| Author |
 Replies: 13 / Views: 1,553 |
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
1000 Posts |
This regards shipping coins, or really anything of value. I shipped a canister to another member on this forum. It had rolls of silver dimes, almost a full roll of silver Washington quarters, and a 1964 Year set. It weighed about 1.6 pounds. I did not have flat rate priority boxes on hand and I wanted to save a trip to the Post Office so I settled on Parcel Post. 2-9 days right.  No big deal. The package was well sealed. I bought delivery confirmation, What could go wrong.   Well the package made it there 30 days after it was mailed. And $300 of the $310 worth of coins were mysteriously missing. All that made it was a 1964 year set. The years set that was stored in a plastic Whitman snap together was taken apart in transit  and all the coins were loose, and you can see how the penny fared vs the tape that they resealed the package with.  So what was my $300 lesson learned. Tips - Always have some flat rate Priority boxes on hand, just in case.
- Never and I mean Never use Parcel Post
- Always insure anything that would hurt you financially if lost.I suggest picking a value such as always insure over $50
- Double packaging an item is a good idea. For instance somehow wrap the contents in paper or place in a sealed envelope that has the delivery information on it also, if the package is "accidentally opened" the USPS may have a chance to return or deliver the item
- Delivery confirmation is important. If the package is lost for 30 days and you call the post office with no delivery confirmation number to look up they will not be willing or able to help you
I am not sure what has come to the rolls of dimes and quarters that are now MIA. Maybe the mail recovery center will find them and mail them back to me.  Maybe they were stolen by a postal worker somewhere between Michigan and California. Maybe a postal worker is depositing rolls of silver dimes into there bank right now or broke them open in there USPS cashiers drawer and giving them as change. So in summary, did I mention that insurance is important? My wife has mentioned it to me several times in the past month.  |
|
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
2602 Posts |
Oh, man, sorry for your loss. It's happened to me a few times sending and receiving. I do think some postal workers know the mail well enough to figure out what some packages contain and try yo mess with them. I double or even triple packages now and the outer package gets a heavy dose of packing tape.
Edited by mycrob
02/06/2009 4:47 pm
|
|
Pillar of the Community
Canada
1931 Posts |
oh mint_marq  I am so sorry for your loss. I can't even imagine the dissapointment and frustration you must be feeling. It sure does look to me like it was opened and ransacked on purpose and that's terrible. I worry about that kind of thing all the time. Been collecting and trading for years now but only started doing it online this year because of that exact fear. I really hope somehow the rest of this is returned to you. malissadawn |
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
5318 Posts |
What a bummer...I'm sorry.  I also have to wonder if heavier packages are now subject to different mail processing due to homeland security. In other words, has this passed through an airport-style xray machine and caught somebody's attention? I do recall once sending a bunch of wheats that were delayed for close to a month. Good advice on shipping!  |
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
1541 Posts |
Sorry to hear your loss. I would advice on going with Signature confirmation rather than delivery confirmation. I lost a package before, that said delivered to my location but it wasn't. Since delivery confirmation says it was delivered seller won the battle. That was about $75 loss.
Most recently Heritage shipped me a coin priority mail with delivery confirmation that says it was delivered to me but I never received anything. Heritage wins since PO says it was delivered. Again, I lost about $86.
I don't know where my postman is delivering the merchandise to but its definitely not to my house. And I was surprised that heritage would ship a coin without signature confirmation and insurance.
|
|
Valued Member
United States
447 Posts |
The U S Mint sometimes uses UPS to ship items to me. If the driver shows up when no one is home, he just leaves it at the front door and marks it "driver release", which means it's a safe area in the drivers opinion.
I'm sure you know what could happen next.
I spoke to my driver and told him that if nobody is home, just leave a notice and take it back to the UPS office a I'll pick it up myself.
Makes me feel a lot safer.
