Shipsurance Reviews 272

I wish I could give this company no stars! I am an Etsy/Shopify seller of handcrafted items and have always insured all of my packages. As we have expanded to Amazon selling, we had to stamp our company name on the box for a non-generic listing. The small stamp is just the company name and is no different than the company name on the return label. However, we recently had to file two claims for damaged shipments. After jumping through all the Shipsurance hoops, the claims were “closed/denied” due to “manufacturer packaging indicating contents”. No terms in their policy or their communications clearly indicate that the Company Name stamp on the box was the reason for claim closure/denial. I had to search seller forums to learn Shipsurance is denying claims when a company name is on the shipping box, packaging tape, return labels, etc. There were even customer stories of Shipsurance denials due to “Fragile” and “Fragile/Glass” stickers shared in seller forums as well. Our company name in no way indicates contents of the package. We are a small family owned business that handcrafts various home decor, furniture, gifts, etc. Furthermore, I’m not sure the relevance of a contents indication when the package is DAMAGED not stolen/lost.
Adding insult to injury, all communications with this company have been rude and disrespectful with absolutely no concern or regard for customers.
I would highly recommend avoiding this company.

Item arrived to my customer completely shattered, with packaging damage. Shipsurance denied the claim because "the packaging was the original manufacturer packaging or alluded to the contents of the package." However, this was a hand-made item sold through Etsy, and the box had the shipping label and a fragile sticker on it.

When I asked for further help or an explanation, I received the initial email again. When I called for help, I received a voice-mail.

I'm currently waiting on them to email me back, as I wrote them again to dispute that the package alluded to its contents or was "the original manufacturer" packaging.

I paid for insurance and can't even get customer service to speak to me or send something that isn't a canned response.

I can't give them a zero. Do not use this company for insurance. Their customer service is nonexistent. Nobody calls back after leaving voice mail after voice mail. If you get lucky enough to get a hold of any one there they never get back to you. We had used endicia for years shipping with no problems. When we had a insurance claim they handled it fast and efficient. We have only had a few claims over many years usually under a few hundred dollars. Stamps.com took them over and changed their insurance carrier to Shipsurance. We just had a claim for 300.00, the first in many years and my office manager has spent way over 300 dollars of her time trying to get this settled. They are just trying to wear you down and forget about the claim. I am involved now the owner and I will leave a bad review on every social media outlet I can find.

Shipped a computer through a third party computer selling website and they insured it with Shipsurance. Customer returns it for whatever reason and sends it back through ups, but when I receive it the computer is completely decimated, clearly due to a lack of fragile handling during shipping. I file a claim, spend nearly a month going back and forth with these people with photos and documents, only for them to close the claim because i shipped it in a computer CASE box (it wasn’t even the same case as the one i used for the computer). What was i supposed to do? Slap a label on the actual computer and send it that way? Since then I’ve sent several messages on what I should do now, since I’ve literally lost a 850 dollar computer with no compensation, and they refuse to answer me. Absolute sham of a company.

Edit: They reached out and helped me out, thanks.

Shipsurance is a great service that is easy to use, has quick turnaround times for claims, and a hardworking team. Utilizing Shipsurance has significantly increased customer satisfaction for our company's lost and damaged shipments.

Shipsurance makes filing claims easy and quick. Definitely a time saver. I have been using them for 2 years now. Very happy with the service!

Complete sham. Have shipped hundreds of packages over the years with minimal claims and get a letter advising they will no longer cover us. They will accept that payment all day long but come time to actually use the service and god forbid you have anymore than a handful over the years they will just cut your ability to insure your packages. If you can avoid this company stay far away. And below they say they handle every claim yeah that is until they decide to cut your business out of the ability to use insurance because the carriers can’t handle any packages with care. Maybe you should talk to them instead of causing issues for a small business. If I could give this company zero I would cause that’s what they are.

Shipsurance is a game changer for those who sell online and ship a lot of packages like me. The claims process is so easy and customer service is A+++ if you ever need help. I never ship anything without purchasing insurance through shipsurance. It's a pleasure to pay for their coverage.

Always fast, quick, and excellent service! I have never had an issue with them, so it’s surprising to see so many negative reviews. They do require some proof and documentation on both sides, so that’s probably why their claims aren’t going through. I’ve been using them since 2019, spent thousands of dollars with their insurance, and have always had my claims paid out when a package was lost, stolen, or damaged. Phenomenal company!

I gave them all the paperwork they asked for and of course they just want more and more. They are con artists with no respect for their customers. I have spent probably 5,000 to 10,000 with them in the last few years and they wont even pay a lousy 158.00. Shame on them. Hopefully someone will shut this company down because they are not paying those who are honestly insured thru them. Please anyone reading this DO NOT TRUST or USE THIS COMPANY!!!

