That's understandable. If they pay me what they owe me I will be more than happy with that! Thanks again, will add more info when I have it.

Thank you both for your replies. The value of the item was £559.99 plus the postage costs of £24.00; £583.99 in total, apologies for missing that. I will refund the buyer and get him to return the item to me. I will also send over a formal complaint to UPS and await their response. When you say claim for other expenses, does that mean time spent trying to sort all this out; back and forth with the buyer, writing emails to Packlink, chasing them up, etc? If so, I would say I've spent roughly 3-4 hours doing that, should I charge an hourly rate or will this just muddy the waters and I'd better off just trying to claim the £583.99? I will keep you updated along the way.

Hello everyone, I found this website yesterday as I am looking to make a claim against UPS or Packlink due to damaging an eBay item I sent using their service. I payed for their fully compensated service that covers against loss and damage. The item was sold through eBay (I'm a private seller) so the contents and cost of item were all declared. The item in question is a five piece Le Creuset set with wooden stand. The item arrived badly damaged; the wooden frame was smashed apart, 2 of the pans have cracks, the other 3 all have some sort of chip or scratches. This is the eBay listing for the item - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/124980052958 As you can see the items were all in perfect condition; basically brand new. All items were heavily bubble wrapped, with packing paper stuffed to fill in the gaps to ensure there was no movement. As this came with the original box, all items were put in that and then placed in a secondary, double walled box. The only way this could have been damaged is either being thrown with force, or dropped from a height. Either way, negligence on the couriers behalf. Timeline of events - 4th November / 12.54pm - dropped off at UPS drop off point 5th November / 9.39am - delivered to the buyer (he messaged me within an hour of receiving it, along with pictures of the damage) 8th November - claim opened on the Packlink website (I had to wait a few days for the buyer to send me more photos for the Packlink website as he was away) 8th November - 27th November - I have been messaging back and forth with Packlink and to be honest they are useless. I am very lucky that the buyer is a patient and helpful person as he has had to jump through hoops with the photos he's had to provide. Packlink told me that UPS would be in touch with the buyer as they need to collect the item from him in order to take it away and inspect it. UPS have not contacted him or me once and the item has still not been collected from the buyer. I have been trying to keep the ball rolling by messaging them every few days and the response is always along the lines of 'we're waiting on UPS'. As of today Packlink have not messaged me back since the 22nd. From reading some of the other posts on these boards I can see that chasing Packlink is probably not the thing to do and that I should look to UPS for the compensation instead. I have a few questions before moving forward - - From initiating the claim it's been almost 3 weeks; have I given them enough time to sort this out? - Am I safe to refund the buyer and have him send the item back to me? As Packlink have said that UPS will need to collect and inspect the item, I don't want to void any chance I have at getting my money back I'm not sure on how to move forward regarding the direct UPS claim so any advice would be much appreciated. If I've missed anything out please let me know and I will supply the needed information. Thanks for your help, Jack