ParcelFarce Insurance Claim - A useful letter for you

[xilddx]

I sent a Fender Precision in a moulded hardshell case to another BC member, Baboom, via ParcelFarce a few months ago. The mint hardshell case was damaged when received, badly cracked in two places. I was advised to take insurance when I posted it so I completed a claim form and sent it off, replete with packaging despription and photos taken by Baboom. Needless to say the claim was rejected with the usual tripe of "insufficient packaging", a very common stock response from ParcelFarce apparently. Anyway, I challenged this with my letter (below) and received a cheque for £55 which is what I asked for, and which I have just sent to Baboom.

So, if you have an insurance claim rejection from ParcelTwat and need a stock letter of you own, this may be useful. Change the details to you own, obviously

[b]Your NAME
Your ADDRESS

DATE[/b]

RE: Parcel Number HMXXXX
Claims Number 00-XXXXXX


Dear Appeals Manager,

In response to your disappointing decision to reject my insurance claim for the damage parcelforce have done to my hard case, and your assertion that I had not packed the item sufficiently.

1. The gentleman who served me at the Post Office in Ealing, London W5 told me that it was packed sufficiently but advised me to take insurance anyway just in case of any damage or if it goes missing.

2. The item damaged was a guitar flightcase built to withstand high impact. The fact it arrived damaged despite cardboard and bubble wrap suggests it has been mistreated or has suffered an incident, both of which should be covered by the insurance I was advised to take out.

I would like you to reconsider your decision. You stated in your letter such occurrences are very rare. I have since researched this online with other musicians who have used ParcelForce for sending instruments and refuse to use your services again due to damage and loss. Many claim your insurance offering, which you advise senders to purchase, is not at all effective and I was not offered any insurance terms and conditions, verbally or physically, at any time. It is clear from my research that there is a common problem with Parcelforce not paying out on insurance claims with the common answer that it was not packed sufficiently.

If you do not reverse your decision, I shall pursue this matter through your Managing Director, the FSA regarding your insurance offering, and Postcomm.


Yours faithfully,
[b]Your NAME[/b]

[MIJ-VI]

Good!

Never take it lying down when one knows one is in the right.

[harvey1-8]

I bought a Specialized S-Works Tarmac carbon bike frame and had it insured delivered through PF. Needless to say the box was mangled when it arrived my end and the frame had cracked. The seller made a claim, which was rejected. He challenged and we were refunded.

Good info Silddx

[purpleblob]

It's pretty despicable of them to try and get out of a claim on a hard shell. I mean (generally) they should take a fair old beating before it's damaged, so make you wonder what the hell they were doing to it.

Anyway as for their rejection, I would suspect they're playing the odds. Rejecting all first claims in the hope that a large % may just give up (or maybe I'm just being cynical)

Anyway, good work in not settling for their rejection. There's nothing worse than knowing you're right and getting this sort of rubbish.

[OldGit]

[quote name='silddx' post='827201' date='May 4 2010, 10:44 AM']I sent a Fender Precision in a moulded hardshell case to another BC member, Baboom, via ParcelFarce a few months ago. The mint hardshell case was damaged when received, badly cracked in two places. I was advised to take insurance when I posted it so I completed a claim form and sent it off, replete with packaging despription and photos taken by Baboom. Needless to say the claim was rejected with the usual tripe of "insufficient packaging", a very common stock response from ParcelFarce apparently. Anyway, I challenged this with my letter (below) and received a cheque for £55 which is what I asked for, and which I have just sent to Baboom.

So, if you have an insurance claim rejection from ParcelTwat and need a stock letter of you own, this may be useful. Change the details to you own, obviously

[b]Your NAME
Your ADDRESS

DATE[/b]

RE: Parcel Number HMXXXX
Claims Number 00-XXXXXX


Dear Appeals Manager,

In response to your disappointing decision to reject my insurance claim for the damage parcelforce have done to my hard case, and your assertion that I had not packed the item sufficiently.

1. The gentleman who served me at the Post Office in Ealing, London W5 told me that it was packed sufficiently but advised me to take insurance anyway just in case of any damage or if it goes missing.

2. The item damaged was a guitar flightcase built to withstand high impact. The fact it arrived damaged despite cardboard and bubble wrap suggests it has been mistreated or has suffered an incident, both of which should be covered by the insurance I was advised to take out.

I would like you to reconsider your decision. You stated in your letter such occurrences are very rare. I have since researched this online with other musicians who have used ParcelForce for sending instruments and refuse to use your services again due to damage and loss. Many claim your insurance offering, which you advise senders to purchase, is not at all effective and I was not offered any insurance terms and conditions, verbally or physically, at any time. It is clear from my research that there is a common problem with Parcelforce not paying out on insurance claims with the common answer that it was not packed sufficiently.

If you do not reverse your decision, I shall pursue this matter through your Managing Director, the FSA regarding your insurance offering, and Postcomm.


Yours faithfully,
[b]Your NAME[/b][/quote]


Must have caught the claim person on a good day as I had a year doing exactly this, making all of the same points - counter staff selling useless insurance through ignorance, non published packing guidelines, etc, and getting as far as the managing director's office before they paid out.
Postcomm are worse than useless.

