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I have sold TV on ebay and then used https://www.parcel2go.com for shipping, I choose to add insurance for 250 GBP. Today I got a claim opened on ebay that TV was damaged there is obvious damage to the box and the screen.

So I made a claim against parcel2go expecting to get 250, submitted all evidence from paypal, ebay,photos and everything...

However my claim was rejected due to item being on 'Prohibited item list'...

Can I ask for refund of insurance since they sold me something that I could not have used?

Is there any other recourse I could take against them as their list seems to cover huge portion of things shipped, basically they are pretending to cover millions of items when really they just rake the money in without any risk of paying anything out...

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    You're kind of exaggerating "huge portion of things shipped." If you actually read through that list, a lot of this stuff is very common "you can't ship this stuff with us" types of items: liquids, hazardous materials, and oversize items. And their non-insurable list mostly consists of very highly valuable and very fragile items. However, trying to hide televisions in a list like this is somewhat misleading. Do they ask you what you're shipping when you pay for it, or just give you a blanket "please make sure it's not on this list" statement?
    – animuson
    Dec 17, 2016 at 1:26
  • @animuson you get your tick box but that's about it...
    – pom
    Dec 17, 2016 at 9:37

4 Answers 4

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As the answers said above. They have been open and direct, and stated "these things won't be covered". You went ahead anyway. They have a perfect right to decide what is and isnt taken and on what basis its taken (if it is taken at all). They can decide a long or short list on a whim. That puts you at a disadvantage to start with.

As to what you can do despite that, you need to give a bit more info. I have to say, the chances look slim and grasping at straws. We can try, though.

Did you tell them specifically it was a TV or high value? (And if so did they point out the possibility of exclusion?) Did they ask? (Or warn of the possibility?) Did they make the terms of carriage/insurance clear (via a link or otherwise)? Was there a "I agree to the terms of carriage" box which you might have looked at? Objectively, was it made reasonably clear to a customer to whom it mattered?

One aspect I'd check is whether it was implied that P2G don't compensate for these items and therefore if you need carriage with compensation, you will have to pay for the insurance on top.

A second aspect is that the insurance may technically be separate (or presented as separate/separable in law) from the actual carriage. For example, check who provides or underwrites the insurance and if its actually a policy, or a separate policy, or just an extra limit they offer if you pay more. It may be that even if P2G say they won't compensate you, the policy provider has not made such a statement and arguably remains bound to compensate when P2G isn't.

A second tack here is that you might be able to argue two prongs of a technical point, something like this: under insurance law, if something isn't material to the insurance then it can't be used to block a claim merely on technical/"small print" grounds. But if it is material then it's up to them to ask for it or state it needs to be disclosed, not for you to volunteer it. If they said or implied that additional insurance could cover the package, then you might argue you relied on that statement and understood it to mean P2G don't compensate (or that you didnt understand it to be relevant whether or not P2G excluded it or not) but separate insurance did, because it doesn't say anything to the contrary. To the response that its excluded, you reply that you didn't read the long list of things P2G don't cover themselves, because you knew it needed additional insurance and in good faith understood that to cover it: "it didn't say otherwise". And, indeed, it doesn't say otherwise - there is no clear statement that your expensive items aren't compensated even by the insurer (or by a separate insurer), or even if separately insured.

You might also check if anything else covers it. Household insurance maybe?

I don't think unfair contract/general consumer law helps much (other than perhaps "was it clear enough" and also the separate question "was it clear enough to someone who had decided to buy insurance for their item that the insurance wouldn't be claimable either"), because nobody made you choose them, and they were otherwise open about their exclusion list.

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  • Hi Stilez thanks for the answer, I have paid extra for the insurance.... their 'normal' one covers up to 50 GPB and then you have to pay extra... and they still refused to pay.... That's what makes this feel so unfair...
    – pom
    Dec 22, 2016 at 11:29
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The terms clearly identify televisions as prohibited items. The terms of service also states

We reserve the right to deal with any Prohibited Items at our sole discretion without being liable in any way to you or the recipient of the Consignment containing the Prohibited Item(s). For the avoidance of doubt, this means that if these items are carried, they are carried without compensation cover for damage or loss, regardless of whether compensation cover is taken out.

I agree that there are a lot of prohibited and non-insurable items, and that would inspire me to take my business elsewhere, were I there.

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When you book a parcel on the Parcel2Go web site, the following checkbox appears:

enter image description here

You must have ticked that box to continue, unless it was added very recently. As such, it seems unlikely that if you booked online you would have any claim here, since they did present you with a list of prohibited items at the time of booking.

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You are in the U.K. And they have recently revised their consumer protection laws. The terms in the contract are almost certainly in breach of those laws and expose them to fines of hundreds of thousands of pounds per policy sold.

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  • Which laws are you thinking of?
    – user6726
    Dec 17, 2016 at 16:55

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