Looking for some advice or a point of contact that can help with my issue.
Used Kuroneko Yamato to forward a luggage from our Osaka hotel to Tokyo hotel during our vacation. The luggage arrived at our Tokyo hotel damaged. The luggage bottom of the suitcase was cracked and the wheel was missing. What made it worse is that this happened 3 days before we leave Japan.
Initially, Yamato had offered 10,000 yen as compensation. We immediately started searching at the local Don Quijote for luggage option, and the cheapest one with the same size and feature is starting 29,000 yen.
We countered Yamato with either getting us another suitcase w/ similar size and feature or provide us enough compensation to get another suitcase. We also expressed the concern that we are leaving Japan in three days, so please act with urgency.
We didn’t hear back from Yamato until the day we leave Japan, then we were offered 8,000 yen to help with the suitcase repair. This makes zero sense for Yamato to offer compensation to repair, as this leave us no time to get this repair completed in couple hours before our flight.
We ended up purchasing a new suitcase hours before our flight and barely leave us enough time to pack everything. On top of this, I had to pay the hotel 2,000 yen to dispose of the damage suitcase.
After couple back and forth emails with Yamato, it’s not going anywhere. I had provided a Costco ($189.99) receipt of how much the luggage cost back in the state, and the condition of the luggage to show it was barely used as we had just purchased the suitcase for this trip.
I am hoping someone have a lead on who I can contact, since the customer service is not being helpful resolving this issue or I might just have to take a L for this one…
TIA
3 comments
Even though the [maximum limit of liability for a damaged parcel](https://faq-en.kuronekoyamato.co.jp/app/answers/detail/a_id/5327) is ¥300,000, if you refer to Article 25 of the [terms and conditions](https://www.kuronekoyamato.co.jp/ytc/en/agreement/pdf/y_01_takkyubin.pdf), it does seem a lot like they get discretion on how much they pay out:
> 2. Yamato shall compensate for damage to a parcel on the basis of the value of the parcel, according to the extent of the damage up to the Limit of Liability.
It reads like they get to decide how much they think the damage is worth, and it seems like they may have assessed your damage at ¥10,000.
I’m not sure there’s anything you can do here other than continue to politely but firmly push back and ask for full reimbursement. But there are no terms that state they _must_ give you an amount equal to the original price of the luggage or anything like that. If they believe it can be repaired rather then replaced, they seem unfortunately within their rights to compensate you for that instead.
If you bought it recently, is it still within warranty? Also if you bought it via credit card, they might have some insurance you can claim?
Why not just return it to Costco? They don’t care how badly damaged it is. Take what Yamato give you and get full refund from Costco.