What is better not to ship via standard service

TL;DR

• Fragile, valuable, or items needing special conditions should not be shipped via standard service.
• Insurance may not cover high-value or fragile items, and handling is uniform across all packages.
• Examples include laptops, wedding dresses, family heirlooms, and artwork, which require careful packing and insurance.
• For special care, request an individual shipping offer for safer, more reliable options.

With Eurosender, shipping your goods became so easy and practical that our customers ship almost everything nowadays: from gifts to their loved ones or online purchases, to furniture and vehicles. And even though we offer the possibility of shipping a huge variety of different products via our standard service, the truth is that it is better to choose another type of service when shipping certain items.

Why? Well, because many of them are fragile and can break easily, while others are of high (sentimental) value or maybe they need special transport conditions, such as temperature-controlled transit. If you have such an item, we strongly recommend you to ask us for an individual offer and ship your goods safely and fast.

When using a standard service from any shipping company pay attention to the following:

• Insurance may not be valid. Unfortunately, couriers cannot insure just any kind of item that is shipped via their standard service. After all, this is the basic service used for any kind of package packed in a box or suitcase. So, all the boxes in the van will be treated exactly the same way: either they contain books, glass bottles or works of art.
• Estimated delivery time Even if we try to provide our customers an estimated delivery time as accurate as possible and we try to follow each shipment to make sure everything goes according to plan, there are always external factors that we just can’t control. In such situations, delivery can be delayed by one day or more.
• Breakages or Damages. As mentioned above, packages that are shipped via standard service are all treated the same. Even packages that include a label indicating “Fragile content” may not be handled with care since this type of service does not require such type of handling.

Here is some advice about a few items that are better shipped with special services

Depending on the item you are shipping, you can take different measures to make sure they arrive safely and on time to their destination. Take a look at some examples below:

Shipping a work or personal laptop

If you need to ship your laptop for a trip or even to be repaired, we strongly suggest you to back up all your data prior to packing it for shipping. Even if the insurance is valid for the laptop itself (in case it is properly packed in its original box and you can provide the original invoice), the content in it is not insured. So, if you have any personal family photos or work data on it, make sure you store them somewhere else before you decide to ship your device.

Shipping a Wedding Dress

If you found your dream wedding dress online or if you plan to get married abroad and really need to find a shipping service for it, be extra careful. Here are some things you can do to make sure it arrives safely to you or to your wedding location:

• Pack it well. Since a wedding dress is quite fragile, it won’t be enough to just place it in a proper bag. Therefore, make sure the dress is protected from its own ornaments as well as external factors such as humidity and rain.
• Keep your invoice. When shipping a wedding dress, we strongly recommend you to add one of our additional insurances when booking its delivery. However, keep in mind that, in case some bad surprise happens, this insurance will only be valid if the dress is properly packed and if you can provide its invoice.
• Book the pickup in advance. The worst thing that could happen to you on your wedding day is having no wedding dress. Therefore, we recommend you that you book your pickup with some margin, i.e., don’t just follow the estimated date of delivery as rule but try to book the shipment a few days earlier to make sure that, if some external factors delay the delivery, you will still get your wedding dress on time. Also, keep in mind that summer is a very busy time both for couriers and postal services so make sure to plan ahead your wedding dress shipment.

Shipping family heirloom, sentimental items, family photos, original letters

There is no price for a handwritten letter from your great-grandfather or for a photo taken before digital cameras took over the photography world. Items like these may be priceless for you but unfortunately, their value cannot be put in numbers by a courier.

In these cases, we strongly suggest you weight your options very well before you decide to ship any of these items.

Shipping works of art or design/tailor-made clothes

These are items for which it is hard to calculate a proper value so, if you do decide to ship them, make sure you pack them very well and add extra information about your address in its inside that could help to find them in case something gets lost.

Insurance won’t be valid for works of art such as paintings, professional photos or sculptures and hence the need for proper packaging. As for tailor-made or design clothes, they will be insured as normal clothing if properly packed, so no extra value will be calculated if case something happens during the transport.

In summary, you decide to ship meaningful or fine items via standard service make sure you:

• Weight your options very well;
• Pack the items with extra care and don’t spare in packaging materials;
• Book your shipment in advance;
• Add extra information about your address in the inside of the box;
• Purchase an additional insurance in case of expensive items for which insurance can be applied.

Alternative to the standard shipping service

In case you wish to ship an item that requires special care or treatment, we suggest you to send us a request for an individual offer. By doing so, our logistics experts will create an offer adjusted exactly to the items you wish to have shipped: they can pick a more suited courier, find a special service for fragile deliveries or a service with a more reliable delivery date.

If you are not sure of what to do or if you have any questions regarding the information above, don’t hesitate in contacting our friendly Customer Support Team. They will be more than happy to answer all your questions.