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I need shipping advice

I have a very heavy item to ship to CA. The item is only selling for $150.00. The item weighs in at about 100Lbs packed. UPS is the least expensive shipper. From the east it will cost about $80.00 to ship COD per the buyers request. We have talked and I have good references on him. The item is crated well enough to survive, I hope. The problem is how can I insure this package to protect me from loss of the item plus shipping? Can I insure for more than a COD amount on an item? I'm guessing that I would need to cover the cost of the item plus shipping both ways. That's $310 of insurance on a $230.00 COD. Or is the easiest way around this to just insist on prepayment and insure to cover my butt? Or does UPS pay for the return?
mrderrick
stealth93es
64 posts
 
May I suggest any shipper but UPS. If your buyer insists get it in writing that the item belongs to him, not you, when you ship it. The cost of the item & shipping are all his, and prepayment is a requirment.

GET IT IN WRITING, BEFORE SHIPPING ANYTHING.

Just a suggestion,

Good Listening,
perfectimage
406 posts
 
U.P.S. is brutal on packages and I can tell you several horror stories that have happened to me using this company. I have learned though that if you package it well enough you should be ok. Of course double boxed is a must but on top of that the less the item can move inside the box the better. Pack it nice and tight.
gpalmer
174 posts
 
I would recommend ANYONE other than UPS. The last shipment I had 110 pound speakers sent to me through them. One has a hole in the speaker cloth and four impact marks in the side. On the other they destroyed the speaker grill and actually managed to grind the grill into the front of the speaker hard enough to leave marks. With complete pictures before and after shipment, they have been dragging their sorry butts for weeks over it, and are trying to deny damaging one. This was a Legacy speaker in a brand new container purchased just for this shipment. I started a thread in the best of lists "Best shipper for large packages" because of it and got a lot of excellant feedback. I would really recomend you try someone else, I wish I had known enough to before.

Greg
marakanetz's avatar
marakanetz
5,473 posts
 
FedEx isn't that more expencive but sometimes cheaper than UPS and their service is much more reliable. The dowside is that FedEx doesn't have any option for COD. It is easy to fool arround with COD by placing bricks or something instead of component inside the package. FedEx is considered to have a "shortest path" service which means that your package doesn't go trhough the bunch of scanning stations instead of going non-stop directly to the destination. I always use FedEx. Yes it is always possible to insure the item for more than you've sold it.
tok20000's avatar
tok20000
608 posts
 
Fedex DOES have COD. If I do COD it is by FEDEX ONLY. Frankly it is the best form of COD for the seller because you get your money/check overnighted back to you.

Peace.

Keith
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