Extra Shipping Insurance: Worth it?

Insurance won't be worth anything if you can't collect on it, and you won't be able to collect if you tell them (or they find out) you were shipping beer, since that's against their regulations (or the law, in the case of the USPS).

So: If the box goes missing or is destroyed and you make a claim, what information will they request about its contents (e.g. will they ask you to somehow substantiate the value), and what will you tell them?

 

I've thought about doing this just so that they'll be more careful with my package, but I doubt it helps.

 

The folks who handle boxes don't know you have insurance on a package. It's all managed electronically through the computer system. There is typically nothing on a box that denotes whether or not it has insurance on it.

 

My understanding is that some people say "collectible glassware", "crystals", or other gifts. I've seen people on BA saying they got insurance payout without having to file a claim as well. Breakages may be harder to claim insurance on, but if a box is missing in transit (typically due to label falling off), it's a little easier to file claim. Even if you claimed beer, without the box they wouldn't know whether or not you shipped it with proper labeling (the reason for violating the shipping policy is mainly "Improper Alcohol Shipment"). If anything, you can also claim ignorance of the policy if bottles break.

Personally, I usually don't add extra insurance, but sometimes if it's a bigger box with more "valuable" bottles, I'll add to cover an extra $100 on top of the default $100. It doesn't cost that much more.

 

@hustadaj recently had success getting the standard $100 insurance for a box that was mis-delivered and lost. He could probably provide a little insight about how that process went. Unfortunately the $100 didn't cover the "secondary value" of the lost beer, but it was better than nothing at all.

 

Take this for what its worth, i read somewhere on here if you package it in such a way that you can drop it from 10ft and not worry about the contents then you have nothing to worry about. Now 10ft is a bit extreme for me but in the early days i have drop tested from my waist as if i was carrying and it slipped. Have since refined my packing to such a way i dont worry about breakage. It would take a serious, i mean serious incident to cause any damage to anything i pack. Just remember its your beer until its safely received. Keep that in mind and you wont have any issues with how you package.

 

I recently claimed insurance. Lucky or unlucky, the package was lost and not damaged (so they couldn't really prove what was in there). I claimed "collectible glassware". They asked for pictures, but I waited it out a couple days, and then they just sent the check without asking for pictures again. I probably have a couple hundred shipments under my account on fedex, so they might have just taken my word for $100 since it was the first time.

On some big bottles, I have put a much higher value on them and paid the insurance, but after this happening, I second guess doing that. I don't think it would be that easy to recover say $500+ from them without giving some decent backup as to the value of what you sent. I believe fedex charges $2 per $100 of insurance. That's not real expensive, but I'm not sure the odds that they would actually honor the request even if something happened.

 

If your package is lost and you have extra insurance on it, you could always just take pictures of something valuable that you own and say it was in there.

 

You don't want to get into the realm of insurance fraud.

 

Exactly, certainly not worth a couple hundred bucks.

 

That is some next-level bad advice.