enlarger insurance claim experience

[MTL207]

Hello everyone,

This website was recommended to me by a friend of mine.
I'm a first time poster on this forum looking for some advice. I'm not sure if this is the correct section of the website to post this in, and I apologize if it isn't, but my question has to do with darkroom equipment.

I'm wondering if anybody on here has ever had any experience in dealing with a ups insurance claim for an enlarger? I recently purchased one and it arrived damaged from handling in transit and I have had no news regarding my claim in over a month now. Has anyone had to pursue something like this? Or have any advice on where I should go with this? Every time I speak to the ups store, they say that they haven't heard anything from the insurance company yet. Does it usually take this long for a claim to be resolved? Maybe I should cut my losses and chalk it up to a lesson learned? Anyways, just wondering if anyone else has gone through this with ups before and what their experience/outcome was? I don't know if it makes a difference or not, but I am dealing with ups Canada.

Thank you in advance for any insight into this.

Best,

Peter

 

[bvy]

I've not gone through this, but there's no "cutting your losses" until UPS has completely followed through on the status of your claim. Keep on them. They may or may not owe you an enlarger, but they absolutely owe you an answer. Even in Canada.

 

[paul ron]

if it was damaged and the package was insured... it should be covered to the max extent of the insurance, thats why you pay extra for insurance.

the problem, you must have evidance, photos, of the damaged box it was shipped in to demonstrate it was the fault of handeling, not improper packing.

file a claim n keep after them because they have a habbit of losing the claim. make copies of everything you sent them so it can be resent a few times incase they jerk you around.... and they will!

i repaired an rb67, lens, body n back overhaul. i shipped the camera with $500 insurance that arrived at the customer damaged in transit. it looked like it was smashed under a fork lift. the recipiant was offered $10 because they said it wasnt packaged properly.... thats on a on a $500 insurance claim! we werent going to stand for that so we kept after them for almost a year. we finally got $350 to cover the lens and body but still never enough to cover his repair cost on the original camera let alone replacement of it.

if you dont get any satisfaction on your claim... small claims court will get results in yiur favor.

i will never use UPS ever again! usps has never let me down.

 

[MTL207]

Thank you for the advice and encouragement bvy. It has been difficult trying to deal with such a big company. I have spoken to their corporate and they have only referred me to the specific ups store that shipped the unit, and while they have been nice, nothing ever seems to move...

To respond to APUGuser17- not it wasn't on eBay, it was a private sale. A big thing that I have going for me that just happened to work out is that the gentleman I purchased it from did not feel comfortable packing it up so I payed for ups to package it, so they at least can't say that I did not use enough packaging/regulation size tape. (yes, apparently that is a thing they have denied claims over)

I paid for insurance, and I also paid an extra $50.00 special handling fee so they would treat it with extra care. I even have an email from the ups store guy that packed it saying it could "survive a bomb" he packed it so well. Then the box arrived, and maybe it could "survive a bomb" but it did not survive how it was treated during shipment unfortunately. One entire room in my apartment is filled with the packaging material and boxes used, as I am afraid to throw it out in case they say they need to inspect the packaging at any point. I have tried my best to cover all my bases, but as paul ron said, it is easy to feel that you are being jerked around in all of this...

 

[Sirius Glass]

Welcome to APUG

I have had more than my share of UPS problems. Document everything with notes and photographs. Do not accept "No" as an answer.

 

[eddie]

I once had to file a claim for a 16x20 Zone VI print washer I sold. UPS was the carrier, but I used one of their shipping partners (Parcels Plus) to do the packing. When the buyer tried to file a claim, he was told that I (as the seller/shipper) had to file the claim. The various pieces of the washer were returned to the Parcel Plus I used, and the claim process was begun. UPS initially denied the claim, stating that the packaging was insufficient for the item. I had seen how PP packaged it, and it was sufficiently packed to withstand all but excessive abuse. After about 5 weeks, PP refunded my money for shipping and claimed value, rather than lose me as a customer (I was a regular customer, shipping prints domestically/internationally a few times a month). Having paid them to do the packing was crucial in their decision to pay me, though. They would not have had I packed it myself. About 6 months after PP refunded me, I asked if UPS had ever paid them. As of then, UPS hadn't. I never asked again.
Has your seller/shipper filed a claim, too?

 

[MTL207]

Thank you Sirius,

Where you ever able to reach a satisfactory resolution with ups?

Fortunately, I took pictures of everything right when it arrived as it was obvious damage had occurred..even seeing it being taken out of the truck was telling.

