I could do the work myself but UPS requires an estimate from a third party. I need a full length Sako left hand stock replaced; and a toe/buttplate repair on a fox CE. I am in Texas and the closer to home the better but not essential. Well the Fox is in Ohio at the moment so I suppose that would be the place to have that one fixed. Will email photos to willing stockmaker.

Forgot to do the digest thing, so best to PM me.

The stock Doctor?

http://www.thestockdr.com/contact.php

I just had a claim denied because I did not use a 200 pound rated box. Has to have the stamp on it. I assume you used one....

I got the estimates I need ... whether UPS accepts them remains to be seen. They have buggered up 3 of my guns in the last 3 months. One was in a plastic hard case, inside a carton, they broke the wrist through and denied the claim. Another they failed to show up to inspect the box for about 6 week, eventually we got tired of waiting for them and recovered the gun, and then they denied the claim because they said we didn't save the box for them. I am thinking about the mother of all class action lawsuits.

Hmmmm. We receive dozens of guns a week thru UPS. Never had a broken gun in the last 5 years. Some come in the crappiest boxes you can imagine. You may have a malicious anti-gun UPS employee that is sabotaging some of your shipments.

Seems like it would be interesting to see if the damaged firearms have certain routing.
Most pictures I have seen of damaged firearms look to be deliberate abuse.

Jus Sayin!

Of course they all go thru the local UPS depot and from there are distributed to their network, all points of the compass. I am going to ask my driver whether there is anyone in the local depot who may be doing this. But I think it's just rough handling .. conveyors, forklifts etc etc.

The problem is not so much that they break stuff, it's that they take your money for insurance and then wriggle out of claims using any number of bogus excuses. First they insist that both shipper and receiver must have an FFL. That is not always the case. Second that the packing material pass their subjective inspection. Third that they get to inspect same on their own sweet time ... sometimes weeks and weeks go by before they show up. Fourth, that you have the original receipt showing how much you paid for the item. Fifth that you have the signed receipt if the item is insured for over $1000. Sixth, that you specify adult signature. And so on. They don't even have the cohones to deal with you themselves ... they hire a firm staffed by professional deniers to break the bad news to you .. a form letter stating sorry, thanks for buying our insurance but it's not going to do you any good. I wonder how this firm gets compensated? I bet you there is an incentive to keep payouts way low.

First post here after being a long time lurker. I am not a gunsmith but I have a fair amount of experience dealing with insurance companies when they deny a claim.

First off your primary claim is against UPS. The insurance is only secondary. I am in California and we have a small claims court for claims under $2500 with occasional claims up to $5000. There is a limit to the number of $5000 claims you can bring in one year. I am sure that Texas has a similar small claims court.

The beauty of small claims court is that no lawyers are allowed. For a nominal filing fee you get to present your case to a judge and UPS can assert whatever defenses they may have. The judge listens to both sides and makes a decision. Sometimes right there on the spot but often you will get the ruling in the mail.
There are books on presenting claims in small claims court. And probably info online too.
It will be expensive and time consuming for UPS to send someone to rebut your claim. Big companies often make settlement offers rather appearing in court.

If you want to pursue the insurance you will need to get a copy of the policy from the insurance company. Ask the insurance company what provision in the policy that they are denying your claim. If you can't resolve it take the insurance company to small claims court.

Prevention is the ONLY answer I always a Kalispell case with a combination lock and enclose a return label so the case can be easily sent back to me

Years ago I had UPS break the fins off a cylinder head and they denied the claim saying it was improperly packaged or some such. I fought this with them for some time. I dug through their rules and found a statement to the effect that UPS cannot accept an improperly packaged parcel. I threw this back at them and at long last, they finally paid up. Persistence pays off but these days of doing everything online, it is hard to actually reach anyone who has the authority or interest in making things right.

Ive had some losses over the years, and a couple of damages..My approach was photos when possible and very detailed reports,supported by backup evidence etc. lots of work but payment to me was very quick indeed, no questioned asked....