I'm glad to see this review of Shipsurance, since I'd wondered about it. I second the request for USPS insurance to be an option.

Hi RT,

Thanks for your feedback. I am sorry to hear your experience has not been good with Shipsurance in the past. If you are interested in seeing the allowance of insurance purchases directly from the carrier, this is the best place to post! I will be sure to forward this to our Product Team. Please make sure to Follow/Like this post so that you can see if there are any future updates.

On a side note, as Shipsurance is the only place we allow the purchasing of extra insurance, I wanted to make sure you knew of this article.

Thanks again for your feedback!

Thanks for considering this option, which I believe to be important. I have found that insuring directly with the carrier is by far the best way to insure against lost-in-transit packages (but not necessarily the case for damage/partial loss).

I realize this isn't the forum to discuss reviews of 3rd party carriers, but just as an FYI to others, I have found that Shipsurance makes it very burdensome for sellers file claims, even when they're relatively small (like less than $50). Unless your claim is for a large amount, and/or you don't mind making your customer angry and frustrated, it ends up being a huge waste of time, and in the end, you're better off giving up the claim and absorbing the loss.

Please seriously consider insuring directly with the carrier as an option.

Hi Ray - Thanks again for your thoughts. I wanted to mention a couple things about our partnership with Shipsurance:

• Filing a claim with Shipsurance via ShippingEasy is super easy. You can access the claims form directly from your Shipment History and we fill out most of the claims form for you. You can learn more here.
• Although I hope that Shipsurance would consider all claims equally, we're able to leverage the volume of all our accounts, so when you file a claim via ShippingEasy, you also benefit from this leverage.

In addition, even though we do not offer the option to purchase additional insurance via USPS, many USPS services come with included insurance. The amount depends on the service (ex: First Class vs Priority Mail) and rates that you receive (Commercial Base vs Commercial Plus). However, for services that include insurance, you can still file claims with USPS directly. Only the covered amount would be approved, though. We outline how much insurance is included with USPS services in this Knowledge Base article:

• What USPS services include insurance coverage and offer additional insurance?

Jennifer,

Thank you for the reply. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that Shipsurance provides better service to their larger customers, although this would be an unfortunate practice. Does your partnership with Shipsurance prevent you from offering USPS Insurance as an alternate choice to your customers? If so, I will need to purchase my postage directly from the USPS for those shipments.

After reviewing the link you provided for filing a claim, the one key statement that caused me the most problems when I filed a claim with Shipsurance in the past is, "All packaging material and damaged goods must be kept in the original form as received."

The issue here is that I, as the seller, can't control what my customer does with the packaging material. In an ideal situation, my customer would immediately notify me of any damage, take pictures, and not open the package without further instructions. However, this rarely happens and the customer typically rips the package open and in some cases, discards the box the goods arrived in. Because of this, in my experience, Shipsurance pushed back very hard on the claim because my customer didn't have pictures of the damaged box (both inside and outside). Although he filled out an Affidavit, that wasn't enough. And this was all for a $40 claim, and after I had spent $250+ insuring many packages through them.

Because of this experience, I have decided not to do business with Shipsurance anymore. If possible, it would be nice if USPS Insurance were offered beyond the $100 provided, even if the premiums are higher since I know the USPS will pay out in the circumstances that I insure against (i.e. lost in transit).

Hi Ray - Great follow up questions!

Regarding your question: Does your partnership with Shipsurance prevent you from offering USPS Insurance as an alternate choice to your customers?

After pressing our Product Team for some more information, there is nothing within our Shipsurance partnership that prevents us from offering USPS Insurance as an alternate choice. However, the Endicia API does not allow us to purchase USPS insurance. So, unfortunately it is a limitation of the Endicia API.

If you have a shipment valued more than the insurance included with the USPS service you've selected, you'll have the option to either:

1. Insure the shipment for the full value with Shipsurance via ShippingEasy.
2. Take your chances and file with USPS for the portion that is covered if a claim arises.
3. Ship the package via USPS Click'n'Ship and insure the full value with USPS.

Regarding Shipsurance's policy: All packaging material and damaged goods must be kept in the original form as received.

We recommend placing one of Shipsurance's package inserts inside each package that you insure with them. You can download the insert here.

It contains the following message:

This package is insured by Shipsurance Insurance Services.

If any part of this shipment is lost or damaged please make sure you:

1. Contact the shipper immediately.
2. Keep all contents & the original packaging material.

To verify coverage or sign up for your own account, call us at 866-852-9956 or visit www.shipsurance.com.
Certificate Number:

Use "shippingeasy" as the certificate number.