Edited by tornandfrayed75
02/06/2009 12:45 pm
|
|
Pillar of the Community
Canada
598 Posts |
Has anyone here ever made a successful insurance claim for coins or bullion with the USPS? I mean got a satisfactory result... cheque and all.  I am real curious about this fact because after 11 months of providing, submitting and re-submitting(?) this that and the other, my claim was denied . I am very familiar with the Postal Standards in the US now because of this. I have consulted with a Customs Broker... and now as a result, the case has now been filed with the Consumer Advocate.  931.3 Appeals 931.31 Appealing a Claims Decision A customer may appeal a claims decision by filing a written appeal within 60 days of the date of the original decision. The customer must send the appeal directly to International Claims Appeals, St. Louis ASC, PO Box 80146, St. Louis, MO 63180-0146. 931.32 Final Postal Service Decision of Claims If the manager of International Claims Appeals at the St. Louis ASC sustains the denial of a claim, the customer may submit an additional appeal within 60 days for final review and decision to the Consumer Advocate, International Claims Appeals, 475 L'Enfant please SW Rm 10433, Washington, DC 20260-0433, who may waive standards in favor of the customer. |
|
New Member
United States
34 Posts |
Damn, I'm sorry to hear your story.
My dad sent me a bunch of world banknotes tucked inside my Christmas card this year. When it arrived, the envelope was slit right along the bottom. The notes were still there (at least, I assume none were missing, I have no way of knowing). I reckon someone figured there was money inside and when they saw it wasn't US$ they left it alone.
|
|
Valued Member
United States
405 Posts |
Had the same thing happen to me with a roll of mercs...the buyer emailed me that he only received 19 of the 50 coins....The pics he sent me showed someone had slit the package and the PO stamped it as "damaged"
The post office said they would investigate,but nothing ever came out of it!!
|
|
Valued Member
United States
206 Posts |
IBGOLDEN- I actually did put in an insurance claim to UPS and got paid for the loss. It wasn't coins, but rather an old snare drum. I shipped it out to a company that refurbishes old instruments via UPS. Well it never got there... at least not in the first 45 days. Finally a torn up box containing NO snare drum arrived at the company. Well I had stated the value of the box as $600 and paid insurance on the box accordingly. After about 10 days of back and forth with UPS a check arrived in the mail with my name on it for about 90 percent of the stated value. I cashed the check, it cleared, and from then on I ship EVERYTHING UPS. |
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
1691 Posts |
Thank you for sharing...VERY SORRY about your loss...but you have helped the Community (fellow collectors) and we deeply appreciate it!
Edited by atlashealth
02/06/2009 4:58 pm
|
|
New Member
United States
44 Posts |
Reading these horror stories is frightening me. I am waiting for a coin to return to me right now and I would be devastated if it came up "lost".
Has anyone ever had an issue with Registered Mail? I know it costs a fair bit more but it sounds worth the peace of mind now.
|
|
Pillar of the Community
Canada
598 Posts |
In my case(above post) it was USPS (United States Postal Service) Registered International / Signed For. Edited by IBGolden
02/06/2009 5:41 pm
|
|
New Member
United States
3 Posts |
I had second hand experience with a coin missing in an envelope sent USPS. A friend won a Peace dollar as a minor prize in our coin club raffle (on a ticket I sold him). Rather than have me deliver it, the club rep taped it between two pieces of heavy paper, put it in an envelop and mailed it. The envelop and papers inside arrived without the coin. The envelope had obviously been slit open and the tape holding the inside papers was also cut. It was very obvious the coin could be detected and was intentionally removed. I think that like in any other group, most postal employees are honest, but there are always a few that will take advantage of the situation. The obvious take away for me is to package the coin(s) in such a way that it isn't obvious what is in the package. If I were to send a roll or rolls, I'd put them in a much larger box than needed with plenty of packing so the box wouldn't seem abnormally heavy for its size. The happy ending to the story is that the club replaced the missing coin since it was their poor packaging that cause the loss. |
| |
Replies: 13 / Views: 1,553 |
|
Posted 02/06/2009 10:11 am
