Narrative Summary

I shipped a $600 heavy automotive part using UPS SurePost. The package was severely damaged right before final delivery, and USPS threw the destroyed box away without delivering it. When I filed my claim with UPS, the adjuster immediately paused the investigation and sent me an email stating: "Since the damage occurred during the final mile, you must file your claim directly with the United States Postal Service." I tried, but USPS rejected me because my tracking number belonged to a UPS commercial account.

The Resolution Strategy

Telling a shipper to "go file with USPS" is a deliberate bad-faith deflection. UPS knows full well that USPS will not indemnify a sender who does not have a direct commercial postage receipt with the Post Office.

The Authori claims platform drafted a highly aggressive legal rebuttal using UPS Tariff Item 540 and fundamental contract law.

The appeal letter firmly notified the UPS adjuster that the instruction to file with USPS was a procedural impossibility and a breach of the tariff. It reiterated that the financial contract for indemnification exists exclusively between the shipper and the billing carrier (UPS). The letter demanded that UPS immediately resume the investigation and process the $600 payout, formally stating that UPS could seek subrogation from USPS after making the shipper whole. Faced with an appeal that exposed their procedural trap, UPS resumed the investigation and issued the $600 check.