well here is a little story of a nasty experience and some free advice for you guys n' girls.
Sent a kai kristiansen set of drawers with parcel2go / fedex.
packed it securely with layers of polystyreene, to absorb impact, sandwiched in between layers of bubble wrap and card board and finally finished with top and bottom layer of hardboard, final outer layer of cardboard and held tightly with shrinkwrap.
Well the client had been stung before by couriers, like me, so he decided to take pictures of the parcel his wife signed for and he unpacked later that evening.
The pictures soon revealed that the shipment had been damaged as one corner of the leg structure was splintered into several pieces and rendering the unit unusable.
He informed me and I started a claim against parcel2go and fedex.
This took weeks to go nowhere and has ended with......
hold on......
here it comes.....
Fedex claiming that the packaging was insufficient and therefore the claim would not be validated.
Parcel2go validated this by .....
hang on .....
saying the claim would not be validated from their point as
"the client signed for it received in good condition"
so after several really pissed off emails and calls to fedex and parcel2go I am now £1000 out of pocket. Have a client without his beloved drawers, which I need to find a restorer or replacement for in Burlingame, CA and the legal advice to pass on to you for free cause these bastards need to own up.
The advice I have from my solicitors is that when you sign for ANY parcel from a courier you must insert the words
WITHOUT PREJUDICE
before your name/ signature as this legally defined term means that you do not give up or relenquish your rights to make a claim against the carrier at a later date.
I know this is difficult to do on those crap electronic terminals that ONLY allow you to sign your name but if you can insist on making the words in large capitals or on the backup paperwork the couriers all carry!!
Please take a look at your ag...
Please take a look at your agreement with Fedex/Parcel. If your going to be in the states you could file a case in small claims court against fedex (filing cost approx $50), but if the carrier contract includes a mandatory arbitration clause you are screwed. How much insurance did you purchase? Most states have a 3k-5k limit on small claims damages. I guess you could make a vacation of it (the pound/euro is kicking the dollars ass, so your vacation to the states should be relatively inexpensive) and write a portion of the trip off as a business expense.
Sorry to hear about your trouble
The worst experience I've had was with UPS but it did not cost me as they paid the claim for the piece they totally destroyed (and lost 95% of!). It was a Nelson end table, the one with the lamp. All that was delivered was the smashed up shade.
Good advice about signing for deliveries too. Some damage from poor handling may not be apparent at first glance.
I'm always looking for good options for shipping internationally. I've mostly used BAX (now DB Schenker). If you know of others, please pass it on.
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