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Warning- Posting overseas from the UK using Parcelforce- Your NOT insured


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Just thought I would highlight to anyone thinking of posting precious metals overseas using ANY Parcelforce service. and more specifically, including the Parcelforce Global Priority Tracked & Signed service (where you can bolt on compensation cover). 

Parcelforce WILL NOT accept any claim for the loss of PM’s in transit to their destination. 

I recently used the top tier Parcelforce Global Priority service to send Silver to the value of £860 to a private individual in Germany from the UK- the buyer wanted it insured, and paid almost £70 for the postage including extra compensation cover. 

Firstly, its a quick service- around 48 hours to its destination but when the guy emailed me to let me know it arrived- he told me that it had been left on a refuse bin in his yard, and no signature was obtained. 

I wrote a letter of complaint highlighting my concern of the parcel being left unattended and below is the Parcelforce response. Please read the second page which clarifies the Parcelforce exclusion of PM’s, banknotes etc. 

I foolishly assumed that choosing this top level of Parcelforce service, would be parallel to using the Royal Mail Special Delivery service, and compensation could be claimed if a problem arises- evidently not. 

I received a cheque today for £28.80 compensation for the enhanced insurance cover I paid in ignorance of the fact that the contents of the parcel were not covered. 

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85083EEE-8FC3-4333-96A1-70279E34C25C.thumb.jpeg.8600099224eb7ac2e406e3d21efa5b4c.jpeg

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I received quite a number of deliveries from the UK with SD here in Austria. Comes with GLS and some have been thrown in my neighbours mail box without note or signature... But all of them arrived (and SD is 'only' ~12-15£).

For full insurance I just set up an account with Malca Amit. They ship with FedEx and insure PMs up to 50k$...

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39 minutes ago, Coolsmp said:

Very interesting.. they seemed quick to take your money. I presume you told them what was in the package before it was sent. 

Yes, I explicitly told the Postmaster. It was he who told me to complain  after I told him what had happened!  When I showed him the response letter he was really apologetic and told me he will have to do some further reading up.  He’s new to the job and essentially saved this particular post office from closing by taking it on. I often use the same Post Office to send items and in fact the £70 charge was with discount- he gave me his employee discount. 

I thought it right to share my experience here as a warning. 

I didn’t fully conclude the story, after I sent this Silver, a week or so later the same guy bought more from me, a similar amount- I sent it the same method (before I received the response letter), it did get signed for this time- but clearly it wasn’t covered for compensation, I will attempt to get the cost of the compensation cover out of Parcelforce. 

The letter of response was thorough, and addressed my initial query and positively, it highlighted the error I made assuming the parcel was covered and has potentially saved me from a future disaster! 

What I don’t like is the ‘as a gesture of goodwill’ bo**#cks- clearly they are only giving me cash back that I shouldn’t have paid in the first place. 

@Big23, i’ll Checkout your suggestion next time I send items abroad. 

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1 hour ago, Fivepoundfred said:

I always use Fedex, always been very good, never had a problem with Europe and also used them for South Africa 

Do FedEx definitely cover PM's for retail customers? 

New profile pic to support the current thing, because it's current year.

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2 hours ago, Fivepoundfred said:

I always use Fedex, always been very good, never had a problem with Europe and also used them for South Africa 

Big difference between never having a problem and then have a problem with something getting stolen they expressly say they don't insure such as gold and silver coins.

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1 minute ago, Sal said:

Big difference between never having a problem and then have a problem with something getting stolen they expressly say they don't insure such as gold and silver coins.

yeah I seem to remember reading that.  I'm guessing that it's only business customers that they provide insured transport of pm's for.

New profile pic to support the current thing, because it's current year.

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In the USA there is a private insurance company that insures all collectibles including  PM's as long as you follow their guidelines. I recently helped a forum member buy an item on eBay in the US.. He sent me the funds and I bought the coins and shipped them overseas. I could only use Fedex to ship the coins and had to get a signature confirmation.  Seems it went thru customs without a hitch and he had the coins in 4-5 days. The insurance was very reasonable but the Fedex charge was high even with my discount. Definitely not worth it for a inexpensive coin but for something of more value the piece of mind to know you have insurance may make sense to some people. 

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That is some scary reading. So basically it is the same (if a parcel gets lost or stolen) if you send it the ''normal'' uninsured way or insured, which you pay for a lot more. 

 


Added 0 minutes later...
8 hours ago, Sal said:

Big difference between never having a problem and then have a problem with something getting stolen they expressly say they don't insure such as gold and silver coins.

Exactly!

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17 hours ago, richatthecroft said:

Just thought I would highlight to anyone thinking of posting precious metals overseas using ANY Parcelforce service. and more specifically, including the Parcelforce Global Priority Tracked & Signed service (where you can bolt on compensation cover). 

Parcelforce WILL NOT accept any claim for the loss of PM’s in transit to their destination. 

I recently used the top tier Parcelforce Global Priority service to send Silver to the value of £860 to a private individual in Germany from the UK- the buyer wanted it insured, and paid almost £70 for the postage including extra compensation cover. 

Firstly, its a quick service- around 48 hours to its destination but when the guy emailed me to let me know it arrived- he told me that it had been left on a refuse bin in his yard, and no signature was obtained. 

