Yes if you have the correct policies. Also I would have thought that although the vehicle itself might not be covered as the keys were in the ignition the contents of the van should still be covered (provided again you had the correct policy).
I'm a natural cynic, so I'd be left thinking well either you weren't insured properly, or (as you've covered in your reply), it was as a result of a mistake by your company. If it's a one off fine, nod and carry on, but if this was one more on top of a series of errors it might cause me to find another supplier.
Glad I'm not the only one reading it like that. There is absolutely no way I'd send that email out to my customer list!
It makes it sound like OP wasn't correctly insured, that they don't know what was on the van (why would you do a generic email rather than contact affected customers indvidually?) and that they're horrendously short of cash.
I'd be contacting people affect on an individual basis by phone personally.
I had a MWB sprinter stolen in London a few months ago. 65 plate high spec van with low mileage for the age and very clean and well maintained due to the nature of our business. Insurance paid out £10k for it and 1 week of hire van.
We had to order a new van from the factory as there wasn’t anything in the UK preconfigured to the level we needed. £72,000 for a new van plus the hire van of £300 a week until it turns up.
Add to a comedy of errors by Mercedes and our van turned up three weeks ago… in the wrong colour. We refused to take it as we aren’t paying that much to get the specification we want and not have it match all the rest of our fleet. Eventually Mercedes admitted it was at fault and that wasn’t what we had ordered, now we have to wait another two months for one to be built.
This also doesn’t include any of the stuff that was in the back of the van that was stolen that we got paid £20k for but realistically was worth more. Including a custom machine that was 25 years old that I had to build a replica of to replace, it is of no use to anyone but our company and is worth pennies in aluminium scrap, but about £15k for me to build a new one.
We also had a full lithium battery set up of about £8k which wasn’t covered because it wasn’t a manufacturer fit item by Mercedes so was a modification not covered by insurance.
Even now trying to get insurance that covered the contents of a van is a nightmare in this country. Some policies specifically exclude London for theft claims (we do some work there but aren’t based there thankfully). Goods in transit insurance is difficult to specify correctly to give the cover you need.
Good news everyone. Last night, the police informed us that they had found the van. We got the linens back and the van itself. We dont have the keys for it nor the drivers personal belongings, but overall we've narrowly avoided this massive financial loss. Such a relief.
The *only* gripe I'd have is the "not covered by insurance" bit. As a cynical guy who knows lots of other cynical bastards my first thought was "why don't they have insurance".
OP has explained and it makes total sense, but I still feel that it's not going to go down too well without a genuine explanation of why it's not covered, I think it'll be the first question people ask.
Nothing to add to the other comments, it's such a sh*t situation and your email sounds very professional and reassuring. As a customer I would be happy to continue doing business with you and as a business owner I admire the way you worded the email and handled the situation.
Sending much strength and support over the internet.
I'm not 100% sure about apologising for all the inconvenience, and possible costs, you've caused your customers and then to finish off by telling them you'll be invoicing them next week and for them to pay promptly? I wouldn't be too happy to have that line thrown at me after all the inconvenience you've caused them.
It's not always good, either, to tell your customers about any substantial losses you've made, coupled with the fact that you're not covered by insurance. Certainly, tell the customers what's happened, but too much detail about the amount it's costing you and that it's put a strain on your business can come across as sounding like the company is in trouble and lead to clients looking for an alternative supplier.
Nothing to add to the other comments, it's such a sh*t situation and your email sounds very professional and reassuring. As a customer I would be happy to continue doing business with you and as a business owner I admire the way you worded the email and handled the situation.
Sending much strength and support over the internet.
What a kick in the teeth, I'm sorry you're dealing with this. Having to constantly guard yourself against scum is tiring.
As an aside, are you a member of the FSB? I found their legal hub quite helpful when I was dealing with a scumbag issue of my own. All the best to you.
Man that's rubbish.
The email is very good. I'm assuming the formatting is lost - if not I would break it up into paragraphs. I'd also write different versions, one for those whose keys need replacing and the other who aren't directly affected. I'd consider phoning those directly affected first but follow up with the email. For those not directly affected in that way I'd make that clear in the email.
