UPS Store #4539 Poor shipping leads to damaged art New Orleans, Louisiana

First off as a "Businessman" shipping off a $6,000 photograph from what you have written here you appear very "hands off" on the whole situation.    How did you even get to an estimate of $6,000?  What original print of what famous photographer did you have that you were sending?  

Without authorization didn't insure because owner thought the photos had no value.
- As mentioned this is a very confusing statement.  If you are talking about the Store Owner the last time I checked a UPS Store owner isn't an art appraiser.  So unless YOU as the person who is dropping off the package to be shipped is the one responsible for making sure that it is insured/packaged/shipped per your specifications.  If you told him it was worth $6,000 and wanted to insure it..if he refused..you should have left and found another store.

Or is this a case that you were..well to put it bluntly..CHEAP.  Did he offer to box it correctly(and charge you for it) and you declined?  well again if so..that is not a problem with them. 

I always request top packing
- What is "top packaging"?  Do you stay there and watch it getting packaged?  For something that is worth $6,000 I would think that you would be very..very careful that it is packaged as you think it should.   If they were packaging it in a "Cheap Cardboard Envelope"..why didn't you say something?

Back to your "business".  You've been in business for 20 years?  So in that 20 years is this the first photograph you have ever shipped?  If you are in business why are don't you have a daily UPS pickup?  If you go to a location to ship do you always go to this store?  If not..why are you not establishing a relationship with ONE store?    The reason this is important is that if you have a relationship with one store..they know your desire and requirements.  But regardless it is YOUR responsibility that the person packaging the item understands exactly what you want.  Because if that was a photo I was sending, I would not only make sure it was packaged correctly, when it came time to ship it I would make sure that insurance was on there..and if not, not continue until it was.

Now, don't get me wrong.  I will personally never go to a UPS store for various reasons.  But there is a point where you must take responsibility for your LACK of action.

If in your mind you truly feel that you have a legitimate complaint and want to publicly express such, why are you being so vague with it's elaboration? If you are hoping for results from any source, you will need to be far more descriptive and factual than you were in this site. Even after pointing out the obvious questions that arise with your matter, your response remains what seems to be intentionally elusive.

This is one example of poor descriptiveness; in fact it doesn't make sense: "Without authorization didn't insure because owner thought the photos had no value." Perhaps it's just the grammar that makes that statement confusing. Is that the owner of the photos or the owner of business? If it's the owner of the business, then the statement would become even more nonsensical. No excess (over $100 in the shipping industry) insurance is default with any type of insurance corporation in the world. If the owner of an old car, for example, doesn't declare a value, why should the auto insurance company be responsible to treat it as though it's worth, $60, or $600, or $6000, or $60,000? That is up to the owner of the car, not the insurance company. And after the car owner both states and pays for a specific value, the true value will still need to be appraised at the time of a claim before an settlement can be made. As difficult as it may be for you to imagine, there are actually people that have worthless items, yet somehow believe they can insure (or even not insure at all!) for any amount and then mandatorily receive that amount in a claim. As you know, insurance companies aren't in business to accommodate fraudulent or absurd claims.

By the way, you never did bother describing how your photo is worth $6000. Value is an ambiguous thing. Why should anyone at UPS, the post office, FedEx, or anywhere on the planet automatically have the opinion or definitive appraised current market value of every existing commodity in existence? Wouldn't it be safe to say that it is a very, very small handful of people on earth that would look at your photos an exclaim, "Hey, those babies are worth six grand."?

Most people mail photos in an envelope or common cardboard folder. Those products are hanging on the shelves at all shipping/mailing companies like UPS or a post office. In your complaint, no where does it state that which you had indicated to the shipping company regarding value or, with your extensive experience in the matter over 20 years, how you would like it packaged. In fact, it appears that you never stated a value at all. For the rarity and or personal value, did you consider an express service to minimize the handling of such an expensive item? Do you have a receipt showing that you paid for a corrugate container with fragile packaging within to accommodate your valuable photos? What does the itemization of services paid for and rendered indicate? Did you read the contract onto which this information is written (which detail protocol and liabilities typical in the shipping/mailing industry), or will you take the stand that it is totally irrelevant in your special circumstance?

What was it you said was paid for the entire shipping and packaging again? Oh, wait, you never did say. Sorry. Do you have receipts and or professional appraisals to verify value, or do you just really, really feel it's worth thousands? Readers are curious why a photo could be worth $6000. Actually, it would help give a bit of credibility to the issue. You skipped that bit of information in your response, even after it was requested.

What you could do, for the readers to whom you are targeting your complaint here, is simple paste the content of your complaint for which you submitted to corporate. That would have all the pertinent details for us. That is unless, of course, you for some reason chose to omit the information there also. That would be very strange, if that were the case, so perhaps you could forward any of the required information I have mentioned here that you may have had failed to include. After all, it will be necessary to include this information for any further action to develop with anyone else with whom you choose to take this rather strange complaint. 

I always request top packing. The value was given to the shipper at time of pick up request but ignored. I was not notified previous to the package being shipped. Best to know the facts before making silly assumptions.

There are "cheap flimsy cardboard" photo mailers specifically made for photographs that are commonly used. If the photos were worth six grand, why didn't you pay the ten to fifteen dollars to have them boxed? You're the one that decides if they have a value, not the UPS or post office clerks. Any insurance value is based on what the item typically sells for or is stated on a professional appraisal. What kind of photo is worth $6000? Either the person that is claiming a photo is worth six thousand dollars is completely out of their mind, or the person that owned the photos that didn't pay to have them packaged in something other than a typical photo mailer is a gross cheapskate nut! Why are you blaming a clerk at a shipping or mailing post office? You got what signed and paid for. It was your decision. No one can force you to be cheap.