I wrote a letter of complaint highlighting my concern of the parcel being left unattended and below is the Parcelforce response. Please read the second page which clarifies the Parcelforce exclusion of PM’s, banknotes etc. 

I foolishly assumed that choosing this top level of Parcelforce service, would be parallel to using the Royal Mail Special Delivery service, and compensation could be claimed if a problem arises- evidently not. 

I received a cheque today for £28.80 compensation for the enhanced insurance cover I paid in ignorance of the fact that the contents of the parcel were not covered. 

48FDA692-985D-47B1-83D5-6ED31FE9E733.thumb.jpeg.b2db2a3262dc11f534e25a541f0f7d61.jpeg

85083EEE-8FC3-4333-96A1-70279E34C25C.thumb.jpeg.8600099224eb7ac2e406e3d21efa5b4c.jpeg

I already said this in a thread over Christmas, PMs aren't insured, here the problem lies with GLS, they are the worst packet service in Germany (i live here, i'm not German, that's for one Japanese individual) I bought a couple of Gold eagles and they were sent by RM and were handled on this side by GLS, he asked me if i have received them but actually forgot about them, looked online and said there was an attempted delivery which there wasn't as i was home throughout Christmas, luckily i now know where their packet drop off is and eventually found them there.

Previous problem came when i bought coins from DNW, now i know their service is good, all went well until it stated they were signed for, but certainly not by me, i looked at the signature and went through all the houses here and no one had the name written as it was on their website, i collared the driver and asked him where my packet was and he said he'd thrown them in the mailbox (which he hadn't') turns out he had signed himself and just kept the packet, DNW had to reimburse me 3 months later via their own in-house insurance, GLS accepted liability, but didn't accept they were stolen, well why would they, there would be no trust with that courier by the RM.

The next problem comes if you don't declare what's inside, then it will get interesting both ways, 1 if you want to insure a PM and 2 if it will make it too the other end eventually after you've written 1kg gold bar on the ticket 😉

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8 hours ago, Sal said:

In the USA there is a private insurance company that insures all collectibles including  PM's as long as you follow their guidelines. I recently helped a forum member buy an item on eBay in the US.. He sent me the funds and I bought the coins and shipped them overseas. I could only use Fedex to ship the coins and had to get a signature confirmation.  Seems it went thru customs without a hitch and he had the coins in 4-5 days. The insurance was very reasonable but the Fedex charge was high even with my discount. Definitely not worth it for a inexpensive coin but for something of more value the piece of mind to know you have insurance may make sense to some people. 

I like Fedex, expensive, but i did send a coin over to the USA from Germany, i used their 24hr delivery, got to California within 24hrs, but cost €100

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14 hours ago, richatthecroft said:

Yes, I explicitly told the Postmaster. It was he who told me to complain  after I told him what had happened!  When I showed him the response letter he was really apologetic and told me he will have to do some further reading up.  He’s new to the job and essentially saved this particular post office from closing by taking it on. I often use the same Post Office to send items and in fact the £70 charge was with discount- he gave me his employee discount. 

I thought it right to share my experience here as a warning. 

I didn’t fully conclude the story, after I sent this Silver, a week or so later the same guy bought more from me, a similar amount- I sent it the same method (before I received the response letter), it did get signed for this time- but clearly it wasn’t covered for compensation, I will attempt to get the cost of the compensation cover out of Parcelforce. 

The letter of response was thorough, and addressed my initial query and positively, it highlighted the error I made assuming the parcel was covered and has potentially saved me from a future disaster! 

What I don’t like is the ‘as a gesture of goodwill’ bo**#cks- clearly they are only giving me cash back that I shouldn’t have paid in the first place. 

@Big23, i’ll Checkout your suggestion next time I send items abroad. 

Malca-Amit UK Ltd.
Suite 204-205, 100 Hatton Garden
London, EC1N 8NX
United Kingdom
 

Hmmmmmmm lets hope they weren't guarding those safety deposit boxes 😉

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Fedex terms state that do do not ship collectable coins, however they often will accept them if you declare them, The service is very good but you would need private insurance for cover. I am not 100% sure but UPS may cover you up to 500 USD as a private customer, this would need checking out to be sure.

In a nutshell it is a nightmare shipping coins anywhere, if you are doing it on a regular basis best take out a private insurance, if you already have your coins insured in general it may be possible to include shipping cover as part of your policy.

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Hey now what you moaning about atleast he got it 😂🤣They stole my stuff lol,and after that i had something shipped via dhl.The driver didn't even try to deliver the item,Just signed for it and said delivered.Then the tracking number was updated to say it was delivered to the local drop off shop etc.

After two hours of going from shop to shop to find it i gave up,two days later a guy from 10 houses down dropped it of saying it was in his garden 👍

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52 minutes ago, Fivepoundfred said:

Fedex terms state that do do not ship collectable coins, however they often will accept them if you declare them, The service is very good but you would need private insurance for cover. I am not 100% sure but UPS may cover you up to 500 USD as a private customer, this would need checking out to be sure.

In a nutshell it is a nightmare shipping coins anywhere, if you are doing it on a regular basis best take out a private insurance, if you already have your coins insured in general it may be possible to include shipping cover as part of your policy.

if shipping overseas by Fedex DO NOT mention the word coin  or gold anywhere on the customs form. Using the wording Numismatic item and us the correct harmonized  code depending whether the coin is a gold or sliver numismatic item. 

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