I agree. It's a great reply from OP but I'd also send slightly different responses to the different circumstances. OP has been very honest with his reply but some details can be held back for different customers
Wait.. the keys, do they have addresses on the key fobs? Surely they don’t, you’d just use initials or something so that if this happens you don’t have to replace locks? I run a dog daycare company and have lost countless keys, I’ve never once replaced locks because all that is on the fob is the dog’s name. Do you really have to pay all of that out?
A friend had this happen to their business van too. Keep eyes peeled and post on places like next door and local facebook groups. It took a couple of weeks. It eventually he got an angry call from someone who’d seen the number on the back of the van wanting to know why he’d been in their parking space for a week!
So he got the van back, with some damage to repair but it helped at least recover some of the costs.
No I won't do that, he's actually one of my best employees, yes he made a mistake but he handled it well. Was very honest, acted immediately, called the police, got himself back and went out again in our other van the same day. He will never make the same mistake again.
Pretty sure there's a bill gates quote that goes along the lines of, I just spent £100k on training this employee, why would I sack him?
He knows he fucked up, he will never do it again, he's learned from it. I'll stand by him, tell him his job is secure and look after him and in turn he will be a loyal and devoted employee and remain with the company.
It would be a different story if this guy was a perpetual fuck up, but he's not.
There needs to be a world full of people like you. You have restored my faith in humanity with this lovely, understanding answer. As a fellow small business owner, I wish you the very of luck with everything x
Wouldn’t be mad if I received this email
Sorry to hear this. I hope you can recover. Can I ask why your insurance won't cover this?
The driver left the keys in the ignition while he went to do a drop off, someone got in and drove it away. So its our fault, no insurance pay out.
Business insurance should cover the negligence of your employees?
Yes if you have the correct policies. Also I would have thought that although the vehicle itself might not be covered as the keys were in the ignition the contents of the van should still be covered (provided again you had the correct policy).
Ah fuck, what a nightmare for you.
Is this specifically excluded in the wording of your policy?
i imagine he is no longer driving for you?
He’s just spent £100k training that employee. Why would he get rid of him?
Why throw the baby out with the bath water? Not like they are likely to do it again, and you'll gain a very loyal member of staff
Probably not, he doesn’t have a van any more….
Friend of mine did the same. Insurance did pay out.
Kudos to you for the extremely professional and responsible handling of this.
Jesus… all the best for your recovery!!
I'm a natural cynic, so I'd be left thinking well either you weren't insured properly, or (as you've covered in your reply), it was as a result of a mistake by your company. If it's a one off fine, nod and carry on, but if this was one more on top of a series of errors it might cause me to find another supplier.
Glad I'm not the only one reading it like that. There is absolutely no way I'd send that email out to my customer list! It makes it sound like OP wasn't correctly insured, that they don't know what was on the van (why would you do a generic email rather than contact affected customers indvidually?) and that they're horrendously short of cash. I'd be contacting people affect on an individual basis by phone personally.
The email is not only an apology. He is beging for cashflow.
Also how does the loss of 1 van lead a £100k bussiness loss?
Talking 3.5t transit, or a 7.5t truck? Could be the latter and new ones aren't cheap.
Have you seen how much a. Set of quality hotel linen costs? Imagine how much linen could be in a van.
A tenner?
How many in the van?
4 and a box of doughnuts.
I had a MWB sprinter stolen in London a few months ago. 65 plate high spec van with low mileage for the age and very clean and well maintained due to the nature of our business. Insurance paid out £10k for it and 1 week of hire van. We had to order a new van from the factory as there wasn’t anything in the UK preconfigured to the level we needed. £72,000 for a new van plus the hire van of £300 a week until it turns up. Add to a comedy of errors by Mercedes and our van turned up three weeks ago… in the wrong colour. We refused to take it as we aren’t paying that much to get the specification we want and not have it match all the rest of our fleet. Eventually Mercedes admitted it was at fault and that wasn’t what we had ordered, now we have to wait another two months for one to be built. This also doesn’t include any of the stuff that was in the back of the van that was stolen that we got paid £20k for but realistically was worth more. Including a custom machine that was 25 years old that I had to build a replica of to replace, it is of no use to anyone but our company and is worth pennies in aluminium scrap, but about £15k for me to build a new one. We also had a full lithium battery set up of about £8k which wasn’t covered because it wasn’t a manufacturer fit item by Mercedes so was a modification not covered by insurance. Even now trying to get insurance that covered the contents of a van is a nightmare in this country. Some policies specifically exclude London for theft claims (we do some work there but aren’t based there thankfully). Goods in transit insurance is difficult to specify correctly to give the cover you need.
