INSURANCE

PLEASE READ THIS ENTIRE SECTION BEFORE USING OUR SERVICES

You should Insure your belongings!

You will have two opportunities to do so:

The first opportunity is when we pick up. At the time of pickup, you can enter a value for each unit given to us on your order summary sheet. A unit is a box, group of plastics, a TV, a piece of furniture etc. Each unit is described and appears as a tab on the order summary sheet.

The second opportunity is after we email the scanned copy of you order summary sheet to you, which happens shortly after the pickup. You have 7 days to let us know that you want to add insurance to the order.

The storage premium you pay is good for up to 4 months of storage (see more on this below).

It is not our responsibility to ask you personally if you want to insure your belongings or to inform you that the term has expired.

Our liability is limited to the insured amount, and only up to the fair market value.

If no additional insurance is purchased, you are agreeing that the following default insured values are sufficient:

$100 for each shipped box
$50 for each individually charged stored item (i.e. if 3 plastic containers are taped together and billed as one item, they’re insured for $50 altogether).

Packing, shipping and storage fees are not refunded with insurance claims.

What does insurance cover?

Insurance generally covers both loss, if we fail to return a stored item to you, and damage if it was professionally packed by JPS (i.e. TV’s, microwave ovens, glass or mirrors, printers and fans). A fragile item that is not packed by JPS is not insured against damage.

LOSS

Each year we store many thousands of boxes and our loss rate is 3 boxes per thousand. This is obviously very low, but if we lose your box, it doesn’t matter how good our loss ratio is. You will want to replace it and we only pay that bill up to the insured value.

DAMAGE

Some things are extremely fragile. For example, the glass on a TV is so thin that regardless of how well we pack them they shatter. After many years of scarcely 1 claim, we now average 5 per year and it’s increasing. It is not sufficient to bubble wrap a picture frame, dishes, glass, knick-knack, or any other fragile item and expect them to not be damaged if they are not packed professionally. These items must be boxed individually with Styrofoam after they are bubble wrapped and then put in a bigger box. If not, they are not covered.

Simply writing “FRAGILE” on the side or top of a box does little or nothing to prevent damage. This includes fragile items packed by a John’s Mom. Fragile items must be brought back to our store and packed professionally. Putting arrows on the side of a box is also not sufficient. We are moving and transporting thousands of boxes each move season and cannot stop to check each box for arrows.

Do not store any liquids. This includes laundry pods. Liquid containers will leak, damaging the other belongings in your box, possibly leaking onto your other boxes on the ones store adjacent to yours. Do not expect your boxes to be store upright.

“Damage" applies only to the contents of a container and not the container itself or its appearance. For example, we often use tape to keep doors/drawers from opening in transport. This can leave an adhesive film when removed. Plastic drawers occasionally crack or break. Futons and couches can get dirty. Rolling carts lose wheels, fridges can get dinged or scratched, shipped suitcases or duffel bags may get scratched or torn in transit. Most of the furniture we receive is made of pressed paper pulp and glue, not wood or laminate. These pieces have a top layer of paper finish, making them very difficult to restore if they get scratched or some of the paper peels off. Insurance only covers the functionality of the item. If the appearance of a container is important to you, we recommend you put an additional box over top of it.

Adding insurance

Adding insurance costs $2.50 per $100 of value added. For example, insuring a box for $500 costs $10, $1,000 costs $22.50, $2,000 costs $37.50, and so on. It covers the item for up to 4 months after which you can extend the insurance if you extend the storage term.

You can either choose to insure a specific piece/box or insure the entire order.

Example: If you store 5 boxes, 3 plastic container units, a TV and a desk chair (10 total pieces), you have two options:

You could insure the entire order for $2,000. That insurance costs $37.50 and therefore each of the 10 pieces is insured for $200.

You could only insure the box containing your Canada Goose coat for $1,500 and the TV for $500. This way, the insurance still costs $40, but now the other 8 pieces are only insured for the default value of $50 each.

When a specific box is insured above the default value, you must provide an explicit description: for example, “Box with 20 pairs of shoes, $3,000 total”, or “Box with 4 jackets, $500 each and 1 Canada Goose coat, $2,000. Total of $4,000.”

If you are putting a few very valuable items in one box we must know which box it is and what the items are so that we can take special precautions with that box.

You pay the insurance fees after we receive the items, at the same time that we charge for the storage and/or shipping.

exceptions to insurance coverage

Again, fragile items need to be professionally packed by JPS, or they will only be insured against loss, not damage.

This includes

Kitchenware such as glasses, dishes or cookware
Small appliances like coffee makers and microwave ovens
Computers
Gaming equipment
TVs
Framed pictures and other artwork
Mirrors
Furniture
Anything else that is easily broken

Please do not take a risk, especially with TVs. If a TV is not professionally packed it will usually break. Do not try to cushion your TV with things like bedding or clothing––it won’t work. If you pay us to pack it and it’s insured we will replace it without question or hassle.

Our John’s Moms do not have the training or materials to properly pack fragile belongings on the job site, so please don’t ask them to. They will hand off items like the ones listed above to the truck crew for transport to the store where they will be professionally packed. If fragile items listed above are packed by a mom on site, we can only insure these things for loss, not damage.

We do not insure particle board or faux wood (pulp and glue) furniture unless you pay for it to be professionally packed. Once assembled, it is practically impossible to move the larger pieces without damaging them and they seldom can be reassembled without adding additional support pieces. We can box smaller pieces for you like shelves and nightstands, but you must request this at the time of pick up. Otherwise we assume you understand that these items are insured for functionality and not appearance.

Original artwork is not insurable. Do not give us any artwork that you cannot bear to lose or damage. “One of a kind” pieces made by students (e.g. paintings, ceramics, prototypes, architectural models) are not insured.

Making an insurance claim

You have 14 days from the date of delivery to make an insurance claim.

If you think a piece or box is missing from your order, start by reviewing the order summary sheet that was scanned and sent to you at the time the order was billed; compare it to the items you received; then call us prepared to give the description from the summary sheet.

If we determine together that something is missing, JPS has one week to locate it before processing the claim. This can be difficult at move-in when parents are in town and want to help their students settle in before they leave; however, please be patient while we are trying to locate lost items at the busiest time of year.

If something is damaged, please retain the item along with the packing materials so that we (or UPS) can inspect them. We cannot pay a claim on damaged items if you dispose of them before they can be inspected.