Insured Businesses offering piece of mind

[KraftyPg]

This may or may not prove to be worthwhile but thoughts from another thread made me wonder just how many businesses promoting themselves on this forum protect themselves and their clients.

If you're offering your wares to other members are you insured?

Do you have insurance against the work you preform?

Do you have insurance to protect the customer from any damage your product could cause?

What is your warranty, on either labour or goods?

What protection does you or your business offer members of this forum (or anyone else) to give them some piece of mind that they are dealing with a company worthy of taking their money?



The intent of this thread isn't to bad mouth or can any business and specific business gripes should be handled in their own threads, the intention here is to see how many businesses are willing to offer customers something more than just a product. Insurance not only protects you it protects your clients and or customers as well so if you've got it why not flaunt it a bit.



Although I don't use this forum to attract customers I'll start.

All my businesses are covered by public liability, any work I do both on client computers and on site is totally covered under insurance and any damage proven to be a result of my products or service are also covered. I offer a warranty on labour and all parts have complete manufacturer backed warranties. Each business has it's own terms and conditions which outline both the client and my responsibilities when it comes to trading and depending on the business both the client and myself must sign the agreement before work takes place.

I've never had to make any claims on insurance and I've only had about 5 warranty claims brought to my attention in nearly 20 years but I also don't under estimate the value of protection for myself, my family and my clients.

Anyone else willing to offer up some assurance of their business?

 

[qqc d22]

Not that i sell on here or am planning on it really but i run a small canvas goods business Qld Quality Canvas hence the username qqc d22. I also have public liability to the value of 25million mainly so high as i do some commercial work and they have in contracts you must have that level. I only offer what i need to as a munufacturer in Australia which is 12months on all goods labour included however i use all quality products and they jave manufacturer warrantys that range from 3yrs to 25 years with most being around the three and five year mark. allthought i only offer one year on labour if there is a genuine fault and it is over the one year mark i will usually warrant it any way. Im in the same boat as above where i have been working for myself for four years and only had two warranty claims one was a manufacturers fault which the covered cost of materials plus a very small amount of cash to cover labour all though not even half enough to cover the labour involved but just took it on the chin and replaced it for free didnt charge them the extra labour because thats just not right imo and the other was a combination of both sorta.. it was one of those jobs where she was an absolute slapper and just whinged no matter what. she got told to fuck off and never come back as she never payed the $2800 bill to begin with when she claimed she was happy with the job then came back 7mnths later wanting warranty on something she caused anyway. long story short if your a mole amd dont pay for the goods your not going to get any warranty she is lucky i didnt go round and pull it all down.

There are lots of businesses out there that dont care about after sales service that is for sure

 

[KraftyPg]

Surely there can't only be two businesses on this forum who are offering their customers some sort of reassurance.

 

[scottybobcat]

Don't get me started on insurance companies Krafty. The arseholes don't pay when you make a claim anyway. They're quick to take your money. I'm fighting 4 insurance companies ATM and they all try and find a loop hole not to pay or try and ruin your life legally. In saying this we guarantee our work.

 

[dirtjockey]

Most businesses have insurance - we have lots including public liability & product liability - our last premium was $26,000 and do you know why we pay the insane premiums?

Because we have a government that is trying to legislate against dickheads and a general public that is looking to sue someone even if they F**k up.

 

[KraftyPg]

I agree that the dickhead factor is one of the biggest reasons we pay insurance, damn I have to have public liability on my home office incase some dick trips over coming in the gate because my home insurance wont pay out if the person is here to pick up a computer. But I disagree with "most" business having insurance.

I know heaps of small business (many one person op type business) who do not have any form of insurance because they claim they don't need it, or they claim the jobs they do can't cause damage etc but in reality there is very few businesses in this world who aren't liable to or for something directly related to what they do.

 

[terryc]

When I was working, I never had business insurance for a number of reasons.

1) The premiums were obscene for the coverage (not) given. I was working for me and not the insurance company.

2) Most of the work I did was self-insurable aka it needed my labour to fix it, or I could do it cheaper, faster and better.

3) The customers didn't want to pay extra to get insurance coverage. That said, GOOD customers were never left in the lurch.

4) When I sold computer hardware, the manufacturer/distributor provided the warranty.

5) Saying/advertising your had insurance brought out the scammers.

6) Got/Put everything in writing, including exactly what I was or was not providing. (Lol, doing acceptance testing of some companies software and asking for the specifications that it has to meet = blank look.)

7. I absolutely loath superlatives.

8) When the courts started handing out damages to Richard Craniums who endangered themselves, I ceased all community work.

 

[terryc]

but in reality there is very few businesses in this world who aren't liable to or for something directly related to what they do.

Branching out into the legal field?

 

[KraftyPg]

Not directly but as a business mentor for many small business there are very few business out there who are completely protected without insurance. No one likes to pay premiums and everyone has a horror story about dealing with insurance companies but as soon as a company makes a product or provides a service the potential for legal issues to arise dramatically increases.

 

[terryc]

It is a difficult problem as there is a definite cult of "who can compensate me for my misfortune" and "the insurance company pays for it" out there.

 

[justAL]

Just photography which I have a 25 mil liability cover for.
I don't ever want to get into a legal brooha with a pissed off bride but it's there in case I do.

 

[Geoff3DMN]

We don't provide goods or services to the forum but since the question has been asked...

25 million public liability insurance (required to have that as we're a government contractor).

Building insurances.
Contents insurances.
Cash on hand insurance (up to $10,000 cash).
Business interuption insurance (6 months averaged revenue provided).
Vehicle fleet insurance.

Last year our total premiums were about $75,000 per year, about 2/3rds of that is vehicle insurance for the fleet.

 

[KraftyPg]

Just photography which I have a 25 mil liability cover for.
I don't ever want to get into a legal brooha with a pissed off bride but it's there in case I do.

I know a guy that happened too, he'd been doing wedding photos for 30 years, his cameras got damaged by the airline on his trip home, cameras got replaced but the images couldn't be saved and bridezilla went bat shit. Probably would have cost him a bomb in this day and age where lawsuits aren't worth going to court for unless they are in the multi-millions but at the time things were different and bridezilla's where more bark than bite.

 

[qqc d22]

I had a mishap at work on monday where i pushed a customers brand new camper into the roller door opening had just finished the tent that day was happy as a pig in.... then pushed it inside that night crunch. Trailer alone is worth about 18k without the tent (fml) its powdercoated (dumbest idea ever) so it cant just be resprayed. ripped a side door of it aswell. anyway rang insurance seems like there not interested so im probly gonna have to fix it myself. have allready fabed up a new door and sent it to be powder coated. there is only one little chip on the trailer its self so hopefully the customer will let me do a touch up on it and be happy with that, if not im gonna have to get the whole trailer sand blasted and repowdercoated at a cost of approx 2500k + the time i will spend stripping the whole trailer and reassembling it.
FUCK INSURANCE. arseholes. maybe they will come through but doesnt sound like it.
Who would ever work for themselves