Is your UPS package ready for a 30ft (9.1meter) drop?

[Gjackson98]

For my fellow KKF members.
Do you normally buy insurance when shipping knives via UPS? (I can see most other carriers are probably the same thing)

I have been that guy who always insure full value while shipping.
Last week I had the "wonderful opportunity" to put my insurance claim to the test (not with knives).
I happened to ship a TV across the country to my other address. Long story short, the TV was dropped and the frame was bent and the screen was shattered.
As I have documented every step of the way while packing the TV (engineering habits) I file the claim with a full report written.
Earlier today they called back and told me that my claim has been denied, quote for quote what they told me was "Is your TV packed well enough to survive a 30ft drop? That is the height of our tallest conveyor belt, to pass the claim you will need to prove your package can survive such drop."

Just want to share the story with everyone who are like me who likes to buy insurance.
Make sure you pack it good and document the process.
30ft drop is the golden line my brothers.

 

[WildBoar]

Sorry to hear, and thanks for the heads-up..

What was the verbiage in the insurance agreement? If that is not explicitly stated, can you appeal to a higher level person at UPS?

(looking through UPS's site, it looks like anything insurance related goes to UPS Capital, and they do not seem to list the policy restrictions anywhere...

 

[Chicagohawkie]

UPS has denied every claim I’ve ever entered. The only recourse I’ve found is through the credit card companies. UPS is a joke and won’t insure anything through them. Fed Ex Insurance was top notch and the once or twice I’ve claimed anything, they were true to their word.

 

[Gjackson98]

Sorry to hear, and thanks for the heads-up..

What was the verbiage in the insurance agreement? If that is not explicitly stated, can you appeal to a higher level person at UPS?

(looking through UPS's site, it looks like anything insurance related goes to UPS Capital, and they do not seem to list the policy restrictions anywhere...

Thanks man. Nobody told me about the 30ft drop at first when I drop off the TV nor have I signed any disclaimers. I am going back for 2nd round and submitted a larger report with photos up for review at this time.

 

[Gjackson98]

UPS has denied every claim I’ve ever entered. The only recourse I’ve found is through the credit card companies. UPS is a joke and won’t insure anything through them. Fed Ex Insurance was top notch and the once or twice I’ve claimed anything, they were true to their word.

Thanks for this. definitely going with Fedex next time.

 

[Naftoor]

Most of my knife collecting is in pocket knives (although it’s skewed towards the kitchen as of late). Of the three main shipping methods in the states (fedex, ups and usps) I normally try to stick to usps.

UPS screwed me pretty hard when I was picking up a rahven to test, shipping from Europe. UPS called me to inform me they could not deliver to P.O. Boxes, obviously this was after their system has gone “yup, we’re fine to ship here” and the knife was in the states. I gave them an alternate address, at which point the knife disappeared. Months of contacting customer service and the location showed they had no records of it. I assume someone from the facility made it disappear. Luckily rahven was super responsive once I let them know what was going on, so props to the company for that. Also had issues with them delivering larger items (guitar and guitar cases). I literally had to exchange them multiple times because the driver would leave boxes that were dented, crushed and open at the door without knocking (video door bells are fun) and leave. I avoid UPS like the plague for anything of value now.

I’ve heard more than a few stories of pocket knives or other small, valuable items being stolen by fedex delivery drivers, with resealed, empty boxes being delivered instead. Enough for me to also avoid that company whenever possible.

USPS tends to be the best in the states, except for more premium delivery options like DHL. Prices are good, now that the government isn’t actively trying to kill the postal service and the mail isn’t being interrupted stuff arrives quickly. Only ever had one issue with them to date, which resulted in a bend to a thin knife tip.To be fair the knife didn’t have padding around the tip, and this was during the height of their issues so I’m guessing someone chucked it into a truck and it the knife being loose in its original box could buildup enough momentum to damage the tip. Nothing chucked from a 30 foot conveyor by them!

 

[ModRQC]

Don't even try to prove your package could survive the drop... cause next lines are:

"Could it withstand being run over by multiple trailer trucks - cause you see our highest belt conveyer passes over the main point of freight transit so when packages fall from there, you know..."

And then...

"Could it withstand 5000*C heat - cause you see at the end of the day when we gather packages dropped from the belt and stamped by trailer trucks, we chuck them in our incinerator hoping customers didn't take insurance at all."

 

[MarcelNL]

You made my day....the problem is...if you pack things to withstand those conditions you won't need insurance against damage (but you need it for loss/theft)....I've seen cargo being unloaded from a plane up close waiting for delivery of some quite expensive tube amplifiers (no glass installed as that is fragile....) ...one crate was dropped to the ground since the unloading crew did not see or did not care that there was no loading platform next to the cargo door...

Main problem is that each courier has a certain area and certain connections in which they are good/reasonable and other areas where you need to avoid them like the plague...problem is finding out who to use where whilst keeping an eye on how the actual effect of any insurance policy works out.

Need 'premium'service, pay premium and go World Courier...yet for a TV it probably makes more sense to sell it and buy another one locally unless it's real expensive one.

 

[Gjackson98]

You made my day....the problem is...if you pack things to withstand those conditions you won't need insurance against damage (but you need it for loss/theft)....I've seen cargo being unloaded from a plane up close waiting for delivery of some quite expensive tube amplifiers (no glass installed as that is fragile....) ...one crate was dropped to the ground since the unloading crew did not see or did not care that there was no loading platform next to the cargo door...

Main problem is that each courier has a certain area and certain connections in which they are good/reasonable and other areas where you need to avoid them like the plague...problem is finding out who to use where whilst keeping an eye on how the actual effect of any insurance policy works out.

