insurance and shipping with UPS
UPS destroyed an amp I had sent to the manufacturer for repair. The manufacturer handled everything, so I don’t know how it was settled, but the 64 lb. amp was not double boxed. The amp was obviously dropped at some point. When I sent it in, I had UPS Store box it up. They used a box way too large for it, with air-filled plastic packaging. I was not happy. It cost me over $140 to pack, ship (ground) and insure the amp. Also, I have heard that UPS stores can charge whatever they want for "insurance". There is no set price scale from UPS that they must follow. In contrast, I just got a subwoofer delivered by FedEx. 80+ lbs. in the box. Two FedEx delivery guys brought it to my door and into the house. The box was in perfect shape. I think I will be sticking with FedEx from now on, even if I have to box things myself. In my area, Walgreens drugstores will accept FedEx packages for shipping. Very convenient. |
ebeneezerfeeblegeezer has it right in his assessment. I quit using UPS years ago when I watched a driver getting off his truck in front of my house drop a tube amp on the step of that truck. He looks up and sees me in the window and says nothing about it when I open the door. The sound of broken glass (tubes) within the box made my decision to refuse delivery due to damage. Hate them. |
Unfortunately I have also learned the hard way that UPS, when it comes to claims for damages are not to be trusted in any way whatsoever and will actually tamper with evidence and alter the facts to avoid paying out in any way they can. Heady claims you say, I agree but it happened to me too. I shipped a pair of speakers from Florida to Arizona in the original speaker boxes but then also inside a pair of heavy duty bought from the UPS store golf club boxes ( these are great cheap options for shipping speakers if you do not have boxes btw!). Now I plastered these boxes with signs I printed out and taped on along the lines of , FRAGILE, DO NOT BEND, ELECTRONICS, THIS WAY UP etc. Now my local UPS driver is a very nice guy and when he came to pick these up from my house I asked if I could take a picture of them loaded in his truck standing up with all the packaging labels showing which he had no problem with at all. Needless to say they arrived at the buyers looking like they had been run over by an 18 wheeler and both speakers completely wasted.Buyer sent me lots of photos and what was very interesting was that ALL of my labels were gone from both boxes, every single one. dealing with ups claims the lady tried to insist they were not in speaker boxes despite the original speaker boxes and packaging were INSIDE the ups golf club boxes and there was NO indication of goods or fragility, seriously. I demanded to speak to a supervisor who I eventually got after 30 minutes wait and we went through it all again, at this juncture I asked for her email so I could send her the pictures of these speakers loaded onto the ups truck at my house. She asked why and as soon as I said that they showed the boxes covered with warning labels and that after destroying the boxes in transit a ups employee must have removed all labels and tried to cover their backsides she agreed to receive the pictures. To her credit she called me back in 10 minutes, apologised and said ups will cover the full cost of the speakers insured value and refund the shipping charges. Trust them no further than you can throw them! Get all the evidence you can, I take pictures of all my major items shipping and have done for years. |
