The carton for our rotating mirror cabinet is 68.3 inches long and weighs 50.3 lb. A driver with eleven more stops hands it over. The signature takes ten seconds. What you do around it decides whether a cracked glass is a replacement part in the mail or a two-week argument.
Nearly every guide tells you to write the damage on the delivery receipt before you sign. Do that. It is also not what pays for anything.
The receipt is evidence, not a claim
Freight calls the paper a bill of lading; parcel carriers call it a proof of delivery. It records that the shipment arrived and what you said was wrong with it at that moment — worth having, but not a claim.
Under 49 CFR 370.3(c), “bad order reports, appraisal reports of damage, notations of shortage or damage, or both, on freight bills, delivery receipts, or other documents … shall, standing alone, not be considered by carriers as sufficient to comply with the minimum claim filing requirements.”
A claim, per 370.3(b), is a written communication that identifies the shipment, asserts liability, and asks for a specified or determinable amount of money. Three elements, in writing.
So write on the receipt anyway — it is your evidence that the carton arrived damaged, and it forecloses the “signed clean” defence. The claim is the email that follows.
The outer clock is generous: 49 U.S.C. 14706(e)(1) says a carrier may not set a claim period of less than nine months, or less than two years for a lawsuit. That is the ceiling on fine print — and still no reason to wait, because the retailer’s window is far shorter.
Fourteen days, and what it covers
Every product page carries the same line: “Damaged or wrong item? Tell us within 14 days.” The shipping and returns page spells out the rest: send “a photo of the damage or the wrong item, plus the shipping label” to hello@runvaus.com, and the remedy is a replacement part, a replacement piece, or a refund. Return shipping is on us when the problem is ours.
Read on and you hit the exclusions: change of mind, a colour you regret, or “a piece that is simply larger or smaller than expected.” That is why the dimensions matter more than the photograph — a 67.7-inch mirror cabinet that turns out too tall for your wall is not a damage claim.
Two things hide in that policy. The clock starts at delivery, not at the Saturday you planned to assemble — three weeks in the garage is past the window. And keep the boxes until the piece is assembled and checked; the page asks for items back in their original packaging where possible, which you cannot do after a recycling pickup.
Five checks while the driver is still there
1. The middle of the carton, not the corners. Long, thin cartons flex in the centre, and that is where a mirror frame takes the load. It is also not a box you carry up a stairwell on one shoulder; the page says two people to move this piece.
2. Water. A stain, a soft patch, or a smell of damp means the carton sat somewhere wet. Wood finish and backed glass both suffer, and neither problem shows until the box is open indoors.
3. The glass, at an angle. The mirror cabinet’s glass is backed, which keeps the reflection from warping near the edges. Look along the surface at a low angle in daylight rather than straight on: an edge chip or a hairline reads as a bright line that does not move when the reflection does.
4. Parts, before the packaging goes out. The small writing desk arrives with the hardware numbered per leg and takes one person about half an hour. Tip the carton out, match the leg packs and the hardware bag against the parts list, and only then flatten the box. A missing bag of screws is not damage, but it is still an email and still faster than a return.
5. Both pieces, if it is a set. The solid wood side tables ship as a pair, 24.2 lb each, hardware bagged and numbered. Two tops, two shelves, two bags. Unwrap both before you sign, not just the one on top.
Refuse, or accept and document
Refusing is the cleanest move when the carton is crushed through, soaked, or rattling with broken glass. Write the reason on the receipt, photograph the carton where it stands, and let it go back on the truck.
For everything short of that — a dented corner, a scuff, a scratch on one top — take the piece. Runva’s remedy list is part, piece, or refund, so a damaged top does not require sending the whole order back, and refusing restarts your wait from zero.
Some drivers will not wait while you open a sealed carton. If that happens, write “driver declined inspection” with the time next to your signature and photograph every side of the carton before the truck leaves. That sentence is the difference between “the customer found it later” and “we asked to check and could not.”
Photos that make the email work
Five shots, in this order, cover almost every request a retailer will make:
- The whole carton, one photo per side, on the ground where it landed.
- The label, close enough that the tracking number is readable.
- The defect, close, with a coin or tape measure in frame for scale.
- The same defect a step back, so someone who has never seen your hallway knows where it is.
- The piece in the room it was bought for.
Send the email the same day, and say what you want — a replacement top, a new glass, a refund. A request without a stated outcome comes back as a question.
What the pages do not promise
Each of these changes your delivery day:
- No carrier and no white-glove or assembly service is named on the shipping page. Plan on the carton stopping at your door and the assembly being yours.
- Assembly time is described two ways on the site: the shipping page says “most pieces assemble with the hardware in the box; some take about ten minutes,” while the desk’s own page says to allow about half an hour. Trust the product page — it is written per piece.
- Free shipping covers the contiguous United States only, and the site does not ship outside the US.
- Shipping is 3–5 business days from cleared payment, with most orders arriving 2–6 days after they ship. The carton may sit on a dock and in a depot before it reaches you, which is why the water check is on the list.
One thing to do before the truck leaves
Sign, but sign with a sentence: what the carton looked like, in your own words, and whether you were allowed to open it. Photograph the box before you touch the tape. The receipt protects the record; the email, with photos, a tracking number and a stated remedy, is what gets you a new glass.
Sources
eCFR, 49 CFR Part 370 — Principles and Practices for the Investigation and Voluntary Disposition of Loss and Damage Claims — § 370.3(b) minimum filing requirements; § 370.3(c) “shall, standing alone, not be considered by carriers as sufficient”; § 370.5 carrier acknowledgment within 30 days; § 370.7 disposition within 120 days. https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-49/subtitle-B/chapter-III/subchapter-B/part-370 (accessed 2026-11-13)
Cornell Law School, Legal Information Institute, 49 U.S.C. § 14706 — Liability of carriers under receipts and bills of lading — subsection (e)(1): a carrier may not provide a claim period of less than 9 months, or less than 2 years for a civil action. https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/49/14706 (accessed 2026-11-13)
runvaus.com, Shipping & Returns Policy — 14 days to report damaged or incorrect items, photo plus shipping label to hello@runvaus.com, remedies, exclusions, keep the boxes, 3–5 business days to ship, 2–6 days in transit, contiguous US only. https://runvaus.com/shipping/ (accessed 2026-11-13)
runvaus.com product pages — Rotating Mirror Cabinet in Rubberwood (48.1 lb, 18.9 × 18.9 × 67.7 in, backed glass, “Two people to move it, one to set it up”); Small Writing Desk with Drawer (34.2 lb, flat-packed, hardware numbered per leg, about half an hour); Solid Wood Side Tables, Set of 2 (24.2 lb each, hardware bagged and numbered). Accessed 2026-11-13.
Carton dimensions and weights (68.31 × 22.05 × 4.53 in at 50.27 lb for the mirror cabinet; 42.95 × 25.61 × 6.5 in at 36.68 lb for the desk; 23.7 × 22.9 × 6.3 in at 24.3 lb for each side table) come from the manufacturer’s packing data for those SKUs. They are not printed on the product pages.