ParcelForce Insurance "Get-out"

thekwaze

Hello everyone,

I've just been reading the Parcelforce comments, which are mildly depressing.
I need to send a watch to a recipient in Greece (The place not the musical) and have been trying to find out how I can get it properly insured and delivered......not as easy as I thought.
The value is £2000 and I can't even find out from the Parcelforce site if they will insure it or what the postage would cost as their website is being "maintained" or something.
Does anyone have any suggestions as to which service would be the best for international postage of small, but valuable items?
Any suggestions are much appreciated as it's a pain going through all the details for the package on a site just to find out they will only insure up to £500 at the end.
Incidentally, does the Parcelforce small print inform senders to wrap items sufficiently to withstand a load of 100kg as suggested by custardy?
I'll need to wrap my watch in bubble wrap, then cardboard and coconut matting and then pack tightly into a steel dustbin, to allow for potential impact load, which I'm sure must be mentioned somewhere in the small print, although joking aside I do agree that a guitar should be packed in a hard case.

Honeydog

smcaul wrote: »

I have to say that from your description of the packaging I can quite see why they rejected it. A guitar is hollow, no matter how much bubble wrap you use the crush force of other parcels will still be there, you would have needed to send it in a hard case to ensure it arrived safely.

The parcels go through a very automated system, but the loading onto trailers is done by hand. It is not possible to stack all parcels nicely, they end up in a pile and so the packaging has to be very strong.

I previously worked as a contract manager for PF, I rejected many claims from companies due to poor packaging. These were printers for example. A printer box is designed to protect a printer whilst on a pallet or on a shop shelf - it is not designed to protect it going through a parcel network.

Just covering something that is hollow in bubble wrap and cardboard is not sufficient packaging.

Right. I agree with you over the guitar. Well I agree if it was a hollow wooden one.

But looking at the printer example you gave. But what I don't get is that for example a reasonably weighty electrical item such as a printer is often sent by Amazon in just the original box plus a bit of scrunched up brown paper and then another simple cardboard box around it. How come they survive?

Surely if ParcelFarce are going to reject claims they should give VERY explicit instructions on exactly what is acceptable packaging?

custardy

Honeydog wrote: »

Right. I agree with you over the guitar. Well I agree if it was a hollow wooden one.

But looking at the printer example you gave. But what I don't get is that for example a reasonably weighty electrical item such as a printer is often sent by Amazon in just the original box plus a bit of scrunched up brown paper and then another simple cardboard box around it. How come they survive?

Surely if ParcelFarce are going to reject claims they should give VERY explicit instructions on exactly what is acceptable packaging?

the same way millions of inproperly packages 'survive' every year.
packaging is designed for a worst case scenario
your example of Amazon is a risk Vs cost balance
the items arrive undamaged most times,so they save on packaging on the bulk of the items

custardy

dfh2012 wrote: »

" Moreover, it was clearly marked as fragile on all sides. "

As the OP had clearly marked it as fragile, PF had a duty to be careful in handling it. What's the point of marking something as fragile if you are going to put it under a a 100 kg stack?

lol,fragile means nothing
in the days of plenty of staf.fragile items were segregated
staff cuts means those days are gone
writing fragile doesnt mean an item is protected by a force field nor that it is more important than any other package in that days feed
or do you feel other people packages should be neglected because they didnt write fragile?

custardy

dfh2012 wrote: »

RM also say on their website- write-"Photographs. Do not bend" if you are sending unframed prints. Is that to be ignored as well due to staff shortage?

thedo not bend refers to the end delivery point
they are not segregated in transit
see where this is going?

custardy

dfh2012 wrote: »

"Use a ‘FRAGILE’ sticker, if necessary"- From the RM website.

So why does Royal Mail have fragile stickers ? I would have thought the whole point of marking something as fragile was that due care would be taken without "neglecting" other parcels.

In that case, RM should make it clear on their website that fragile means nothing as we do not have enough staff to segregate items.

I'm giiving you facts
where possible,staff will do what they can
however there simply isnt time to segregate items
RMs own sorting times would support this
there is no extra time given in packet sorting for fragile items

also say you segregate fragile items seperatly
then what
an extra lorry,flight etc for those extra york trolleys?

shaun_from_Africa

Parcelforce offers clear instructions about how to pack- (down to the thickness of box /cardboard to use, bubble wrap of individual items, polystyrene shapes etc) and mine complied with all requirements. Moreover, it was clearly marked as fragile on all sides.

But you must look at it from PFs point of view.
You may well have packed it as they stated, or you may well have far exceeded their requirements, but as it now stands, you have zero proof of this.

If you traveled by air somewhere and your suitcase was damaged beyone repair, the airline or your travel insurance may well pay out but they would probably want to see the case to make sure that it was originally in a good enough condition so that it should have been okay during transit.

custardy

dfh2012 wrote: »

Custardy. Thanks for giving us inside info on royal mail and how it operates. I have e mailed customer services about it. Not that I expect any response. Just made me feel good to get all my indignation off my chest !

you have see the big picture
you see a fragile item as requiring segregation
so seperated at collection?
once it goes to the 1st sorting hub,you would expect it seperated for onward trael?
so seperate trolley(s) on the truck?
then at the next hub,it would again require sorting/seperation
then after repeating this process through the network it reaches the delivery office
it would be sorted to duty,so again you would have a seperate area/bag/trolley for fragile items?
then on the delivery vans,you would have a sepeate are on the van?
I think you would be surprised how full those vans are at the start of a delivery

Honeydog

So I've just been incredibly LUCKY with all the stuff I've received from Amazon?

The cynic in me is thinking that maybe PF take better care of parcels with Amazon written on them than they do of private individuals parcels. Would hit them in the pocket hard if Amazon withdrew their business.

Any small amount of sympathy I might've had for postal workers pay and conditions has completely evaporated after reading the info on this thread.

custardy

dfh2012 wrote: »

I suppose a simple way would be not to put packages marked fragile under a 100 kg stack. A basic application of common sense rather than spending lots of time segregating packages.

so how does that work?
packages are sorted by address/postcode/region(dependant on the sorting stage)
so as they are sorted they are segregated by postcode etc
by your example you would need a fragile area for each code
again you don't seem to comprehend the volumes handled
yes it would lovely if every time a fragilepackage came through,the worker donned their white gloves and carefully moved that package to the pillow zone