Published: Updated:
On their recent Alaskan adventure, a Tennessee couple spent $1,850 on an engraved fossilized mammoth tusk to commemorate the trip. But by the time United Parcel Service delivered the delicate artwork to their home, it was smashed. Even worse, UPS quickly denied all responsibility and rejected the insurance claim.
For its part, UPS says it doesn’t ship or insure the type of artwork that the family sent from Alaska. That’s a stance the couple finds awfully strange, given their insurance receipt for the tusk, issued by the company.
Now, with their special souvenir ruined and the money spent on it gone, these troubled travelers are asking for help.
Will they be left with a box of shattered artwork to remember Alaska or does UPS owe them $1,850?
Let’s find out.
A graduation promise leads to an Alaskan road trip
Paul and Jeanie Hester made a promise to their three children. Each child would earn a vacation to the destination of their choice upon college graduation — courtesy of mom and dad.
When Paul Jr. graduated from the University of Tennessee this year, he chose Alaska to celebrate with his parents.
Paul Jr. and his mom spent hours planning their road trip through The Last Frontier. The family finally settled on an itinerary that would begin and end in Anchorage, covering nearly 1,000 miles.
“We were celebrating Paul’s graduation, but this was also a bucket list trip for me and my wife,” Hester explained. “We always wanted to go to Alaska, and this was the perfect way to see it.”
Choosing a unique piece of artwork as an Alaskan souvenir
Hester says when the family rolled into Homer, Alaska, they stopped in an artisan shop. Paul and Jeannie had been on the look-out for a special souvenir to bring home from their bucket list adventure.
After browsing through the store for some time, they kept coming back to the same display case.
“We were drawn to this fossilized tusk, with its herd of woolly mammoths sketched onto the front,” Hester explained. “The store owners told me that $1,850 included insurance and shipping. She assured me that they shipped these pieces all the time through the local UPS Store.”
Staring at the striking one-of-a-kind piece, Hester and his wife imagined it on display in their home. It would always remind them of their once-in-a-lifetime trip to Alaska.
“We were sold,” Hester recalled. “We paid for the tusk and the store owners told us they would take care of the rest.”
Entrusting UPS to get their delicate, thousands-of-years-old fossil safely back to Tennessee was a giant leap of faith.
It would turn out to be a leap the couple definitely shouldn’t have taken.
Surprise! UPS is at the door with your smashed souvenir of Alaska
The Hesters finished their trip to Alaska and returned to Tennessee. They looked forward to the arrival of their mammoth tusk. The day before their souvenir was scheduled for delivery, they debated where best to display it.
Of course, we know now they wouldn’t need to worry about displaying it at all.
The next day, a UPS driver brought the box containing the mammoth tusk to their front porch. One look at the package, and the Hesters knew something had gone terribly wrong.
“Part of the display stand was piercing the outside of the box,” Hester told me.
Despite its “Fragile” and “Handle with Care” stickers, the package clearly had not been treated well.
With growing dread, Hester and his wife opened the box, and their fears were soon confirmed. The mammoth tusk was in pieces.
Disappointed by the failure of UPS to deliver their Alaska souvenir in one piece, the couple took comfort in the fact that insurance would cover the loss.
And then UPS failed the Hesters for a second time.
Related: Alaska Airlines denied boarding to me by mistake. Help!
UPS: “We are rejecting your insurance claim. You shipped a prohibited item.”
Just days after filing their insurance claim, UPS gave the couple the bad news.
Unfortunately, after a thorough investigation, we are unable to approve the claim because this type of merchandise is excluded by UPS’s limitation of liability according to the UPS Tariff and Terms and Conditions.
Based on our investigation, your shipment contained items that UPS does not accept for transportation.
UPS Capital
Hester was momentarily taken aback. The artisan shop owners had told him that they ship this kind of artwork all the time. He quickly dialed the number at the bottom of his insurance claim denial, intending to clear up the confusion. The couple assumed the rejection resulted from UPS’s misunderstanding of what was in the box.
It wasn’t.
“They [the insurance claim department] told me the woolly mammoth tusk is ivory,” Hester told me. “UPS doesn’t allow the shipment of any kind of ivory.”
Now it was his turn to be baffled. If UPS doesn’t allow the shipment of ivory, then why had it sold him insurance for the package, Hester wondered.
Related: How did my Alaskan road trip end in a $6,000 rental car repair bill?
What is scrimshaw, and why is it a controversial artwork?
The full description of the artwork the Hesters bought is Woolly Mammoth Scrimshaw on Fossil Mammoth Ivory.
Scrimshaw is the art of carving intricate scenes onto the ivory tusks and teeth of (mostly) marine mammals like walruses and whales. There is more than a bit of controversy surrounding scrimshaw because of the use of ivory and the fact that it originally spun out of the, now highly controversial, whaling industry.
The Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act make it illegal to sell or import scrimshaw made from the teeth and tusks of protected animals. However, depending on the age and origin of an item, there are some circumstances where products made from ivory can be sold.
Of course, having been extinct for over 4,000 years, woolly mammoths are not protected animals.
Although Scrimshaw on a fossilized tusk doesn’t endanger any living species, many states in the U.S. prohibit owning or importing any ivory — including mammoth tusks.
Tennessee isn’t one of the states. However, despite what the shop told the Hesters about regularly shipping ivory scrimshaws, UPS forbids it.
Consumer Rescue investigates: Who should make these travelers whole?
When Hester reached out to me, it had been two months since UPS had smashed his scrimshaw mammoth tusk. Unsure of what to do with it, the fossil was still sitting in pieces in the beat-up box it arrived in.
