Couriers who protect businesses?

[Damian227]

I'm hoping somebody has some experience in this field, but I run an online business that relies heavily on the use of Royal Mail for cheap, easy access postage. However after taking my hobby trading into a full scale business, I got a shock to find Royal Mail no longer cover my losses after they lose my packages?

(Example:
I sell to Mr. A for £250, I pay Royal Mail and purchase ehanced compensation and tracking to protect me, Royal Mail still lose the package, PayPal force a FULL refund including postage costs, Royal Mail only refund me the COST price of my item £50 (less the VAT) This means I can not even purchase a replacement AND lose £200+.)

Previously as a standard customer, they would refund the entire SALE price and the P&P, so I had complete protection other than the amount I paid in fees. I quite frankly shocked that priority services, enhanced compensations etc all mean absolutely nothing and are a waste of money.

Does anybody know of a courier that'll actually protect me against their own fault, rather than punish me financially for their own failures like Royal Mail?

[Harold Mansfield]

Sounds like what you're looking for is simply insurance. All the major shipping companies offer it. Sorry I can't direct you specifically to a company in your country, but I'm willing to bet you can find what you need easily with a few Google searches and a couple of phone calls.
The point is, it exists, so at least you know you're not wasting time looking for it.

[Damian227]

Unfortunately Royal Mail (UK's largest mailing service) only fully insure for non-businesses. I purchased £250 insurance on an item that they lost recently, they said it isn't valid as I'm a business and only get £69 (cost price of the item I sold) regardless of evidence it was sold for the £250 sum. They don't however tell you this when you're buying the insurance on all their items or in any of the adverts of "£500 insured protection against losses using our Special Delivery service" as again, as a business, a £500 item that vanishes will only see me refunded the cost price, leaving me massively out of profit.

I've phoned and emailed them and come up against a wall and am quite honestly shocked as I'm out of pocket after they lost TWO £250 insured/tracked parcels that I had to refund. As a small £1,200-£1,500 a month business, £500 was a huge loss and to only recoup £100ish has crippled me financially this month.

[Harold Mansfield]

I understand what you're saying, and what I'm saying is that they obviously aren't giving you the service that you need, but they aren't the only game in town. I'm confident that there are other options for you. You certainly aren't the first person to have this issue. Lots of delivery options out there.

[Bobjob]

Harold is correct. Someone like UPS offers limited liability, not insurance. But you can get your shipments insured. I just learned about all this with UPS and UPS Capital.

[Damian227]

Oh ok, thank you very much. I'll make enquiries and look into it all and shop around for more reliable couriers I think. I've had enough of Royal Mail losing a few packages a month, even when tracked.

[MyITGuy]

Am I understanding you correctly?
You buy an item for £69
You sell this item for £250
The shipper loses the item and reimburses you the £69 (Plus your original shipping/insurance fees?)

If this is the case I'm not sure you will find a shipper to meet your needs as most insurance reimbursement is based on replacement value, not your final sale (replacement + profit) value. If they were to do so the industry would be full of fraud.

[bthomd]

If you are selling and shipping one-of-a-kind items that are of some value, you may want to upgrade the courier service you use. If the item is a high value to your customer they won't mind helping or paying for the extra protection. But quantify your losses first!

In my own humble opinion I think that a reimbursement of your cost is fair, and if they were to reimburse the amount you say you sold it for would open them to too much risk.

The question that popped into my head was "how often do they lose one of your packages?"

We should expect that there will be some loss along the way in business. Some call this "shrinkage". But at the same time when we do experience losses like this we need to determine if some measure needs to be put in place to reduce the risk of recurrent losses. If they are losing your packages on a regular basis you should try to quantify or put a number to the amount you lose over say a year. Than determine how much more it would cost you to use a different courier service or for more comprehensive shipping insurance and see if it is even worth it. Sometimes you might find that the actual loss is actually smaller than you think and can continue with the status quo. Other times you may be surprised to find that addressing the problem with a more expensive service or more expensive shipping insurance may actually save money and add to your bottom line at the end of the year.

It's a game of numbers. Too many people spend so much time and effort trying to fix what they think is a big problem before they actually quantify it and determine it is actually big. And visa versa, too many others just chalk it up to the "cost of doing business" without quantifying it and end up leaving money on the table.

I hope that helps.