What does the buyer want? Does the buyer want to give you the bike back and get all his money back. Does the buyer want a new, free $1400 frameset? Does the buyer want a couple hundred dollars to just accept that it's scratched. My first recommendation is that it's on you to determine what it will take to make things right with your buyer.
My second recommendation is to make a BikeFlights insurance claim against the insurance you purchased when you decided to ship with BikeFlights. In my experience, if you paid for insurance, they pay with minimal hassle. If you didn't buy insurance then I would expect that you would have a much harder time getting anything out of BikeFlights. Everybody should buy insurance when shipping with BikeFlights. Everybody should buy more insurance than the bike is worth. My personal experience was I sold a tandem for $2400. I shipped via BikeFlights and I insured it for $3000. The box was torn up badly and one of two parts boxes fell out, which was mortifying to me because I packed it myself. I think it had to be badly manhandled for the box to be destroyed. The buyer and I agreed what it would take to make it right and it was $800. I made an $800 claim to replace missing parts from the lost parts box and BikeFlights paid that painlessly. After that, the buyer decided he still wasn't happy and wanted to ding me personally for another $200. I wasn't thrilled about the moving goalposts, but I paid that punitive adder, since it was my box that failed. Bill Lindsay El Cerrito CA On Tuesday, October 9, 2018 at 7:41:00 PM UTC-7, tc wrote: > I guess there is a first time for everything. The beautiful, pristine Sam > I sold recently was damaged by what looks like a bad packing job, and the > bike shop owners are pointing the finger at Fedex, even though the box > isn't showing any signs of being hit, penetrated, folded, creased, etc.. > > Never had this issue before. I've never used this shop to ship a bike > before, but they have 5 locations in this area, have been around a while, > and are fairly popular. They carry Santa Cruz, Specialized, Cannondale. > The Sam's buyer has pictures showing several areas where the paint has been > rubbed off down to the metal by what looks like metal-to-metal contact > (likely a bar-end shifter). Foam had obviously fallen off several areas > leaving frame and components to rub against each other. A zip tie > apparently was applied so tightly that paint was rubbed off. The wooden > plug in the seat tube had fallen out, causing the paint on the point of the > seat lug to be rubbed off. The seatpost collar clamp bolt is missing. It > really makes me sick to think of that bike in that condition ... and of > course the buyer is very disappointed, this being their first Riv. > > All evidence points to a poor packing job, but the bike shop manager, with > whom the buyer and I spoke with today, said that the owners think it's > Fedex's issue to resolve. I was flabbergasted, and have escalated to the > shop owner, who is supposed to call me to discuss. > > In the meantime, we're looking into Fedex claims. Bikeflights terms and > conditions state very clearly that by shipping via Bikeflights, you agree > to pack the bike very well, per their recommendations. I'm not sure what > the insurance is for except for the even worse case of the bike being > lost.If > > I'm thinking there has to be more than one of you who has been in a > similar situation of dealing with finger-pointing packers vs. shippers. > Any recommendations for resolving? > > Thanks, > Tom > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
