shipping claim

[oceanliner1]

Individual in VA receives broken item shipped from individual in DE. Insurance was paid by the recipient. Claim was denied by shipper due to insufficient packaging. Sender refuses to refund money paid for item - feels no obligation. Is this a successful court challenge to recover funds paid?

 

[JustAPal00]

Individual in VA receives broken item shipped from individual in DE. Insurance was paid by the recipient. Claim was denied by shipper due to insufficient packaging. Sender refuses to refund money paid for item - feels no obligation. Is this a successful court challenge to recover funds paid?

Is this an eBay purchase? Did you use Paypal?

 

[oceanliner1]

Paypal was used...but...had never had any previous problems with any seller and while waiting for the shipper to rule on the claim, the 45-day period for reporting problems to pay pal passed unnoticed (lesson learned). Paypal says they have no obligation and Ebay says the resolution dispute function they have will on penalize the seller only if enough people complain - thats as far as they will go. Went the resolution dispute route and it automatically closes 90 days after the items was purchased.

 

[JustAPal00]

You should have filed a SNAD with eBay right away. It is the shippers responsibility to get you your item as described. If you pay with Paypal there is no need to pay extra for insurance. The shipper is responsible! Sorry, but outside of eBay you will have a hard time getting your money back!

 

[oceanliner1]

thanks -
The SNAD with Ebay gives you two choices - item not received or Item received not as described. Since neither applied but there are only two radio buttons, I chose item not received, which opened the dispute and got the seller irrate as they had shipped it obviously and this was about the claim for it being damaged. We talked through the dispute resolution and in talking with Ebay they said checking the box that it can't be resolved would not help us - its only to track a pattern against sellers that become problems....so after a period of time the SNAD dispute closed down. Figured if I can't win this diplomatically, then the argument would be in my favor in small claims.

 

[anatidae]

Shipping companies will ALWAYS tell you the packaging was insufficient. It's their way out of ever having to pay claims. I'm sure there are a few people that actually get paid for dmg in shipping, but its so rare its almost nonexistent.

As far as legal recourse, you first need to examine the shipping companies packaging requirements. Typically, they are obscenely over-the-top, but when you pay for shipping insurance, the small print says you accept their terms.

UPS's for example require that the package be bubble wrapped, with at least 3 inches of packing materials between the item and the inner box walls. Then you are required to put the box containing your item inside another box with 3-4+ inches of packing materials surrounding the entire inner package. I can tell you now, NOBODY packs like that..

If your packaging met their standards (rare, but it happens), then you might have a case if you documented the damage when it arrived. If you're like 99% of the people that didnt encase their package in 12 feet of reinforced concrete, then you're screwed.. plain and simple.