shipping insurance question...

[macawmagic]

We'll I'm looking to buy a used skimmer online. Bubble King 300 external. It will be coming in 2 boxes.

when insuring you would obviously insure it for $2,500 because that's what it would cost for a new one, do you insure each box for $2,500 or do $1,250 per box? I would think you would have to do both at $2,500 because if one breaks...the other is useless. $1,250 isn't going to get me the half that broke as I can only buy it as a whole.

My second question would be what happens if I insure it for $2500/box and both boxes get damaged...would I get $5,000? I'm not greedy and don't really need that, but how would that work out! LOL

Thanks for any responses.

 

[Troylee]

Most likely you won't get anything period no matter how much you claim... sad but happens every day rev had a thread a few weeks back about this they broke his skimmer and denied every claim...

 

[SDguy]

As I recall from rev's thread, having the shipping company actually pack and ship it will be worth it for something that expensive and fragile, since then they can't nitpick your packing ability.

 

[macawmagic]

What if pictures were taken of everything "properly" bubble wrapped. I can only afford to do this once...I'm a college student and if I get a broken skimmer and no claim I will be in big trouble because I'll still need the skimmer! lol

so best advice is to have them package it...?

 

[emerald525]

Believe it or not. I actually had a surprisingly good experience with the USPS. I shipped a ATI sunpower back to reefgeeks to have a fan fixed. Unfortunately the box was damaged and beat up and there was about 85 dollars worth of damage to the reflectors. I had reefgeeks take pictures and submitted a claim and within 2 weeks I got a check for the cost to fix the lights and they even paid for the shipping! You won't get double the cost if you pay twice the insurance as you have to supply paperwork regarding the value of the item.

 

[returnofsid]

If you package it yourself, even if you take photos, the shipping company can claim "improper packaging." If you pay the shipping company to package it up, they cannot deny any shipping damage. For an item this expensive, well worth the extra expense!