posted on August 21, 2001 12:32:42 AM new
I think I finally got the hang of Endicia. Now I need to figure out an answer to my insured packages. See I agree that Endicia is great and all BUT part of my using it is to avoid the awful 1-2 HOUR wait at my PO. That is only going to get worst with the elimination of 2 window clerks and the quickly approaching holidays. Currently I still have to wait because it never seems to fail that I have to insure a package or two. And because it is a zero dollar transaction EVERY clerk hates to wait on me now. (Ruins their stats!)
So, what do you suggest for insuring packages? Most of mine are under $50.00. I do not want to self insure because I think the customer wants to see an INSURED stamp or something on the package since they are paying for it.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Auctions are all about 2 people wanting 1 item. The trick is having it listed when the 2 bidders are looking.
posted on August 21, 2001 12:58:25 AM new
Richie: I don't insure many packages, but when I do I use U-PIC.com. The rates are great and the customer service is friendly. I highly recommend them. I haven't had to make a claim yet (knock on wood), but I understand the process is hassle-free.
Oh, they instruct you not to stamp the packages as this may actually encourage theft. I just let the customer know in my shipping e-mail that the package is insured with U-PIC.com.
With Endicia, U-PIC, and my new digital postal scale, I think I'm ready to face the holiday selling season!
posted on August 21, 2001 05:51:38 AM new
U-PIC is great. Not only is it hassle-free, but the protection is better than USPS offers. They reimburse not just for the item, but also for the postage and insurance -- IOW, total amount. Can't beat that.
posted on August 21, 2001 07:35:56 AM new
I use U-pic and so far have yet to make a claim but everything has been smooth so far. If you sell collectibles you can purchase collectible insurance which covers the items in your home as well as shipping problems. Do a search on the net for them. They are reasonable.
posted on August 21, 2001 12:51:28 PM new
Thank you for the info about u-pic, I too don't want to wait in line to insure one package out of the 25 I have already to go with Endicia.
I just went to the site, is it true you need to have the phone number of the person you are sending it to?
Do buyers mind giving that out? I know I can request the contact info and get it anyway.
posted on October 4, 2001 08:14:55 AM new
bevhead,
We only require the telephone number when you purchase insurance on line without a U-PIC policy. No #'s are required for policy holders.
To acquire a policy, simply complete the application on site and we will get you started within 24 hours.
Thank you,
[email protected]
1-800-955-4623
Ship with anyone, insure with us. No more PO lines, lower rates, International ok, no minimums. Purchase insurance on line or set up an account. [email protected]
posted on October 4, 2001 08:48:58 AM newYou say it's great, but you've never filed a claim. What do you base your conclusion on if not an actual claims procedure?
Email correspondence with users who have filed claims and state that it works just as easily as described.
posted on October 4, 2001 06:22:23 PM new
Not to rain on u-pic's parade. I have been using them exclusively since February of this year. All was fine, until my first claim September 14th. Have not heard nary a word or received the claim check. It was a lost package,so had the claim paid to me directly and immediately sent the buyer full purchase price plus postage. Well, have his cancelled check back this am, but no claim check from u-pic.
Hope springs eternal and will continue using u-pic. The claim was for under $20.00. Not loosing any sleep over it. Just thought my situation should be noted.
posted on October 4, 2001 10:27:57 PM new
Am I to understand that a claim will not be honoured if a parcel has a descriptive label, as may be required on a parcel for customs purposes.
Please see you site at-
http://www.u-pic.com/upic_order_coveragepolicy.asp
Further your site at-
http://www.u-pic.com/upic_terms.asp
,as I understand it,
disclaims any liability for errors or omisions contained in your web site or any chat site, and states that such information can not be relied upon.
AGAIN I ASK!
"Please define 'value'as per your policy.
Does your policy have any exclusions or limitations in respect to 'fragile goods'."
Where exactly is there some information which can be relied upon.
ie. Where is your policy, I would like to see it online.
Some information contained in this statement is only my opinion and as such any information contained in this statement cannot be rellied upon.
posted on October 4, 2001 11:11:35 PM new
I personally self-insure.
All my auctions go via USPS priority mail, and I am unable to insure photographs with them, as there is no way to "prove" the value and to them it is nothing more than a piece of paper.
I have a $0.60 handling fee on all of my shipments, which goes into the insurance "account". Whenever an item is damaged, lost, ect. I replace the photo myself without having to jump through the hoops of filing a claim.
