The perils of international shipping

[graham mcdonald]

A warning to anyone who is thinking about using Pack & Send Australia to send musical instruments within Australia or overseas. They are, annoyingly, not very interested in responding to warranty claims for damage.

I recently sent a guitar bodied bouzouki to the US (describing it as a guitar for convenience). It was sent in a Hiscox lite-flite case, well immobilised, which the people at my local Pack & Send office then boxed up.

It left Canberra on Tuesday and was delivered to Portland OR on Friday afternoon, US time. The delivery truck just dropped the box off, not getting the required signature on delivery. On opening the case, my customer discovered that the heel of the instrument had been snapped and the neck was loose in the case. The floating bridge had been taken off before shipping and there was little tension on the strings. The cardboard box was mostly unmarked so my only thought is that the box was dropped from a considerable height and the impact broke the heel (the neck is bolt-on). Luckily well respected luthier Kerry Char is in Portland and he repaired the broken heel quickly and very well, so the break is almost invisible.

I reported this to my local Pack & Send office, sent them photos and was asked to fill in a damage report and warranty claim. The Pack & Send warranty states quite clearly: "If PACK & SEND agrees to provide you with our Freight plus Warranty, then we agree to deliver the goods in the condition that the goods were delivered to us."

They also have a sentence following: "PACK & SEND Freight plus Warranty is for the physical loss or damage and does not include consequential loss." I will need some legal clarification of what "consequential loss" might be interpreted as.

My argument is that my customer bought a new instrument and has ended up with a damaged and repaired instrument, effectively getting something second hand. It is demonstrably not in the condition it was delivered to them.

I have offered my customer a discount on the balance owing and thought it reasonable to claim that, as well as the repair costs back on the warranty (for which I paid an extra fee). After all, why should I be out of pocket for the negligence and incompetence of the shipping company, and I do feel ethically obliged to offer a discount to my customer. A couple of people on Facebook commented that any discount that I might offer is entirely my decision and not something I can claim against. I find that attitude odd, and not the way I want to treat my customers.

So far, Pack & Send has rejected the claim for the discount I am offering my customer and have only offered to reimburse me for the repair (which I have already paid for), but only at some exchange rate of their own devising. This would have left me more than $30 short of what I actually paid. So far, I have been very underwhelmed by the response of the Pack & Send head office. The people at the local franchise who packed and sent the instrument for me have been very helpful, but is seems that communications about warranty claims have to go through them, and I had no direct communication from anyone at the Pack & Send HQ until Friday after I made a phone call to head office. An 'Area Manager' rang back and did not seem to know very much other than to repeat their line that a permanent reduction in value of the item that was shipped was not something that their warranty covered. No reason was given for that and I shall pursue further clarification.

[seeaxe]

Hi Graham
Sorry to hear about your problems. With the disclaimer that i havent had direct experience i would make a few comments. If you know all this please forgive me.

The exclusion of consequential loss is very common in most insurance cover, mostly because the insurer has no idea what that might be and so cannot calculate the premium. Have a look at your car insurance and youll probably find a similar cause.

Pack and Send cover themselves by buying insurance. In the event of a claim they likely have no leeway in how it is handled. Again, consider your car insurance. The insurer assesses the loss not you. If you admit liability when it happens they may (probably will) refuse to pay out. Thats why you only ever get the same answer, its what the insurer tells them to say.

If you are only $30 out of pocket then i think you have done pretty well.

While the warning is always useful theres no way to protect yourself without negotiating specific insurance direct with an insurer. Imho its unlikely that you would find anyone interested in covering it and unlikely you would consider it worth the cost.

None of that helps im sure but those are my comments FWIW.

[kiwigeo]

A definition of "consequential loss" off the net: "A consequential loss is an indirect adverse impact caused by damage to business property or equipment". The key word is "indirect".

An example might be loss of business because your business burns down.