Does he keep my money?? aka UPS sucks!

metalsquid · 11-11-2006, 02:30 AM

i bought a guitar off the bay which the seller sent by UPS. after a week of being stuck in CA i emailed UPS to find out why it's taking so long to get delivered. well, the a-wipes lost the parcel. so now the seller has filed a claim for the loss but he reckons UPS is gonna try everything to avoid paying up. now, i paid for an item and didn't receive it. therefore, i feel i am entitled to a refund from the seller regardless. but the seller wants to keep my money, saying that ups has lost MY item, and will only refund it when and IF ups pays out on the claim. now is that right?

if an item gets lost in the mail, a company would send a replacement or if there isn't one, then at least refund the customer's money. then they would claim for the loss from their insurers, right? isn't it the same deal here? although this in an individual not a business, and it's a personal item, i still think he should get his money back from ups and not hold on to mine in case they don't pay. that's taking advantage of a situation in his favor. before i press him on the issue i want to know what you guys think. this is the first time this has happened to me on an expensive item. i've already been scammed for $500 on the bay this year. i don't want to lose another $400 for a ups srew-up. do i have a leg to stand on here?

of course this whole ordeal would be spared if ups would just be upright and pay for their mistake. the seller's ups driver laughed and told him ups will do all they can to avoid paying and wiggle their way out of 90% of claims. for all their wonderful computer tracking and guaranteed coast-coast delivery, they can still lose a parcel! on the tracking page itself, you can see arrival and departure scans for the item. it never left the facility in Vernon, CA so it's obvious one of their warehouse ppl or drivers saw a nice guitar and decided to take it home. i'm so pissed with them and would advise anyone to NEVER use ups. they stink!

Tony Coca · 11-11-2006, 02:34 AM

Sorry to say it but your out of a guitar and out of cash.i dont think the seller should have to pay you the money back.His part of the deal was done.He sent out the item you won its UPS you have to deal with now.Hopefully youll be able to resolve this but if what he said about UPS bailing on making payments you are Out of luck.

Collection King 13 · 11-11-2006, 03:47 AM

UPS refunds the shipper and the shipper needs to refund you...

oxbeard · 11-11-2006, 09:20 AM

My experience with UPS has been that any small claims less than $100 they are very willing to resolve and pay out, larger claims however they do try their best to avoid. I had a $600- $700 claim against them a few years back and it took 6 or 8 months and the seller finally threatened a lawyer before they finally paid out and that was on a damaged item not lost package.

The only possibility you have is if you paid with Paypal. I had one experience where paypal ruled that since the item was not actually delivered that an immediate refund was warranted. Of course, even if they were to rule in your favor that is still no guarantee of getting money back but they will freeze the sellers account until it is resolved (or until he sets up another account)

Any way good luck

OneOne78 · 11-11-2006, 12:55 PM

Sorry to hear about your dilemma metal. I have had several bad experiences with the Postal Service so now I strictly use UPS and unlike you I have never had a problem. If UPS ever lost one of my packages (verified by UPS) I would immediately refund the buyer his/her money and then take it up with UPS.

Most companies especially insurance companies (a story for another day) will always try to get out of paying out so its just not UPS but when the proof is there all they can do is stall on paying out. They must pay you.

Your seller should do the right thing and just refund you the money. It’s bad enough your not getting something you wanted but to then hold out on you like that its just wrong. The seller will get his money eventually.

Underdog07 · 11-11-2006, 01:45 PM

First off, approach this in a professional manner. Speculating as to intent or what happened (eg caiming a UPS employee stole your item) is not going to help with obtaining a refund. The item never arrived, pure and simple. What happened to it is largely irrelevant.

Second, review the terms of your agreement with the seller. Did his ad state something like: "I will not be responsible for lost or damages items." If so, you likely cannot get a replacement item from him bc you agreed to this term when you purchased the guitar. If there is no such provision, you should be able to seek various remedies against the seller.

How did you pay? Paypal? File a claim of nonrecepit. Credit Card? Contact the CC company. First inquire about product replacement. Second place a hold on teh charge because you did not receive the item.

Lastly, UPS has a contract with the seller. If they reimburse the seller any monies, you are entitled to that as a refund. Request that he and UPS CC you on all correspondence regarding this issue.

Again, and I can't stress this enough, above all us be nice and professional. If you start throwing out wild accusations, no one will want to help you. If you accept that the item was lost and approach it in a non-confrontatiopnal manner people will help you.

BTW, what guitar did you purchase?

Alex655321 · 11-11-2006, 01:57 PM

I had this problem with UPS 2x when I ordered the glass cubes on 2 different occasions.

Both times they shipped me 2 boxes full of glass, and both times they lost one box

Since the glass cubes came from a good company, once they got confirmation from UPS that they lost my item, they immediatly sent me new ones and they would deall with the loss from UPS.

Thats the difference between a big company and a ebay user.
Good luck with getting your refund.

Xeno · 11-11-2006, 04:13 PM

I agree with mr Coca. It always beats me why ppl just assume all of the risk should be with the seller. If you're not buying from a "professional" (a store, company , business), you won't have any guarantees. Why should the seller be stuck with this loss? If you're very lucky and it's a nice seller, then perhaps you could both take half the loss.. but I don't think he's obligated to anything. That's just my opinion. If you want hard guarantees, you should buy from a real store (and probably pay more money).

If the seller gets refunded by UPS, you should ofcourse get that refund!

fenix v.2.0 · 11-11-2006, 07:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by metalsquid

the seller's ups driver laughed and told him ups will do all they can to avoid paying and wiggle their way out of 90% of claims.

That driver don't know squat! As long as it was insured, and it was lost intrasit, they'll pay up. If it wasn;t insure, they'll only pay the max of $100.

Quote:

Originally Posted by metalsquid

it's obvious one of their warehouse ppl or drivers saw a nice guitar and decided to take it home. i'm so pissed with them and would advise anyone to NEVER use ups. they stink!

There's no way someone can just walk out with a guitar. Everyone goes through a metal detector and checked by security both in and out.

Send me a PM, maybe I can look into this for you.

metalsquid · 11-12-2006, 11:20 AM

thanks fenix. sent you a PM.