You cant just accept the market value for the item, you should receive cost which would most likely include S&H plus the storage charge refunded plus depending on the contract and circumstances you could recieve compensation for loss of sale.

Think of it this way, you open a seafoof restaurant and your first delivery of stock is contaminated. You dont just lose the cost of that stock, there are complex associated costs that you must consider.

What if you had a contract to deliver said product and as a result you lost the contract?

 

it depends if u declare the value to be insured to be $10 or $20 or $100.

when u store shit they make u declare the value.

 

"What would you do, Jack? What would you do?" (from the movie 'Speed').

 

I would charge them $10. That is the right thing to do.

 

i say charge them full retail value, or have them immediatly provide you with an identical replacement. now assuming that you are a reseller of said item, you will have a huge discount when you purchase the item (probably in bulk) but they will not be able to get that discount to get you a replacement. not to mention as was already said, you paid for shipping to recieve the item, you have paid for storage of the item. this item is an investment for you. i personally would not invest money, and then later down the road have something happen to my investment, only to regain the ORIGINAL amount of my investment. that would mean that all your time and money has been tied up in this item for now reason becuase you could have kept your time and money for other projects, and just purchased the item at a later date when you had a buyer lined up.

 

You charge them your cost. It's the ethical thing to do.

That's what we do if a shipping company damages one of our mattresses.

 

I don't think ethics are the key to this problem. . . The question is strictly what is the replacement cost new for the asset. This cost should include the cost of the asset ($10) and costs associated with lost revenue as a result of you not being able to sell the asset (provided you already had a sales contract in place).

 

Legally they would have to put you back in the position (financially) as you were before the damage occured. This means that you could charge them the replacement cost plus transportation charges.

If they were already sold but still in the warehouse and you lost the sale due to not being able to replace them in time, I believe that you would have to demonstrate that it was in the contemplation of the parties at the time of entering into the storage contract that the goods were for sale and that damage to them could result in the loss of a sale to you. This loss of profit would be much harder to recover than the cost of replacement of the goods ......

(but I am not a lawyer, so this is just what I think the position would be ... )