emma01

Im trying to sort out the insurance for our container (uk to perth) and so far i have had a quote from Crown (who we are now using to ship our stuff) but they are quite expensive for insurance (i did think keep it all together as it would be easier).
Infact on checking through emails i have discovered they have been quite cheeky as the first quote they gave me for removals was £4460 with insurance at 3% declared value (£1200 insurance quote) and when i told them they were too expensive as i had had a cheeper quote they came back with £3760 (for shipping only) which we accepted. It was only when trying to sort the insurance that i looked back through previous emails and have discovered that they have put the insurance up to 3.9% declared value (checked the small print) which totals £1560 (this is obviously making up part of the difference they knocked off our first quote).

I have had a qotequotem L&P (letton pericval) of £504.00.

Has anyone used L&P and how did you find them? Has anyone had a claim through them? I am going to call them again on monday but they seem so much cheeper (which is great) but im worried that it wont be as good as the more expensive Crown and is it better to keep the shipping and insurance together.
To be honest I am a bit peeved at the prospect of paying £1600 to insure our stuff when we have had a quote of £504.00 but want the best cover incase things dont arrive / are broken. Just dont know what to do for the best.

Help Please.

thanks

emma

Syedney

As a general rule of thumb and after my dealings with a few shipping co, I noticed that they always quote a high figure and once knocked back, they then come back with a lower figure.

In the end I played two companies against each other, and ended up reducng the overall cost by as much as 500GBP!!

For the insurance, we asked the company that won the bidding, to include this as part of the deal. They first refused saying that the quote is low as it is , after insisting with them, they said they would throw in the AQIS fee (around $200-$500 on average). We paid around 350GBP for insurance, but only insured electrical goods and the beds.

Hope this helps. You have the power to barter specially in the current economical climate, make the most of it

Let them sweat a bit


PS: Our stuff arrived in perfect order. Sorry not had any dealings with L&P. You don't have to go with the shipping co insurance. You just need to make sure if anything breaks then you're covered. Doesn't matter with which company as long as they deal with this type of insurance.

twizzle

We had exactly the same problem with Crown - their consultant said 3% to us on the day she came around, on the phone, and in emails. The literature said 3.9%, but we were told that was for the extras insurance (premium? incl. electrical, mould & mildew, pairs & sets etc.)

The day before the team was due to arrive to pack us up we were still wrangling with Crown over the insurance, as they said without the premium extras, it was only going to come down to 3.7%. We argued as it wasn't what we had been told, and I threatened to go with another shipper who was ready & waiting to pack us up. Stressful!! :curse:

In the end, after several calls with the insurance manager who insisted the consulltants had no right to quote us 3%, we put our foot down & said 3% as agreed, or nothing, as we were less than impressed with their behaviour. We also said if that was the kindof service we could expect from them, we would not be happy to proceed, as what would they be like down the line?

The insurance guy made a big deal of saying how he was going to do us a one-off favour as there had obviously been a miscommunication, only their VIP corporate clients pay 3%, so he was doing us a huge favour blahblahblah... I just said fine, I would expect them to do the right thing & honour what we had been told.

They did give in eventually, so if I were you I would push the issue with them. I had genuinely thought it was a one-off mistake on their part, but seeing your story I now wonder if that's their modus operandi??

Because the insurance was quite expensive, we listed what we wanted covered, and only listed bulk lots for multiple items eg. clothes (took a figure we thought would be reasonable to cover each person), dinnerware, glassware. We individually listed large/expensive items that could break & be costly to replace. The main reason we wanted the cover though was for total loss ie. the container goes overboard. Thereafter, we worked on high priorities for expensive breakages. Other than that, we didn't pay to cover the stuff we wouldn't miss.

My understanding with getting coverage with L&P is that it only covers the actual shipping. It won't cover you for packing & unpacking, so if there are breakages during packing, tough luck. We felt that once everything was in the container, the chances of breakages en route weren't that high, the main problem for breakages was packing & unpacking.

All in all though, we got everything out this end no problem, no breakages, no losses, all was fine. Crown do a superb job of packing & wrapping so that everything is completely padded. I wouldn't worry too much about breakages unless you have fragile & expensive items you're concerned about.

emma01

Thanks for those replies.
i have been bothered about this all weekend so far.
I am definitely going to call them monday and question this as i think it takes the piss a bit, but as we are going in about 3 weeks i dont know if have left it too late to change if they start creating.
on checking various emails it seems to have gone up three times from 3% to 3.7% to 3.8% and each time its listed as their 'premium insurance'.

I have also done a my own inventory to list certain items that are more expensive but i have included smaller items as well just incase the container goes overboard. They had work the declared value to be 40k on the space we are using but i have got that done to 28k on my list which should bring the cost of the insurance down a bit.

i will let you know how i get on with them on monday when i call them. no doubt they will try to wriggle out of it.

Saying that so far i have been happy with the service i have received so far.

Kingseat

I used LP myself. I will come back to this thread in a bit. Papers are in the room where the baby is sleeping. I paid nothing close to the 3% the packing companies wanted.