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  • Report:  #330206

Complaint Review: The UPS Store (owned By 7 Days LLC) - Seattle Washington

Reported By:
- Seattle, Washington,
Submitted:
Updated:

The UPS Store (owned By 7 Days LLC)
1037 NE 65th Street Seattle, 98115 Washington, U.S.A.
Phone:
206-282.2888
Web:
N/A
Categories:
Tell us has your experience with this business or person been good? What's this?
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.

Jo

Seattle, Washington

U.S.A.


2 Updates & Rebuttals

Av8rkirk

Waterford,
Michigan,
U.S.A.
We too have been hoodwinked by the Big Brown

#2Consumer Comment

Tue, August 05, 2008

UPS has figured out some clever ways to avoid paying claims. We recently filed our first claim for lost or damaged goods in 42 years of business operation. We purchased a highly valuable and sensitive piece of test equipment utilized in repairing aircraft instrumentation. After calling UPS and them recommending us to use the UPS store located at Fort Sam Houston, we scheduled them to pick up and insure the item for $10,000.00. We were notified a day later of the waybill number and that it would be shipped Ground service to us as requested. A few days after that we were informed the package was lost in transit. The manager of the UPS store informed us he would wait a week or so and file a claim on our behalf. After a week or so he advised us that the claim had been filed for the amount of approximately $2500 for the missing unit. I informed him that we had requested the item be insured for the replacement cost of $10,000 and he replied that he did not want to waste our money so he only insured it for the $2500 figure. We were also told later on that it would not have mattered if we insured for what the replacement cost was, we would only get the amount we paid for the item. What really started to make us suspicious was that according to the tracking information at UPS, the box never left the UPS Store facility at Fort Sam Houston. Also the original tracking number had been canceled and a new one replaced it with no explanation. Keep in mind that according to UPS and the UPS Store (Which we have since found out is a franchisee) the packaged was never scanned out of the building or onto a truck. In the last week we have been in contact with the owner of the UPS Store as well as written to the President of UPS (D.Scott Davis) explaining this incident and trying to get more information. We feel that what is happening here is an insurance rip off perpetuated by UPS Store #4505. UPS says that they have nothing to do with the problems there or the loss because, we do not have any oversight of the UPS Store independent franchisee'. In other words it's not their problem even though they are independent agents acting on behalf of UPS. Today we find out when checking on our claim that not only are we not going to get the replacement cost but get this, They are sending the claim monies to the same UPS Store that we feel ripped us off in the first place and its up to the franchisee to give us our money. We have informed UPS of our intent to no longer use them after 42 years and hundreds of thousands of dollars in business we have given them with never a claim filed. We have decided to file a claim with our insurance agent and are seeking to start a class action law suit. Buyer beware, UPS does not care about you, only the revenue stream you send them. They are a shallow and crass organization. We ill be contacting other aviation organizations to boycott or stop using UPS altogether. Av8rkirk Waterford, Michigan U.S.A.


Slbell

Niceville,
Florida,
U.S.A.
Similar situation resolved by attorney general

#3Consumer Suggestion

Tue, June 24, 2008

Last Christmas my mother sent me a package containing $7,000 dollars worth of family heirloom jewelry. Despite purchasing insurance and more importantly signature required service, the driver scribbled my name in the signature pad and left the package on my doorstep when I was not home. Needless to say, the package disappeared. What followed was shocking. We were told by the UPS store that the investigator for UPS had the final word. In an internal UPS document, he stated that I had acknowledged reciept of the package and then he called my mother and told her that I had stolen the jewelry. Unfortunately, he could not in good conscience approve the claim: case closed. After six months we were able to get some resolution through the state attorney generals office (Alabama). Be advised: UPS spent months lying to us before they cut us off, then they lied to the attorney general's asst. and told her that a claim check had been approved and mailed. What followed was another month of UPS and their lawyers passing the blame around. Months after UPS agreed to pay the claim, my mother still does not have her check. I would highly advise requesting help from the attorney general's office. If nothing else, they deal with the non-responsive, incompetent, and wholly dishonest managers at UPS. FYI: The UPS store is locally owned and has nothing to do with UPS claims. If you're going to spend money on a lawyer, go after corporate. All the small store can do is give you pathetic apologies and excuses. UPS makes about 30 million dollars a day. They'll pay to make you go away if you give the right people the right headaches. The attorney general's asst. still calls UPS counsel on her office line every day and she expects a check this week.

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