Insurance

Good morning all

From the posts, I suspect some of you are in the EV Business and there are probably Insurance Agents and Lawyers on this Forum. Anyway, I am interested in product liability insurance. When is it advisable? When is it lunacy not to have it? Is it a separate policy and/or part of a general business package? How many $ and who wrights it?

I want to buy a standard bicycle part, machine it, and ship it to a distributor to be included in their package. One of the first questions the bike parts wholesaler ask was, “do you have product liability insurance?â€￾

All help would be appreciated -tks grant

This would be an excellent topic for the sparsely-populated Business section.

Ok how about this, if one is a Bike Dealer (Rans, Sun …) will the factory suspend your dealership for persistently installing e-assist on their bikes? It seems that the Cruzbike Factory encouraged Bob Mcree to electrify their bike, however if this continues on a greater scale will they honor their warranties and what about other manufactures? –grant

I would expect warrantee problems. My Sun trike had a sticker that said "not designed for / do not add motor unit". My LBS where I purchased the trike knows it has a motor and has no problem with it, but I suspect if I had problems it could be an issue. Yes, the sticker has been removed.

No doubt this needs to be in the business section.

To sell a product in todays market, any product, without insurance, is disrespectful to the customer, illegal in the community (at least most) and a recipe for disaster for the seller.

Imagine if you will a consumer installs your product on their bicycle and despite the fact you provided adequate instructions they fail to fasten a critical bolt or nut tight enough. Further imagine the test ride goes well and the client decides to go faster/further/heavier and the improperly installed part fails causing a permanent injury to the client. A client perhaps who bought this product because of a history of driving "accidents" and did not have a drivers license, who happened to be un or underemployed and even a history of previous litigation.

Who is he/she going to sue? Not the bike manufacturer as they did not make an ebike. They will try the motor manufacturer but they are in China and the distributor sold the product to you. Prospects there are poor. But, you are RIGHT HANDY and probably have a house, a car, a family, a job, a business, a couple of bucks in the bank. Even if you win, which you won't, legal fees will be tremendous for you and nothing for them as they will find a yellow page shyster who will take it on contingency.

So, no insurance could very well equal a couple of dollars, per sale, in profit. It could also equal loss of home, (not in FL), car, business, savings, future earnings, peace of mind and potentially put you in jail for selling a harmful product to some poor innocent handicapped person who the jury saw as Miss/Mr. Wonderful.

Remember the reason you see a warning on the coffee cup that the coffee is hot is that someone sued because she dropped hot coffee in her lap and "didn't know it was hot". The retail price of a ladder is more than 40% insurance costs. Google "silly lawsuits" and count the pages.

So, IMHO, don't sell shit without insurance. Personal, umbrella, business and use a trusted and qualified agent. The buck you spend today will save your life/career/happiness later. Plus, and this is a big plus, you will be amazed how many few suits arise when clients know you have a powerful insurance company behind you. Of course some companies will settle just to make the bad guy go away but even then it is the insurance company doing the settling, not you.

Good luck,
Mike

Hmm.. very interesting .

It's sad that people can sue for their own stupidity, but it's a fact of life.

Selling online really opens up the posibilites of " Inproper Installation " .. or mis-use..

I'd be curious to know how many , if any, online vendors have liability insurance..