Insure Your Shipments!!!!

[Shaun 69 E]

Especially when shipping international.

I just had a crankshaft disappear in USPS going to Canada; it was "lost" in the NYC international terminal. Never made it out of this country. Only insured for $100 to keep Customs duty low, so now I'm out over $500 between refund, paypal and postage, not to mention 2 hours on the phone with USPS and 1 hour going to a Post Office where they didn't even know how to file a claim.

The cost of shipping has gone up a lot recently and I can see some buyers balking at shipping prices, but add in the extra $5 to $10 to insure your valuable shipments.

I've got to sell a lot of stuff to cover this.

[70tangerine]

sorry to hear this......a bummer for sure.


Ill often get cheap on shipping/ins....its a stupid move on my part.


maybe it will pop up.....gl

[Cornpanzer]

If the buyer asked you to underinsure it, it is his loss, not yours.

[reed]

I avoid shipping with USPS if at all possible. Not that UPS and Fedex don't have their share of problems, but I am astonished at how poorly the USPS does. There is just no incentive for postal workers to do their job well.

[kenikh]

Been there, been there, been there...I sent a COMPLETE '69S MFI to L.A. ($2500 worth), underinsured @ $900 because I was cheap. It was a no-show.

Turns out USPS never left notices on the guys door and had been sitting at the Postal Center for 3 weeks! I got lucky, but now I completely insure everything.

SUCKS.

[bob tilton]

If the buyer asked you to underinsure it, it is his loss, not yours.

Agreed. Under these circumstances, I like to re-iterate that I will insure for whatever value YOU REQUEST as long as YOU TAKE RESPONSIBILITY for that value.

[Mr9146]

If the buyer asked you to underinsure it, it is his loss, not yours.

Word. You should not have to cover the refund if the buyer did not expressly request that you insure the product being shipped.

Murphey says: No good deed goes unpunished.

I always ship important stuff via UPS or FedEx. UPS gives an automatic $100 insurance on every package they ship. If a buyer wants something insured for more it's his/her responsibilty to request the amount or pay the fee for whatever amount I consider adequate. BUT, once that package leaves my hands I'm no longer responsible.

[Cornpanzer]

Related note - I have a friend who is a manager at a post office. I had a set of wheels going to LA via USPS that seemed to disappear. He told me that LA can be a black hole for parcels and to never ship there without insurance. Wheels turned up nearly a month after I shipped them. (where could you put four wheels in the postal chain that they could sit for nearly a month and not get in someones way???)

[Tom F.]

Shawn,

I had this happen to me on a shipment to Canada. It turned out that Canadian customs was holding the shipment for duty. It was never clear to me whether they had notified the addressee. Certainly, nobody bothered to tell me. I tracked the parcel down after much time on the phone, stretching over weeks.

What was especially galling was that I was returning a pair of used camshafts that I had bought from someone in Ontario. He sent me one E, and one S, camshaft. I lost most of my money.

Hope your snafu works out better.

Tom

[sithot]

Shawn,

I had this happen to me on a shipment to Canada. It turned out that Canadian customs was holding the shipment for duty. It was never clear to me whether they had notified the addressee. Certainly, nobody bothered to tell me. I tracked the parcel down after much time on the phone, stretching over weeks.

What was especially galling was that I was returning a pair of used camshafts that I had bought from someone in Ontario. He sent me one E, and one S, camshaft. I lost most of my money.

Hope your snafu works out better.

Tom

The Canadian "border" is famous for these kind of shenanigans. There is a service In Canada for gas tank repair that I've used because he is the best there is. (Sorry, it's for motorcycle tanks)
You have to make absolutely sure that the part is marked up "for repair" or he gets nailed for customs/duty which in turn gets passed on. And, on top of that they are slow to deliver either way.

As far as under-insuring items to beat VAT or Duty I won't do it without it being clear that I'm under no obligation to "make you whole" for your mistake. No PayPal on these transactions. Wire Transfer only.
I'm not fond of USPS but as of today they haven't lost anything.
It is unfortunate that UPS and FEDEX are cost prohibitive to most buyers.

Tom

Tom