Who insures goods damaged in transit?

[Peekay]

I am building a Zen cart store for a client in the UK that plans to sell a variety of products with differing values. They will mostly likely be using Royal Mail postage services to effect delivery to mainland UK destinations. The billing method will be via PayPal.

Royal Mail's first-class delivery service includes a small loss/damage insurance. Their special delivery service increases the insurance coverage and there appears to be additional insurance options available for high-value items.

The question I have is... who is responsible for claiming against the carrier for goods that are lost or damaged in transit, the seller or the buyer?

I have done some research on the web about this and discovered a conflict of opinion which appears to have no particular weight in any one direction.

Some online stores appear to have adopted the policy that the liability for safe transit of orders passes to the shopper once the goods are sold. Those stores advise customers in their shipping and returns policy that they should make a claim against their local postal provider if goods arrived damaged. It is made clear that the owness is on the customer to insure the goods they have purchased.

Other stores state that their shipping charges include sufficient insurance and if anything arrives damaged customers should contact the store. The assumption from this being that the store will sort things out and file a claim with the carrier.

Can any seasoned ecommerce site owners advise me of the best (least risk) approach to this issue?

[Beer_man]

The Seller is responsible for making any claims - the reson for this is that the contract is between the sender of the goods (i.e. the seller) and also carier (Royal Mail).

You can always contact Royal mail and get them to confirm that in writing if need be.

Cheers!

[Peekay]

Thx Beer_man. I called Royal mail and as you say, they confirmed that it is the seller (shipper) who should contact them for claims under their transit insurance.

I also asked what the store owner should tell a customer to do when they discover transit damage. They said get the customer to re-pack the item (but include the original packing) and return it to the store. The store should then contact their local post office to make a claim.

What I forgot to ask was if the claim would cover the return postage of the damaged item in addition to it's actual value? (the store would surely have to compensate their customer for that expense).

Don't suppose anyone has had experience of claiming for damaged goods from Royal Mail?