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Home >> Learning >> e-Book on Photography Table of Contents Photography e-Book Chapter 13 - Insurance for your Equipment If you have ever been ripped off either in a break and enter or a mugging and wonder as to where your goods might be fenced, try the large flea markets that are sure to be in every major city. There are probably enough unscrupulous pawn shop owners around that would take in stolen goods and although in Vancouver, they are monitored by the police on a regular basis I am not so naive to believe that that would stop the flow of stolen goods in those shops. The flea market came to be known to me from an incident that a visiting cousin experienced while visiting the big city. His car was broken into (thankfully not in my neighborhood) and various items were stolen including his cell phone. His cell phone was found a few weeks later when some idiot bought it at the big flea market in town and tried to activate it with the cell phone service provider. My cousin obviously had reported the theft and stopped activation to ensure the thieves would not get much use from it. Alas, he misplaced his receipts and has been unsuccessful in getting his other stolen goods replaced - moral of the story, buy insurance and ALWAYS keep your receipts in a safe place. I have my own story of theft to tell. Back in 1997 with a brand new Nikon F90x body and MB10 grip attached in a packsack along with a Nikkor 50mm f1.4D AF, Nikkor 24mm f2.8D AF, Nikon SB26 flash, and Manfrotto 190 tripod, I went off to work with the idea of taking some sunset photos off of the Cambie Street bridge on my walk back home after work (back in the days when I still lived in the city). I was given the boring task of watching over thousands of files during a department move that lasted a week. Many of my workplace files were stored in an area that still had some public traffic through the building and I stupidly left my packsack on a counter around a corner, out of eyesight. I had a misguided sense of security that only the movers would be going in and out of the storage area and my task was to ensure that no person from the public would steal glances at our files stored in their moving containers. During my coffee break I went around the corner to where the counter was located, I felt sick on the spot as I did not see the packsack on the counter. I ran over and checked all around the counter to no avail. My mind is racing like an indy car trying to think of other possible scenarios, did one of my coworkers notice my pack and bring it back upstairs to our work area; did one of the movers move it out of the way? I knew that neither would be the case after thinking of them and glance over to an exit door leading into a stairwell that ultimately led to the outside alley behind the building. I went over to the door and at the bottom of the staircase was my pack opened up with the contents strewn out. My Sony walkman was left in the bag and reaching in deeper found my Nikkor 24mm lens along with my Manfrotto tripod but no F90x with the 50mm lens attached to it nor the SB26 flash. There is always that feeling of violation when you realize you have been ripped off and I went through some mild despair and then anger at the thought of some asshole street junkie making off with my prized camera and hocking it for a few days worth of heroin hits or booze. Then I went through the paranoid stage of wondering if maybe one of the movers took it or even one of the white collar power suit types that do use the storage area regularly - the storage area use to be an old raquetball club and for some reason after the club closed, former members were still able to use the changing rooms, which were right beside the counter I left my packsack on. I got over the anger and I calmed down quite a bit after confirming with my father that he had indeed kept the insurance on the condo up to date and that he would file a claim on my behalf. A call from the adjuster handling the claim in Vancouver led to an appointment in which I brought in every receipt I had pertaining to the lost goods. Everything was ship shape as I had reported the theft to police so it was in their records and my insurance was good enough to cover out of home theft with a mere $200 CAN deductible. Everything was resolved within a couple of weeks with the insurance company and they forwarded a check to the photo store of my choice when they received the approved price quote to replace the gear. What could have been an expensive $2500 loss that I would have been hard pressed to recover from turned into a $200 inconvenience because I WAS INSURED! Not all insurance stories turn out so well though. A friend of mine in my university town of Victoria on Vancouver Island eventually became so frustrated with his claim that he ended the process and replaced the equipment out of his own pocket. The irony is that he purposely bought extended coverage for his gear for his jaunts around the world with his wife (DINKS - Duo Income No KidS). On one of his trips some of his Pentax equipment was damaged and he filed a claim as he bought the type of insurance to cover replacement of the gear. Basically, the insurance company gave him the runaround with stories of his adjuster going on vacation in the middle of his claim process. A wholly unprofessional experience and the type of story to make you cringe and stay away from small insurance shops. Try to get referrals from friends and family who have already had to go through a claims process and research the insurance company as best as possible before buying a policy. My current photo insurance coverage is an extension of my home insurance. Now if I were still at the same level of equipment ownership as in 1997, I doubt the insurance company would care much about extra coverage or restrictions on use but this is 2001 and I have accumulated far more equipment than I would have dreamed back in the heady days of only owning one body and few lenses. My independent insurance broker had to do quite a bit of phoning around and research to find a company that would actually cover what I owned and for the uses I had in mind. In the end she advised that I stay with the same company that was already covering me (different than from the one that originally covered my theft claim). No other insurance company would touch me without a commerical policy to cover the amount of equipment I own. My current insurance covers me for,
This coverage is not bad for an amateur photographer and was the best I could do without resorting to putting metal bars all over my house and having an alarm system hotwired to a monitoring company and at the cost of a commerical policy, well over $1000 CAN per year. The coverage still costs me a pretty penny every year and my wife is none too pleased with the added expense but I see it as being worth the cost for the peace of mind it provides me. You only need to be bitten once to learn a lesson and I have learned mine and thankfully at minimal cost. Do not leave yoursefl unprotected and do not assume that your present home insurance will cover you if you start accumulating more and more equipment. Talk to your agent or representative and make sure you have everything in writing for the terms of coverage. |
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