Complaint Review: UPS Store 3744 - Austin Texas

Kevin Tait & his staff at UPS Store 3744 failed to provide crate services as requested verbally & in writing. Two of four pieces arrived totally damaged & shrink wrapped on a pallet of old material days after it was "missing". The 7500$, no deductible replacement insurance requested in writing was changed to 4K on a questionable BOL. A request for faxed paperwork never took place. It arrived after the damage was done and days into the claim.  

Financial papers were missing from a box to be shipped to same address. It went to a different address & the intact box was opened in front of a store witness.  

MBE (Mail Boxes Etc the franchise company) was contacted & a woman suggested I take UPS 3744 to court & send them a report. When I tried to send the report the fax was bogus & the name changed. The supervisor promised me twice the franchise person would contact me but this never happened.  

What happened.
4 or 5 estimates for "crating" of furniture pieces were obtained based on his verbal promises, pictures on his web site and display crate in his store. At no time did I agree to any other form of shipping because UPS LTL Freight informed me it is the way to ship furniture. (witnesses & affidavits for these calls available). It is why I asked for estimates on crating only.      
 
Four pieces of new furniture (3 of which had original factory packing & store tags and a chest were to be crated plus a sterlite container of personal items containing financial papers. This went missing & was sent to another address. The original promised charge for crating was 1390.
Measurements & insurance amounts were sent in writing.     

Service received:  
At last minute Tait complained items were too large & increased the bill by 400 $'s. The furniture was picked up in a 1/2 ton truck with dirt & gravel in the back. I insisted it be covered to avoid damage. Tait was going to move king size mattress, large sofa, chair and chest by himself but I requested he bring someone to help.  
 
At first the furniture was "lost in transit". The paperwork had traveled, the furniture had not.  

Days later a large shrink wrapped blob of 800 pounds of furniture piled on the sofa arrived unsecured to a poorly built broken pallet of old material that was 2 grocery size pallets nailed together with pressed board and other old material... per freight inspectors report.
   
If I'd never refused the package & sent it back after taking pictures I'd have been in trouble. Thankfully, professionals were on hand & one who had 20yrs of shipping furniture wrote the load had to have been dropped off the back of a truck more than once. It was unsecured to a crummy pallet and an unbalanced load.  

I took pictures, got a CC number & was told 15 minutes, 2 hours then waited the rest of the day. 7 hours of promises, calls, some hold times of 40 minutes and transfers because Tait/UPS Store 3744 was vetoing the pickup.  It took a meltdown saying it was my money, I'd paid for the service I didn't get & it was going back. Tait had the contact number which was manned all day but never bothered to call.

At 1pm I saw Tait's email saying to take pictures "if there was any damage at all" and we could deal with it long distance. I could wash off the mattress & sew it up. It had fallen off the pallet, been dragged in the ground & bent in the middle. There was definite spring damage.

MBE staff in San Diego were beyond useless. Only one woman in Dallas was decent enough to offer help & forward emails.

In this scenario of LTL Freight the UPS Store makes the claim, collects the insurance money & then pays the customer. A secretary suggested Tait may be getting money then paying the customer a whole lot less. I don't know or care. Though MBE told me I had no choice but to deal with Tait; I refused. I wanted only to deal with a manager & only in writing.

It took months to be paid 4K, instead of the 7500 K I'd requested in insurance due to the late produced BOL. 6 months to finish the credit card dispute since Tait stone walled everything.  

And now months later I'm still unable to find adequate replacements on what was paid.  

My costs: hauling, dump fees, truck rental, car rentals, hired help, pictures, stationary, hotel bills, gas, communication fees, hours of time on estimates, letters and attorney fees.  

Add to this affidavits, police reports etc, etc, etc.  

UPS Claims guy was reasonable but only on the amount the delayed & cooked BOL had on it. I was accused of not packing the furniture properly (but that's what Tait was paid to do) & accused of losing my own financial papers.

Actual ship cost was 400$. Glad I refused the package, got professional help & had witnesses.