Filing a claim is painful. Everytime we supply documentation they ask for more. It has been going on for months. We have supplied dozens of invoices, photos, etc. We send reams of documents and then they ask for more. It is like playing a game of whack-a-mole. Find another company or use the carrier's insurance. You get what you pay for here. Garbage.

They called us once a month ago and then have gone into the black hole when we call them. THey paid tiny claims without a hassle, but now that there is a signifcant claim they have become brutal to work with. My advice not to walk away from them, but to RUN RUN RUN

Over the past month we have left many phone calls. THey have ignored all requests for a live phone call and resort to sending the same form email over and over again. They throw up obstacles to making progress. The response from Todd below is frustrating to say the least. I had asked him for the email address of the CEO of his company and of course did not get the requested information.

Look, there are lots of other customers that seem to have made the same complaints as me. Can they all be crazy? I wish I had read the reviews before I trusted this company with a shipment worth thousands of dollars.

The 19 claims they claim to have paid were all small claims-- over a period of a great many years. From reading reviews, it looks like when there are sigificant claims is when the issues arrise..

Literally the worst insurance company I have ever dealt with and Pirateship should drop them and use another insurance company. I have paid hundreds of dollars for insurance over the years on shipments and the one time I finally have to do a claim, they are an absolute pain in the ass to work with. Literally obstructing my legitimate insurance claim and continue to ask for one more thing every time I provide all the evidence possible to move my claim forward.

I used pirateship that uses shipsurance. It's a TOTAL FRAUD! You will never be paid. It will never end. It's always another task, another screenshot, another picture, another document, another excuse for why it's taking so long. When you've completed every absurd quest you're sent on, and they can't find any reason to not pay your claim, they just flat out stop responding.
Here is what was sent to them and they are still not paying the claim.
I Provided the following:

Photos inside and outside of the box from recipient of package.

Photos of proper packing materials and box carton from recipient of package.Which includes ample amount of packing peanuts and heavy duty bubble wrap. Roughly 3- 4inches of protection exceeding UPS shipping guidelines.

Damaged item pictures - several of them from recipient of package.

Screenshots of communication from my Ebay account from the buyer/recipient sighting damage and attesting its non repairable.

Receipts/Invoice/Screenshots of the purchase amount of shipping and insurance through Pirateship.

Receipts/Screenshot of actual withdrawal of funds from my credit card on file that paid for the purchase amount of shipping and insurance through Pirateship.

Screenshot of of tracking information showing delivery..

Screenshot of the Sale transaction and invoice from Ebay showing the amount the item sold for. Matching what the insured amount. $700.00

An affidavit written and signed by me that I spoke with the manufacture at their 800# with the date and time and was informed that since I did not originally buy the machine directly from them, I am not their customer and they will not put anything in writing. Also since the manufacture of the machine only deals with clients with corporate accounts. They do not make repairs and do not sell parts.

Now as of 6/21/2023 they requested and now have additional screenshots of attempted written communication with the manufacture of the machine, reinforcing my written affidavit provided weeks ago. (again I am NOT THEIR CLIENT and did not purchase this unit directly through them nor do I have a corp. account with them) requesting "something on their letterhead for a repair estimate" dated 6/15 and again for 6/21.

Screenshots of the Replacement price of the machine today from 2 separate vendors. Grainger and Zoro. Ranging from $1,900.00 to $4,500.00.

Resent all email correspondence and Multiple attempts of contact with Pirateship chat support and emails when Pirateship stopped responding to my claim for 8 days.

Written request for Pirateship to move claim along.

Notice that customer initiated a chargeback and is attempting to force a return ship. Please note:the box is still with the recipient and has NOT been shipped back. ..

Screenshots of my ebay account showing the Claim. The return request. Funds reversed and on hold in my account.

Almost 3 weeks now and still asking for more information. How about just pick up the box and inspect it yourself like reputable companies like UPS or Fedex? That would have been way too simple I guess.

I rarely have good experiences with shipping insurance providers. This one is no exception - it wasn't great, but it wasn't bad. My original review was 1-Star, but I think it was unjustified; I felt I was going to get completely screwed as it was taking so long and the rest of the process wasn't very easy - so I was angry. They've since finished my claims and paid it out, so at least they're honest in those dealings.

