FedEx Damaged My Sub in Transit and Denied My Claim

[Spenav]

I shipped a subwoofer to a buyer with FedEx and despite packing it with hard foam and double boxing it, the subwoofer was damaged in transit, most likely dropped. FedEx denied my $350 claim. Interestingly, I was the receiver of a subwoofer that was damaged in transit a few weeks ago. It seems that FedEx is not too good at shipping fragile items. Has anyone had such experience withe this company and were you successful in your claim? Thanks.

 

[amirm]

I have only made claims for lost items with FedEx and they paid up.

 

[Blumlein 88]

I have had them pay on the past. Had no such issues recently.

 

[gene_stl]

File a claim against them in your local small claims court. Especially if you have the box and photos to show as evidence.

 

[Timcognito]

Did you use PayPal they are very good at resolving issues in your favor. For something that is used it may be tough.

 

[Spenav]

Did you use PayPal they are very good at resolving issues in your favor. For something that is used it may be tough.

I did use Paypal. I will try that route next and also Small Claim Court. Thanks.

 

[ta240]

Did you have 3" of padding around the inner box? From FedEx "Double-box fragile items with 3" (8cm) of cushioning in and around the smaller box". If not they will likely not waver on it. Is there visible damage on the outside box to indicate it was impacted in transit? If the box isn't bashed in on the outside in the area of the damage they will blame it on the packing.

Their first response is nearly always to deny damage claims. I had UPS deny a claim when they bent something made of 1/4" steel because it didn't have sufficient packaging. I asked if it needed a box made of 1/2" steel.

Although all the shipping services will damage things, my experience is FedEx ground service is one of the worst. FedEx Ground and FedEx Express operate separately and unlike Express the Ground delivery is by 3rd party contractors. You'll see on the side of the Ground trucks small writing saying something like "operated by Joe's Air Conditioning". Ground drivers tend to be overworked, underpaid and undertrained.

 

[Spenav]

Did you have 3" of padding around the inner box? From FedEx "Double-box fragile items with 3" (8cm) of cushioning in and around the smaller box" Is there visible damage on the outside box to indicate it was impacted in transit? If the box isn't bashed in on the outside in the area of the damage they will blame it on the packing.

Their first response is nearly always to deny damage claims. I had UPS deny a claim when they bent something made of 1/4" steel because it didn't have sufficient packaging. I asked if it needed a box made of 1/2" steel.

Although all the shipping services will damage things, my experience is FedEx ground service is one of the worst. FedEx Ground and FedEx Express operate separately and unlike Express the Ground delivery is by 3rd party contractors. You'll see on the side of the Ground trucks small writing saying something like "operated by Joe's Air Conditioning". Ground drivers tend to be overworked, underpaid and undertrained.

That’s has been my experience too. Now I have a new appreciation for companies that put their electronics in hard cases like AGD. Though it might not be feasible for everything like a sub. Thanks.

 

[Astoneroad]

You didn't mention if the shipment was insured? I've had claims for damaged gear, a crushed Mcintosh amp for $1500 and a grill for $200, with both Fed Ex and UPS. Both times the claim was denied and I pushed and collected on both. I had to go to internal arbitration with FedEx and then keep pushing UPS for reasons for denial, then refuting them with before and after pics and vids. However, if it wasn't insured, you don't have a chance, imo. Good luck.

 

[Spenav]

You didn't mention if the shipment was insured? I've had claims for damaged gear, a crushed Mcintosh amp for $1500 and a grill for $200, with both Fed Ex and UPS. Both times the claim was denied and I pushed and collected on both. I had to go to internal arbitration with FedEx and then keep pushing UPS for reasons for denial, then refuting them with before and after pics and vids. However, if it wasn't insured, you don't have a chance, imo. Good luck.

The package was not insured. There was no option to buy insurance on the site when you create your own label. I looked for it but it wasn’t offered. They did ask for the value of the item so I thought that included insurance. I was on the receiving end of such an incident, the seller reimbursed me my money, so I wanted the insurance. I will try to push some more. Thanks.

