Ebay people/ Postal workers - a question

[EsmeraldaX]

How does insurance work with the post office?

I paid $3 to have a snowglobe I mailed insured. I spent about 45 minutes carefully packing the globe up and the buyer got it today and it had a piece snapped off. The buyer wants her money back.
The globe was insured for $115 which is how much she gave me for it. I have a paypal receipt.

I was selling my things (things I did not really want to sell) to pay my bills. I no longer have the $115. Even if I did, I am not comfortable giving her her $$ back on such an expensive item without having the post office check it out. After all, she COULD be lying and not fill out the insurance forms etc. once she ghets her cash back, ya know? I certainly would not expect an individual Ebay seller to give me my $$ back until I signed all the forms...

So she is just going to have to wait until the PO does it's thing...

BUT...

I called the PO today. The post office also told me that they may not even give me the $115 if they deem that the globe was too fragile to be handled via priority mail.



WHY did they not tell me this when I paid for the insurance?

Does anyone have any experience with this?

Sheri

 

[peachgirl]

WHY did they not tell me this when I paid for the insurance?

I've never heard of such a thing as being too fragile for priority mailing. Actually, I've been told by my post office that priority mailing is better than parcel post for fragile items...a lot less tossing and bumping around.

Did they ask you if you had anything fragile in the package? They can and do deny claims if the item wasn't properly packaged for shipping. That's usually why they ask if the item being shipped is fragile. If it is, at least at my post office, they go through the requirements for packing to guarantee that the insurance will cover damage.

For example....fragile items should be double boxed and there are certain requirements for space between the outer and inner box and how much space should be between the item and the inner box it's packed in.


Whatever the case, in my experience, the buyer waits for the post office to process the claim and is reimbursed by them, not you. Under no circumstances should you refund the buyer directly even after the claim is filed, but most certainly not before. If the post office refuses the claim because the item wasn't packed properly, it would be your fault and you'd be responsible for refunding.

 

[kadaten]

The only time I've tried to collect on postal insurance it was denied.

A good friend mailed us 4 glasses for a wedding present, insured.
Our postal carrier dropped it on our doorstep
So hard we heard the crash
Opened the door as he was picking it up and reaching for the bell! He denied the whole thing. Post office said it wasn't wrapped well enough and they wouldn't pay the claim.

Good luck with your claim! But I, like you, wouldn't be handing over the money until the forms were filled out and the whole process complete. Hopefully they'll cough up the money. If not, you'll have to decide what to do Sorry!

 

[Cindy B]

Dont forget to ask for photos of the damage! We had a buyer say that something was wrong, and did not offer any proof!

We ask that someone shows us a digital picture of the damage. When we ask for that, they usually back off, or do show pics of damage.

 

[we3luvdisney]

My suggestion is to read what's available on the U.S. Postal site. I attached the link.

Good luck!

http://www.usps.com/

 

[Az Pirates]

Definitely go through the claims process with the PO. I had an item that arrived broken - I really think in this case it was the sellers fault for packing it poorly - but I filed anyway. The PO paid the claim in full. Hopefully it will all work out for you too.

There are very specific packing guidlines for fragile items.
If you packed really carefully maybe you met all the guidelines without even realizing it.

Along the same lines...
I'm always surprised at the number of e-bay auctions for event tickets, gymbucks, etc. that offer insurance. What's the point? The PO will NOT pay out a claim on that type of item even if you have proof of what you paid.

 

[Virgo10]

Most of the things I sell on Ebay are fragiles so along the way a few have not arrived the way they were sent out.

The PO has always asked me for pictures of the way the item looked when it was sold. I've had to fill out forms which are then sent to the buyer. She or he takes all of that plus the damaged item to THEIR post office. In some cases people have been paid immediately. For big money items, they usually have to wait.

I've only had one instance where a buyer had a hard time getting paid and I ended up referring this problem to the regional office, which, for my area, is in RI. The buyer was willing to take the loss but I was hoping mad! What good is insurance if you don't get your money back for a broken item??? After sending the information to RI, the buyer got his money back.

If your local post office or the buyer's is giving you a hard time, find out who's above them in the chain of command and contact them.

Roberta

 

[Virgo10]

Originally posted by Az Pirates
I'm always surprised at the number of e-bay auctions for event tickets, gymbucks, etc. that offer insurance. What's the point? The PO will NOT pay out a claim on that type of item even if you have proof of what you paid.

One other thing.... gift certificates. I've sold a few that I've gotten through some of the reward programs I do and always have to let people know that insurance is not going to happen!

Roberta

 

[EsmeraldaX]

Thanks all.

