Advice on ebay sale - (for my protection)

sunshinewelly

after seeing some comments on here about ebay i managed to sell my brian may guitar at a very good price. Even taking into account fees etc i still made a profit over what i bought it for. Now the buyer has 100% positive feedback as a buyer. He wants me to only send it by royal mail. He originally emailed to say he has trouble being available to accept deliveries so he suggested i use a collect plus service so he could pick it up at his local shop. He then asked whether i could send it by royal mail as in the event the delivery is missed he could then pick it up from the depot. I assume that this would be safe for the purposes of satisfying paypal that its been sent etc.

Does anyone know of any postal services that will insure a guitar. I will need around £450 cover . Guitar does not have a hard case - just a very strong padded case - but i do have an outer box for it and another larger outer box from thomman. will that be ok for insurance purposes.

stickyfiddle

Royal Mail and parcelforce won't insure a guitar. They'll happily take your money but won't pay out when they break it.

GIJoe

I think most services will insure a guitar, if you look at interparcel or parcel2go you can get an idea of prices (without insurance, that has to be added on later).

I think you would be wise to get a hard case for it though - sending without one usually invalidates any claim you may want to make.

ICBM

Also, however you send it, you *must* only send it to the address specified on Paypal, or you're not covered. Regardless of whether that's inconvenient for the buyer, don't be talked out of this.

TTony

To be insurance-covered you'll probably need to find a proper hard case and avoid ParcelFarce.

close2u

hard case
in a cardboard outer box
insured (not royal mail)
to paypal address

I'm only emphasising what has been said
do not go against this advice

FreddieVanHalen

The other thing you will need to watch out for, as I think you've alluded to in the original post, is that the insurance wording for some couriers says that the guitar needs to be shipped in the manufacturers *hard* case.

I can only suggest you give the companies a call or email to confirm their terms and conditions on that.

I've shipped a few guitars via interparcel's UPS service and generally been ok. The one time it wasn't ok their insurance paid out with zero hassle.

One word of warning would be DO NOT USE Direct Courier Solutions - they failed to properly collect from me, charged me for the privilege as well as calling me a liar despite the fact I could evidence they hadn't bothered to collect properly. Total wankers!!

Gassage

Parcel2go insurance is worthless.

FreddieVanHalen

ICBM said:

Also, however you send it, you *must* only send it to the address specified on Paypal, or you're not covered. Regardless of whether that's inconvenient for the buyer, don't be talked out of this.

OP, has the buyer offered such a good price that you need to be suspicious?

I've never had a proper fraud attempt in all my years of auctions but it does happen and I would never break the above rule about paypal delivery addresses.

Most decent couriers will have a depot somewhere nearby. Where I live, many of their pick up locations seem to be clustered around the local parcel force ones!

close2u

it is the insurance that should be upper most in deciding on courier

FreddieVanHalen

close2u said:

it is the insurance that should be upper most in deciding on courier

I'd recommend interparcel on that basis as they paid me out without any hassle at all. Guitar was shipped in a hard case however, I'm not sure about the detail of their insurance wording so OP would need to check that...

sunshinewelly

FreddieVanHalen said:

ICBM said:

Also, however you send it, you *must* only send it to the address specified on Paypal, or you're not covered. Regardless of whether that's inconvenient for the buyer, don't be talked out of this.

OP, has the buyer offered such a good price that you need to be suspicious?

I've never had a proper fraud attempt in all my years of auctions but it does happen and I would never break the above rule about paypal delivery addresses.

Most decent couriers will have a depot somewhere nearby. Where I live, many of their pick up locations seem to be clustered around the local parcel force ones!

price was better than expected - i placed it as a buy in now for £425. new guitar is £600

Lew

No hardcase means insurance will be void anyway. You're best off meeting if you can.

impmann

Forget Parcel2Go for shipping guitars. As has been said insurance won't pay out.

Check with the post office - I seem to remember they have become really anal about the max length of a parcel and that a packed guitar exceeds that.

I'd always try meeting folks rather than shipping - couriers are cunts. No other word for them.

sunshinewelly

ups seem to offer insurance - cant see anything in their terms and conditions about needing a hard case.

They will charge £10 to insure - does anyone know where the terms and conditions are in relation to shipping a guittar

blueskunk

Wish it was feasible to set some sort of instrument courier service up by people who were not "cunts"

The horror stories seem to be coming in thick and fast these days.

TTony

blueskunk said:

Wish it was feasible to set some sort of instrument courier service up by people who were not "cunts"

The horror stories seem to be coming in thick and fast these days.

It's perfectly feasible - and there are a couple (IIRC) who do it.

Of course, they're not cheap though.

And that's the problem.  We all want cheap price but decent service.  To achieve cheap price, couriers will cut (drop and bash) every corner possible if it helps shave a couple of points off the cost base.  Hence, barely trained grunts chucking boxes across sorting depots, onto vans, and over garden walls ....

blueskunk

True say i guess , who does specific instrument stuff and what sort of prices?

Alnico

@sunshinewelly

What kind of distance are you talking about between you and the buyer?

sunshinewelly

Durham and South wales

Alnico

^

Try a proper transport company.

Durham City Transport are in Langley Moor. You can take it straight to their depot on St Johns Rd.

They will be able to explain all the insurance they offer and any advice on packaging etc.

Lots of people overlook this option but couriers are not the only way of sending items.

Hope this helps.