Canada Post won’t cover destroyed glass artwork for B.C. artist — despite having insurance
A B.C. artist is out lots of of {dollars} after a sandblast carving shipped by way of Canada Post arrived at its vacation spot shattered in items.
Brett Robinson says he paid additional for insurance coverage, solely to find he wasn’t coated.
“They by no means informed me that their insurance coverage doesn’t cowl glass,” Robinson mentioned. “They by no means defined to me something about that.”
Again in Could, the Haisla artist was commissioned to create a glass carving valued at $3,000 for a buyer in Ontario.
“It was the furthest I’ve despatched a chunk thus far,” he mentioned. “So, for somebody to achieve out that far, I used to be fairly excited.”
Robinson mentioned he took nice care packaging the piece of artwork.
“I had it bubble-wrapped and a thick foam mat that I wrap it in,” he mentioned. “Then I’ve it in a cardboard field. I had it wrapped in a blanket and duct-taped it round in a rubbish bag.”
When he arrived on the Canada Publish counter to ship his bundle, Robinson says he informed the Canada Publish worker the merchandise was fragile.
“I defined to them that it was a fragile piece of glass art work. So that they requested me if I wished insurance coverage and I mentioned sure,” Robinson mentioned.
Assuming it could cowl any injury, Robinson says he paid near $60 for the insurance coverage. Per week later, Robinson obtained the surprising information that his sandblast carving had arrived at his consumer’s door destroyed.
“I used to be actually upset and really stunned as a result of the glass is fairly thick,” he mentioned. “To undergo a bundle like that and break the glass on the similar time, I used to be stunned.”
Robinson was informed Canada Publish doesn’t cowl fragile gadgets as said in its phrases and situations:
“Canada Publish shall don’t have any legal responsibility for injury of shipments containing fragile Objects. Fragile gadgets embrace however aren’t restricted to ceramic, glass, porcelain, mirrors, crystal, pottery, china, perishable gadgets or gadgets requiring refrigeration or temperature-controlled transportation.”
Client Issues reached out to Canada Publish about Robinson’s case and obtained the next response:
“When an merchandise arrives on the submit workplace, we now have no approach of inspecting the contents and the way they had been packaged by the sender. Throughout processing via our community, a bundle travels on a sequence of conveyor belts and chutes, will tumble or get jostled within the course of and may find yourself being squeezed by heavier gadgets.
Objects which can be inherently fragile aren’t insurable towards injury. It seems that the client was unaware of this, and we are going to due to this fact refund the price of the insurance coverage as a gesture of goodwill.”
Robinson was pressured to pay lots of of {dollars} out of his personal pocket to create a second carving for his consumer.
Client Issues additionally requested Canada Publish why Robinson’s bundle arrived broken and if it was investigating the matter additional. Canada Publish didn’t reply our questions.
Robinson says he has discovered his lesson and can now use a personal courier to ship future items of artwork.
“I can’t ship with Canada Publish once more,” mentioned Robinson.
Canada Publish offers packaging tips on its website. It’s additionally recommending clients have a look at the postal operator’s common phrases and situations on the subject of legal responsibility protection.
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