We spent £1,528 on a new Neff oven and microwave online from a kitchen retailer. The heavily discounted deal required us to arrange shipping from its showroom. We chose UPS. When the items arrived, the microwave was dented and the glass door of the oven smashed. UPS advised us to raise a damage claim, and sent a courier to collect the items for assessment. While wheeling the microwave to the van, the courier dropped it. UPS rejected our claim, citing “insufficient packaging”. In fact, the vendor’s photos of the items before collection showed them intact in the industrial-quality packaging from the Neff factory. They also bore fragile labels warning they needed to be handled with care. UPS continued to reject our claim.
Then we discovered debits of more than £270 from our credit card. It turned out UPS was charging us for shipping the items back to the retailer, despite the fact we’d asked them to be returned to us. After three months, and 50 or so phone calls, UPS declared the ovens lost. We ended up buying replacements from John Lewis at much greater cost, and submitted a lost item claim to UPS. There followed several more weeks of chasing, then UPS informed us it had located the ovens and wished to dispatch to us. We no longer need them. UPS’s appalling service has cost us several thousand pounds.
K and DE, Bristol
