BO policy regards shipping insurance

Hoddie

Is BO happy that some sellers in the EU are offering buyers the option to pay extra for insurance? This is nothing more than a scam and I wonder whether BO is consciously turning a blind eye to it or whether or not these stores should be flagged up?

Charging a premium for expedited shipping and/or tracking is fine, but EU consumer law already requires retailers to refund or replace whenever a package doesn't turn up. I'm aware of only two situations where this doesn't apply - 1) where the buyer arranges their own shipping agent, and 2) where consumer law doesn't apply because the seller is a private seller and not a business (in this context a self-employed individual is considered a business). Even in the case of 2), EBay and Amazon Marketplace require all their sellers to meet this obligation regardless.

Stragus

I believe this has been discussed before... What about this third option?

A customer is allowed to opt out of insurance in order to save on shipping, meaning he informally agrees not to enforce his legal rights to a refund in the (very) unlikely event that the order would be damaged or lost. The customer can still breach this informal agreement and demand a refund, as he legally entitled to do so, but his account will then be visibly flagged for all sellers (under the Disputed chargebacks and ONR Reports counters).

Seriously, everyone saves in the end when insurance is avoided. It's extremely rare for orders to get lost.

Hoddie

I don't see how that would work. Leaving aside the probability that requiring users to waive their consumer rights is almost certainly illegal (and probably opens you and perhaps BO up to legal action from the authorities), it would require that those stores wanting to do this would have to point it out to every customer, because failure to do so but then penalising a customer by 'marking their card' when they ask for a refund would be grounds for action also.

Offering insurance is a scam - pure and simple. Meeting the cost of refunding or replacing a lost package is a cost of being in business. It doesn't necessarily mean that shipping costs will go up, only that the business takes a small hit if and when it happens - which as you say is incredibly rare. What's the best customer service, "sorry, you didn't pay for insurance so I'll argue the toss with you, might give you a little something, but ultimately you're gonna lose out", or "okay, I'll take this up with the post office and process a refund within 28 days". Let's be honest, PayPal will usually refund anyway, why not try and be ahead of the game and make adherence to consumer rights laws front and centre, rather than the BL alternative where the only option for many is to leave negative feedback when something goes wrong.

chelle2nines

I agree with that, you are so right!

figbits

Seriously, everyone saves in the end when insurance is avoided. It's extremely rare for orders to get lost.

That is true. But how does that translate to "the buyer is responsible for lost packages"? Sellers can afford to cover the cost of those rare issues. Assuming that the store is making a profit (which should obviously be true), then it's actually cheaper for the store to cover the cost than it is for the buyer to do so.

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Marc.