 

[frogmeat69]

FedEx Ground blows, got a guy fired because he sucked so bad, 'nuff said.

 

[Mart68]

15 years at FedEx here I finished there in 2022

There's no special procedure for fragile items everything is handled the same. As I always used to tell the customers, 'Pack it to survive a drop onto concrete from six foot.'

Obviously things differ from territory to territory but in UK claims often got dismissed (rightly) for insufficient packaging.

The ones where someone stuck a forklift fork through the item, it got run over by a truck, or some other idiocy, got paid. Likewise for loss.

They used to have an Xmas raffle where lost consignments that had been paid out on, but had then turned up, got distributed out to the staff. Some were quite astonishing like canoes and quad bikes. They stopped doing that many years ago now though.

No, I never won anything good. Box of chocolates one year I think.

 

[gizmo90]

Received a Yamaha A-s1100 from Fedex a few years ago. The box was damaged and the slector knob and volume knob were loose. I just had to tighten them so no big deal. But yeah they have gotten worse ime since pandemic. They often put down bs excuses at my current spot too. "customer not home" or "undeliverable". Not sure what is going on with them here.

I had a great driver before at one apartment I was at. He would call me when I wasn't home and see how close I was and if he had time to wait for the signature.

 

[Astoneroad]

The package was not insured. There was no option to buy insurance on the site when you create your own label. I looked for it but it wasn’t offered. They did ask for the value of the item so I thought that included insurance. I was on the receiving end of such an incident, the seller reimbursed me my money, so I wanted the insurance. I will try to push some more. Thanks.

The option is there, although it's not obvious. There is an additional form printed out with your label for the signature of the driver or counter person that accepts the package. This is VERY easy to miss and cause for rejection of a claim. As previously suggested, perhaps through another way like Paypal to collect, but you don't actually have a claim with the carrier without insurance.

 

[terryforsythe]

I shipped a subwoofer to a buyer with FedEx and despite packing it with hard foam and double boxing it, the subwoofer was damaged in transit, most likely dropped. FedEx denied my $350 claim. Interestingly, I was the receiver of a subwoofer that was damaged in transit a few weeks ago. It seems that FedEx is not too good at shipping fragile items. Has anyone had such experience withe this company and were you successful in your claim? Thanks.

Nearly 20 years ago I had an Adcom GFA-585 amplifier damaged by UPS when being shipped back to Adcom for repair. Here is the story:

This was the second repair of the amp (I used to never turn it off to keep it at operating temp, which is not good for long term durability, and I have learned that really it is not required for good fidelity). After the first repair, Adcom shipped the amp back without the standard foam protection, but instead used a type of foam inside two bags, one upper and one lower, that form fitted around the amp.

So, the second time I sent the amplifier back to Adcom, I used the same box and foam Adcom used when they sent the amp back after the first repair. When Adcom received the amp they called me and said that during shipping it was damaged beyond repair, with one corner caved in. So, I filed a claim with UPS.

UPS investigated and Adcom told them that I did not ship the amplifier back in the standard packaging, and UPS denied the claim. First, I called Adcom to ask WTF? The girl I spoke with refused to acknowledge that Adcom shipped the amplifier back to me after the first repair with the non-standard foam packaging, insisting that Adcom never would do that and insinuating that I was lying about it. That really pissed me off.

Next I called UPS, explained the situation, but they still refused the claim. I was persistent, with multiple calls and speaking with a supervisor. Eventually UPS agreed to pay something like $500 toward the claim. I then called Adcom back and asked for a new amplifier for that price. They no longer had stock of the GFA-585, but offered the GFA-5802 at a discounted price, $800 if I remember correctly.

I took both offers, the net result being an upgrade from the GFA-585 to a new GFA-5802 for something like $300. Repairing the GFA-585 would have cost north of $100, so the realistic amount of the upgrade was even less.

