paying for USPS fault

[sb1]

Originally Posted by honus94566

Don't ship expensive cards USPS, period. Send them with FedEx or UPS, insured, delivery signature required. Then nobody has any worries, and the shipper gets a full value refund in the highly unlikely event the card is lost.

I believe if you tell UPS or FedEx that your paper collectible got lost in their service they will deny any claims, unless you had private insurance. I have had Fedex refuse to even ship a box once they learned it contained baseball cards, they term them as paper collectibles(even though they were slabbed) and treat them as perishable items and will not cover them.,

I have only had one or two incidents of loss with the USPS in over 30 years and each time was paid promptly and in full for the loss, once with USPS insurance and once with CIA insurance.

Edited to add, that USPS Registered mail is virtually loss free, the above post noted that they did not track the exchange's but in my experience you never see that on the USPS system until the package is delivered, the rest is internal with the USPS. A USPS employee told me that 99.99% of Registered's get delivered, you lose one and you're looking for a new job, also USPS Overnight is extremely reliable has to be signed for, sees very few different hands and is in the system so short and sweet the delivery rate is again nearly 100%, although not everywhere is guaranteed 1 day service. We use USPS for all of our auctions and use a lot of priority large and small boxes and do not charge exceedling high charges, enough to cover the USPS charge and a small amount for our private insurance.

[Clutch-Hitter]

Originally Posted by sb1

I believe if you tell UPS or FedEx that your paper collectible got lost in their service they will deny any claims, unless you had private insurance. I have had Fedex refuse to even ship a box once they learned it contained baseball cards, they term them as paper collectibles(even though they were slabbed) and treat them as perishable items and will not cover them.,

I have only had one or two incidents of loss with the USPS in over 30 years and each time was paid promptly and in full for the loss, once with USPS insurance and once with CIA insurance.

Edited to add, that USPS Registered mail is virtually loss free, the above post noted that they did not track the exchange's but in my experience you never see that on the USPS system until the package is delivered, the rest is internal with the USPS. A USPS employee told me that 99.99% of Registered's get delivered, you lose one and you're looking for a new job, also USPS Overnight is extremely reliable has to be signed for, sees very few different hands and is in the system so short and sweet the delivery rate is again nearly 100%, although not everywhere is guaranteed 1 day service. We use USPS for all of our auctions and use a lot of priority large and small boxes and do not charge exceedling high charges, enough to cover the USPS charge and a small amount for our private insurance.

Interesting. Beckett uses Fedex.

I bought a card in the past that was scanned as delivered to my house approx four hours prior to the approx time the mail carrier enters my neighborhood (routinely). A few weeks after not receiving the card, I emailed the seller, and he said tracking showed it delivered a week or so prior. He started a thread here asking if he should refund my money, to which I replied. As it turned out, an entire crate of local packages were scanned as delivered residentially when they were in fact at the post office.

Waste Management rode by while I commented here, spilling garbage out while the driver was reclined in the seat. An elderly female followed in an effort to prevent more littering. I likened USPS to Waste Management in their lack of dilligence at the time. And when I arrive home to find the green dumpsters littering the street, I'm reminded of that E90-1.

[steve B]

When I was selling a fair ammount of stuff on Ebay I usually paid for the insurance on anything expensive or fragile. The $5 cards I didn't bother figuring if it went missing I'd just take the hit and refund.

I have had UPS refuse packages even without insurance. One was a barn find computer that was collectible, they insisted on it being shiped in the original styrofoam. Even after I explained that the original packaging was likely tossed over 20 years ago and wouldn't be of much use anyway and that the computer was obviously good only for parts- It had hay sticking out of the empty drive bay. Nope, wouldn't take it at all. They also refused the half a victrola because it was an antique and didn't come with an appraisal.
Thanks UPS for making me carry 120Lbs of stuff into the shipping center then rejecting it with unannounced policies.

The post office accepted both, and charged less.

