Neon John wrote:
On Mon, 20 Nov 2006 20:21:34 GMT, "Edwin Pawlowski"
wrote:

Why are you not taking it up with the carrier? They are the ones
responsible and they have insurance to cover damaged goods. While the Ziller
guy may have been bad mannered, he is correct. It is your responsibility to
contact the carrier and make a claim. Some companies will go the extra mile
to help you, but they have no obligation to do so.

As a trucker, maybe I can add some info to this.

If this was delivered by motor freight carrier (not UPS, etc), then
the freight carrier's only liability is to deliver an intact package,
that is, the outer package/wrapping/crate is undamaged. If there is
no damage to the outer package then they have no liability. Internal
damage is between the shipper and the consignee (the customer).

I almost never do LTL (less than truckload, what the drivers that drop
crates off at your back door do) but I've been to class on the
procedures. I do not have to wait around for the consignee to inspect
the internals of the shipment. In fact, I'm told not to. If the
consignee refuses to sign for the shipment, I simply write on the bill
of lading "signature refused" and send the same message on the
Qualcomm (the satellite system most trucks have nowadays).

Though the industry has been partially deregulated, many regulations
remain. According to my company, the above relationship is one of the
regulated areas so it will be the same with any motor freight carrier.
Package services like UPS and Fedex fall under different rules.

That said, you should have opened the crate the same or next day. Waiting a
week does make it more difficult to get you point across. How can you prove
it was not banged in your garage?

Precisely. Even if he opened the crate on the spot, as long as the
outside isn't damaged, it's not the carrier's problem.

I suspect that the root of this is that Nate got on the phone and was
an officious prick and the guy at Ziller told him to FO. His whiny
all-caps subject line says loads. Speaking as a businessman, we try
not to ever have to tell a customer to FO but sometimes we run into
someone who is so unreasonable that it's better to cut bait and take
the loss.

Thanks for the perspective from the other side of the lift gate, John.
It sounds as if each particular trucking company has some latitude in
how they handle delivery. In my experience I've never had a trucker
refuse to wait and split without getting a signature. I assumed that
they couldn't do that. Then again, I've never refused to sign unless I
found. You make it sound cut and dried about determining who is
responsible for the damage based on the exterior of the package. Maybe
it is, but I've had times where it was unclear whether the package got
damaged and then the contents, and other times the contents were packed
poorly and damaged the packaging. That must be a frustrating
experience - attempting to deliver a damaged shipment that you _know_
is going to be refused. I always considered the signature a bit of a
formality anyway, because no identification is required and the
signatures are frequently scrawled, so I guess that would take some of
the starch out of the formality.

Maybe I never had a guy leave without a signature because I respect the
time pressure the driver (or anyone working for a living) is under, so
I hustle to make it a quick but thorough inspection. If I have to pop
open a crate, I won't let the driver's schedule push me to accept
something that I shouldn't. It's my money on the line and I have far
more to lose than a few minutes of the driver's time. If I feel it
took me longer to inspect than it should have I'll drop some cash on
the driver - and I've never gotten anything other than a thank you.

R