Of course, this isn't the way to go for everyone - my inventory is literally limitless as long as my image sources (negatives and more recently, uncompressed digital photos) aren't damaged or destoyed.
posted on October 5, 2001 07:14:10 AM new
I've been using u-pic for over a year now. I've actually had 2 claims. Both small, but they paid me right within 2 weeks. I LOVE IT!!! I would hate to have to use the USPS ins anymore. It only takes me a sec to type the info on my computer, and send it off each week.
posted on October 5, 2001 08:59:16 AM new
Jeanyu,
Please either e-mail or post your U-PIC account name and I will personally walk the claim through. We have had a personnel change in our claims department and there may be a short unintentional lag time. If you let me know today - I will walk the claim through and send you your check.
Regarding our policy -
You can pull down a sample policy right from our site or I would be happy to fax one to you.
Regarding labeled packages -
This is in regards to those selling items whereby their business name reflects exactly what is in the package. We get jewelry companies, for example, who have jewelry as a word in their return address. That is not allowed. The customs forms, both commodity, as well as value, are not considered in regards to your policy.
As for proof of what we commmit to. I would be happy to provide you with references. You can also do a search here on U-PIC and you will see many threads with users comments. We have also been selling this same insurance for 12 years so we are not a new start up etc. We have been in the ebay power sellers newsletter several times as well as are approved to post on their shipping and insurance boards.
Please feel free to post or e-mail or telephone me direct if you have any other questions or concerns.
PS -
For those wanting t-shirts - we are presently out. However, I do have U-PIC pens and letter openers I would be happy to send out. Simply e-mail me your address or U-PIC account name and we will get them to you.
posted on October 5, 2001 09:08:24 AM new
Here is another comment from a U-PIC user taken off of the ebay shipping/handling board this week.
7:30pm October 4, 2001 (#1 of 1)
I have used U-Pic for a year now and LOVE IT! Go to www.u-pic.com and you can find out everything you want to know about them. I have only had one opportunity to file for a claim (their "unmarked" packages do seem to deter loss/theft!) and it was handled quickly, efficiently and painlessly. I was impressed!
posted on October 5, 2001 09:16:34 AM new
I have a couple of questions.
I now mention in my auctions and in my EOA notices that I will now insure through U-PIC only upon their request at U-PIC's online rates of ... blah, blah, blah.
Since I don't routinely need to purchase insurance on most of my shipments, I'm assuming that even if I applied, I wouldn't qualify for the reduced volume rates. Is that correct?
Also, my reason for going this route vs. USPS is the half-dozen people who paid me in August (without my having asked for it or even mentioning insurance) for auctions that ended at a bid price of less than $2.00! Just like the original poster, I now can mail my packages without having to stand in line. So when people pay for insurance without my asking for it, mentioning it, etc., it screws up the system. They simply included $1.10 extra (USPS rates, of course) with their electronic payment, so I felt I was "stuck" having to stand in line for those people to insure their packages, which is the last thing I wanted to do.
So, for those of you who go the self-insurance route, what do you do when the buyer sends along that additional $1.10? Keep it? Refund it? Or do you mention that you self-insure in your auctions to prevent this from happening?
posted on October 5, 2001 10:05:57 AM new
BJGrolle,
Our pre-paid stamp account would still give you around 45% off of the PO rate. You pre-purchase the insurance and use as needed. If you quit selling or want to terminate coverage, you send back in whatever pre-purchase is left and are fully refunded. Your rate would just be .60 cents for values from .01 to $50 and $1 for values from $50.01 - $100. International coverage would run $1 per $100, which is something you cannot get online.
For the value question,
We accepte EOA notices, invoices, appraisals etc. as proof of value.
Self Insurance -
Just a note - to specifically state a fee for insurance and collect that fee and pocket it - is illegal. In order to collect fees for insurance you must be licensed.
For the U-PIC customers that have e-mailed regarding pens and letter openers - they are in the mail today!
posted on October 5, 2001 10:25:12 AM new
Thanks for the quick response, upic, I appreciate it! I will look into your prepaid stamp program.
As to the self-insurance, yes, that's basically what the gist of that other thread was. You have to be licensed or it's illegal.
