ManWithoutShadow, that’s admirable. At this point I’ve lost faith in those companies to do right without a fight. If I have to fight for what I paid the seller for twice, with the original payment plus insurance, then I’d rather use the insurance inherent in Paypal. Now if there was third party insurance that I could claim without requiring compliance from the seller, then I’d be willing to use that occasionally. The only good way I can think of that happening is if Paypal, or a Paypal substitute, offered that. I won’t do it all the time though, and sometimes I’ll be petty like when BG didn’t find a way for the people on the list to get their lights first. Sadly, losses are a part of business that good businesses account for, and bad businesses are going to find a way to fail even with generous buyers subsidizing their losses.
I was a bit disingenuous earlier. It is possible for the recipient to file a claim, but the process is unreasonable outside of B2B deals. If consumers are going to do that, the process needs to be much more straightforward.
I think I’ve paid the extra buck or two for insurance a few times, mainly on items a bit more expensive than normal. Tracking is included for items more than something like $25, and so insurance is not much. You have to pay for both tracking and insurance for cheaper items, so it’s not worth it. Insurance is probably not necessary, but my reasoning is if there’s a problem, they’ll make good on it much easier.
Or, maybe it’s pure profit for them, and it makes zero difference when it comes to a claim. I have no idea.
I don’t think I’ve never made a claim for a lost item that I insured. However, I have made a claim on an uninsured item. Actually, it was just an question about something that hadn’t arrived after a couple of months. I don’t think they even asked me anything, they just sent me another item (which arrived fine in about 3 weeks). So, insurance doesn’t appear to be needed.
I think if someone was abusing the system, they’d probably make them pay for tracking and insurance for everything. I think Paypal closes your account, if you have too many disputes. I think I read that Paypal will close your account if you go around them and deal with your credit-card company instead. Charge-backs are costly for them.
I pay the insurance on any shipment over about $20.00. Just sort of for peace of mind that it would be easier to get a refund or reship if the package doesn’t show. I know they would probably take these actions anyways, but I don’t mind paying a fee for that level of customer service.
I have had a few orders go bad with Banggood. They have always stepped up to make it right. Sure it takes a few messages to get what you want, but its never exactly a “fight”. They have refunded my order a couple of times and reshipped a bunch of orders which were actually just extremely late. Once I even ended up with two of something because the first order was just extremely late.
I just registered to share my experience with Banggood:
I ordered a 250 usd phone, I did pay for insurance.
I ordered about 10-12 items after I ordered the phone, all of them way cheaper than the phone, I also paid insurance for them.
Every item arrived, except the phone. Every order had detailed tracking information, except the phone.
2 months passed after I ordered the phone, the tracking had no updates since the day I made the order.
I contacted Banggood, they asked me to contact my local post office with the tracking number, the tracking number wasn’t in the records of my local post office.
Banggood proceeded to refund the phone.
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Up to this point eveything seemed fine: No phone arrived within the promised time frame (25 days), I reported it after more than twice that timeframe (60 days) and the payment was refunded.
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The phone arrived out of nowhere. The tracking had no updates until the very last day.
Banggood contacted me asking me to pay for the phone.
I contacted support with one question: “Didn’t the insurance cover this incident?” I cited their policy page “your parcel did not arrive at your destination within its estimated delivery time”
Their response was: NO
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At this point I decided to pay back for the phone, but I felt really disappointed because what’s the purpose of the insurance if they’re not going to honor it?
But after this experience I will just leave this recommendation: If they don’t have actual terms written by actual lawyers, it’s just a money grab.
It’s only fair you (re)pay for the missing phone that materialized out of the blue after you got a refund. The detail that bothers me more is whether (or not) you need insurance if you have tracked shipping.
If the item is missing in transit, even when the postal company does not have any tracking info, the responsability for the delivery still lies with the seller… They must proof you got your parcel. With untracked parcels it will be your word against their word. And you have no money, nor a parcel.
So I’m a bit in doubt. If you use tracked shipping, insurance is too much luxury. And unnecessary.
With standard shipping, it’s up to you. Tracking is much more expensive than insurance.
BTW. If you have insurance the value could be written on the parcel.
That makes it like shooting fish in a barrel for customs to tax you.
While we are on this topic I’d have an additional question:
Does the Banggood tariff insurance work? (they say they pay the import customs/taxes if the parcel is retained by the destination customs agency)
Same thinking. However if it was a USA company i would not buy in.
Just knowing its coming from so far away can create many issues makes me worry.
Their marketing team really hit a home run with this option.
I am VIP2 and tariff insurance is lower than before, about 50¢ now.
One of my banggood orders is also lost currently, and I did pay for shipping insurance. Let’s see how that’ll work out.
Has anyone actually claimed on this and got paid out? I suppose that is the more relevant question, do they follow through if you pay it and get charged?
My latest order came today, i chose the standard express shipping it was shipped via Luxemburg so no signs of it coming from china, no tariff or anything. So never pay extra for that its not needed . I have never been charged import fees before when they had prioirity direct mail.