Last suggestion on this otherwise great post seems to ignore the fact that most of us are both shippers and buyers. Finding a way to stiff a possible CR or other nice person for a shipping problem outside their control does not help our community.
The correct response might have been to NOT dispute the charge, but rather see if their is any credit card protection from the card company (which often builds such protections into their fee structure) under a buyer protection plan. My guess is they don't cover shipping damage, but I'm not certain.
Mike Kone in Boulder CO
> On Thursday, October 20, 2005, at 12:34PM, Louis Schulman
\r?\n> wrote:
\r?\n>
\r?\n> >I just purchased a bicycle which was shipped via FedEx from California to me in
\r?\n> Tampa. It was lost in transit.
\r?\n> >
\r?\n> >FedEx has been awful. They try to prevent you from contacting them. They hide
\r?\n> options on their voice mail and on their web site. They deny they have received
\r?\n> a claim, when they have received it.
\r?\n> >
\r?\n> >They lie about their own policies. They say they will only pay the shipper,
\r?\n> when in fact the shipper can waive payment. They won't supply proper forms to
\r?\n> document the claim. Their online claims page says it is "temporarily"
\r?\n> out-of-service when you try to submit claim forms. But it works if you keep
\r?\n> trying.
\r?\n> >
\r?\n> >FedEx knows they lost my shipment, knows its declared value ($1000) and has
\r?\n> received proof of purchase and payment. Yet they won't pay the claim. "They
\r?\n> are still investigating."
\r?\n>
\r?\n> My experience with Fedex was similar. A completely lost bicycle, unfortunately
\r?\n> it was cobbled together over time and thus I didn't have any real receipts for
\r?\n> it. I got a local shop who was familiar with the bike to write up an estimate.
\r?\n> I believe I insured it for $1500 or $2000, while the replacement cost was about
\r?\n> $2500. Ultimately I got a check for $1000 or so. I was tired enough of dealing
\r?\n> with it that I just took it and never tried to figure out why they didn't pay
\r?\n> the full insured value. I'm sure they count on people just giving up if they
\r?\n> make it difficult enough.
\r?\n>
\r?\n> You don't say who you purchased the bike from or how; this would have been a
\r?\n> good time to have paid by credit card and then just dispute the charge as your
\r?\n> merchandise never arrived. Then it would be the shipper's problem, not yours.
\r?\n>
\r?\n> Baird