Buyers Keep Asking For Their Package To Be Insured

[oaxaca_imported]

In the pass year I have had an adnormal amount of potential buyers requesting for their package to be insured. I am confused by this since purchasing insurance only protects me and not them. Is this some sort of scam or am I missing something completely? 

On a related note, I understand that I am not allowed to charge buyers for insurance, however since they are the ones requesting I purchase the insurance, am I allowed to charge them under these circumstances? 

[johnrj1226]

Sellers can include the cost of insurance in their total shipping & handling  charge.  But this must be done at the time a listing is craated or  before an item is sold.  Sellers cannot  collect  extra for insurance after an item is sold.

[nowthatsjustducky]

Wow!  an insurance thread that is closing in on 3 pages and no sign of Sam and the expected one liner?  That is like a feedback thread without You Know Who.

Hope all is well...  🙂

[nobody*s_perfect]

The latest post from @sam9876 was on August 5.

[a_c_green]

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@nowthatsjustducky wrote:

Wow!  an insurance thread that is closing in on 3 pages and no sign of Sam and the expected one liner?

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Well, to be precise, this thread was about buyers wanting the insurance, and why that would be. We can try it, though:

"Smart buyers don't buy insurance." 

No, see, it just doesn't have the same ring to it, ya know? 

[a_c_green]

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@nobody*s_perfect wrote:

The latest post from @sam9876 was on August 5.

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No worries. There's a distinct gap in the selling account, with no new listings between August 2 and August 27th, but now new listings are coming up again, so I would guess that someone took a vacation. 

[reallynicestamps]

@vintagecraze50

I was told earlier that this is not a USPS service.

With Canada Post,it's just a box to tick off on the label.

If I am sending a package without a label (I usually use stamps because ... did you notice my ID?) I just write

DO NOT SAFE DROP on it.

Since carriers can read, it works fine.

BTW- still not convinced about the raised flag on the mailbox. Whether it's mail going out or mail coming in, it would still be a signal that there might be something interesting in the box.

[readabouthorses]

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@reallynicestamps wrote:

@vintagecraze50

I was told earlier that this is not a USPS service.

With Canada Post,it's just a box to tick off on the label.

If I am sending a package without a label (I usually use stamps because ... did you notice my ID?) I just write

DO NOT SAFE DROP on it.

Since carriers can read, it works fine.

BTW- still not convinced about the raised flag on the mailbox. Whether it's mail going out or mail coming in, it would still be a signal that there might be something interesting in the box.

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Yes, that is the downside of living in the country and using a rural mailbox. I've been putting mail in those boxes since mid 1940's, putting up the flag and having faith it will get picked up. I don't think I've ever had any outgoing mail go missing out of my rural mailbox in all that time. As a child I used to sit on the porch and watch for the mailman to take my letter out of the box (it was down a long driveway but I could see the end of the drive and the road where the mailboxes were). Then I would wait and wait and wait and wait ... sometimes 8 weeks for whatever I was ordering got delivered. Starting at about age 7 or 8 it was usually travel brochures from all over the US and foreign countries (I bet the mailman thought I was strange ... this child living on a farm in rural Ohio).

And back to the buyers wanting insurance .... I once sold a magazine to a girl in Texas who requested insurance. It wasn't that expensive and when I asked why she said it was because she lived on a big ranch with closed iron gates and the mailman would just hang the package on the gate if it didn't fit the box. If she had it insured then he took it back to the PO and she had to go pick it up but at least she knew it was safe.  I always wondered why she just didn't ask them to hold all her packages but I did as she asked and she paid extra for the insurance.

[a_c_green]

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@reallynicestamps wrote:

BTW- still not convinced about the raised flag on the mailbox. Whether it's mail going out or mail coming in, it would still be a signal that there might be something interesting in the box.

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Well, yes; that's its purpose. Here's a more detailed explanation:

https://legalbeagle.com/6683403-mailbox-flag-regulations.html

Flag Positioning

All mailbox signal flags must be attached to the right side of the mailbox when facing it from the front. The flag is to be raised when outgoing mail is present in the mailbox. The flag is to be lowered by the postal worker after outgoing mail is picked up.

Oddly, the photo they used for the article shows the mailbox flag wrenched outward beyond vertical, pointing towards the street, 180° out from its normal lowered position against the side of the box. Go figure...

[muttlymob]

Oddly, the photo they used for the article shows the mailbox flag wrenched outward beyond vertical, pointing towards the street, 180° out from its normal lowered position against the side of the box. Go figure...

You would think whoever published that article could have come up with a better picture.

Though it would seem in that photo the reason the flag is pulled forward is because the owner hasn't trimmed his trees and the flag is hidden if in it's normal upright position.

[johnrj1226]

Our new postal carrier does not have the  energy to lower our flag down more than 1/4  from vertical but this  carrier has only provided  us with 13 misdelivered  pieces of mail mostly with the  same  address number but a totally different  street name.

 Welcome to 2018.

[nobody*s_perfect]

That's dreadful!  I hope you have complained to your Postmaster about this.  I would take the misdelivered piece into the PO and ask to speak to the Postmaster, presenting your evidence of the misdelivery.