Dear Money Helps: A year ago I flew to Florida to bury my mother and handle her estate. I went to a Staples store to ship 10 boxes of antiques and sentimental items to my home via UPS. I insured each box for $500. Four arrived damaged, and priceless heirlooms were broken. I filed claims for $400 with UPS but I’ve never been paid. No luck with Staples either. Can you help? - Nancy Mathias, Richardson, Texas
Answer: This was a sad errand for you and a sorry case of miscommunication by the vendors. The last thing you needed was to get a damage-claims runaround. What happened? Basically you got caught between two companies: UPS, which transported your goods, and Staples, which packed them and served as an outlet for UPS services. Since Staples sent the boxes, UPS considers it the customer, not you. (I know, the logic is kooky.) So when you [...]
Original post by and software by
