Package LOST

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CSue

CSue

Local Chapter Leader
Joined
Jan 16, 2007
Messages
2,368
Location
Laveen, AZ, USA.
Well, I've always had faith in the US Postal Service. Maybe thats my downfall. I went to such trouble to get some beautiful desert ironwood to make 2 Cigar pens for a client by June1st.

He's been calling me every day since June 5th (except Sunday.) I finished them and mailed them May 27th. I called him to let him know they were one the way. Post Office in his neighborhood says they "attempted to deliver" and left a notice. He never got it. He's been to the PO every working day. Nothing! The PO went through all there packages - nothing.

Yes, it was insured. But now, what do I do? I have some DI left from the stock I made those pens from. But not enough fo 2 more cigar pens. I'm so frustrated I could spit!

What do you do when you send out your work and it goes south before anyone else ever sees it?
 
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CSue said:
Well, I've always had faith in the US Postal Service. Maybe thats my downfall. I went to such trouble to get some beautiful desert ironwood to make 2 Cigar pens for a client by June1st.

He's been calling me every day since June 5th (except Sunday.) I finished them and mailed them May 27th. I called him to let him know they were one the way. Post Office in his neighborhood says they "attempted to deliver" and left a notice. He never got it. He's been to the PO every working day. Nothing! The PO went through all there packages - nothing.

Yes, it was insured. But now, what do I do? I have some DI left from the stock I made those pens from. But not enough fo 2 more cigar pens. I'm so frustrated I could spit!

What do you do when you send out your work and it goes south before anyone else ever sees it?
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Cuss.
 
Well, I usually cuss, spit and stomp around. Cussing alone won't get it out of your system.
They may find it at some point. Was the notice written by regular worker or a sub?
 
Up until recently I always had good luck with USPS. However, for the blank exchange, the box I received was open and there happened to be many blanks missing. There were a few that made it. I guess that glue on the priority mail boxes isn't as good as I thought. I now know why Bill at AS tapes the &*$% out of his packages - it works! Luckily, the one I sent made it.

Anyway, I hope your package eventually makes it, and in one piece.
 
Sometimes packages get misplaced and eventually show up. I had a box with pens valued at $2.000 that failed to show up. You have to wait I think 60 days before putting in a claim for insurance. As soon as the time was up all of a sudden they materialized at their location. I guess they took the very long way around. As for more blanks. I am sure someone would have some to sell. I have several carved animals of dessert Ironwood found at a thrift store with the idea of cutting them up but I kept thinking of how much time the person took making them and so far have not had the heart to do so. Was your ironwood dark or light? I have seen it in both. I do have an Eagle with a broken beak? If you cannot find any blanks. Let me know and Maybe I could get enough nerve to cut him up. Alice
 
elody21 said:
Sometimes packages get misplaced and eventually show up. I had a box with pens valued at $2.000 that failed to show up. You have to wait I think 60 days before putting in a claim for insurance. As soon as the time was up all of a sudden they materialized at their location. I guess they took the very long way around. As for more blanks. I am sure someone would have some to sell. I have several carved animals of dessert Ironwood found at a thrift store with the idea of cutting them up but I kept thinking of how much time the person took making them and so far have not had the heart to do so. Was your ironwood dark or light? I have seen it in both. I do have an Eagle with a broken beak? If you cannot find any blanks. Let me know and Maybe I could get enough nerve to cut him up. Alice
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I have a big square hunk of DIW I can cut some blanks out of, before Alice goes and start cutting up animals. :tongue:
 
Last night after I "cried about it" here, I spoke with my customer and his wife again. I have enough DI left to make 2 Sierras. I'll send them picture email. He may be willing to buy them in place of the 2 DI burl cigars. If so, I'm going to drive up to where ever he lives and personally deliver them. He lives about 70-90 miles north of me.

As for the PO, I got a call from the postmaster I spoke with last night. She explained there was some misunderstanding and miscommunication between a relief driver and regular driver. The package ended up being delivered to some other house on that route. There is no way to recover it. And she told me to go ahead and file a claim.

She also told me that for any package insured for $200 or less it doesn't matter (to the carrier) who signs for it. If insured for $201 or more, the signature must be the person package is addressed to. I had it insured for $200.

Live and learn (hopefully.) Maybe I'll get some future orders from whoever lucked out and got them.

Thank you all who offered me some DIW. Don't cut up any animals yet. I'll contact you if I need some for new cigat pens. You are all so wonderful! I really appreciate your generosity!
 
CSue said:
The package ended up being delivered to some other house on that route. There is no way to recover it. And she told me to go ahead and file a claim.
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It sounds to me like they know exactly where it went.. so I wonder why
there is no way to recover it? I'd understand if they wouldn't give YOU the
address, but could the postmaster send a letter asking that it be returned?
 
NewLondon88 said:
It sounds to me like they know exactly where it went.. so I wonder why
there is no way to recover it? I'd understand if they wouldn't give YOU the
address, but could the postmaster send a letter asking that it be returned?
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I agree, it is illegal to open mail that isn't addressed to you and it's illegal to withhold mail from someone.
 