He was at his wits’ end.
“The [artisan] shop tells me to work it out with the local UPS Store,” Hester told me. “The UPS Store tells me to talk with the shop about my options.”
The couple found themselves in an endless loop of finger-pointing, and all they had to show for it was an $1,850 box of junk.
“Can you help me?” Hester pleaded. “I would just like to be made whole and be reimbursed the money I paid for the product that UPS destroyed during shipment.”
As I do, I asked for the paper trail, and Hester sent it right over.
To determine who owed this couple a refund, I needed to answer one critical question: Did the UPS Store know exactly what was in that box — or did the artisan shop quietly hand over a wrapped ivory tusk and ask to insure the package’s value for $1,850?
Related: Here’s why you should never fly to Alaska on the same day your cruise begins
The shipping receipt from the UPS Store contains the answer
The answer to my question was crystal clear on the UPS Store’s shipping receipt.
The receipt shows that the local UPS Store wrapped the mammoth ivory tusk before sending it on its way. Of course, we don’t know why the packaging failed to protect the delicate fossil; however, insufficient wrapping certainly could be the culprit.
But beyond the possible wrapping failure, the receipt reveals an even bigger problem for the UPS Store in Alaska.
The employee who prepared this receipt and issued the high-value insurance names exactly what is being insured: a mammoth ivory tusk.
UPS had failed this couple at every turn. After the local store shipped the ivory by mistake, careless handlers destroyed the over 4,000-year-old fossil, with its beautiful scene that an artist had spent countless hours carving. The final insult from UPS was the denied insurance claim.
What was meant to be a family heirloom holding treasured memories of a trip to Alaska now represented memories of a decidedly different kind.
Related: Help! Our cruise sailed to Alaska without us. Can we get a refund?
A UPS Store franchise makes a mistake. So who pays?
Most UPS Store locations are franchised. That means they are independently owned and operated.
Hester was getting nowhere with the local UPS Store. The owner, understandably, didn’t want to shoulder an $1,850 mistake and was hoping that the artisan shop would repair or replace the smashed scrimshaw.
That wasn’t going to happen. The pieces that the store sells are each one-of-a-kind. The owners weren’t about to “eat” a nearly $2,000 loss by sending a similar tusk to the Hesters. And Hester didn’t even consider a “repair” of his shattered artwork as a reasonable resolution.
“At this point, I just want a refund,” Hester told the UPS Store owner. “I don’t want someone trying to repair this. I want my money back.”
In response, the local UPS Store did refund Hester – but only for the insurance and shipping fee. That still left him with a nearly $1,700 loss.
I always like to give a business a chance to correct a problem on its own. But in this case, despite the evidence that his shop had made a mistake that ultimately jeopardized nearly $2,000 of the Hesters’ cash, the owner of the UPS franchise appeared to think a $160 refund for the shipping, packaging, and insurance would make things right.
He was wrong.
Related: We upgraded our cabin on our Alaskan cruise. Why did NCL cancel our trip?
Asking UPS to approve this insurance claim
I reached out to our executive contacts at UPS and explained what happened to the Hesters and their ivory tusk. Since the receipt made it clear that the employees in the local UPS Store knew that they were wrapping and shipping an ivory fossil, I reasoned that the insurance claim should be approved.
After a short investigation, the executive team at UPS confirmed that the local outlet had made a mistake. As a result, the UPS Store in Alaska would be responsible for reimbursing the Hesters for the ruined mammoth tusk.
The UPS Store in Homer quickly sent Hester an additional refund to cover the full cost of the woolly mammoth tusk. Hester shipped the remains of the fossil back to Alaska.
Michelle,
Thank you for making this possible.
We really doubted we’d see a refund the way it kept dragging along for well over 2 months. Once I discovered you and [Consumer Rescue] and you got involved, it progressed in a very timely manner. We cannot thank you enough.
Paul Hester
You’re very welcome, Paul. I guess now you’ll need to go back to Alaska and have another family adventure to shop for a replacement souvenir. This time, though, maybe just carry it home with you.
Traveler alert: Be careful about those souvenir purchases
There are restrictions, regulations, laws, and ethical considerations for many souvenirs you might see on your global adventures.
Here’s what to consider before making an expensive purchase abroad:
- What is the item made of?
- Am I allowed to buy and bring it home with me (or ship it)?
- Are any permits required to buy or ship the thing?
- Are there any ethical concerns about purchasing this product?
If you don’t know the answer to all those questions, purchasing the item is unwise.
Case in point: I was recently on an Aurora Expeditions cruise from Norway to Iceland. When we landed in Ittoqqortoormiit on the east coast of Greenland, there was a tiny gift shop selling locally made crafts.
An artisan proudly displayed the fluffy, warm slippers he had for sale. But that fur came from a polar bear, which is illegal to bring into the United States as polar bears are protected under the Endangered Species Act.
I’m a big fan of fuzzy slippers, but not the kind that could get me fined or arrested at the airport!
The bottom line
Souvenir shopping is a fun part of traveling, but don’t let an unwise choice of memorabilia ruin your vacation memories. Do your research, ask questions, and ensure you can legally buy and ship the item you’ve got your eye on — and that you’ll feel good showing it to friends and family.
Of course, if you do all of the above and still end up with a rejected insurance claim, know that Consumer Rescue is here to protect you. Send your request for assistance to our team, and we’ll be happy to investigate. Our help is always fast, friendly, and free of charge! (Michelle Couch-Friedman, founder of Consumer Rescue)
Before you go: These NCL passengers missed their Alaska cruise. Are they owed a refund?
