buck1973

If you're shipping another bike in the future, don't take it to a local UPS store. They are usually independently owned. Take it to the UPS warehouse on Trabue Rd. They have a customer service center for shipping items and will also hold items if you want pick them up there.

amazinmets73

If I accept an insurance payout do I retain legal right to the bikes?

pdlamb

Generally, no.

amazinmets73

Hmmm. I doubt I'd want to relinquish ownership for one quarter of the value.

Kai Winters

Neither would I.

tomato coupe

You'd prefer to end up with nothing?

pdlamb

Understood. Just to hammer home a point already made, that's why many people choose to pay for additional insurance when shipping valuable goods.

xseal

Just as an FYI, I used Forward Shipping to send my bike in a bike bag to Austria. The service just sub-contracts with FedEx/DHL. The bike got stuck in France, never made it to Austria and on my request was returned home to VA. It ended up spending 3.5 weeks traveling and thank goodness was undamaged when returned. I did have full insurance, did not have an Apple tag, and feel like I got off easy. I rented a bike in Austria, bought cleats and though it wasn’t my bike (wrong crank size, etc.) allowed me to keep up on my training for the LV100. If I had to do it again, I wouldn’t ship.

amazinmets73

I received a random automated call stating that a company had received my UPS shipment but it hadn't been signed for.

No idea if it's related to bikes or just a spam call.

CliffordK

Call 'em back.

You'll figure out if they're your boxes quickly enough. UPS should be able to reverse shipping back to the place it was shipped from.

Give your name if necessary, but then make sure the person can describe the boxes. A bike box is pretty unmistakable.

amazinmets73

I tried but went to machine. I'll try again tomorrow.

CliffordK

Hopefully your bikes have been found.

I'm not a big fan of insurance. I've had a glass item that I did pay for insurance on. Then when it arrived broken, I took it to the post office where they agreed it was broken, and thus didn't qualify for insurance.

If one ships enough stuff, then hopefully losses and insurance cost would even out.

You may or may not fully relinquish control if you accept the insurance payout. With something like homeowner's insurance, you may have an option to buy the item back.

Although, shipping insurance may mean it is destined for a black hole.

amazinmets73

Unfortunately, no luck.

Insurance is a scam. They do everything in their power not to pay you, but you better pay them.

Furthermore, obviously it's a business, not a charity. Insurance companies don't sell policies that they'll lose money on on average. Therefore, if we rebuked insurace as a collective class and refuse to purchase it, we would have more money on average, not less. Of course there would be a not insignificant percentage of the population that got royally screwed due to no one carrying insurance.

Atlas Shrugged

A lot of activity after a few months of silence! My understanding is you did not get insurance so in this case you are the one who got royally screwed.

tomato coupe

That scam would have made you whole (financially) if you had elected to use it.

amazinmets73

Well, obviously. Doesn't invalidate my statement.

amazinmets73

Not necessarily. Who says they would have honored it? They were already giving me a hassle about paying out $400.

Again, doesn't change the fact the average person would have more money, not less if they never purchased insurance.

tomato coupe

Did they pay the $400?

That doesn't make it a scam.

amazinmets73

No. They started giving me the run-around in regards to police reports, etc. I told them just forget it.

Fair point. "Scam" may not have been the best choice of words. My "scam" comment was in reference to the methods insurance companies employ to avoid honoring their policies. Either way, not the best description.

Koyote

You can say that about literally anything that people are purchasing. And to many people, paying money to avoid risk is a worthwhile expenditure.

Also consider all of the people who've been injured (me and my wife) and killed (my father) in auto accidents caused by other drivers, as just one category of examples. Without insurance, my wife and I would've been out about $50,000 (value of our car and hospital bills), and my mother would've been out a half million bucks (present value of lost stream of earnings from her breadwinner). If those other drivers had not had insurance, neither of those settlements would've happened.

In other words, if you take your idea to the logical conclusion, a lot of people get screwed even though they never chose to forgo insurance.

amazinmets73

I'm terribly sorry to hear that. Driving is so damn dangerous in comparison to mass public transit or cycling (well, cycling may be dangerous but that's primarily due to the lack of cycling specific infrastructure.) I wish we as a society would make the neccessary strides to curb car ownership.


And yes, your comment in regards to people who purchase insurance getting screwed anyway is absolutely valid.

Koyote

You seem to have missed the point. Completely.

amazinmets73

I think I understood. This is obviously a very sensitive subject as it involves tremendous tragedy and loss of life. If you would like to continue it, perhaps it would better to do so in private.

tomato coupe

I don't think you do.

Koyote

It's not a sensitive subject to me -- it's just economics. I used my own situations as examples, as I have in classes a hundred (or so) times.

The point you seem to have missed is that, if some people choose to forgo insurance, then some other people will get screwed regardless of whether they bought insurance or not. The most commonly-purchased insurance includes coverage to pay off people we may harm through our own actions. This is why almost all states require drivers to carry liability insurance.