Overland Express Guitar courier service

imalrightjack

grungebob said:

I was lead to believe it’s overland that are providing the insurance, the courier is only charging their fee for the transport/logistics 

Not the case, having claimed against DHL. Overland were fully at their mercy and I was told I’d have to wait until lockdown fully ended to have an item checked. 

It turns out that Stu was great throughout and long story short is that the item wasn’t damaged by the courier anyway but Overland were great. But they still have to wrangle with a company and their insurers. 

grungebob

imalrightjack said:

grungebob said:

I was lead to believe it’s overland that are providing the insurance, the courier is only charging their fee for the transport/logistics 

Not the case, having claimed against DHL. Overland were fully at their mercy and I was told I’d have to wait until lockdown fully ended to have an item checked. 

It turns out that Stu was great throughout and long story short is that the item wasn’t damaged by the courier anyway but Overland were great. But they still have to wrangle with a company and their insurers. 

Oh right ok, That makes them less of an appealing option then really. 

I’ve a guitar to post end of the week, looks like I need to use that independent insurance someone mentioned. 

bloomer

grungebob said:

imalrightjack said:

grungebob said:

I was lead to believe it’s overland that are providing the insurance, the courier is only charging their fee for the transport/logistics 

Not the case, having claimed against DHL. Overland were fully at their mercy and I was told I’d have to wait until lockdown fully ended to have an item checked. 

It turns out that Stu was great throughout and long story short is that the item wasn’t damaged by the courier anyway but Overland were great. But they still have to wrangle with a company and their insurers. 

Oh right ok, That makes them less of an appealing option then really. 

I’ve a guitar to post end of the week, looks like I need to use that independent insurance someone mentioned. 

Completely slipped my mind about getting independent insurance, what was the name of the company? 

grungebob

Secursus is what’s mentioned up the page. Never used them though. 

stuartm1962

Hi all, the insurance has changed to 2% of the value, as the underwriters have increased the premium. The new website is now live and prices are the same as previously. So this makes the insurance on APC slightly more, but cheaper on DHL and UPS.

stuartm1962

With regards to Grungebobs comments, yes the insurers still have to work with the carriers to get the claim processed.

stuartm1962

danishbacon said:

bloomer said:

danishbacon said:

bloomer said:

Just to say they seem to have upped their prices. APC used to be £10 per £1000 cover, I just paid £41 incl VAT for insurance on a £1700 guitar.

That does not sound wrong, £24 inc. vat for the insurance + another £17 inc vat for the courier). Box dimensions also make a significant difference, so I try to pack as compact as possible. 

No I mean just the insurance itself was £41 Inc vat for a £1700 guitar. It used to be half that. The total cost was £56.

Sorry I misread that if that’s the case then back up to interparcel/parcelhero levels

It's 2% of the value plus vat.

stuartm1962

Boromedic said:

I've just had a look at Overland as I need to send a guitar soon. It appears the guitar specific booking page has gone for some reason and it's just the generic booking page where the insurance is a higher price unfortunately. The guitar specific page had insurance at £10+Vat per £1k. Not sure what's happened there but if it stays that way then I'll not be using them again. 

I'll probably try that 3rd party insurance from secursus that others have mentioned. 

We have a new website and the guitar specific page had not been indexed by Google, it ishttps://www.overlandexpress.co.uk/guitar-courier  ;

Boromedic

Cheers @stuartm1962 !

chris78

Had my first experience shipping two guitars and I won’t be using them again.
I booked on Saturday for collection Tuesday with APC. Courier didn’t turn up. Called overland and they didn’t care. Said APC need at least 24 hours notice, even though the website didn’t say that. Apparently they were having website issues. Got collected yesterday. One guitar delivered, the other didn’t go out for delivery today.
Total cost was a more than going to DPD directly even with insurance.
There are better options out there.
I always judge a company by how they deal with a problem. If they don’t care, that probably says everything you need to know about them.

Boromedic

Previously when the insurance was cheaper it was the better option, now with this insurance increase its not worth it anymore. I'm guessing the bank holiday this Monday messed up your collection day, that's happened to me before as well. 

APC are still one of the cheaper courier services for next day, but I'll insure through a third party I think now. DPD and UPS are no go for me as our local couriers for them are complete bell ends. It's all down to whatever your personal experiences are I guess.

PonchoGreg

Real shame re: the hike in insurance cost. I had good experiences with APC so would probably use them (via Overland) for anything valued at up to £600-700 as the insurance increase won't sting too much, but for anything north of £1,000 I'll likely look at other options (preferably with better tracking, delivery windows etc).

AlbertC

stuartm1962 said:

We have a new website and the guitar specific page had not been indexed by Google, it is https://www.overlandexpress.co.uk/guitar-courier  ;

FYI - that link doesn't work

stuartm1962

Good morning everyone, Unfortunately our insurers increased the price structure to a percentage, rather than so much per £1000 of cover. if our insurance is now slightly more, you can always insure them yourselves directly through Secursus, as mentioned above.  With regards to the comment from Chris 78, you selected collection on the Tuesday, for delivery Wednesday. Both of your parcels were delivered on the Wednesday. Yes we did have some issues with the new website, we created this to hopefully make it easier for everyone, and it took a few days for Google to index the pages.

stuartm1962

Hi all, please try this link https://www.overlandexpress.co.uk/guitar-courier as it should work perfectly. Regarding the insurance, it is only more for APC and is cheaper for DHL and UPS. 

Regarding the insurance cost with APC, if it is a deal breaker for you, we can use APC's insurance, which is £10 per £1000, as before, we were just trying to keep it simple. 

Boromedic

How would we book APC's insurance @stuartm1962 , would we have to call you up before booking the collection and book it with you on the phone?

Thanks

stuartm1962

We are working on adding the APC specific insurance. For now, if it's under £1000, enter a value of £500 and write in the notes "please insure for £1000" That way it will charge you £10 for £1000 of cover. Sorry its fiddly, but hopefully will have the new rate on soon.

chris78

stuartm1962 said:

Good morning everyone, Unfortunately our insurers increased the price structure to a percentage, rather than so much per £1000 of cover. if our insurance is now slightly more, you can always insure them yourselves directly through Secursus, as mentioned above.  With regards to the comment from Chris 78, you selected collection on the Tuesday, for delivery Wednesday. Both of your parcels were delivered on the Wednesday. Yes we did have some issues with the new website, we created this to hopefully make it easier for everyone, and it took a few days for Google to index the pages.

I’m not here to slate you guys, but that isn’t true.
I called your office who confirmed that as per the labels I’d been given, collection was Tuesday. I actually booked it on the Saturday. You messed up, it happens, but don’t come onto a forum and say you didn’t 

stuartm1962

Hi Chris, my apologies, i got the day wrong It was a bank holiday and the first available date for collection was a Wednesday, giving a delivery on Thursday. You are obviously disappointed with the service, can i suggest that the next one that you have, please email me at stuart@overlandexpress.co.uk and it will be on me.

imalrightjack

I've just sent a PRS at £3k via Overland Express.  The Ts and Cs are a small concern, when it's labelled as going to PRS in what is clearly a guitar box:

Consignment discretion

Nothing on the package or label must reveal the nature or value of your item.

Beware of packaging or labels which might express inadvertent reference to valuable goods.

Obvious words that directly relate to valuables are strictly prohibited.

As this invalidates the (£60) insurance, do I need to somehow disguise the Gretsch logos on the box, @stuartm1962 ;?