UPS Shipping/Damage Claim policy experience

UPS is by far the worst of the shipping companies. Though there is no way in Hell that I would trust anything of value to the our wonderfully government employed post office workers.

I bought a 90 pound tubed amp from a guy in California in mid 2007 who packaged it in a BBQ grill box with foam peanuts and loose tubes. The box arrived via UPS and I made my UPS guy (Mike) stand there and watch me open it, taking pics the whole way.

I knew the claim would never be paid as it was terribly packaged. However, I immediately filed with Paypal (my only method of payment for items I purchase that I don't personally pick-up). The seller shipped it for 25% of the selling price. I ended up getting my money back, but it wasn't easy. The box was rated for about 50 pounds and nobody in their right mind would have every packaged a $5000 fragile amp in it. I am sure the seller lost a ton of money on this feable, lazy attempt.

My rule is to photograph the packaging process as proof of proper packaging. For any very heavy items, I always add plywood to the sides and bottom of the boxes as added protection. I always make sure the boxes are rated for 150% of the actual weight.

I never use UPS and always use either DHL or FedEx I hear both a more reliable with handling claims on a reasonable basis. I can honestly say I have never had any shipping damage on anything I have shipped and three times on items I have received - all via UPS.

From my experience UPS is a real CRAP they lost a Mephisto Drive years ago, denied their responsability and offer me a basic 100$ refund that i did not accept because i went in court with tem it took nearly one year and i won over UPS because of the international rules regarding their responsability and during one year they lies to my trying to escape their responsability.
Mister Brown is a kind of para military that do not have any respect for their customers...
UPS NO NEVER (got good result with satandard USPS depending of the weight of the products)

Although I won my only claim against them in Small Claims Court, I may not have needed to go there had I not asked their claims examiner if there was any truth to the rumor that "UPS" stood for "Ur Parcel Slipped".

Although I haven't had any damaged packages using UPS, I always try to stay away from it and use Fedex. The packages handled by UPS often times are delivered with dents, small holes, crushed corners, etc. UPS handles packages very roughly. I am quite happy with Fedex.

You should get your money back from the shipper and he should deal with UPS, unless you agreed that he would not have any responsibility with shipping damage should it occur. I shipped a CD player years ago and it arrived damaged and not working. I immediately refunded the buyers money and then went about going after UPS for the claim. I had to file a lawsuit in small claims court to get my money. They paid me one day before the court date. They also returned the CD player to me, so I ended up with full retail price as well as the broken CD player. I sent it back to the manufacturer and they repaired it for free and I was able to sell it again later. Good for me, screw those a$$holes, they should not sell insurance on their shipping if they don't want to cover it when they mishandle it!