I agree, and it is theft if you receive property knowing it is not yours. (since the lable was not to them) even if the post office delivered it to you. Im suprised the post master isnt following up on this, since someone signed for it.
 
I agree with the others. I have a hard time beleiving that if the "insured" package was delivered to an alternative address that they don't know which address it was.

I would push the Postmistress harder and if she does not want to pursue the issue, I would move up the ladder to a district manager. And I would look into filing some sort of report with whatever part of the PO criminal activity since whoever accepted that package broke the law unless they return it you within the next few days.

The PO is a big and intimidating organization; but there is no reason to let them push you around!!
 
Instead of wasting time, go directly to the postal inspector, they are federal law enforcement officers that deal with the mail, that is their job and they don't play around.
 
C Sue,
I have a several really nice 7/8 x 6 DI and a couple DI timbers to cut if needed. I make my Cigars with 7/8 x 5 1/2. I would be more than happy to ship two to your customer in a FedEx overnight if that would help. Please let me know, I know how frustrating your ordeal feels.. been there on both ends.
 
Okay. Everybody hold your horses. I was planning on calling the "next up" person Monday. Now, thank you Neil, I'll speak with a postal inspector. I am not going to let it "sit." Someone in Torrance needs to answer for this.

As for the pens, I'm still waiting to hear from the customer. I've emailed pictures of the 2 DIB Sierras I made today. I won't be able to call him till Monday am. I'm hoping he will accept them.

One thing that concerned me in my last conversation with the customer is him mentioning how beautiful the DI burl is with its "black, browns and MAROON."
 
The issue of who the mail belonged to might be a sticky one. Basically the mail carrier put it in their mail box (so to speak) that just might make it legitimately there property at that point. Just a thought. I work for the Government so I have a pretty good bead on how they think.
Insurance does not guarantee delivery. it reimburses you for the value of the lost items. This does nothing to compensate you for your work, frustration, customer disatisfaction, or loss of future business. I know for me to insure a pen that cost me out of my pocket $30 and my time. The insurance is not worth messing with. It covers only a very small fraction of my real losses. The worst being an unhappy customer.
For me I kick and scream for a few hours then do just what you have done. set down and start figuring out what I can do to repair the damage.

Just a bit of prospective from the other side. As I said I work for the Government (State of Nevada U.N.R.) There really is a different way of thinking when youare dealing with Government type departments. so here it is in all of it rude crude truth.

You chose to use the service of the post office even though you knew full well your package could be lost. How do I know you knew that? You purchased insurance. I as the postal carrier am not required to be one bit more reliable simply because I am carrying your package. I will very likely never hear anything about your complaints as my employeer already expects me to make them. they have in fact made arrangments to compinsate for the mistakes they expect me to make. I am also not ever going to try and go back and correct my mistakes, this would only be seen as making a bad situation worse.
You do have alternatives if you really need to guarantee delivery of your package. there are actually several and one of those is to deliver it yourself.

That is jsut a small peak into the mind of government style thinking. nobody anywahere at any time is going to held responsible for loosing your package. You could have captured the mail carrier delivering it to the wrong address on video and they would still not be held responsible. The post office has already realized, accepted and made arragnments for the fact that the carrier was going to deliver it to the wrong address.
 
Daniel said:
The issue of who the mail belonged to might be a sticky one. Basically the mail carrier put it in their mail box (so to speak) that just might make it legitimately there property at that point. Just a thought. I work for the Government so I have a pretty good bead on how they think.
Insurance does not guarantee delivery. it reimburses you for the value of the lost items. This does nothing to compensate you for your work, frustration, customer disatisfaction, or loss of future business. I know for me to insure a pen that cost me out of my pocket $30 and my time. The insurance is not worth messing with. It covers only a very small fraction of my real losses. The worst being an unhappy customer.
For me I kick and scream for a few hours then do just what you have done. set down and start figuring out what I can do to repair the damage.

Just a bit of prospective from the other side. As I said I work for the Government (State of Nevada U.N.R.) There really is a different way of thinking when youare dealing with Government type departments. so here it is in all of it rude crude truth.

You chose to use the service of the post office even though you knew full well your package could be lost. How do I know you knew that? You purchased insurance. I as the postal carrier am not required to be one bit more reliable simply because I am carrying your package. I will very likely never hear anything about your complaints as my employeer already expects me to make them. they have in fact made arrangments to compinsate for the mistakes they expect me to make. I am also not ever going to try and go back and correct my mistakes, this would only be seen as making a bad situation worse.
You do have alternatives if you really need to guarantee delivery of your package. there are actually several and one of those is to deliver it yourself.

That is jsut a small peak into the mind of government style thinking. nobody anywahere at any time is going to held responsible for loosing your package. You could have captured the mail carrier delivering it to the wrong address on video and they would still not be held responsible. The post office has already realized, accepted and made arragnments for the fact that the carrier was going to deliver it to the wrong address.
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Well are you a big ray of sunshine or what?? :curse::wink:
 
You know, Daniel, you've made some very important observations. And I know your correct. Hard to swallow.