I haven't had to deal with UPS or Fedex on lost/damaged packages except for while I was shipping stuff for work through a commercial account. But I have helped a friend with a damage claim through USPS, and the process went smoothly. He had to show the packing and the damaged item - An Edison cylinder player- To someone at a main post office, as well as an estimate for the repair from an expert or two. There was only one local repairer, so being a fixit guy I wrote one out for him. I just matched the experts quote. His price was very reasonable, and I doubt I could have done as well for as little. USPS paid in a few weeks, pretty much as they said to expect.

Steve B

[glynparson]

I would assume they have outside insurance that allows for fed ex. I know many do.

[buymycards]

Yes I would refund the money for the item. Here is my take on it from a Postal employees perspective and I deal with this all day long. I know that not all post offices run like this, but this is the way it happens at my po.

1. We pay very close attention to our scans. When they come in on the truck we scan each package as "Arrived at Unit". We expect the carriers to scan every parcel as "attempted", delivered", etc. Each carrier has a scanner with it's own unique serial number. Each day I compare the number of scans that are made by the carriers to number of parcels that arrived at our office. If I see a parcel that wasn't scanned correctly I talk to the carrier about the missed scan and they need to have a good reason. "I forgot" isn't a good reason. 99.1 % of our parcels are scanned and delivered on the day that we receive them. Once in a while a new carrier will scan a parcel as delivered, but deliver it to the wrong house. Once in a while the barcode will be smudged and we won't be able to scan it. Once in a while the parcel will have an incorrect address and a new carrier will deliver it as it is addressed instead of getting it to the correct address. I tell our carriers that 99.1% is pretty good, unless you are part of the 0.9% whose packaged didn't get handled correctly.

2. When I receive a call about a missing package or if someone calls and says their package is showing as delivered but they didn't receive it, I start out by talking to the carrier. Does the carrier remember delivering this package? Where did you put it? Was it too large to fit in the mailbox and you put it somewhere else? Has the customer moved and the carrier delivered it to the old address? Was the package addressed correctly? Then I talk to the customer: Did you look on the porch? Were your kids home? Who brought the mail in from the mailbox? You would be surprised how many times the kids brought in the mail and put the package somewhere and the parents weren't aware of it. Or the package may be on the porch. Or the people recently moved and didn't file a change of address card and the package was mailed to their old address. 9 times out of 10 the problem is with the customer and about 1 time out of 10 the carrier is at fault. Last Xmas we stopped package delivery at one of the trailer parks because someone was stealing USPS and UPS packages as soon as they were delivered. There are also many eBay scammers who make a living by saying they didn't receive their packages.

3. Most of the people who work for the Post Office are good, hard working people who are trying their best to do a good job. Sometimes they make mistakes but we try to find ways to limit the mistakes. Once in a while we run across a clerk or a carrier who just doesn't care, and then we have problems.

So anyway, yes, I would refund the money. Thanks for letting me ramble.

Rick

[Clutch-Hitter]

Rick, great work.

I should have concluded my response by saying that our post office has been top notch in their scanning since that incident involving my twenty-something dollar card nearly two years ago (around Christmas).

But more about that day for FYI only: Our mail carrier confirmed she could not have delivered the package to our neighborhood at that time of day and subsequently pointed at a house across the street from mine saying they had a package lost too. Well, unbeknownst to her, that was my in-law's house, and during a subsequent conversation with them, they did not have a package that had been lost. I spoke to several people at the P.O., including the very helpful post master. The seller did not refund my money and the card never arrived. The seller, who said he mailed the E90-1 in an 8 x 10 envelope, ceased posting when I became active in his thread. Someone, can't remember who, said he could have mailed a flyer or something and had it scanned. It was a good deal on a PSA 2 E90 at the time, so who knows.

And as for Waste Management, they've gotten better too, even got out of the truck on one occasion, possibly two. Several years ago I ran after one of their trucks with a large box, requesting him to stop so I could throw it in the truck. He reluctantly stopped, raised up from his reclined position, looked at me and said no, it would clutter up his truck. Your garbage truck, I asked, as I slung the box in the truck.

Sorry, very happy with the service from these two since, but a previous poster's account of his package getting scanned as delivered, after being re-routed or something, revived some memories.