UPS, UPS Store And Repair Shop All Blame Each Other For My Missing PS3 (Updated)

John sent his broken PlayStation 3 off for repair, but the game console has vanished thanks to either UPS, a UPS Store, the repair shop to which he sent the device or some combination of the three.

It’s not as though John is looking for an explanation, because he’s got enough of those already. All three stories conflict with one another, leaving John to play a game of real-life Clue to determine who committed the murder, with which weapon and in what room.

He writes:

As of this moment, I have spoken to the UPS Store (which I no longer live anywhere near), the recipient, and – despite their policies I had to fight against (more on that later) – UPS itself, and received three different stories about what happened. This is on top of everything else from before, which is apparently irrelevant now.

According to the recipient (Gopher Mods) the package arrived damaged, and after I filed a claim with the UPS Store, the package was picked up for inspection and never returned.

According to the UPS Store, after I filed a claim, the package was picked up, inspected, and returned. They claimed this information was obtained directly from UPS.

According to UPS, the package was never picked up. They decided that they were at fault, and never actually took it from the recipient.

Complicating this is that the people who should have the most complete records (UPS) do not want to talk to me, as under their policies they do not discuss the status of damage claims with anyone apart from the shipper, who by their opinion is the UPS Store, and I am just a third party. Even getting an answer out of them about the status of the package required pushing for escalation, escalating with the UPS Store lead to them telling me to talk to the local store, and there is no one I can escalate to with the receiver.

I am now left with no idea who to blame or how to proceed from here. My first inclination is to tell the receiver that they need to pay me the cost of the hardware plus a bit for the data and that they can work it out with UPS, but if they are really not responsible and/or refuse to give me any reasonable compensation then I still don’t know what I should do about it. They have been responsive and seem to be genuinely trying to help me, but I don’t know who’s lying to me or understand why anyone would.

The nuances of blame in this scenario are too fine for me to really understand, but if you can offer any help or expertise, I would greatly appreciate it.

Sounds to me as though this is clearly the work of Col. Mustard in the conservatory with the candlestick, but that’s only a hunch. Your guess?

UPDATE: John reports the repair shop accepted the blame and gave him a refurbished unit.

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