Just did a search on the words "self insure" on eBay, and came up with 17 pages of listings. In checking further, there are really only a very small handful that mention it. Most of those 17 pages are spread out among a very few sellers. And I'd assume they're not aware they're breaking the law.
posted on October 5, 2001 05:34:38 PM new
See the post by upic just above.
Also, there was a rather heated thread several months back where a seller was bragging about all the extra money they were making by charging customers for USPS insurance and then pocketing the money without telling them.
That thread evolved into a discussion about how one might self-insure without offending or overcharging customers. Somewhere along the line, a poster claimed that unless you're registered to sell insurance in the state you do business in, it's illegal to use the term self-insurance.
To be on the safe side, I've already registered with U-PIC to get the reduced rates to satisfy those customers who absolutely insist on insuring their shipments regardless of how little they paid (had 5 customers in August who insisted on paying for insurance for less than $2.00 items!), thereby avoiding having to stand in line just for those people.
As the originator pointed out, when you start using online postage, you don't want to have to stand in line for the insurance part. Kind of defeats the purpose.
And this is a trend that I think we'll see more of down the line. There have been increasing numbers of threads inquiring about online postage, which is how I started using it within the last month. As more sellers switch to online postage, then it will naturally follow that they'll switch to online insurance. So I think buyers should think twice before firing off an e-payment that includes $1.10 for USPS insurance. Just because the seller ships USPS doesn't mean they insure USPS anymore.
posted on October 5, 2001 05:55:28 PM new
I've filed one claim with USPS and 3 claims with U-PIC over the years. U-PIC was hassle-free, the post office made me want to refund the money myself and eat the loss.
I just print a red "Insured With U-PIC" on the packages when buyers pay for insurance, and no complaints. Somebody once complained that they paid for insurance, but there was no evidence on the package it was insured.
If you use Endicia, just use the 'rubber stamp' tool to add the message.
posted on October 5, 2001 06:46:21 PM new
It has been my experience that insurance companies often profit by the misrepresentations made by ignorant or unethical sales staff.
‘caveat-emptor’ is a Latin legal term which means- let the buyer beware.
If you are intending to purchase insurance, and you HAVE NOT READ AND UNDERSTOOD the entire policy, and not just a ‘SAMPLE’, and instead are relying on the interpretation of an employee, agent, servant, or other, then colloquially speaking- YOU’RE A MUG WAITING TO BE HAD.
It is my opinion that, insurers often pay discretionary claims, after consideration has been given to the size of the claim and the likelihood of recouping that amount of money and more from the particular claimant.
posted on October 5, 2001 07:08:02 PM new
[i]Self Insurance -
Just a note - to specifically state a fee for insurance and collect that fee and pocket it - is illegal. In order to collect fees for insurance you must be licensed. [/i]
I just don't see why there would be an issue here? I don't state that I'm insuring in any manner, no one has ever questioned the small handling fee, and when a problem arises, the customer is more than happy to have it resolved almost immediately. I stand behind my product getting to my customer safely without involving another company for replacement purposes??
posted on October 5, 2001 07:54:47 PM new
"Somewhere along the line, a poster claimed that unless you're registered to sell insurance in the state you do business in, it's illegal to use the term self-insurance."
Um, there's some confusion here. If you quote a shipping charge as $x insured shipping, you are not "selling" insurance. So there's no illegality.
posted on October 5, 2001 08:35:48 PM new
Perhaps ubid would rather address the real issues and not make what may appear to some as vieled threats to any potential small time competitors.
capotasto has a good theory-
"If you quote a shipping charge as $x insured shipping, you are not "selling" insurance. So there's no illegality."
YO!!!
ubid
HOW ABOUT A LINK TO YOUR POLICY SO WE CAN PICK IT TO PIECES.
posted on October 8, 2001 07:36:37 AM new
Good morning everyone,
Thought I would address the issues that came up this weekend.
Self Insurance -
IS illegal, however, it is all in how you word it. If you roll it into one fee, you are fine. Where it becomes illegal is when you specifically state a seperate fee for insurance. You then are selling insurance and you cannot do so without being licensed.
To say your item is insured is fine, but to say pay me $1.10 for insurance and then pocket the monies is illegal.
Aunty -
We do guarantee claims payment. They are not 'reviewed' to see what kind of hit we will take. The 'sample' policy is the exact policy you will get. The only difference is your name and limits are added. We have been selling this same insurance for 12 years and are not deceiving anyone.
Letter openers/Pens -
The requests from over the weekend will be mailed out today.
