Customer says it arrived damaged: who is liable and how to prove it left you intact

This is written for the seller side of a shipping damage claim: what you owe the buyer, what you can recover from the carrier, and exactly what evidence each of them accepts.

Who is actually liable for shipping damage

Three parties, two separate questions, and mixing them up is the first mistake.

Between you and the buyer, you are responsible. Marketplace policies and consumer-protection rules put the obligation to deliver goods in acceptable condition on the seller, not on the carrier the seller chose. Telling a buyer to take it up with the carrier is not an answer any platform will back.

Between you and the carrier is where the money moves. Carriers accept liability for transit damage, but nearly every refusal comes down to one of two tests:

Both tests are decided by evidence created before the parcel shipped. That is precisely why this problem is hard: the moment that decides it is the one moment nobody films.

Between you and your insurance, if you bought declared value or third-party cover, the same two tests still apply. Coverage sets how much you can recover, not whether you qualify.

Concealed damage: when the box looks fine

A buyer sends a photo of a cracked item sitting in a perfectly clean box. The industry term for this is concealed damage, and it is the version carriers scrutinise hardest, because there is no external sign of mishandling to point at.

It means one of three things, and only evidence separates them:

Explanation	Who carries it	What proves it
Packing too thin to absorb normal handling	You	Your record shows the cushioning, or the lack of it
Damage after delivery	Buyer	Delivery timing, the buyer's own photos, condition of the seal
Item was already damaged when packed	You	Only a pre-shipment record can rule this out

Without a pre-shipment record a reviewer cannot exclude the third, so they assume it. With one, the argument narrows to the first two, and the packing footage answers the first.

Why tracking cannot answer any of this

Tracking tells you a parcel moved and was delivered. It says nothing about contents or condition. Your invoice shows what was ordered, not what was packed. Your listing photos show a product in studio conditions, not the unit you shipped.

So when the buyer's photo arrives, the reviewer chooses between two unevidenced stories: it broke in transit, or it shipped that way. Absent proof, consumer-protection policy resolves that for the buyer.

What the carrier needs

Every major carrier asks for a similar pack, and every one of them publishes its own filing deadline. Deadlines and requirements change, so treat the figures below as a starting point and confirm on the carrier's own page before you rely on them.

Carrier	Where to file	Typically required
USPS	usps.com/help/claims	Proof of value, evidence of insurance, photos of item and packaging
FedEx	fedex.com claims	Tracking number, proof of value, photos of damage and packaging
UPS	UPS claims portal	Tracking number, proof of value, damage photos; inspection may be requested
DHL	DHL claims form	Waybill, invoice, damage photos, packaging photos

What the platform needs

The dispute in front of the buyer is a separate process with its own clock.

Platform	Where it appears	What moves the decision
eBay	Payment dispute or return request	Pre-shipment condition evidence, tracking, listing as it stood
Amazon	A-to-z claim in Seller Central	Documented condition at dispatch, packaging description, buyer messages
Shopify	Chargeback via the payment provider	Evidence pack uploaded once; you rarely get a second attempt
PayPal	Item Not As Described case	Proof of what shipped and its condition, plus delivery confirmation
Etsy	Case in the Resolution Centre	Order photos, packaging, messages kept on-platform

One pre-shipment record satisfies all of them. That is why it is worth creating before you need it, on every order you would hate to lose.

The first 48 hours

Damage claims are won or lost on sequence more than on argument.

Refunding the buyer first is fine, and it is often the right customer decision. But do it after you have the photos, not before. Once the buyer is refunded, their motivation to photograph a box drops to zero, and the carrier claim goes with it.

Your evidence pack, in one list

What "adequate packaging" means to a claims reviewer

This is the test most sellers fail without knowing it existed. Reviewers look for four things, and your record either shows them or it does not:

• Cushioning on every side, including underneath. An item touching the carton wall has no protection at that point.
• No movement. If contents shift when the box is tilted, the packing is treated as insufficient.
• The right box for the weight. A heavy item in a thin single-wall carton fails on the box, not on the padding.
• A properly sealed parcel. Tape across every seam, with the seal visible in your record.

A recording that shows the padding going in and the box closing answers all four at once. A photo of the finished, taped box answers none of them.

What "adequate" looks like by product type

Product	The failure mode	What a reviewer wants to see
Glass, ceramics	Corner and edge impact	Double-wall box, each piece wrapped separately, 5 cm of fill on all sides
Electronics	Shock and screen pressure	Original retail box inside a shipping box, no direct contact with walls
Apparel, soft goods	Water, tearing, scuffing	Sealed poly inner, then outer bag or box; rarely a damage claim, often a "condition" claim
Jewellery, watches	Movement inside the box, loss	Item fixed in place, box inside a box, discreet outer with no brand marks
Liquids, cosmetics	Leakage	Sealed bag around the bottle, absorbent layer, upright orientation marked
Heavy or bulky	Box failure, not padding failure	Weight-rated carton, reinforced base, edge protection

If one SKU produces most of your claims, the answer is usually in this table rather than in better evidence.

Photos or video?

Both work; they answer different questions.

	Photos	Continuous video
Item condition	✅	✅
Order identity in the same frame	✅ if composed for it	✅
Packing method and cushioning	partly	✅
Sequence: nothing swapped between shots	❌	✅
Time to capture	seconds	30–60 seconds
Storage cost	low	higher

For low-value orders, photos are proportionate. For fragile, high-value or repeatedly disputed items, the sequence is what removes the gap a reviewer would otherwise fill with an assumption. The full standard is in what makes a packing video count as evidence.

Response templates

Adapt the wording, keep the structure, and keep every message on the platform's own record.

That last framing matters. Contesting everything reads as obstruction. Contesting the one thing your evidence actually establishes reads as credible.

Six mistakes that void an otherwise winnable claim

Preventing the next one

Damage claims cluster: the same product, the same box size, the same lane. Three habits close most of the gap.

• Record the orders you would hate to lose, not all of them: fragile, high-value, and anything with a history of claims.
• Capture the padding, not just the product. The packaging test is the one carriers actually apply.
• Track which SKUs generate claims. If one item accounts for most of them, change the box before you change the evidence.

Terms you will see on a claim form

• Concealed damage — damage to contents with no visible damage to the outer packaging.
• Declared value — the amount you told the carrier the shipment was worth, above their default liability cap. Not the same as insurance, though it functions similarly.
• Proof of value — an invoice, order record or receipt establishing what the goods were worth.
• Salvage — the carrier's right to inspect, collect or dispose of the damaged goods as part of settling a claim.
• Inspection request — the carrier asking to see the item and packaging in person. Why the buyer must keep the box.
• Representment — submitting evidence to contest a chargeback with the card scheme.

What this does not fix

A record of condition at handover says nothing about what happened in the truck, and it will not rescue a claim filed after the deadline. It does not settle liability where the packaging was genuinely inadequate; it will show that plainly. And it is no help when the real dispute is whether the cardholder authorised the purchase; that is a different question with different evidence.

What it does is remove one accusation permanently: that you shipped a damaged item. That is the accusation that costs sellers the most, because it is the only one they can never answer after the fact.

Where PallasMark fits

PallasMark records each order as it is packed, seals the file at capture so any later edit is detectable, ties it to the order, and produces a link a buyer, a platform reviewer or a carrier's claims desk can open and verify without an account. That is the carrier and insurance claim workflow in one place, and the same record answers the packing quality question the carrier asks next. If the claim you get most often is about which item shipped rather than its condition, start with proving which unit went in the box.