy clean, untouched and in perfect condition. Huge relive. I think the problem is bigger than we think. It careless unprofessional people performing work at job spots newer should be filled with such people. That is funny at some Starbucks locations those kind of people couldn’t even brew a coffee. 

Wow, well this has been an awful lot of information, thank you all.

I have read many of these responses, Let me give you all of the details like audio2design suggested then perhaps I can use the wealth of knowledge and experience here from you all.

So this was only the 2nd item I have sold online or on audiogon.com
The first one had no problems because it was not damaged.

I took the speakers to a Fedex storefront and had paid them to package them for 2 reasons: 

1.) I had read  people saying that when the self packaged they were not allowed to be insured.

2,)  these people do this professionally every day for living so they must be better at packing than me.

 So I leave the FedEx store after paying them to package the items and go back to my regular life. About five days later I get a message from the buyer saying unfortunately I got some bad news and he sends me a plethora of all these pictures where they were clearly damaged still think they been dropped from about six or 8 feet in the air is and crushed tweeters broken off the tops of both of them,  damage to the cabinets but they had been drug on the ground and more.  So I was not very concerned because  I remember I got an insurance is because of the sheer value of the items and I thought after all that's what insurance is for. (little did I know still be here).  So first I file a claim with FedEx  in its entirety including all pictures documents everything that is asked of me.  When I get a response to the claim they tell me that sorry this package is not insured but I knew that it was, so I go looking through my paperwork to find my proof of insurance.  now starting to wonder how can I have proof that I have the insurance but this company that's for larger more organized than me doesn't have proof of this.  Well turns out it's my mistake,  when I purchased the printing label and insurance on audiogon.com  that insurance is through audiogon and NOT through FedEx. (and though not their responsibility even though they caused the damage, Fedex actually refunded to me the entire shipping cost aprox. $400 as well as offering to ship the speakers back to me for free).

 So  I then contact audiogion and get a response from Tammy.   I consult with her about what I need to do as far as with the buyer and whatnot in October I read on their website that I need to refund the buyer  and then I continued to see the claim through,  she says is correct so I refunded buyer his money. She is very helpful and responsive and a breath of fresh air after all the arguing back and forth I  have been going through with FedEx until ultimately I realized  I was accusing the wrong party smh.  She tells me no problem I'll get this taken care of for you  can you go and see me all the information pictures and everything. At this point had it all combined into one 82 page PDF document so I said that right over to her.  she said these things get resolved pretty quickly and submitted the claim for me and then sent me the claim number told me to check in a few days  if they need anything else  they would ask me. well, I end up checking the claim  to find out it has been denied the reason is: 'This item was not insured'  which by this point absolutely know it was and  that it was them who was insured through.  So I take my audiogram receipt that lists the insurance amount individually as a line item and create a collage sort of thing that also has where that amount was debited from my bank account with some arrows pointing showing
- how much I paid for the insurance
- when and  I paid for the insurance
-the money for the insurance coming out of my bank account

 I send this to Tammy she forwards it to them and they still say no it was not insured.  So Tammy tells me she's going to look into  this and will get it taken care of not to worry.  That was relieving to hear as I still thought  this all will eventually turn out correctly because I know I'm not in the wrong.  I continue to follow up with Tammy for updates on this which she only becomes less responsive,  to the point that after three or four unanswered emails over the period of four or five weeks I get a little upset and asked her more bluntly why are you not responding to emails I feel like something shady is now going on,  but she tells me it's because she doesn't have an update yet.  She then asked to verify my name or address like this is finally going to be finished they're going to approve the claim and send me a check. 




The last I heard form Her was on12/08/2020 when she responded with this:

"The reason I have not responded back to you is I don’t know anything yet.The claim is still pending. I know it is ridiculous. Let me inquire about it again today."

Tammy
Audiogon

**The status of the claim has never changed, nor was it 'pending' at this point.

 I have sent a follow-up email on 12/12/20, 1 another on 2/18/20 and another on 01/06/2021  but have just had radio silence from her.

** I contacted shipengine.com directly and this is what I received from them

"Hey Allen, 

Thanks for this information.

I was able to find this label and the request that created it in our logs. In the request, insurance was not declared or included.

I would recommend reaching back out to Audiogon for further compensation or information for why their system showed the package as insured when it was not.

I've attached the request body that was used for this package that you can supply to Audiogon as proof that they did not include insurance in their request to create this label.

Kind regards,

********** ***********
API Support Specialist

When I received this response from shipengine.com  it made me think back to one of the very first conversations I had with Tammy in which she told me she would be the one to handle the claim process instead of me.  

July 22nd 2020

 "I agree Allen, We just switched to another insurance company so I may not be able to open the claim until tomorrow.
I'll email you once it has been done."

then on August 20th from Tammy

"Allen,,

Appreciate the email. I’m afraid to tell you that things have been delayed. A supplemental claim had to be opened. It may be a few more weeks before this is settled.I hate this for you, but know that you will get your money eventually. i will try to get more details sometime next week."

Fast forward to today and no reimbursement and getting the ghost treatment from audiogon.

So it appears to me the fault lies with audiogon, from what I receiveed from shipengine.com as well as audiogon's 'guilt' which makes sense on why they have stopped responding to me and maybe they have known this the entire time which is why they're just kind of been dragging it out giving me the runaround becoming slower and slower to respond hoping I will just go away.  

I'm hoping with the plethora of information and knowledge that was provided from the original responses perhaps you will be able to help point me in the right direction.

Regards,

Allen

Did you ship the speakers in their original boxes?  If not, were they shipped in a double box container with Styrofoam to withstand shipping.  I would certainly start there first.  If they weren't shipped in the proper packaging, I would cover them if I were an insurance company.  If you did all of these things, I would certainly hire a good attorney.  

You have cleared up all of the questions that I have. It seems pretty simple. Audiogon accepted payment for insurance, but did not purchase the insurance from their provider. They will not be able to collect for coverage that they never purchased. Hence, Audiogon needs to accept responsibility for the loss, and cut you a check for the full amount of the loss.