 

[MTL207]

I paid for the shipping, so technically I was the shipper and the receiver, so fortunately I don't have to include the seller. From other forums online, it seems like ups does not honor most insurance claims, by claiming the items where not properly packaged. That is where I lucked out by paying for packaging, so they at least can't deny my claim for that. I wonder if I can bypass ups and deal with their insurance company directly? Eddie, did you have to file a separate claim to be refunded for shipping?

 

[eddie]

I paid for the shipping, so technically I was the shipper and the receiver, so fortunately I don't have to include the seller. From other forums online, it seems like ups does not honor most insurance claims, by claiming the items where not properly packaged. That is where I lucked out by paying for packaging, so they at least can't deny my claim for that. I wonder if I can bypass ups and deal with their insurance company directly? Eddie, did you have to file a separate claim to be refunded for shipping?

When you say you paid for the shipping, do you mean you paid a shipping fee to the seller, or you arranged for UPS to ship it?

 

[MTL207]

The seller brought the enlarger to the ups store, the store called me, and I paid over the phone via credit card. It really doesn't make much sense now that I think about it, but it might work out to my favor now as I am now the only one dealing with ups, as opposed to everything having to go through the seller.

 

[eddie]

I wonder if I can bypass ups and deal with their insurance company directly? Eddie, did you have to file a separate claim to be refunded for shipping?

Peter- Parcel Plus decided to cover the costs, not UPS. As a UPS partner, they do have better access to UPS when it comes to insurance claims, but they told me (and their difficulties in being reimbursed proved), better access does not necessarily result in better outcomes.

 

[MTL207]

hmmm...

 

[Sirius Glass]

Thank you Sirius,

Where you ever able to reach a satisfactory resolution with ups?

Fortunately, I took pictures of everything right when it arrived as it was obvious damage had occurred..even seeing it being taken out of the truck was telling.

Only some of the times. It turned out that two UPS employees and the one of the seller's employees were diverting shipments. Eventually UPS and the seller nailed them and turned them into the police and the courts to resolve that set of issues. Other things were taken care of through the seller.

 

[jvo]

welcome to apug....

having been partially reimbursed for a damaged package/camera, i now pack everything myself and take pictures at each set of the process of putting materials and items in the box. it a pita, but a few years later with all the pictures and descriptions they paid the full cost of the invoiced item.

their 1st response both times "it was improperly packed..."

jvo

p.s on most boxes there is an imprint as to it's strength/durability, you need a picture of it for a claim to avoid ups disheveling and delays!

 

[DREW WILEY]

I have a lot of experience with UPS. If they can drop something from an airplane onto concrete a mile below, they'll do it.

 

[MTL207]

"A few years later"...thanks jvo...it looks like I am in for the long haul then..

What do you mean by imprint on the box? It's a test they run on it?

Drew- yes, it seems that's what happened.

 

[DREW WILEY]

All depends on the location and timing too. I never ever either ship or receive anything within a few weeks of Christmas season, for example, because of all the extra seasonal help the parcel companies temporarily take on. Smashed, stolen, you name it. Fedex can be just as bad, and actually far worse than UPS in terms of damage claims. I have commercial accounts here with both, and at least for much of the year we daily
interact of the regular driver and get to know his reputation. But the local UPS and Fedex stores that the general public uses seem to be staffed
with people with IQ's typically associated with the vegetable kingdom. Then there's USPS, which has their giant bulk mail facility about a mile from
here. The local nickname is the "billion dollar package smasher". They've been known to play football with anything marked fragile (literally). So
yup, pack anything of value like it's expected to survive a nuclear war.

 

[TheFlyingCamera]

After a particularly horrid experience with UPS, I go out of my way to never choose to use them if I can. Long story short, their modus operandi when dealing with insurance claims is to defer, deflect and deny, and even threaten if need be to avoid paying the claim. I was able to get a little bit of help because the company I was working for at the time had a dedicated rep at UPS who although he could not outright get involved because the packages were not shipped to my employer, he gave me an internal number to call and told me to name-drop him. I got connected to someone who was sympathetic and agreed to honor my claim. But it took a good three months of calls, complaints, and badgering to make that happen. Try calling their 1-800 number, and bullying your way through the menu hell until you get a customer service representative. Ask to speak to a supervisor. Ask the supervisor to give you the # for the corporate headquarters ombudsman. Keep escalating if that supervisor won't help. When you finally get through, then whoever you talk to will be able to at least accelerate the process. I went digging through my old emails to see if I still had the correspondence from that incident, but if I had any emails about it I deleted them as it was 15 years ago now.