Pros:
- Integrated with Shopify Shipping
- Very economical
- Easy to *start* a claim
- Pays out directly to PayPal if you want that (So it's very quick if they approve; as opposed to a check in the mail)

Cons:
- While the contract is purchased from Shopify; everything else is done outside of it - and their integration doesn't pull enough information so it's difficult to compare back and forth
- Their system is broken. The on-site messaging didn't work and I kept needing to rely on email. The upload system didn't work, so again - email. And their system didn't really keep track properly of what was sent - eg: I couldn't see what photos / other items I had given, couldn't see messages, etc. - I feel they have a lot of potential here, but it really fell short and just ended up being annoying to use
- Their system, or their team - unsure, would constantly just send the same "Update" asking for some information. It'd be a copy/paste of the exact previous message, even though I had just sent in something - so they wouldn't explain what was still needed, or what was insufficient.
- What they would ask for was not clear; so I kept providing them the wrong things. For example, one part they'd ask for a pre-shipment packaging photo and then directly next to it they'd ask for "Photos of all sides of the box". I didn't have pre-shipment photos; we only do that for LTL - not for each UPS shipments that go out - so I kept needing to bug my manufacturer to provide something. Then it turns out that second clause was referring to after-shipment, which wasn't clear. Plus in some cases - stock photos were acceptable.
- They require that we send a link to a form for the customer to fill out. I've never had to do this with an insurer before. Personally, I feel the customer should be removed from the process as much as possible so it's a good user-experience. If there's damage, we have them document - we pick it up / trash it depending - and give them a replacement
- Kept asking for repair quotes from multiple parties; but our products can really only be repaired by the manufacturer. We can give you a quote for that - but not others. They were fine on this, but again - wording unclear

It just wasn't a fast and easy process. We've done plenty of claims before and are usually pretty quick to send everything that should be necessary; but this just felt like pulling teeth.

But - they paid out, finally. So I guess that's something. Maybe if I had more experiences, this would get better (Or worse); but we've already decided to not ship via Shopify Shipping anymore anyway as our UPS rates got a lot better - so will be insuring via other means.

We were using a different shipping insurance company last year and the claims process was slow, required ridiculous wait times and sometimes narrow windows to file and handle claims. With Shipsurance we've been able to work through claims quickly with minimal back and forth, which makes us an our customers happy. The only reason I didn't rate a 5 is there could be some user features adjusted in the claims process (file size limits, storing recurring data).

Shipsurance is a SCAM! becarful if you are going to use them. For example I am selling a set. Earrings and necklace. One SKU, when it comes to pay me. They are breaking down the cost to half even if only the necklace is broken! Tried to explain that the cost of producing the necklace is more than the earrings to their customer service but they are completely rude, unprofessional and have zero experience in how to treat a customer!

The funny part is. They want me to put the price of the necklace and the price of the earring in the product description that way they will not break the price in half.. like what?? Is that a joke.

Today received a letter from shipsurance saying Due to adverse shipping claims we are not covering anymore claims.

Guess why they said that? Because I asked them to talk to a manager. Few days later I received that letter.

Be aware before using these people. YOU CAN'T TRUST A SCAMMER.

Like others have claimed, shipsurance is a total scam. They make it nearly impossible to get paid out of a claim constantly requiring ‘one more thing’ every single time you fulfill a request. At this point the shipping carrier has admitted in writing that they cannot locate the package, I’ve submitted all the required documentation for the transaction and I’ve had the recipient fill out an affidavit. Now they want a copy of a police report for a package the carrier admits to effectively losing in transit and to make matters worse they require the intended recipient to fill it out! I’ve put this insurance on numerous packages never having to have made a claim once until now and they’ve happily kept all that money. Now, the one time I need them to follow through on their one commitment as a business they do everything they can to not have to make good on their business model. Unbelievable.

Update: police department stated it didn’t matter who filled out the police report. Police report was filed and submitted and SURPRISE shipsurance is asking for more information. Now they want the other party’s email address even though they submitted and affidavit. Doubling down on the scam claim.

Shipsurance is a SCAM! My package was insured for $1300 and after it got destroyed by the courier, Shipsurance insisted on devaluing the payout amount to fraction of what I insured it for EVEN after providing them a receipt proving I paid $1229.51. They sold me a $1300 policy and now after the package was destroyed, they refuse to honor their commitment. Shipsurance is a TOTAL SCAM!

We are a small business and have used shipsurance for peace of mind. We have paid them thousands over the 3 years. We have claimed 4 times for missing package and got paid easily after sending proof. We now have a package that went to Canada and got crushed and wet so the dye ran. They are being impossible to deal with and for the first time very rude as well. This still has not been resolved, we have now decided to cut back on using insurance as we have paid them 10 x more than we have ever been paid out. It is cheaper to eat the occasional loss. Very disappointed!
Update: They finally paid us the money today after we had to follow up again!

Not the first time we have had this company circumvent their own terms and sadly probably not the last. This time they are saying that the because the buyers IP address is not in the same location as the mailing address they will not honor the claim. So if someone sends a gift, uses freight forwarder, or for any other reason is not at the receiving address they will try to deny your claim. This company has no backbone and should not be allowed to sell insurance services in the US.

In response to response. Only after we left truthful review did you pay the recent claims.

The company then proceeded to send me a letter stating they would no longer insure my packages.

Nice try but no this is 100% for your company Shipsurance bought through Shipstation as you only pay after forcing claimants to jump through many hoops and trying to create new terms. Anyone interested in our experience can contact us as we have exhaustive communications between our companies which clearly show your scammy tactics.