Reply With QuoteThanks, this is really useful info. I posted on by RM today and currently have my breath held!
Those of us who have read the RMSD small print are aware that it very much looks like posting an item with a greater replacement value than £2500 actually invalidates the insurance in its entirety (not just the amount over £2500.) Which would be a big problem for much of the stuff sold on SC. I have suffered much stress waiting for watches above this value to arrive - although to be fair it is almost unheard of for items to get lost/stolen.
As far as I'm aware there hasn't been a decent cost effective bolt-on policy available to cover high value items sent by RMSD. However today I've exchanged some interesting emails with the VP Sales of ParcelPro, which I've previously used to cover international parcels of high value sent by FedEx. They are happy to cover RMSD at the rate of $0.25 per $100 value, ie 0.25 % of total value - which seems pretty decent to me. You have to set up an account and declare yourself as a watch collector (and that you are an individual not a company.) They normally cover businesses but are happy to cover bona fide individual collectors too.
You might have to ask for "UKRM" to be added to your list of postage providers in your profile as I don't think it's there by default. Once your account is up and running you just have to report the postage of the item and declare its tracking number and value on the same day it was posted. They bill your credit card at the end of the month for the insurance fees.
Apologies if this is common knowledge. It was news to me.
Thanks, this is really useful info. I posted on by RM today and currently have my breath held!
Which is why I generally feel insurance is a waste of money. Never had a parcel sent with registered mail get lost, and I know several ADs send £10000+ watches for servicing to Switzerland uninsured, same goes for deliveries from manufacturers.... Although in their case of course a lost parcel would be cheap compared to insuring all of them.Originally Posted by Plake
I think if I was sending a 10 grand watch I'd prefer to pay £25 for peace of mind ;)Which is why I generally feel insurance is a waste of money. Never had a parcel sent with registered mail get lost, and I know several ADs send £10000+ watches for servicing to Switzerland uninsured, same goes for deliveries from manufacturers.... Although in their case of course a lost parcel would be cheap compared to insuring all of them.
There will of course be restrictions and exclusions - the main one being that the insurance cover ends once the item is signed for. So a problem if someone else takes delivery then leaves it somewhere where it gets nicked. Although house insurance might cover it then I suppose....
Sent a Heuer registered to a fellow tz'er early December and it still hasn't arrived :( ,It wasn't a high value item,just shows not to rely just on registered mail. :wink:Which is why I generally feel insurance is a waste of money. Never had a parcel sent with registered mail get lost, and I know several ADs send £10000+ watches for servicing to Switzerland uninsured, same goes for deliveries from manufacturers.... Although in their case of course a lost parcel would be cheap compared to insuring all of them.
Thank-you for sharing that information,
was that by 'special delivery' or just 'signed for'?Sent a Heuer registered to a fellow tz'er early December and it still hasn't arrived :( ,It wasn't a high value item,just shows not to rely just on registered mail. :wink:Which is why I generally feel insurance is a waste of money. Never had a parcel sent with registered mail get lost, and I know several ADs send £10000+ watches for servicing to Switzerland uninsured, same goes for deliveries from manufacturers.... Although in their case of course a lost parcel would be cheap compared to insuring all of them.
Good luck everybody. Have a good one.
will probably arrive sooner or later.... delays may happen but how often do parcels get opened and contents stolen by postalworkers really?was that by 'special delivery' or just 'signed for'?Sent a Heuer registered to a fellow tz'er early December and it still hasn't arrived :( ,It wasn't a high value item,just shows not to rely just on registered mail. :wink:Which is why I generally feel insurance is a waste of money. Never had a parcel sent with registered mail get lost, and I know several ADs send £10000+ watches for servicing to Switzerland uninsured, same goes for deliveries from manufacturers.... Although in their case of course a lost parcel would be cheap compared to insuring all of them.
The problem I found with Royal Mail was if an item is sent overseas, e.g, Canada, they want 26 quid but will only insure it up to £500 unless you go for full cover. That worked out at 6 quid per £100 over the £500 the last time I enquired, which can make an expensive watch extremely pricey to post fully insured. Bit of a rip-off in my view, why can't they just have a scaled system that's a bit more reasonable...?
I think that PP would insure RM Airsure packages too. Their standard international rate is 0.35% of the replacement value. Give them an email next time.
On this forum someone had their watch stolen whilst in transit, I think the RM van was broken into but they had sent it via RMSD and were covered. So the way to obtain cover for high value items at not a lot of cost sounds great, thanks for posting.
Interesting - also worth checking your home contents policy. When I sold one on SC last year worth in excess of £2.5 k I contacted my insurers to see if they would give me cover. They advised that as the watch was "mine" until the instant it was delivered and signed for it was covered "all risks".
