Anyone ever file claim with USPS?

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Mikey

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Cleveland, OH, USA.
I am ordering all the stoppers for a group buy today and the lady at the post office where Ruth goes says that re-imbursement could take 2 years and she even gave Ruth a lot of info about the process and what it takes to file a claim.

Needless to say, the USPS website contradicts most of what Ruth was told. Still I am wondering what real life experiences are like. I am getting insurance regardless and I have never had anything lost personally sent to me Priority Mail, but was just wondering.

Mike
 
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One item lost, non-pen related. Settled to my satisfaction in less than 60 days. (I think they give themselves a month to look for it. Somehow I doubt they mount much of a search.)
 
Mike, I don't know about taking two years. But I also have heard information that the insurance is not what you probably think it is either. the sender is the one buying the insurance so they are the ones that have to file any claims. I have both good and bad stories about actually getting your money back. For me I have simply decided to be my own coverage. I have to replace lost orders long before a claim would be settled anyway.
 
Had one issue, it wasn't worth the hassle that I was getting. How do you prove that something is worth what you say it is when it is a hand made item. It was easier to remake and reship than to go through the headaches.
 
I've had some experience with USPS insurance. To the best of my knowledge it is the sender who must take out insurance. I remember a situation with some hard-to-value three-dimension art work. There was never any doubt that it was broken beyond repair at the time of receipt. The dispute was about whether I had packed it well enough to prevent damage and the valuation. As I remember it took months of haggling over the issues and it became apparent that they had the upper hand. They were free to settle the claim any way they thought was appropriate and I was free to accept whatever they decided. As I remember it took most of a year but finally they did settle and I more or less agreed.

I consider it a waste of time and money to use USPS insurance.
 
or UPS

Chasper said:
I've had some experience with USPS insurance. To the best of my knowledge it is the sender who must take out insurance. I remember a situation with some hard-to-value three-dimension art work. There was never any doubt that it was broken beyond repair at the time of receipt. The dispute was about whether I had packed it well enough to prevent damage and the valuation. As I remember it took months of haggling over the issues and it became apparent that they had the upper hand. They were free to settle the claim any way they thought was appropriate and I was free to accept whatever they decided. As I remember it took most of a year but finally they did settle and I more or less agreed.

I consider it a waste of time and money to use USPS insurance.
Click to expand...

You have described our experience with UPS perfectly!!

$100 claim on a piece of stained glass - They refused to pay, I stopped using them. (For all of Pro-Copy, Inc - was over $10,000 per year at the time).
 
Ed, UPS is the worst for that stuff. They said they delivered a box (laptop) to my fathers houise since someone would be home all day. It was ever received, but they said they left it on the front steps. After a couple of days a driver came out and told my father that he needed a signature to finish the paperwork on it. My father signed, but the paperwork said it was delivered(my father is too trusting). The company that I ordered it from was nice enough to offer me a refund or ship me another one, so I accepted the second one but only if they shipped it through someone else. I still won't use UPS unless there is no other option. The driver was later fired and charged with some other thefts, but they still wouldn't admit fault.
 
DCBluesman said:
One item lost, non-pen related. (I think they give themselves a month to look for it. Somehow I doubt they mount much of a search.)
Click to expand...

If you've ever seen how the postal service handles mail, it's really a wonder that they get as much through as they do... I'm sure it's changed somewhat since I handled mail from the SFO aiport(I worked for an airlines, not the post office), but the bags would come down a shute, there were a number of sorters that grabbed a bag, looked at the destination code and then threw it to the cart or shute for the next onward leg.

For years I told people that the USPS definition of "Fragile" was "Do not drop or throw over 20 feet"

As for searching, until it actually gets somewhere and is determined as being in the wrong place, they have little or no search facilities available to them.

As for insurance, my experience with almost all insurance carriers that covered freight, cargo and mail... first response was always - always to deny the claim. Then you started round two.
 
In my experience,

1. USPS normally won't process until 30 days have passed.
2. Value paid is what you insured the item for OR what you can prove, which ever is less.
3. Shipper or buyer can claim. Claimant must have copy of receipt. If it is the buyer, a signed certificate from shipper is also needed.
4. It took about 60 days before I received the check.
 
My experience with TRYING to file a claim with the USPS wasn't such a good experience. I also build fly rods and I had someone ship me a fairly expensive blank via the USPS. He shipped it in a one inch piece of heavy duty (scheudle 40) PVC. When I received it, there were truck tire marks about 2/3rds the way down the tube and the PVC was cracked in several places. I brought it back to the post office, opened it and as I suspected, the blank was crushed and ruined. The manager of that post office branch said that it was very likely that the PVC was run over while in transit, however, since the shipper did not purchase insurance, they had no responsibility at all. If you don't have insurance, don't waste your time bringing it to the attention of the USPS. If you do have insurance, you're in for an "interesting" time depending on the proven value of the item and the mood of the person you're dealing with at the post office. This is probably even worse now that the USPS just posted a 1.3B loss and is tryng to get employees to take buy-outs which is upsetting the unions. For small items, I've had the best luck with FedEx.

Jim Smith
 
When I was using Endicia to process my mail I would use their insurance services. It was cheaper than USPS and the only time I had a claim, they paid the amount of the insurance within 3 business days. Now, it's a bit rough shelling out $15.95 a month for the service but it worked great.... especially for overseas shipping.
 
I had a claim with USPS for a broken vase valued at $50. The recieving post office said the claim was valid but when I took my paperwork to my post office to get the refund they refused to pay out and took my paperwork and filed it in the trash (lucky I made copies before). Then the recieving post office called a year later wondering why I hadn't claimed it yet and I told them. Finally got the refund with my copied paperwork, but not without another hassle.
 
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