People, just don't use parcelforce.

Well done Silddx for getting something back.

[lemmywinks]

Good work, glad to hear you got something out of them

I find it quite worrying that they managed to crack a flightcase though, i've only ever seen one get badly damaged and that was run over by our old van (mental note - don't let the singer load your basses in)

[OldGit]

[quote name='lemmywinks' post='827254' date='May 4 2010, 11:28 AM']Good work, glad to hear you got something out of them

I find it quite worrying that they managed to crack a flightcase though, i've only ever seen one get badly damaged and that was run over by our old van (mental note - don't let the singer load your basses in)[/quote]


PF have lots of old Red vans and lorries ....

Sorry to groan on but if the bass had been damaged you'd have had no claim for it (beyond £100).
Of course the case is not a musical instrument and so[b] is [/b]insured.

And the [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?s=&showtopic=36625&view=findpost&p=58430"]thread on couriers is here[/url]

[xilddx]

[quote name='lemmywinks' post='827254' date='May 4 2010, 11:28 AM']Good work, glad to hear you got something out of them

I find it quite worrying that they managed to crack a flightcase though, i've only ever seen one get badly damaged and that was run over by our old van (mental note - don't let the singer load your basses in)[/quote]
According to Mrs silddx's cousin who has a large international antiques business, PF have massive hoppers which easily damage packages. I think he recommends InterParcel IIRC.

[Musicman20]

Ive used Interparcel twice recently, and they were fantastic. Expensive insurance, yes, but worth it. So I recommend them fully.

Im glad you resolved this Nigel. This this was my old Fender + case, and the case as Nigel mentioned was pretty much unused. Im shocked at their service and im glad it has been resolved.

Good idea for a thread, and useful for any future problems we may have.

[neilb]

+1 for interparcel, good service.They sub out alot of their services to UPS.

[flyfisher]

Sadly, I suspect that "no" is the stock response to most complaints and requests for compensation these days and I can imagine it works for a high proportion of customers (victims?) who just give up right away.

There was a prog on R4 recently about banks and they had someone admitting that the 'policy' was to give people the runaround regarding any complaints until they just give up in desperation. All officially denied of course.

I've had a few run-ins over the years, including a successful parking ticket cancellation after a tribunal appeal and a threatened small claims court action to sort out some building work.

The one company I can be totally confident about no-quibble service is John Lewis. Twice I've taken items back for repair after being out of warranty only for THEM to tell ME that "this fault is not really acceptable" and they pursued claims on my behalf with the manufacturers with the result that both items were repaired (microwave oven) or replaced (DVD player) for no charge. Now [u]that's[/u] customer service!

Well done to Silddx to not letting the bar-stewards grind him down!

[Musicman20]

[quote name='flyfisher' post='827344' date='May 4 2010, 12:42 PM']Sadly, I suspect that "no" is the stock response to most complaints and requests for compensation these days and I can imagine it works for a high proportion of customers (victims?) who just give up right away.

There was a prog on R4 recently about banks and they had someone admitting that the 'policy' was to give people the runaround regarding any complaints until they just give up in desperation. All officially denied of course.

I've had a few run-ins over the years, including a successful parking ticket cancellation after a tribunal appeal and a threatened small claims court action to sort out some building work.

The one company I can be totally confident about no-quibble service is John Lewis. Twice I've taken items back for repair after being out of warranty only for THEM to tell ME that "this fault is not really acceptable" and they pursued claims on my behalf with the manufacturers with the result that both items were repaired (microwave oven) or replaced (DVD player) for no charge. Now [u]that's[/u] customer service!

Well done to Silddx to not letting the bar-stewards grind him down![/quote]

John Lewis sound good in that respect! Excellent. I always find, off topic, Argos to be great. Ive had lots of printers/small elec good go wrong and they just refunded me.

[Shire]

I just got back from the post office after sending a bass to Denmark for a member on here. I hope it gets there ok...

On my receipt, it says [b]suitcases and musical instrument cases are excluded from compensation[/b] so you might have got lucky

[Musicman20]

[quote name='Shire' post='827420' date='May 4 2010, 01:39 PM']I just got back from the post office after sending a bass to Denmark for a member on here. I hope it gets there ok...

On my receipt, it says [b]suitcases and musical instrument cases are excluded from compensation[/b] so you might have got lucky [/quote]

Seriously?! How can they exclude that?

I best check every single part of small print next time. Im sure Interparcel cover those things.

[OldGit]

[quote name='Shire' post='827420' date='May 4 2010, 01:39 PM']I just got back from the post office after sending a bass to Denmark for a member on here. I hope it gets there ok...

On my receipt, it says [b]suitcases and musical instrument cases are excluded from compensation[/b] so you might have got lucky [/quote]


Wow that's a new development. I guess the message is getting through.
The Op wasn't claiming on a muscal instrument, just the case.

If you want to use the post office then use Royal Mail Special Delivery 24. Musical instruments are covered by that (though you have to watch the weight and volumetric limits)