UPS damage/aluminum frame repair

Triathlon Forum
1

I just shipped a Cannondale Caad 4 frame from Texas to Ohio, and just received it today from UPS. I started to begin building it up and noticed that there is a decent sized dent in the drive side chainstay right behind the bottom bracket. I really liked this frame, both for its ride and for sentimental reasons. Does anyone know if it would be possible to get an aluminum frame repaired, or what neighborhood I may be looking at?

Also, does anyone have experience with UPS regarding bike damage? I contacted them to file a damage report about this already, as well as for a wheel that was in the box that now has a hop and has the dish completely screwed up. My guess is that they dropped something really heavy on it pretty hard and really messed it up. They want to pick up the frame on Thursday, and told me I need to repackage it to how it was for them. I insured it for $500, but I’m guessing they’ll try and tell me that they saw one on ebay that was similar, so they’ll give me $100 for it. Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks

Ben

2

Aluminum is essentially unrepairable, so if your frame is damaged enough to need fixing, it’s a tosser. Sorry.

Good luck with UPS. UPS does not actually insure anything they ship. They “self insure,” meaning they survey and cover damage/loss/theft out of their own corporate structure - no independant adjustment or oversight. It’s a scam, and it means they have a financial stake in every single adjustment.

My experience, having been a high 5 digit customer of theirs in the past, is that they fight tooth and nail to avoid paying claims. They lost our account over a $1000 loss they refused to pay on. Their rationale for failing to pay was “inadequate packaging” - this after dropping a bass cabinet with such force that a speaker magnet physically detached itself from the speaker. The speaker manufacturer figured the cabinet had to have fallen 15 feet or so. It was pretty obvious to everyone they dropped the box off a loading dock - but it was our fault! The loss specialist who came to inspect the box told us that by their standards, the cabinet need to be double boxed, with a minimum of 2 inches of foam padding in each box in order to qualify for coverage. Of course, this standard was only revealed to us after our loss, and after they had been accepting our “insurance” money for several years. Oh yeah - conveniently, packaging our product to their “standard” would, of course, bump it into the oversize parcel category, and dramatically increase the cost of shipping…

Don’t repack your box as it was shipped. Repack it as if you were going to load your Daughter in it, and drop her from an airplane. Feel free to lie - because UPS will to avoid paying your claim, and you have essentially no recourse if they decide not to cover your loss.

If they do cover it, you will not get what you insured it for, but replacement cost up to what you insured it for (another scam.) Get a friendly shop to estimate your damage, and have them certify in writing that the product is non-repairable. Replacment cost does not mean the cost of a similar item off E-bay, but the cost of a new like or comparable item at current retail value. Have your estimate with you when the adjuster comes to inspect the box., and do not agree to settle for less than replacement value unless you have to - which will only happen if UPS decides to jerk you around, which they may or may not. The very capriciousness of their policies is what makes them so frustrating.

My father was an insurance adjuster, and ALL of his friends were as well. I grew up in the insurance business, and the UPS version of it just pisses me off.

Good luck,

MH

3

Been thru this also and you have to fight ups for every penny. From now on whenever I ship something expensive I take pictures during the packing to insure of proof of correct packing.

They, UPS, always say not packed well enough. I would call them and see what they say.

bob

4

Good luck, my friend had a stereo damaged by UPS and didn’t get anything from them. I hope that you kept the packaging/box that you shipped it in. As someone above mentioned, take pictures when packing expensive objects that you are going to ship. If you get a package with visible damage on the outside take pictures or film you unpacking the object.

You can’t repair an alu frame so it is toast. Good luck.

A question for others, do Fed-Ex or USPS handle damage claims better then UPS?

Andrew

5

Detailed and great advice. I ship a fair amount via FedEx Ground and insure above the standard $100 about 50% of the time. From your experience or from the grapevine, have you heard if FedEx does any better than UPS regarding shipping insurance and actually paying when they crunch something?

6

Good luck, my friend had a stereo damaged by UPS and didn’t get anything from them. I hope that you kept the packaging/box that you shipped it in. As someone above mentioned, take pictures when packing expensive objects that you are going to ship. If you get a package with visible damage on the outside take pictures or film you unpacking the object.

You can’t repair an alu frame so it is toast. Good luck.

A question for others, do Fed-Ex or USPS handle damage claims better then UPS?

Andrew

NJbiker,

I worked in the transportation industry for 18 years. In my own professional experience, USPS was the worst. In their case, purchasing insurance appeared to simply be profit enhancement. Of all the legitimate claims for damage or loss that I filed, I never collected a satisfactory adjustment. Consequently, I quit using USPS. If you think UPS is bad, you haven’t seen nothing yet! IMHO FWIW

7

USPS will not ship a bike.

FedEx Ground will ship a bike and my experience with them has been very positive - good service and low rates. I have yet to hear of anyone suffering damage to their bike by FedEx.

8

P.S., I used to work at UPS and having seen what goes on there I would never ship anything with them.

10

where do you live? :wink:

12

Yes, once UPS left a $400-$500 package in front of my door when I lived in an apartment. 3 days later when I got home, it was (no surprise)… gone.

After a few weeks of wrangling with shipper and UPS, UPS had to swallow hard and had to pay up the entire amount. I bet the driver who left it was terminated.

13

You obviously didn’t get the joke.

15

I was joking; since UPS likes to leave $2500 packages on your doorstep, your place sounds like a nice place to pickup some secondhand racing goods…just wait for the UPS guy to stop by.

17

Francois,

Hid and I can rearrange our schedules so that we can swing by and pick up those $2,500.00 packages and you will never have to pick them up yourself! How’s that for “true” friends?

Maybe my wife would quit complaining about my habit of spending money on cycling “stuff” if all my “stuff” was “free.” Compliments of Francois and UPS El Paso.

No need to thank Hid and I for the offer…

19

In all seriousness, I would never, could never steal. Plus UPS has a habit of leaving similar packages on my doorstep.

21

lol

I think the traveling expenses and time off work would outweigh any goods obtained from a package.

23

BTW - let me know if you need an explanation of that thing called work :wink:
.

24

have you heard if FedEx does any better than UPS regarding shipping insurance and actually paying when they crunch something?

I have worked for two seperate high-volume shipping concerns that switched to Fed-ex/RPS after terrible experiences with UPS. Our experience in both cases was that Fed-Ex offered a considerably lower volume of lost/damaged items, and made good on insurance 100% of the time when something did happen. At a wholesale level, they were also able to underbid UPS (that was for the 5-figure account…)

MH

25

Francois,

Detroit to El Paso? How much?

Ride 54 cm top tube road bike. 51 cm top tube in tri/TT frame should be just about right.

Seriously, you don’t need to worry about me. Would love to meet you on the road sometime. Share thoughts, experiences, maybe a draft(as in cycling) and later, maybe a cold one.

Best wishes.

26

The frame is almost certainly repairable. Alu tubes cannot be straightened but they can be replaced with ease. Any frame builder can replace that tube (provided Cannondale will sell them one). Cannondale also does frame repair, contact your local dealer and ask them for help. Can’t help you with price but be prepared for a new paint job in the process.

Disregard anyone who automatically says a Alu frame is unrepairable. Let a frame builder who has the frame in their hands give you a professional opinion. None of us can see the frame well enough from behind our computer screens.

27

Ben,

your frame may possibly not actually be damaged. I sold Cannondales many years ago and recall they had a crimp (aka big dent) in the driveside chainstay for clearance. I don’t know if they still do this on current models, but you might have overlooked this when packing. I’d wander down to your local dealer and see if another frame of the same model has the same crimp.