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In Reply to: RE: Photo of the box posted by blakey on December 17, 2007 at 23:24:10
blakey,
Enlarging the photos in your post, the situation is more clear. And, the seller seems on the reasonable side in mentioning that FedEx will have difficulty in settling blame for the damage as the packing is so ripped apart. My one experience in a damage claim- a vacuum tube- was entirely focussed on the quality of the packing.
The seller did purchase insurance and looking at the photos, the damage probably did occur during shipping. In my view, your only recourse to collect from insurance would be to make a claim based on an opinion that there was an acceptable level of packing, i.e., the packing was just fine and FedEx must've run over the box with a lorry. If FedEx refuses to pay on the insurance by pronouncing the packing inadequate then the seller would have to accept responsibility based on the FedEx pronouncement. However, the seller is being realistic when suggesting the ripped apart packing has in a sense destroyed the evidence one way or the other. My guess is since FedEx can avoid a claim whenever possible, they will opine that poor packing was at fault. You have then the option of asserting that the packing was adequate- which I imagine the seller would also support. The problem is, if you support the adequate packing claim to try and collect from FedEx, if that fails, the seller will be let off from responsibility, citing your assertion to FedEx.
The logical alternative would seems to be to try a FedEx claim which would likely result in a judgement by FedEx as to the poor packing. Citing that pronouncement, you would then need to pursue the seller through an appeal to his sense of responsibility as a seller and if that doesn't work by threat of scathing negative feedback and/or lawsuit such as small claims, and/or banishment from Audiogon. From many posts here, my impression is though, that Audiogon tends to only protect sellers as they are the source of revenues.
In my view, a Audiogon seller with over 400 all positive feedbacks suggests a professional or at least a consistent seller, who should have known that amplifiers are typically massive and need very strong packing and shock isolation. I have bought a number of pieces of gear used and except for my two McIntosh tuners, only if they were shipped in original packing and insured. In the cases of the McIntosh, I had the seller verify in writing they would be double boxed and padded.
Reading the response from the seller, he seems a bit more reasonable and my impression is that you will almost certainly need to rely on his business ethics for satisfaction in this case. Refusing to accept fault might change if you get tougher and wave a FedEx pronouncement as to the poor quality of the packing. The problem may well be reduced to the fact that the packing is so destroyed, that unless you can reconstruct it to that as received, and show the thinness of the materials, lack of clearnce and padding, both FedEx and the seller will excuse themselves as the condition of the shipping is impossible to determine.
I once bought a pair of speakers new and one box arrived with a serious hole in the side- about 2" X 2" and appeared to be a puncture rather than crushing. I had the delivery fellow note it and before opening the box, photographed the box and hole. It turned out that something had projected into the box but didn't touch the speaker, but I had documentation in case something had happened.
Again, best of luck and let us know the outcome.
Cheers,
Bambi B
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