[Note: If you are the actual seller/shipper I am
referring to in this post, keep in mind that I
have not and will not identify you in any way.
Unless you want to introduce yourself into this
thread on your own free will, you should not be
concerned about anything I saying here reflecting
back at you. I'm not going to paint you into a
corner; I just need to vent some personal
frustation for my own peace of mind.]
Okay, what do you do when you ask a seller to
insure a package full of items you purchased
through them and the shipment arrives damaged?
Sure, you would let the seller know and have them
file an insurance claim. Easy enough, right?
But okay, what do you do when the seller insured
the package for only 1/8 of the actual value of
the merchandise? And what if they never tell you
what they insured it for until it's too late to
do anything about it?
And what do you do when the seller gives you a
hard time about filing the claim, vaguely implies
that you're trying to scam money, doesn't want
you to file the claim but doesn't file the claim
themselves (after you e-mailed them photos
proving the damage beyond doubt) and then sits on
the issue for over a month?
BUT what do you do when this same seller is
actually a very well known (and, for the most
part, respected) seller who has been in business
for several years and whom almost everyone here
has dealt with in the past?
And what do you do when you realize that despite
the fact that you've lost so much money due to
the inadequate insurance, you're probably going
to continue to do business with this seller in
the future, because they are probably still the
one of the few best sources left around for stuff
you collect most?
After fighting a severe bout of heat exhaustion
and having to be treated for it, that's the
tiring and frustrating situation where I find
myself now.
Everything has gone down just as I described it.
What else you might not know is the actual value
of the contents in my package totaled in the 4
digit dollar range (and that's been calculated
off of the actual invoices the seller sent to me,
so I'm not exaggerated). And as I said before,
the seller only insured the package for less than
one-eighth of that amount. And I can't even
imagine why the seller would have given someone
so much grief over filing a claim for that level
of insurance coverage in the first place and drag
out a saga that would last well over a month.
But the reason why I never bothered this seller
for about a month is because he threatened to
blacklist me for pressuring him to file the claim
and because he's (as I've said) a well-known and
respected dealer whom I do not want to alienate
in the future. But when I finally ask about the
claim over a month later, it turns out that he
was expecting me to file the claim (even when he
did everything to discourage me not to) and after
some more negotiation he sends me a copy of the
insurance slip, which reveals that the actual
insurance coverage is about 1/8 of my total
investment in that package.
All I can do now is go to the post office this
morning, file an insurance claim that I HOPE IS
NOT TOO LATE, and hopefully collect only a small
fraction of what I lost to damage. As for what I
will do with the seller... I will probably do
nothing except bite my lip and pretend that
everything's okay (for the reasons I mentioned
above).
But all the grief that I've gone through just to
get even this far... I wish there was more than I
could have done. But with my recent illness, I
just don't have what it takes to put up a fight
anymore. And I'm not hesitant to say that I'm
very, very depressed about being in this hobby
these days.
You regular collectors may not have the answers
I'm looking for; I've been wrestling with this
situation for a long time now. But maybe you can
answer this simpler question:
Can you ever think of a situation where a seller
is justified in insuring a package (at your
request) for only 1/8 the total value of its
contents (much less resist filing any insurance
claim for that grossly undervalued coverage)? |