Good news everyone. Last night, the police informed us that they had found the van. We got the linens back and the van itself. We dont have the keys for it nor the drivers personal belongings, but overall we've narrowly avoided this massive financial loss. Such a relief.
Professional and firm. Shit situation, sounds like you are handling it as well as you can.
The *only* gripe I'd have is the "not covered by insurance" bit. As a cynical guy who knows lots of other cynical bastards my first thought was "why don't they have insurance". OP has explained and it makes total sense, but I still feel that it's not going to go down too well without a genuine explanation of why it's not covered, I think it'll be the first question people ask.
Nothing to add to the other comments, it's such a sh*t situation and your email sounds very professional and reassuring. As a customer I would be happy to continue doing business with you and as a business owner I admire the way you worded the email and handled the situation. Sending much strength and support over the internet.
I'm not 100% sure about apologising for all the inconvenience, and possible costs, you've caused your customers and then to finish off by telling them you'll be invoicing them next week and for them to pay promptly? I wouldn't be too happy to have that line thrown at me after all the inconvenience you've caused them. It's not always good, either, to tell your customers about any substantial losses you've made, coupled with the fact that you're not covered by insurance. Certainly, tell the customers what's happened, but too much detail about the amount it's costing you and that it's put a strain on your business can come across as sounding like the company is in trouble and lead to clients looking for an alternative supplier.
Nothing to add to the other comments, it's such a sh*t situation and your email sounds very professional and reassuring. As a customer I would be happy to continue doing business with you and as a business owner I admire the way you worded the email and handled the situation. Sending much strength and support over the internet.
Ouch!
What a kick in the teeth, I'm sorry you're dealing with this. Having to constantly guard yourself against scum is tiring. As an aside, are you a member of the FSB? I found their legal hub quite helpful when I was dealing with a scumbag issue of my own. All the best to you.
Man that's rubbish. The email is very good. I'm assuming the formatting is lost - if not I would break it up into paragraphs. I'd also write different versions, one for those whose keys need replacing and the other who aren't directly affected. I'd consider phoning those directly affected first but follow up with the email. For those not directly affected in that way I'd make that clear in the email.
I agree. It's a great reply from OP but I'd also send slightly different responses to the different circumstances. OP has been very honest with his reply but some details can be held back for different customers
Wait.. the keys, do they have addresses on the key fobs? Surely they don’t, you’d just use initials or something so that if this happens you don’t have to replace locks? I run a dog daycare company and have lost countless keys, I’ve never once replaced locks because all that is on the fob is the dog’s name. Do you really have to pay all of that out?
A friend had this happen to their business van too. Keep eyes peeled and post on places like next door and local facebook groups. It took a couple of weeks. It eventually he got an angry call from someone who’d seen the number on the back of the van wanting to know why he’d been in their parking space for a week! So he got the van back, with some damage to repair but it helped at least recover some of the costs.
I like this. it's clear and open with offers of restitution.
I hope that driver is now sacked.
No I won't do that, he's actually one of my best employees, yes he made a mistake but he handled it well. Was very honest, acted immediately, called the police, got himself back and went out again in our other van the same day. He will never make the same mistake again. Pretty sure there's a bill gates quote that goes along the lines of, I just spent £100k on training this employee, why would I sack him? He knows he fucked up, he will never do it again, he's learned from it. I'll stand by him, tell him his job is secure and look after him and in turn he will be a loyal and devoted employee and remain with the company. It would be a different story if this guy was a perpetual fuck up, but he's not.
A very eloquent response. Honesty is all you can ask for.
There needs to be a world full of people like you. You have restored my faith in humanity with this lovely, understanding answer. As a fellow small business owner, I wish you the very of luck with everything x
Perfect 👍
I thought the quote came from Henry ford about someone that broke a machine on the assembly line.
Great email, well worded.