Postal insurance problems in Great Britain

[The Round Tree]

I recently shipped a flute to England and it was damaged during shipping. According to our postmistress, we have new treaty (she read it to me) with Great Britain that states the country in which the package was recieved will handle the claim. But the postal service there is telling the recipient he has to take it up with the USPS. Has anyone else run into problems of this nature in shipping to England?

[Casey Burns]

Yep. And neither ever paid the claim so I had to absorb it - and make another instrument for my client. Now I just package the instruments to be bomb-proof. 99% of the time they get it there safely.

You might consider another carrier like FedEx - though more expensive. I do this for keyed flutes - also you can only insure up to $600 in some cases, though I forget to which countries!

The treaties were negotiated during the Bush years. Thus, nobody should be surprised by this!

Casey

[dcopley]

I'm sorry to hear about the losses incurred by Round Tree and Casey. I've been using the US Post Office insurance, but it is expensive and I don't have much confidence that they would pay up in case of a claim (even less confidence after reading this thread). Does anyone have experience with third-party insurers such as http://www.U-pic.com ?

Dave Copley
Loveland Ohio

[Doug_Tipple]

I also don't have much confidence in USPS insurance. The one time that I tried to make a claim taught me a good lesson in why not to waste my insurance money on the post office. Multiple trips to the post office to fill out their time-consuming forms made me realize that I was going to spend more time and frustration in the claim process than what it was worth.

Since my flutes are not very expensive, I decided to self-insure my shipments. I charge a small fee for insurance, and I assume the risk against loss or damage. At the same time I spend extra time packaging the individual flute pieces very well. So far I have had good success with international shipments and have not had any damaged or lost flutes. The same thing cannot be said for domestic shipments, which occasionally have become lost or damaged. In those cases I have repaced the flute at my expense.

If I were to ship an expensive item, such as a keyed wooden flute, I would choose a carrier other than USPS, although I have little experience with the other options.

[narrowdog]

I also don't have much confidence in USPS insurance. The one time that I tried to make a claim taught me a good lesson in why not to waste my insurance money on the post office. Multiple trips to the post office to fill out their time-consuming forms made me realize that I was going to spend more time and frustration in the claim process than what it was worth.

Being the recipient of said flute I thought I'd better say something here rather than just email George.
I think Doug sums things up perfectly here with his account, I have spent a good many hours over the last
6 weeks or so driving back and forth to our local depot(about 10 miles each way) phoneing Parcel Force here in the UK and USPS in the US and each time they say 'its nothing to do with us you need to speek to Parcel Force/USPS'.
It seems to be that as soon as you mention the word 'Claim' the shutters come down and they shut up shop.
Very, very frustrating and there seems to be no way through
From what George tells me USPS say there was 'No damage' I will try and post a photo of the smashed
head tenon tomorrow as I don't have them on this computer so you can see what their idea of no damage is.
I have just about given up now on getting any moneys from the insurance.
You live and learn in life, (cost me $400) an expensive lesson, but it hasn't put me off trading in the future I'll have people send things with a different carrier even if it costs a bit more.
I hope this thread will help others as well in the future and I would certainly advise people not to use USPS for anything worth more than a few Dollars

In a slightly reflective mood.....Nick

[The Round Tree]

I just posted a news flash, for anyone who might not see it here. Dave Copley has volunteered to repair Nick's flute for free.
I thought Dave was a great guy, now I know it.
FYI, I have had problems with other shippers, DHL in particular. So many, that I request anyone shipping me anything now to use them.
Doc shipped me one of my 1st flutes using DHL. I almost didn't get it. I waited for 3 days (5 actually since it was a weekend) and no flute. I called them and asked if there was a problem and I was told the driver hadn't had time to deliver it. I lived so far from town that I was last on the list to be delivered. I offered to pick it up, I finally had to talk to a supervisor to find out where to go. When I went to pick it up, the supervisor at the station came out and acted miffed at my having come there to pick it up. Another time I had an item shipped from Costa Rica, I was told DHL was the only shipper they used. I tracked the package, 1st it went Miami and their website said it had cleared customs. It sat there 2 more days, Sat & Sun), then was shipped to Cleveland. After it sat for 2 days I called and asked why. I was told it had to clear customs. To shorten this up, I called everyday and got lots of different stories and finally 9 days after it got to Miami I got it.
So far, I have not had problems UPS or Fed-Ex.
I also have to say the only other time I had an insurance problem, it was solved thanks to my local postmistress' help.
George
George

[s1m0n]

Has anyone else run into problems of this nature in shipping to England?

Yes. Mutual buck-passing is infuriating. In my case, it was the UK and Canadian post offices, but the moves were identical. And no, I didn't get paid, either.

[kkrell]

Does anyone have experience with third-party insurers such as http://www.U-pic.com ?

I participate in the seller communities on eBay, and U-pic is highly recommended. Also http://shipsurance.com/

[sponge]

The big problem in a lot of cases is were the damaged happened, sending from the states USPS
will automatically be picked up from the international Hub by Parcelforce Uk, in turn it will go to the coventry depot for charges to be applied if necessary and then usually for me back to Gatwick for delivery to my local depot, the only time I had call for a possible claim was when customs ( a law unto themselves ) decided to open the tube of my low D whistle for inspection,
not by the usual methods of removing the end caps but by busting the card open from the middle in it self a hard task, when parcefarce delivered it it was open and the whistle which luckily was in a bag was cleary open and had been messed with, Luckily it was fine, I spoke to parcelfarce, and they said the damage to the packaging was a customs issue and I would have to take it up with them, but in short they said any damaged items would have to be claimed from the country of origin, so any real high end gear that you need to ship bite the bullet and add an extra $80 to $100 for fedex or for a carrier that is the same service provider both ends,
you then have one tracking number and one port of call if it goes t*ts up, although customs always holds my parcels up for longer when they come in from a courier service like Fedex or UPS

Sponge

[The Round Tree]

According to my local postmistress, the purpose of the latest treaty was to solve the problem of which country would take care of the problem. It is supposed to be the recieving country that handles the problem. This is one of the biggest problems with governments and quasi-goverment institutions like the USPS. There isn't much you can do about it if they don't follow/enforce their own rules. Unless of course you know the right people and have alot more money then I do.
Cheers:)