$900 shipping insurance ??????

BodleyBodley Registered Users Posts: 766 Major grins
edited June 9, 2006 in Cameras
Decided to send it all in to Canon for calibration - Boxed it up carried it to the local shipping store and all was going well until I wanted insurance. Gave them the value of $16,000.00 and Bam! First off the guy says you can't use the Fed guys they won't insure that much you must go Brown. Okay let's go Brown. How much - The guy says $900 and some odd dollars (my brain shut down after the 900 number). Told the guy I could fly it to NJ myself for less than that. He checked again and even called another store to see if there was a price break after $2,000.00. He stayed with the $900.00 plus number (my brain is still not functioning properly). I left and contemplated a vacation to Jamesburg :huh

Brain started working and I went to the local Brown store. 2nd day shipping insurance and all $198.00. Ahhhh much better. Guess going to the other place made 198 seem like a bargain. :D
Greg
"Tis better keep your mouth shut and be thought of as an idiot than to open your mouth and remove all doubt"

Comments

  • saurorasaurora Registered Users Posts: 4,320 Major grins
    edited June 5, 2006
    Ouch!!! Double ouch!!! That seems absurd!!! But then I have never shipped anything that valuable. Guess I won't be upgrading my camera. I would never be able to afford shipping it in for repairs. That shipping company must be really padding their charges. headscratch.gif
  • HarrybHarryb Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 22,708 Major grins
    edited June 5, 2006
    Insurance rates can be very high when shipping expensive gear. There is a good reason for that in as much as it's not uncommon for items to get broken. I used to work for UPS unloading trucks back in my college days. Working conditions sucked and the supervisors were a royal pain in the butt. In the summer time when those trucks pulled in after a day in the sun they were like saunas. You were usually in a pretty foul mood and then a truck pulls in with a bunch of packages marked fragile. naughty.gif.
    Harry
    http://behret.smugmug.com/ NANPA member
    How many photographers does it take to change a light bulb? 50. One to change the bulb, and forty-nine to say, "I could have done that better!"
  • SpeshulEdSpeshulEd Registered Users Posts: 341 Major grins
    edited June 5, 2006
    Harryb wrote:
    Insurance rates can be very high when shipping expensive gear. There is a good reason for that in as much as it's not uncommon for items to get broken. I used to work for UPS unloading trucks back in my college days. Working conditions sucked and the supervisors were a royal pain in the butt. In the summer time when those trucks pulled in after a day in the sun they were like saunas. You were usually in a pretty foul mood and then a truck pulls in with a bunch of packages marked fragile. naughty.gif.

    My first summer out of high school I was trying to work as many odd jobs as possible to make money for college and fun. I unloaded UPS trucks from 3-7 in the morning. I know exactly what you're talking about. That early in the morning your body just doesn't want to function. You didn't even have to be disgruntled, dropping happens naturally when you can't keep your eyes open. :snore
    bored? check out my photo site...and if you have the time, leave a comment or rate some pictures while you're there.
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  • BodleyBodley Registered Users Posts: 766 Major grins
    edited June 5, 2006
    Harryb wrote:
    Insurance rates can be very high when shipping expensive gear. There is a good reason for that in as much as it's not uncommon for items to get broken. I used to work for UPS unloading trucks back in my college days. Working conditions sucked and the supervisors were a royal pain in the butt. In the summer time when those trucks pulled in after a day in the sun they were like saunas. You were usually in a pretty foul mood and then a truck pulls in with a bunch of packages marked fragile. naughty.gif.

    Gee Harry - Now I won't be able to sleep. Maybe I should have taken the vacation to Jamesburg.

    FWIW - I've received my package via 2nd day air and overnight in almost perfect condition but I can alway count on my ground packages being handled by at least a few of your ol' buddies in pissy moods. :D
    Greg
    "Tis better keep your mouth shut and be thought of as an idiot than to open your mouth and remove all doubt"
  • BodleyBodley Registered Users Posts: 766 Major grins
    edited June 5, 2006
    SpeshulEd wrote:
    My first summer out of high school I was trying to work as many odd jobs as possible to make money for college and fun. I unloaded UPS trucks from 3-7 in the morning. I know exactly what you're talking about. That early in the morning your body just doesn't want to function. You didn't even have to be disgruntled, dropping happens naturally when you can't keep your eyes open. :snore

    You guys are killing me. But at least I've got the insurance thumb.gif
    Greg
    "Tis better keep your mouth shut and be thought of as an idiot than to open your mouth and remove all doubt"
  • Bob BellBob Bell Registered Users Posts: 598 Major grins
    edited June 5, 2006
    Bodley wrote:
    You guys are killing me. But at least I've got the insurance thumb.gif

    Bodley, you should be able to write it off the shipping, repairs, and insurance as an expense so you can get part of it back.
    Bob
    Phoenix, AZ
    Canon Bodies
    Canon and Zeiss Lenses
  • BodleyBodley Registered Users Posts: 766 Major grins
    edited June 6, 2006
    Bob Bell wrote:
    Bodley, you should be able to write it off the shipping, repairs, and insurance as an expense so you can get part of it back.

