To LUGNET HomepageTo LUGNET News HomepageTo LUGNET Guide Homepage
 Help on Searching
 
Post new message to lugnet.market.shippingOpen lugnet.market.shipping in your NNTP NewsreaderTo LUGNET News Traffic PageSign In (Members)
 Marketplace / Shipping / 78
77  |  79
Subject: 
Re: USPS Insurance
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.market.shipping
Date: 
Wed, 22 Sep 1999 13:21:59 GMT
Viewed: 
665 times
  
Rob Doucette wrote:

Most sellers (myself included) offer insurance as an option at the buyers'
risk.  Most sets are sold at above retail (in the case of discontinued, or
otherwise hard to find sets).  But how does the buyer actually excercise the
insurance that they purchased when the seller holds the proof of insurance
and value can't be proven easily??

I recently had a sale arrive at the buyer opened, minus the LEGO (it was a
USPS Priority Mail carton and was stamped damaged by the receiving postal
office).  The buyer was not able to process the claim because he couldn't
provide proof of value.  E-mail documentation of the sale was deemed
insufficient by the Post Office.  Because the transaction was relatively
small (~25$) I replaced and substituted the sets in exchange for the damaged
carton and documentation so I can process the claim myself.  The question
now is how do I recover the value of the sale as opposed to the retail cost
of the LEGO??

I'm thinking that optional insurance for buyers is no insurance at all...

I've always wondered at how good the insurance actually is... One thing
this does point out though - ALWAYS make sure there is a card with
addresses inside the bag of pieces (you do put loose pieces in a bag
don't you). When shipping boxes, I usually either tape an address card
to the box (if it's got a flip lid) or put the box in a bag, with an
address label secured.

Chances are in this case that the box failed, the LEGO sets fell out on
the floor, and the postal clerks couldn't determine which package they
belonged to.

As for making the claim, if the sets are ones which regularly sell on
eBay, bring along printouts of all the available auctions (including
in-progress ones if they are near the price your auction got). This
should improve the chances.

One caution though, the USPS insurance may not cover "collectible"
value.

If you are selling a lot of stuff through auctions, it may be worth
checking out some business insurance, or self insure by adding a
handling charge (if you indicate that your handling charge includes a
buck or so for insurance, I doubt many people would complain).

--
Frank Filz

-----------------------------
Work: mailto:ffilz@us.ibm.com (business only please)
Home: mailto:ffilz@mindspring.com



Message is in Reply To:
  USPS Insurance
 
Most sellers (myself included) offer insurance as an option at the buyers' risk. Most sets are sold at above retail (in the case of discontinued, or otherwise hard to find sets). But how does the buyer actually excercise the insurance that they (...) (25 years ago, 22-Sep-99, to lugnet.market.shipping)

2 Messages in This Thread:

Entire Thread on One Page:
Nested:  All | Brief | Compact | Dots
Linear:  All | Brief | Compact
    

Custom Search

©2005 LUGNET. All rights reserved. - hosted by steinbruch.info GbR