About 3 months ago I shipped a tankless water heater from Los Angeles to Fort Worth, Texas. It was still in its original packaging (wrapped securely in styrofoam and a close-fitting box) and had been mailed across country previously without incident.
When I went to the UPS store I was asked by the employee (Angelina) if I had packed it myself. I said, no, it was the original packaging. They said, "Even better." I then asked if I could buy $1,000 worth of insurance. They said, "Of course" and charge me $14.50 for it.
When it arrived, the UPS driver left it on my sister's front porch in damaged condition. The box had been crushed and when she stuck her finger in she could feel that the water heater was dented. She immediately went online and filed a Damage Report. She got an email back that UPS had to return it to the shipping store in Los Angeles so that they could file a claim. It was returned to Los Angeles where it sat for over 2 months. When my sister called to follow up with the owner (Marin), she was either put on hold for such long periods that she had to hang up, or was hung up on. When she finally talked to the owner, he told her that he had called and left three messages with me since I needed to provide Proof of Value before he could file a claim and I had never responded.
The number they had for me is my cellphone. I checked my call log. They had never called me.
Once we did get through, I immediately went to the store with the requested Proof of Value. The very next day, the owner called and said that he couldn't file a claim because UPS said that a claim had already been filed and it had been denied due to insufficient packaging. Sound familiar? He then said it was my sister's fault for filing a claim with UPS before returning it to him. She NEVER filed a claim. She merely reported it was damaged. Also, no one from UPS ever inspected the package, so how could they know if the packaging was insufficient or not?
Next, my sister and I both contacted UPS customer service directly. They said that they could give no information on claims to anyone other than the shipper and that the store was the "shipper." Meanwhile, the store owner insisted that I am the "shipper" and he has no responsibility.
At this point, my sister and I were disgusted and just wanted the water heater returned to her. After all, she never said she didn't want it. She just wanted to file a claim against the damage.
The UPS Store is now insisting that I have to pay to have it sent to her again (yeah, no telling what condition it's going to arrive in). I said that I shouldn't have to pay because we had no choice than to return it to the shipping store.
I was then told that no, my sister had "refused delivery" (even though it was in her possession for a couple of days until UPS picked it up again) and that she should have called him and had him file a claim and UPS would have sent out someone from her local claims office to examine it. I told him that UPS did not give her this option. They said it had to be returned to him. He demanded proof of this. I faxed him the email from UPS and he said he would call UPS and have them pay to have it returned.
The next day he called and said that UPS would not pay, so either I would have to pay again, come and pick it up or they would throw it out. I'm going to pick it up in the morning and honestly my blood pressure goes up every time I think about seeing that box, store or owner.
Repeatedly, Marin would tell me and my sister one thing and when my sister or I would contradict him or provide proof that he was wrong, he would either abandon his statement entirely or obstinately refuse to budge. He also tried to tell me that I didn't buy insurance and that the $1,000 was just the "declared value, " even though I have a receipt with a charge on it for insurance.
At first, I thought this was a case of an extremely bad shipping store, but from reading other reports it's obvious that this is UPS' Standard Operating Procedure.
Honestly, it is the second worst customer experience I have ever had. Number one being when I moved across country and the moving company went into sealed boxes and pulled out vintage, heirloom quilts to wrap furniture in, stole all of our electronics and then abandoned the moving truck on the side of the road at the Mexican border in the rain with a giant hole in the roof.
North Hollywood, California
U.S.A.
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