Manna Freight Systems Hired to deliver 1700.00 bed white glove service. Destroyed bed - refused to pay claim - still charged for the shipping - and trying to charge us to return damaged pieces Saint Paul Minnesota

Valerie is representing a business called Iron Accents. Our businesses were working under a contract signed by Shanta Kirves on 8/30/07. The contract explicitly states that a requirement of doing business includes that any shipment be packaged according to this contract which states:
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All items tendered to Manna Distribution Services must be banded or shrink-wrapped securely to a standard 48''x 40'' or greater wood pallet in an effort to reduce the incidence of damage. In addition, each item must have a minimum inch Styrofoam covering all sides of the piece and be completely enclosed within corrugated box material before being placed on a pallet. At no time can any piece overhang from any one side of the pallet. If pieces exceed the 48''x40'' pallet then larger pallets must be used.

Once banding or shrink-wrapping is complete, please ensure that the furniture is secure and centered on the pallet. Please use caution when adjusting the tension of the bands not to over-tighten and cause the furniture to be damaged. If the shipper cannot palletize furniture then refer to Schedule B for the itemized charge. Manna will palletize the furniture only if requested in Clarity (web based software)or the agreed order-processing equivalent on an order-by-order basis.
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The shipment referred to was not packaged according to these explicit standards and was subsequently damaged in transit and consequently we exercised the very next clause in the contract which states:

Manna will not honor any damage claims that occur to any furniture where the shipper does not request palletization at the time of notification to Manna and/or the packaging requirements as identified on this Schedule were not met in full.

Additionally the product inside the package was not braced in any way and there was no indication of which side was up. The product shifted within the box and was damaged as a result as noted in the following inspection report:

"The crate was definitely not shipping material, it was 4 boards nailed together with cardboard on the outside holding the contents of the inside sliding all over the inside of a hollow box. The box is not marked with any special instructions. Once the box was moved the cardboard pulls right away from the wood due to the weight of the contents pushing against the cardboard.

There was a beam of wood going across the inside of the crate, looking at it closely it looks like they thought this would hold the contents in place. As you can see from the pictures that wasn't the case at all.

If you have any questions give me a call

Rob Benton

--
Bros. Transportation"


All of these facts are known to the customer already and this is simply an excercise in extortion on their part. In fact this complaint was written 10 days after the Better Business Bureau rejected her complaint to them due to the misstatements throughout.

If she wanted to negotiate the terms of the contract prior to shipping so that she could move improperly packaged furniture then she could have and we would have raised the rates accordingly to allow for the damage and subsequent costs that would surely occur. Instead she signed an agreement that she did not intend to honor. Now she uses forums like this one to try to extort money.

Despite what she writes here, her product was returned to her.

I now respectfully request that you include this rebuttal to set the record straight or remove her complaint as it is not true and borders on slander.