[78-L] Question about insurance

[Malcolm - Venerable Music]

Yea, I recently had the same experience on eBum although it was from a 
non-recognizable seller who has since had his account cancelled.
I won a rather expensive record (Bay Rum Blues by Ashley & Foster on 
Vocalion) and as I always do, sent proper packing instructions along with my 
payment (which I received a disgruntled "I know what I'm doing" reply to).
When the box arrived, it was obviously mishandled by the postal service, so 
I crossed my fingers as I opened it up. When I found that the record was 
taped between 1 square (each side) of cardboard that had obviously been cut 
from a used box (as it was creased where the old box would fold), and was 
only sparingly padded with wadded up plastic grocery bags, my heart sank! 
Sure enough, it was in three big pieces!

I notified the seller that the record was broken & I wanted to return it for 
a refund. He then instructed me that he had purchased insurance (out of his 
own pocket) and I could file a claim if I wanted. Just to check out the 
situation, I followed up through the postal service, and indeed, the 
receiver of the damaged merchandise can file an insurance claim. Here is the 
kicker, it takes up to 60 days for them to respond at which point they can 
refuse to pay the claim if they deem the item was packaged improperly! Well, 
when paying by Paypal (which is all you can do on ebum these days), you can 
file a dispute within 45 days that the item arrived significantly not as 
described. At that point (after the seller has a chance to respond), you can 
send the item back with delivery confirmation (or some manner of tracking) 
and paypal will put the money back in your account once they confirm it has 
been delivered.

I then instructed the seller that he could also file the claim for the 
broken record at which point they could deny him coverage because of 
improper packing, but I would not be on the hook for it. As far as I can 
tell, the only time postal insurance really works in if the package is lost 
in space?? Anyone ever successfully file a claim for a damaged item & have 
the postal service pay out? If so, how long did it take?

Really, if it were any kind of reputable seller, he should have just 
refunded the money. At most asking for the seller to return the damaged item 
so he could pursue an insurance claim. I have received other broken records 
in the mail before and most sellers refund your money with very little 
hassle - myself included.
In fact, if it does show up broken, I usually feel that it was due to my 
faulty packing as it should be strong enough to stand up to that angry 
gorilla and survive!

Taylor, if your friend is still having a problem, tell him to open a dispute 
through paypal - but it must be within 45 days (I think), so don't delay too 
much!

Malcolm
(the other, other one in Georgia)

Venerable Music - http://www.venerablemusic.com/
78rpm Auctions - http://www.vmauctions.com/
Venerable Radio - http://www.venerablemusic.com/samphpweb/index.html
On Myspace - http://www.myspace.com/venerablemusic

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Taylor Bowie" <bowiebks at isomedia.com>
To: "78-L Mail List" <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
Sent: Sunday, January 03, 2010 1:50 PM
Subject: [78-L] Question about insurance


>A friend of mine recently had a very unpleasant go-round with a well-known
> eBay record seller who sent him a cracked record.  When my friend asked 
> for
> his money back,  the seller demanded that my friend file the insurance
> claim.
>
> I've bought and sold books and records through the mail for many years, 
> and
> on the few occasions there was a problem...I never expected the buyer to
> file the claim about something I'd sold and which arrived damaged or not 
> at
> all.  I would refund the money and then file my own insurance claim.
>
> Any of you other buyers or sellers run into this?  Seems to be that it's 
> the
> responsibility of the seller to follow through on problems with a 
> purchase,
> and not the buyer.
>
>
> Taylor
>
>
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