    Yeah - but lately the right-off's have outweighed the coming-in's eek7.gif
    Greg
    "Tis better keep your mouth shut and be thought of as an idiot than to open your mouth and remove all doubt"
  • ian408ian408 Administrators Posts: 21,939 moderator
    edited June 6, 2006
    I can't imagine why the cost to ship something is so friggin' expensive. Is
    it that B&H (or your favorite) does so much business that they self insure
    packages because the number of claims is small in comparison to the volume?
    Moderator Journeys/Sports/Big Picture :: Need some help with dgrin?
  • marlinspikemarlinspike Registered Users Posts: 2,095 Major grins
    edited June 6, 2006
    At those rates I would have just sent it registered mail with no additional insurance. The chances of something happening to a package sent registered mail are close to zero.
    Richard
    http://davidson.smugmug.com
  • ziggy53ziggy53 Super Moderators Posts: 24,129 moderator
    edited June 6, 2006
    Bodley wrote:
    Decided to send it all in to Canon for calibration - Boxed it up carried it to the local shipping store and all was going well until I wanted insurance. Gave them the value of $16,000.00 and Bam! First off the guy says you can't use the Fed guys they won't insure that much you must go Brown. Okay let's go Brown. How much - The guy says $900 and some odd dollars (my brain shut down after the 900 number). Told the guy I could fly it to NJ myself for less than that. He checked again and even called another store to see if there was a price break after $2,000.00. He stayed with the $900.00 plus number (my brain is still not functioning properly). I left and contemplated a vacation to Jamesburg eek7.gif

    Brain started working and I went to the local Brown store. 2nd day shipping insurance and all $198.00. Ahhhh much better. Guess going to the other place made 198 seem like a bargain. :D

    Bodley,

    $198 seems fair for that value. I'm glad you took the time to look around.

    ziggy53
    ziggy53
    Moderator of the Cameras and Accessories forums
  • BodleyBodley Registered Users Posts: 766 Major grins
    edited June 6, 2006
    ziggy53 wrote:
    Bodley,

    $198 seems fair for that value. I'm glad you took the time to look around.

    ziggy53

    I think the guy just screwed up (multiple times) and put his decimal in the wrong place.
    Greg
    "Tis better keep your mouth shut and be thought of as an idiot than to open your mouth and remove all doubt"
  • BodleyBodley Registered Users Posts: 766 Major grins
    edited June 6, 2006
    All's well that ends well - One trip down and one to go mwink.gif
    Package received by Canon - and one day early clap.gif
    Greg
    "Tis better keep your mouth shut and be thought of as an idiot than to open your mouth and remove all doubt"
  • turtlebudturtlebud Registered Users Posts: 14 Big grins
    edited June 7, 2006
    Glad it worked out for you. Just for kicks I tried to prepared a package for shipment with FEDEX with a declared value of $16k to see if they'd let me and they did! The quote I got was $79.50 for the declare value of $16k + whatever shipping costs (mine was minimal cause I just said it was a 16x12x9 box that was 1lb so it was something like $7 for the shipping).

    Guess you can ship valuables with fedex too.
  • BodleyBodley Registered Users Posts: 766 Major grins
    edited June 9, 2006
    turtlebud wrote:
    Glad it worked out for you. Just for kicks I tried to prepared a package for shipment with FEDEX with a declared value of $16k to see if they'd let me and they did! The quote I got was $79.50 for the declare value of $16k + whatever shipping costs (mine was minimal cause I just said it was a 16x12x9 box that was 1lb so it was something like $7 for the shipping).

    Guess you can ship valuables with FedEx too.

    I like Fed-Ex and was sure this guy was wrong about Fed-Ex insurance policies. But a Fed-Ex employee was standing there waiting for the 4:00 pickup time and he didn't chime in with a "Hey, Fed-Ex offers insurance on items more expensive than $16,000". He just waited on clock to hit 4:00 and he was gone. Don't think a company the size of Fed-Ex would flinch at $16,000.

    If a shipper refuses to insure valuable packages it should be a warning that they don't trust their own company mwink.gif
    Greg
    "Tis better keep your mouth shut and be thought of as an idiot than to open your mouth and remove all doubt"
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