In my case this is only up to £5k however so I will be contacting ParcelPro for any future high end sales
Thanks for posting
Although it will probably get there in the end, it's a bold move to use registered to send something worth more than a few quid.Sent a Heuer registered to a fellow tz'er early December and it still hasn't arrived ,It wasn't a high value item,just shows not to rely just on registered mail.
Edit: I don't know if it's the same situation with the current backlog, but after a postal strike a year or two ago, I was told that at times when the system is really creaking, registered mail tends to get through more slowly than regular first class - no idea if that's actually accurate.
Has anybody had experiences of claiming on their PP insurance?
I have a ParcelPro account, but have only used them for overseas sales as yet.
It's actually really cheap as their insurance terms require that you don't declare any value on the item, so you send it by the cheapest tracked service available.
I sent a GMTIIC worth 3.5k to Germany and with full insurance it only came to about £25.
Interesting. My previous insurers agreed with the above but my new ones do not. Always best to check this out with your insurance company.
You have to fill out the business form but just put your name in the company name box and declare that you are a watch collector. I found it confusing too but they had a live chat customer service person available when I signed up which helped.
Ta :)You have to fill out the business form but just put your name in the company name box and declare that you are a watch collector. I found it confusing too but they had a live chat customer service person available when I signed up which helped.
The chances of something going missing using RMSD is very rare because most items are accepted by the PO, scanned and is put into a sealed bag and handed to the postie who (signs for it) and clears the office and he takes it into a secure room within the collection office.
Large packets that won't fit in a bag are signed for as loose packets.
The sealed bag is then taken with normal mail to the main sorting office and then taken to another secure room where it is opened, scanned and sorted to the destination sorting office.
Each bag has a print out of the contents in it so when it is opened at the delivery office the contents can be checked against the list. The bag has a special seal on it.
It is possible something could get miss-sorted into the wrong bag but as they can find out who was sorting it is rare. There are CCTV in all the secure areas too and because everything is scanned every time it is handled it is easier to find out what has happened to it.
It is usually theft from the delivery van if something goes missing as the regular posties on town deliveries don't take them out with them any more and is very rare.
If somebody is found to be responsible for missing or delayed RMSD items it is taken very seriously and a potentially sackable situation.
Each month there are performance tables published internally so everybody knows who are the best and worst performing offices.
As an aside, if you are posting on Friday do not pay extra for 'Sat del' as it will get delivered the next day anyway as most offices don't like keeping them over the weekend and Saturday is a quieter day for deliveries.
Monday and Tuesday are the busiest days and if they are delivering Saturdays as well they run the risk of not making the 1300 deadline.
^^^
Interesting info on the process, thanks for that :)
very handy... thanks for that
Seems to be a bit of confusion here:-
The service that used to be called 'Recorded delivery' is now called 'Signed for'
The service that used to be called 'Registered post' is now called 'Special delivery'
Not around here they won't.
recorded is still called recoreded, signed for is an international service, and special delivery has not been called registered post for a very long time
recorded is still called recoreded, signed for is an international service, and special delivery has not been called registered post for a very long time
Recorded is now called 'signed for' or 'recorded signed for'
'International signed for' is the international service you are thinking of..
I know it's an old post, but the insurance you pay to royal mail always makes me laugh, it must be the only place in the world that you pay them additional money to cover their mess ups, it's like giving them a bonus for failure :lol:
[quote=london lad]recorded is still called recoreded, signed for is an international service, and special delivery has not been called registered post for a very long time
Recorded is now called 'signed for' or 'recorded signed for'
'International signed for' is the international service you are thinking of..[/quote:2vw5firm]
:?: I'm not even going to try to follow this...
just to make sure I really understand how this works: if im a buyer from abroad (Czech Rep.) and buy a piece in the SC around here, then it is not up to me to register with the RM as a watch collector but always up to the seller, right?
If so, the if I buy something, lets say on ebay.co.uk, and the guy is not into this registering thing, is there a workaround for me to do it for him and receive the watch collector insurance as stated by the OP?
If you buy anything from eBay, it is entirely the Seller's responsibility to get the item to you. If you have paid by PayPal, and the item does not arrive, they will refund you. There is never any need for the Buyer to pay for insurance (despite what some listings might try to claim).
very useful info about parcelpro. thank you very much OP
Really handy and useful info on the ways around sending watches over £2.5k here thanks a lot
I have the Royal Mail "Mail made easy booklet here.
Its dated 20th June 2011.
On page 8 under the heading. "Examples of items covered by special delivery compensation"
Under subtitle "Jewellery as defined below" it states,
"Watches - the cases of which are made of wholly or mainly of precious metal"
That to me sounds like stainless steel is not covered by their insurance.
ah, thanks for the clarification!If you buy anything from eBay, it is entirely the Seller's responsibility to get the item to you. If you have paid by PayPal, and the item does not arrive, they will refund you. There is never any need for the Buyer to pay for insurance (despite what some listings might try to claim).
