Noel Rodriguez said he brought his TV and a UPS-purchased box into his local UPS store in Illinois. He said the TV was wrapped in plastic with an added layer of bubble wrap.
“I knew it wasn’t going to be enough but that’s why I took it to UPS, so that way they could wrap it,” Noel said.
Noel said a UPS employee added some popcorn inside and sealed the box. Noel paid for the shipping and insurance for up to $1,000.
“I was excited, I finally got some TV,” Noel said. “Opened the box and it was destroyed.”
Noel said the TV was broken and when he plugged it in, all he could see were a couple of blue lines across the screen.
Since Noel had purchased the insurance with his shipment, he thought the damage would be taken care of so he filed an insurance claim.
“They denied the claim because I used inferior bubble wrap, non-UPS bubble wrap,” Noel said.
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Noel said the use of non-UPS bubble wrap was never brought up at the store and he would have gladly paid and used UPS’ bubble wrap if the store clerk had brought it to his attention.
“If I had sealed the box and said ship it, then yeah that would be on me,” Noel said, “but I took it to UPS for them to do this.”
Noel asked NBC 7 Responds to help him get his insurance money. After reaching out to UPS, Chelsea Lee, a spokesperson for UPS, responded quickly saying the package in their system was listed as “self-packed.”
“According to the store they say that they sold the box to Mr. Rodriguez but he supplied his own packing materials and packed the box himself at The UPS Store location,” Lee’s statement read, “When an item is self-packed the responsibility falls on the shipper/customer to ensure UPS packaging guidelines are followed in order to make the shipment eligible for declared value coverage.”
Lee said the store clerk should have offered the bubble wrap advice at the store before his TV was shipped. UPS said they did not have any record that was ever done and agreed to settle Noel’s claim.
UPS agreed to pay Noel $1,000 for his TV and refund what he had paid to ship the package.
To read UPS’ full statement, click here.
For more advice on what you should know before you ship your next package, click here.
