Order Damaged in Transit

[fuzzie bear]

Can anyone give advice on this ?
I have sent two airline carriers to the USA via the Irish Post system (equiv to Royal Mail)
The two arrived damaged - completely cracked.
So, I sent two more. I emailed the customer to refuse them if they arrived damaged and not sign for them. I also printed large signs all over the carriers that they were not to be signed for if they were damaged.
Anyway, the post office in the USA wouldn't release the carriers unless they were signed for. So the customer signed for them and brought them home. These two were also cracked.
Each carrier is worth €300 each.
I packed the carriers 4 different ways, with bubblewrap, boxes and polysterene and these strong carriers were still broken.
The customer is leaving the USA next week and is demanding I resend the carriers. I have a claim with the post office but its looking like the max claim on standard post is €30. I rang the post office and its going to take them 4 weeks to investigate.
Where do I stand with the customer - do I have to send them another two ?

[chris ashdown]

Quite honestly it's your fault for not packing them well enough, I well understand you may get them delivered to you in the same packing, but it's your responsibility to get them to your customer without breakage.

Why on earth are you sending expensive items by mail rather than courier and why not pay for insurance to the correct value

In this case I would just refund the customer full amount and tell them you are unable to send the goods untill you can find a solution to the problem, unless you feel happy to try again

[fuzzie bear]

I actually can't pack them any better. If you imagine a crate wrapped with bubble wrap, all sides and corners padded with polystrene and then put in a strong box. Now these are airline carriers that are meant to fit a great dane in them so are strong enough to hold a great dane ! They are also built for travelling across the world on an aeroplane with heavy weight in them !

I did try to send it by DHL, Fedex etc but they were looking for €1,000 instead of €100.

Regarding insurance, the post office here for USA don't allow you to buy any insurance as you can only send it standard post as they don't have an alternative.

[leehack]

Unless profit on these items it too good to miss out on, I'd remove these sort of problems by not offering the service. You've got most factors against you and only profit with you, too much stress.

[fuzzie bear]

Yep, we decided that even with the large profit margin, the hassle just isn't worth it !