When British brewery heir Edward Courage sent the Rolls-Royce engine from his beloved 1934 Bentley sports car for minor repairs, he did not expect to instead be reunited with a box of broken bits and a meagre £600 in compensation.
But the motoring enthusiast, 69, is now facing a huge bill – and potentially a court battle – over claims international courier UPS damaged his precious cargo.
Mr Courage said he was ‘annoyed, irate and downright angry’ after UPS ‘dropped’ the £35,000 engine to his lovingly restored Derby Bentley, before letting it languish for months in a depot in Germany – and then absolved itself of further responsibility.
The firm falsely claimed to have lost it, then sent him a pittance to apologise before considering the case closed.
To make matters worse, all of this happened while Mr Courage was recovering from a near-death helicopter crash, in which he was praised for saving the lives of two young British skiing brothers after their chopper crashed during an avalanche in the Swiss Alps earlier this year.
The Bentley’s engine is now back in the UK being repaired, but it could be months before it is returned to Mr Courage – and the whole ordeal will have cost him around £30,000, he said.
Edward Courage had sent his Rolls-Royce engine from his beloved 1934 Bentley sports car for minor repairs but was reunited with a box of broken bits and just £600 in compensation
Mr Courage was recovering from a near-death helicopter crash at the time. Mr Courage said: ‘I was in intensive care after 23 broken bones and 20 hours of surgery, and UPS were mucking around with my engine’
The Bentley’s engine is now back in the UK being repaired, but it could be months before it is returned to Mr Courage – and the whole ordeal will have cost him around £30,000. Pictured: Parts of Mr Courage’s engine
Mr Courage, part of the British brewing dynasty which bears his family name, said he is prepared to sue UPS if they fail to resolve the matter.
Speaking to the Mail, Mr Courage said: ‘I’m £30,000 out of pocket here yet they said the matter is closed.
‘I can take them to court. It is expensive and time consuming and actually pretty pointless really – they are totally in the wrong.
‘It makes me feel very annoyed and irate, it’s so unfair they can deal with their customers in this way. When it comes to it, they just couldn’t care less.
‘I am surprised by UPS – it seems they don’t care about anyone or anything. They are just stonewalling me.’
Mr Courage bought the poor-condition Derby Bentley around 20 years ago, before spending time and money lovingly restoring it.
He later raced it at Le Mans, as well as other circuits around France, where he is currently based.
The vehicle, valued at around £400,000, holds particular sentimental value among Mr Courage’s collection due to its ultra-rare Rolls-Royce engine, which was designed by Ernest Hives.
Lord Hives, as he would later become known, was in charge of the Merlin engine production used in Spitfires, Hurricanes and Lancasters during the Second World War, and so reported directly to Winston Churchill.
Mr Courage sent the engine to a respected British firm for maintenance in the new year, at a cost of around £10,000.
He was ‘annoyed, irate and downright angry’ after UPS ‘dropped’ the £35,000 engine to his lovingly restored Derby Bentley, before letting it languish for months in a depot in Germany. Pictured: Parts of Mr Courage’s engine
The firm falsely claimed to have lost it, then sent him a pittance to apologise before considering the case closed. Pictured: Parts of Mr Courage’s engine
Work complete, it was dispatched back to France by UPS.
But it had still not been returned by April, when Mr Courage was involved in the helicopter crash which killed three people and left him seriously ill in a Swiss hospital.
‘I was in intensive care after 23 broken bones and 20 hours of surgery, and UPS were mucking around with my engine,’ he said.
‘It was only in June that I got involved and they claimed they lost it, and had no idea where it was.’
Mr Courage started to chase UPS, who eventually admitted – far from being lost – that the damaged parcel had been sent to Germany to be disposed of.
The firm even sent Mr Courage images of the box, which still showed the delivery address.
The package was sent back to be repaired in England, with UPS merely paying £600 in compensation.
‘The next step was the UPS saying I didn’t pack it correctly,’ Mr Courage said.
‘But they used the exact same packaging to send it back to England.
‘The box was a Rolls Royce box for this very purpose. They said we didn’t pack it up properly. From then on it’s just been a brick wall from them.
Mr Courage was involved in the helicopter crash in the Alps which killed three people and left him seriously ill in a Swiss hospital. Here he is pictured
‘It is now waiting to be repaired. It could be several months and I’ve still haven’t got the use of my car.’
Mr Courage sent UPS a letter seeking damages.
But the firm said they had met all their contractual obligations and that the matter was settled.
In its final letter, UPS said the matter had been ‘fully investigated and addressed’, adding: ‘We acknowledge that this may not align with the outcome you had hoped for, and we are genuinely sorry that you remain dissatisfied with the resolution.’
Mr Courage, whose cousin Piers Courage was the first F1 driver for Williams but died in a crash at the Dutch Grand Prix in 1970, said: ‘I think they dropped the engine, from height, and smashed it. They probably just got frightened because they saw the Rolls Royce and Bentley labels on the box.
‘But who the hell do they think they are? I have used them lots of times, they are a well-respected company and it is a surprise how they have treated me – it’s appalling.’
A UPS spokesman said: ‘Customer service is at the centre of all that we do, and we have worked to resolve this issue directly with our customer in accordance with our terms and conditions.
‘We take the delay or non-delivery of any package very seriously. It is important that all items be properly packaged to safely and securely move through our network.’