Hi Jennifer,

Thanks for your detailed response. As to the Endicia API not allowing USPS Insurance, this is not entirely correct. The API does indeed allow for USPS Insurance to be purchased. However, the limitation is that the Stealth Postage feature (i.e. hidden postage cost) is not allowed when purchasing USPS Insurance. (I considered integrating Endicia directly into my back office app for a brief period and read this in their API docs).

However, since Shipsurance is your only option at this time, it seems like I'll just purchase insured packages directly through USPS Click'n'Ship.

Perhaps a feature to consider is allowing for USPS Insurance and showing the postage cost.

Thanks for the responses.

Hi Ray - Thanks for the extra information and additional recommendation. We'll be sure to keep this in mind if we see more interest in adding the option to purchase USPS insurance.

I am currently doing the shippingeasy trial plan to compare it with my current shipping software. Having Shipsurance as the only available option for insurance is likely going to be a deal breaker for me. The problem is that their insurance is actually underwritten by Lloyds of London. They are happy to take your premiums for low risk shipments but anything with a higher degree of risk and they will not provide coverage.... so what is the point of insurance then? Other than making Lloyds and Shipsurance fabulously wealthy, their policies do nothing for us business shippers.

I'd like to amend this topic to say that UPS insurance and FedEx insurance should also be added to the list of choices. Although I ship most of my packages via USPS, I occasionally ship using UPS and FedEx and I didn't realize until now that Shipsurance is the only choice for all carriers.

Although I don't have to use ShippingEasy to print UPS/FedEx labels (since my rates are negotiated), it would be nice to be able to do everything in one place.

There appears support for insurance alternatives to Shipsurance/Lloyds and I hope this feature request is being taken seriously.

Thanks Ray! I've updated this topic title to help draw in more customer feedback.

Is there any update for this request? Endicia offers USPS insurance through their platform, so it's not a matter of technical difficulty. If there are no plans to offer USPS insurance in the near future, I will need to start looking for another shipping platform.

Ray,

Unfortunately, there has not been an update. I checked in on this and it has not been prioritized as we do currently offer a shipping insurance solution that many of our customers prefer to USPS insurance. I will make sure that I mention your interest in this to our Product Team again as we'd hate to see you go!

Sincerely,

I would like to be able to purchase United States Postal Service insurance as well.  We had some disagreements with shipsurance and no longer can purchase insurance from them.

I would love to have the USPS option for insurance. I have only had to work with shipsurance a couple of times, and I now dread to hear that something was lost or damaged. On the flip side, USPS insurance has been quick and painless!

Jennifer R. [ShippingEasy] 3 years ago

3 Years and no updates?  We really need an alternative to Shipsurance.  I have now been on Shipping Easy for over 3 years.  I have used insurance about 3% of the time... do the math, it is quite a large sum.

They have YET to approve a single claim with me spending hours on the phone pushing them along.  What a fraud!

Hi Steve,

Thanks for your post. You've voiced a couple concerns and I want to make sure to address both.

I understand that you have had issues with Shipsurance and would like an alternative option for insurance. Adding insurance should help alleviate concern and frustration when the unpredictable happens. I completely understand that having claims denied adds unnecessary frustration. This is something that we want to help prevent in the future.

Anytime you have a lost or damaged package, we recommend closely following the claims process with Shipsurance. These are a few resources that we recommend being familiar with:

Know How: Protect your shipments + ensure delivery
How to: File a claim with Shipsurance
Shipsurance - Terms of Use

With that said, we're happy to help investigate claim issues on a case-by-base if you feel like the resolution was incomplete. We have confidence in our partners at Shipsurance and want to be sure that you are too. Please reach out to our Customer Success team with specific examples of denied claim communications.

Shipsurance used to be underwritten by Lloyds of London. But, this is no longer the case. Shipsurance is currently underwritten by Voyager Indemnity Insurance Company. Read more at Shipsurance's website here: http://www.shipsurance.com/about This change may reduce some concerns from the past.

At present, we have a long-term partnership with Shipsurance. While I appreciate the desire for more options, we do not have any immediate plans to add other insurance providers for USPS shipments.

Thanks!

It's Probably foolish to add to this topic since nothing has changed in 4 yrs, (the duration of this thread)

But I have the same concerns with Shipsurance. I have been shipping and insuring parcels for 25 yrs at our Business and Shipsurance has proven to be a deal breaker on how we ship valuable shipments.

Recently we have experienced more damage claims with all carriers and therefore, while we love the Shipping Easy platform we now have to ship valuable shipments directly with the Carriers to protect ourselves and our customers.

Hi, 

Thanks so much for taking the time to post! We have this post on our radar but there have not been any plans to prioritize this request yet.

If you know of any other sellers that would benefit from this feature, please ask them to comment or post here as well. If we hear this request from other customers, we will ask them to comment or follow here as well.