We are suing a local UPS Store for tying up our shipping insurance claim for a damaged artwork ($4200.00) in so much red tape that over a year later and a lawsuit, they still have not paid.
Background—I created the artwork, sold it in a Seattle exhbition to a collector, borrowed it back from the collector to ship it to a second juried exhibition in AZ, insured it for the amount the collecor paid to the nearest $100 increment, purchased packaging materials from the UPS Store above, had the store pack it and ship it. UPS damaged it. The inspecting adjuster determined it was packed correctly.
Since I filed my claim, they have been playing a shell game involving the UPS Store where I purchased the insurance, UPS corporate's "universal agents", and Crawford & Company (UPS' claims handling firm), pointing the finger at each other, and making unreasonable demands on me to "prove" the value of the artwork, the same artwork they were so happy to take my money to insure.
I showed them photographs of the damage to the artwork and provided proof of what the client paid for the art at their request, and they still wouldn't pay. They even spoke with the art dealer who brokered the sale, and she corroborated my sale price. Finally, they demanded that a "disinterested third party" varyingly, "determine whether the artwork could be repaired, " "assess the cost of repairs, " and "determine the value of the artwork in its damaged state."
The UPS Store owner compared assessing the value of a damaged artwork to assessing the value of a damaged television set. They also threateningly warned me that if the damage to the artwork was determined to be $4200.00 or more, that the art would be sent to "salvage, " despite the facts that it was no longer mine to throw away, and that it still nevertheless was my intellectual property, even damaged.
After maintaining that their request for third party assessment was unreasonable in the case of a fine artwork, since only I the artist know how to fix the artwork, and after their continued "suspension" of the case, we filed a lawsuit against the UPS Store where we purchased the insurance.
We are looking for others who have had similar difficulties collecting on insurance they purchased at a UPS Store.
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