Having been looking (and indeed posting here on tz-uk) about exactly this, I am rather worried about the 'watch collector' aspect of using Parcel Pro. I am a Rolex owner who wishes to send his watch to be serviced and since it is worth more than the RMSD limit of £2500 I want it insured. I am not a watch collector, so if I sign up as a watch collector on the Parcel Pro site, and the watch goes missing, and I need to claim, won't the fact that I am not a watch collector but described myself as such invalidate the insurance?
Thanks.
Silly question perhaps, but in what way are you not a watch collector?
I have a collection of about 100 watches but I'd wager that in total they are worth less than your Rolex. Which of us is the more real watch collector?
You are because you have about 100 watches. I am not because I have only one watch, my Rolex, which was bought in October 1992, and which is the only watch I've worn or owned since then. A collector owns or manages a collection, a collection is a set of related items, a set is by definition 'plural' - more than one.Silly question perhaps, but in what way are you not a watch collector?
I have a collection of about 100 watches but I'd wager that in total they are worth less than your Rolex. Which of us is the more real watch collector?
Actually I just remembered I do have another watch - an ancient Timex (I think) which was my watch before the Rolex and which has been sitting in the bottom of a box since 1992 and never worn. Still I don't think that qualifies me as being a watch collector. :D
Fair enough. I appreciate your precision but I'd certainly regard myself as a genuine watch collector in your situation, even with a collection of just two watches.You are because you have about 100 watches. I am not because I have only one watch, my Rolex, which was bought in October 1992, and which is the only watch I've worn or owned since then. A collector owns or manages a collection, a collection is a set of related items, a set is by definition 'plural' - more than one.
Actually I just remembered I do have another watch - an ancient Timex (I think) which was my watch before the Rolex and which has been sitting in the bottom of a box since 1992 and never worn. Still I don't think that qualifies me as being a watch collector. :D
But if you feel you don't qualify as a watch collector then you could try Mailboxes Etc. or Transit2Insure. They both provide insurance for goods being sent by other couriers. With MBE you post the item at one of their premises so if you have one nearby that might be convenient.
MBE: http://www.mbe.co.uk/
Transit2Insure: http://www.transit2insure.com/
I spoke to Transit2Insure at the end of last week and the guy told me they insure business customers only, it's to do with the insurance industry regulations concerning "maritime insurance" which apparently applies to the transportation of anything including UK domestic post (a point which he was most insistent about).
MBE will do it but want to charge me £134.67 + vat which seems ridiculously expensive, compared to using RMSD and Transit2Insure (price quoted by web site before I checked about my not being a business) which would have totalled £30.90 and which I would have been prepared to pay.
Good to know but strange as German postal service will convert any royal mail signed for to some "yes it's in the mailbox and delivered" sort of thing. I never need to sign for it, it's just in the mailbox. In German "Einwurfeinschreiben", no signature needed, the postman himself is eligible to sign for it.
So how can any insurance be willing to insure that :?:
Some of you may know this but remember that signed for recorded doesn't mean much at all. It goes with the usual first and second class stuff. Anything of any value should only be sent special delivery assuming you are happy with upto 2500 cover. special delivery is a totally different system and every time it exchanges hands through the system it is signed for and tracked all the way until it reaches the recipient.
MBE's own insurance is 3% of value (if I remember correctly) so that's probably about right for them!
By the way, TZ-UK member WingTsun has used Transit2Insure. See his comment here: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=197246&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=75 #p2052392
I was sending a Rolex to Finland and looked at mbe to insure it because fedex specifically exclude watches in their insurance, but it was very expensive, ~£215. Then on the off chance I looked at DHL and they've recently introduced insurance as an option upto £5k, with specific mention of including watches. Worked out at £110. Left here Saturday morning and got delivered this morning.
Apart from the obnoxious lady behind the counter at the DHL office, I'd definitely use it again.
That's useful to know, thanks.
The only bad thing about PP I've experienced so far is setting up the account. Anything else is fine 8) It is really handy if you need to ship expensive. Although Royal Dutch Mail will insure to EUR 5500: if you it fast that doesn't work and you really need Fedex or another courier.
Without going back into the full pain, anger and despair I had a watch "lost" in transit.Which is why I generally feel insurance is a waste of money. Never had a parcel sent with registered mail get lost, and I know several ADs send £10000+ watches for servicing to Switzerland uninsured, same goes for deliveries from manufacturers.... Although in their case of course a lost parcel would be cheap compared to insuring all of them.
It was tracked from overseas all the way to the uk airport in a consignment. All the other parcels in the consignment reached their destination - the sender got all the individual tracking refs from the local PO Manager. But Royal Mail refused to accept liability. As we sometimes find with complacency, we get caught out and I was £1200 out of pocket.
I would NEVER advise sending anything without full and credible insurance after this bitter experience.
Ant
Posting Permissions