Need 'premium'service, pay premium and go World Courier...yet for a TV it probably makes more sense to sell it and buy another one locally unless it's real expensive one.

Agreed, with should have sold the TV. The thing was its a gift from my mother last year, didn't want to be "that guy" and hurt her feelings But anywho, now its pointless since it didn't survive the drop

 

[Bensbites]

Wow. So sorry. Was this insurance through UPS? I ship everything with pirateship.com, they use a 3rd party insurance that I have heard on things about. No horror stories.
I haven’t had to file a claim yet, but I assume it’s a matter of time.

 

[@ftermath]

That is such a ridiculous requirement that nobody would believe it. Call the local news channel and see if they’re interested in running a fun little segment. At least post it to social media with some convenient hashtags and see if it takes off. It might not, but if it does UPS will have egg on their face and I’m sure they’ll come running to make it right.

 

[JBroida]

UPS has denied every claim I’ve ever entered. The only recourse I’ve found is through the credit card companies. UPS is a joke and won’t insure anything through them. Fed Ex Insurance was top notch and the once or twice I’ve claimed anything, they were true to their word.

For what its worth, I've had issues with FedEx more than UPS. UPS has paid out a ton of times for me, but always under the value I insure for. FedEx has made me fight hard for it, and still never paid out. Insurance drives me nuts.

 

[Chicagohawkie]

For what its worth, I've had issues with FedEx more than UPS. UPS has paid out a ton of times for me, but always under the value I insure for. FedEx has made me fight hard for it, and still never paid out. Insurance drives me nuts.

Jon,
I should have prefaced that my claims were years ago, might be entirely different now. My dealing with UPS were always laughable and always denied.

 

[WildBoar]

For what its worth, I've had issues with FedEx more than UPS. UPS has paid out a ton of times for me, but always under the value I insure for. FedEx has made me fight hard for it, and still never paid out. Insurance drives me nuts.

have you looked into Parcel Pro?

 

[McMan]

 

[JBroida]

have you looked into Parcel Pro?

yes... but the reality is that we pack the crap out of things and have a lot of experience at navigating various shipping systems and their investigation processes... not a ton of issues overall

 

[Gjackson98]

Wow. So sorry. Was this insurance through UPS? I ship everything with pirateship.com, they use a 3rd party insurance that I have heard on things about. No horror stories.
I haven’t had to file a claim yet, but I assume it’s a matter of time.

Yep it was through UPS. Let's hope no one else will have to encounter this BS

 

[Alwayzbakin]

On that note…. This just came today… thank goodness it was a helmet

 

[Bensbites]

Yep it was through UPS. Let's hope no one else will have to encounter this BS

I have a metal dust collector for grinding arriving this weekend. Let’s hope it doesn’t fall off a belt.

 

[M1k3]

On that note…. This just came today… thank goodness it was a helmet
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Ace Ventura Delivery Service?

 

[ian]

Sorry to hear about the TV. As for knives, I've always just considered the insurance to be for loss. Pretty sure my knife packages could survive the 30ft drop no problem. Then again, I've never filed a claim. Probably it has just been wasted money.

 

[Gjackson98]

Sorry to hear about the TV. As for knives, I've always just considered the insurance to be for loss. Pretty sure my knife packages could survive the 30ft drop no problem. Then again, I've never filed a claim. Probably it has just been wasted money.

Agreed with buying insurance for the protection of losing packages part, I think this is the bottom line for them to still be considered ethical.
Regarding the 30ft drop.
In my case, My TV didn't only get dropped, it landed on a sharp edge or something similar. there was a puncture hole, and the hole lines up with the damage on the TV.

 

[ian]

Agreed with buying insurance for the protection of losing packages part, I think this is the bottom line for them to still be considered ethical.
Regarding the 30ft drop.
In my case, My TV didn't only get dropped, it landed on a sharp edge or something similar. there was a puncture hole, and the hole lines up with the damage on the TV.

Ouch. FWIW, while I'm confident in my knife packaging skills, I have no idea how I'd package a TV to survive a 30 ft drop.

 

[MarcelNL]

there is no way you can package something against all that can go wrong...I've seen packages (plasma TV's, in the days when they were really expensive) where the forklift was pushed through the screen rather than used to lift the pellet.

 

[Skylar303]

So I'm interested in seeing what became of this? UPS refused to openly answer "Is it your policy if a package isn't secure enough to survive a 30ft drop, your insurance claim will be denided? Also, I doubt very little electronics no matter how well it's packaged would survive a 30ft drop." The last I heard from them was to contact them directly, even though it was through DM's? So hopefully they fixed your issue, if not I'd call them directly and feed them the 30ft quote. As I asked them a few times if it was their policy.

 

[J_Wisdom]

I think the key is can your package survive that TV being dropped 30 ft onto it. In the 80s UPS used to say a 6-foot drop. I'm guessing inflation?

 

[Gjackson98]

The local UPS Store helped me file the claim again after being rejected the first time.
I did have to rewire a 3 pages report to describe the situation but in the end, I got every penny back!
10stars review for all the local UPS representatives at Columbus Ohio.

 

[@ftermath]

The local UPS Store helped me file the claim again after being rejected the first time.
I did have to rewire a 3 pages report to describe the situation but in the end, I got every penny back!
10stars review for all the local UPS representatives at Columbus Ohio.
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Congrats. It’s too bad they don’t have to compensate you for the time lost due to their initial unrealistic response.

 

[Runner_up]

I'm glad there was a happy(ish) resolution.

The initial response is just laughable. I am so tired of living in the age of piss poor customer "service".