Posted By:
JoannI agree with Leon that insurance is optional to the buyer - they can elect to pay or not. It helps if the seller is clear in the auction or transaction that non-insured shipments are at the buyers risk - before receiving payment. If the buyer declines, it should be their risk.
As to pursuing PayPal options for non-delivery, this is the exact reason I've changed my ebay auctions so that insurance is mandatory - regardless of the size of purchase - for anyone using PayPal. I also put right in the auction text that this requirement is because the PayPal buyer grievance policies essentially make the seller wholly responsible for all parts of the shipping process. Even if the auction clearly states that non-insured shipments are buyer's risk, the PP system will award the buyer anyways if he does not pay for insurance so I make it mandatory for PP users.
Eventually I will just include insurance in the shipping price, with the result that even people that pay by check or MO will have to pay insurance just because the PayPal users can (and will) start a PP dispute that leaves me holding the bag if they did not pay for insurance and the USPS falls down. It'll be easier to make that standard practice at some point rather than trying to have a different shipping rate for PP users (plus, they just hit the pay now button and the thing cruises through at standard shipping costs without insurance).
Maybe kind of a pet peeve of mine, to use PayPal buyers' remedies to make the seller absorb all shipping risk at no cost to the buyer.
J