Well, I spent literally 30-45 minutes wrapping this item. It was covered in bubble wrap, small parts had foam paper wrapped around them, styrofoam peanutes were placed in places where I was worried avout small parts snapping off. Then more bubble wrap, then a cushy towel was wrapped around it, taped with packing tape.

THEN that was put in a box that made it impossible for it to move. Then that box was placed in another box, with bubble wrap around it. Then the other box was filled with styrofoam blocks and newspaper and other items to absorb any shock.

How it broke is beyond me. But I did not take any pictures of the wrapping. The post office asked me if it was fragile, and I said yes, then I asked for insurance. They had no problem insuring it.
They even marked the box fragile about 10 times in ten places around the box.

So I am really worried they will deny the claim. I REALLY can not afford to pay the buyer back if the PO denies the claim.

I know I should have waited to use her payment towards bills and stuff but I could not.

I have emailed her and asked her if she would be willing to wait for the claims to go through or if she'd be willing to take a small refund and how much she'd expect. I'll give her back up to $30 if she'd like to keep the item and glue the peices back on. Somehow, I get the feeling she won't.



So does the PO give us the forms and we both fill them out? Then they give the $$ back to her?

Thanks all,
Sheri

 

[MrsJackSparrow]

Based on your description of how you packaged the item, is it possible that the buyer could have broken off the piece in question in the unwrapping of your packing materials? Just a question . . . If that were the case, who then would be responsible? Sounds like you took reasonable action to protect the item . . .

 

[Virgo10]

Originally posted by EsmeraldaX


So does the PO give us the forms and we both fill them out? Then they give the $$ back to her?

Yes. You fill out the form at your local post office. Include pictures of the item (not the way it was wrapped), the insurance receipt and the post office people should send it off to the person you sold it too. Once she gets the forms you filled out she should take them, the pictures and the damaged item with the packing material (if she still has it) to her local post office and file a claim there.

I'm sure the post office could make this harder but maybe they just haven't thought of how to do that yet!

Roberta

 

[RachelEllen]

Sounds like you did everything right!
I think you should tell the buyer that you will be going through the P.O. claims process. The insurance is there to protect you too. You shouldn't have to take an automatic hit on the value of the item. If the buyer is reasonable (and not trying to get money back for thier mistake), they should understand that that is how insurance works, and wait for it. If they are unreasonable and give you a negative feedback, then you just reply to it that buyer refused to file for insurance claim.

You'll go nuts on ebay if you let buyers renegiotiate after the sale. I offer refund if they return it in original condition, or help with insurance process if not. That's it.

Rachel

 

[jipsy]

Esmerelda, you need to be very firm with your buyer. You insured it for this very reason - breakage. Tell her she needs to provide you with photos of the breakage. You already have photos of what you sold obviously, because you would have put them up on eBay. Tell her once you get the photos, you can submit the claim for the insurance. The post office should pay her, not you.

I sell on eBay all the time. This is the very reason I refuse to use the post office; I only ship UPS ground. Yes, it is more expensive, but their claims process is pretty fast for insured items. I have had one person put in a claim in a clock I sold and she had her money from UPS in about two weeks.

My BF used to make jewelry. Someone bought a bracelet from him and he sent it insured via the post office. The bracelet never arrived. Both he and the buyer had to fill out claim forms, then the post office denied the claim because there was no PROOF it had not arrived. It took him about a month and a half to get the insurance claim to pay through the post office.

 

[EsmeraldaX]

Originally posted by jipsy
Esmerelda, you need to be very firm with your buyer. You insured it for this very reason - breakage. Tell her she needs to provide you with photos of the breakage. You already have photos of what you sold obviously, because you would have put them up on eBay. Tell her once you get the photos, you can submit the claim for the insurance. The post office should pay her, not you.

I sell on eBay all the time. This is the very reason I refuse to use the post office; I only ship UPS ground. Yes, it is more expensive, but their claims process is pretty fast for insured items. I have had one person put in a claim in a clock I sold and she had her money from UPS in about two weeks.

My BF used to make jewelry. Someone bought a bracelet from him and he sent it insured via the post office. The bracelet never arrived. Both he and the buyer had to fill out claim forms, then the post office denied the claim because there was no PROOF it had not arrived. It took him about a month and a half to get the insurance claim to pay through the post office.

The one time I used UPS to ship something , they actually packaged it for me, and when it broke upon arrival, they denied the claim and I lost $250.

I will be firm with the buyer. She seems like a very reasonable person (of course most of them do) and I'm hoping she'll actually just take a $25 refund and keep the item.