What I had happen to me one time is I had a Diff sent to me and the axels were damaged, so I called ups and they said that the shipper has to file the claim also, so we did this and aprox three weeks later the check went to him, then he sent it to me.
The shipper gets paid and if he's honest enough, he'll pay you. I think this is a bunch of BS, but thats the way it went with my damaged goods sent via ups from a "private party".
A problem with damage sent from a buisness may be handled differnt....
Good luck either way.