Side note: The GFA-585 required two repairs over a span of about 12 years but, again, I used to never turn it off. I now only turn on the GFA-5802 when I am listening to it, and it has been going strong for nearly 20 years.

 

[sergeauckland]

15 years at FedEx here I finished there in 2022

There's no special procedure for fragile items everything is handled the same. As I always used to tell the customers, 'Pack it to survive a drop onto concrete from six foot.'

Obviously things differ from territory to territory but in UK claims often got dismissed (rightly) for insufficient packaging.

The ones where someone stuck a forklift fork through the item, it got run over by a truck, or some other idiocy, got paid. Likewise for loss.

They used to have an Xmas raffle where lost consignments that had been paid out on, but had then turned up, got distributed out to the staff. Some were quite astonishing like canoes and quad bikes. They stopped doing that many years ago now though.

No, I never won anything good. Box of chocolates one year I think.

Very much this.
When I worked for a Test & Measurement manufacturer, I had to organise some new shipping boxes. The specification was that the instrument needs to survive undamaged when dropped from 1m (it might have been 1.2m, 4ft) onto concrete, to land on any corner or edge. We went through a fair few iterations before we found what worked. The best was a box 300mm wider than each of the instrument's dimensions, filled with polystyrene peanuts, so there was 150mm (6") of peanuts all round the equipment. We never had a single instance of shipping damage after that.

In a later employment, one of our suppliers shipped their equipment in a carton, elastically mounted inside a larger carton. Another suspended their product on plastic film inside a large carton. Again, neither of these suppliers ever had shipping problems that weren't obvious, like a fork-lift fork through the side.

S.

 

[DMill]

Received a Yamaha A-s1100 from Fedex a few years ago. The box was damaged and the slector knob and volume knob were loose. I just had to tighten them so no big deal. But yeah they have gotten worse ime since pandemic. They often put down bs excuses at my current spot too. "customer not home" or "undeliverable". Not sure what is going on with them here.

I had a great driver before at one apartment I was at. He would call me when I wasn't home and see how close I was and if he had time to wait for the signature.

I received a shipment from them a month ago for a new Yamaha amp. Had to sign for it. The FedEx driver was a smaller woman and could barely lift it. It was delivered upside down with a pretty good ding in the outer box corner. Fortunately everything worked fine. I have a feeling that since the pandemic delivery drivers are probably overworked.

 

[CleanSound]

(I used to never turn it off to keep it at operating temp, which is not good for long term durability, and I have learned that really it is not required for good fidelity).

Side note: The GFA-585 required two repairs over a span of about 12 years but, again, I used to never turn it off. I now only turn on the GFA-5802 when I am listening to it, and it has been going strong for nearly 20 years.

Yeah, keeping electronics on all the time is voodoo magic.

Some manufacturers even promote this voodoo idea, but glad you don't buy into this nonsense anymore.

 

[Ricardus]

While I am sure there are examples where some claims should not be paid, this feels like the insurance industry now where they simply aren't paying some claims from extreme weather and such. If they did it would affect their profit margin, and margins are key, not people.

 

[ta240]

Very much this.
When I worked for a Test & Measurement manufacturer, I had to organise some new shipping boxes. The specification was that the instrument needs to survive undamaged when dropped from 1m (it might have been 1.2m, 4ft) onto concrete, to land on any corner or edge. We went through a fair few iterations before we found what worked. The best was a box 300mm wider than each of the instrument's dimensions, filled with polystyrene peanuts, so there was 150mm (6") of peanuts all round the equipment. We never had a single instance of shipping damage after that.

In a later employment, one of our suppliers shipped their equipment in a carton, elastically mounted inside a larger carton. Another suspended their product on plastic film inside a large carton. Again, neither of these suppliers ever had shipping problems that weren't obvious, like a fork-lift fork through the side.

S.

Figuring out shipping boxes is just a bigger version of the old egg drop experiment. The design needs a method for the contents to decelerate a bit slower when the box hits the ground.

My favorite is when people put all the padding on the bottom of the item, not realizing that the top will be the bottom plenty of times along the way.