But I've decided to go on with seeing he gets 2 other pens personally delivered. I'm hoping that will let my customer know I'm still someone he can depend on not just for quality but for service as well.

I really can't wait to get this behind me. And now I will hopefully remember to take a deep breath before I drop something into a carrier's box.
 
Originally Posted by Daniel
The issue of who the mail belonged to might be a sticky one. Basically the mail carrier put it in their mail box (so to speak) that just might make it legitimately there property at that point.
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Not quite.

Read the first and last paragraphs in these.

Section 1702. Obstruction of correspondence
Whoever takes any letter, postal card, or package out of any post office or any authorized depository for mail matter, or from any letter or mail carrier, or which has been in any post office or authorized depository, or in the custody of any letter or mail carrier, before it has been delivered to the person to whom it was directed, with design to obstruct the correspondence, or to pry into the business or secrets of another, or opens, secretes, embezzles, or destroys the same, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.

Section 1703. Delay or destruction of mail or newspapers
(a) Whoever, being a Postal Service officer or employee, unlawfully secretes, destroys, detains, delays, or opens any letter, postal card, package, bag, or mail entrusted to them or which shall come into his or her possession, and which was intended to be conveyed by mail, or carried or delivered by any carrier or other employee of the Postal Service, or forwarded through or delivered from any post office or station thereof established by authority of the Postmaster General or the Postal Service, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.

(b) Whoever, being a Postal Service officer or employee, improperly detains, delays, or destroys any newspaper, or permits any other person to detain, delay, or destroy the same, or opens, or permits any other person to open, any mail or package of newspapers not directed to the office of employment; or

Whoever, without authority, opens, or destroys any mail or package of newspapers not directed to them, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.
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The mailbox is a government owned (even if you paid for it) authorized depository for mail.
 
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Russianwolf said:
I have a big square hunk of DIW I can cut some blanks out of, before Alice goes and start cutting up animals. :tongue:
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Very Funny! I should get all the pieces I have found together and let everyone see them. The best I have found is 2 cacti (Is that correct?) Anyway they are large and made of ironwood! Alice
 
Since it was insured, someone had to sign for it bid they not? surely the person that signed for it should be able to be located if the signature is even semi legible. apparently they receive their mail from the same post office. Good tip on the 201.00 though I was going to insure two pens for 200.00 guess I'll fork over the extra,
 
Mike:
The mailbox is a government owned (even if you paid for it) authorized depository for mail.
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I remember several years ago when the newspaper delivery was prevented from using the house mail boxes because they were deemed government depository property even though the home owners purchased and erected it by the road or had it attached to the house by the door. Newspaper delivery people were mad. While this did not affect most newspaper deliveries, it did affect some. And some home owners were upset too.
 
Authorization, is not ownership. But all the same you are correct. it is illegal to put anything in someones mail box...Unless you are a mail carrier. Your listed sections have to do with a postal carrier willfully and purposefully destroying. delaying mail.
it is also illegal for them to intentionally deliver your mail to a different address. Trust me I have gov speak down pat after 22 years of living in it.
It is also illegal to remove mail from any mail box if that mail is not addressed to you. Think that is going to be enforced because you took the mail out of your box that was addressed to you spouse? by the letter of the law you did break it. but it would never be enforced. that is why we have Judges, they interpret the law and it's intent.

suppose you put a package in the post office drop box then suddenly realize you left your car keys on top the box. Also suppose that you are actually able to reach in and grab the package. is it illegal to do so? Yes. You also can see your keys still on top of the package. is it illegal to reach in and get the keys back? No. The keys are not addressed to anyone.

In short it is considered reasonable to expect any mail placed in your mail box by a mail carrier to be yours. it is not illegal to remove, claim, and keep that mail regardless of what address is on it. at least not to a degree that it will be enforced.

I get to work at 5:00 a.m. and start my day making deliveries. If my truck will not start I must wait 3 hours for the mechanics to come to work in order to get my truck started. Why can't I jump my own truck? Because I am not a mechanic and am not Authorized to effect repairs on motor vehicles. The State of Nevada is a huge grinding machine that has a very large process in order to determine who is qualified to repair vehicles. it is not ok for me to ignore that process and decide that I am qualified to jump start a vehicle. this may sound overkill until you realize that some vehicles including mine have special equipment installed. jump starting the truck without disabeling several devises would cause a few thousand dollars in damage. of course the mechanic is not going to remember this and is still going to destroy the devises. but he is authorized to damage trucks. I am not.

The Gov. world is not the real world. Your thinking contains far to much reason to be the way the government actually operates.

Yes it really stinks. and actualy it is sort of scarry to realize that I can interpret as well as I can. I must have finally lost my mind completely.

I took my son, his friend and his friends father fishing on saturday. It was a free fishing day throughout the state so you did not need a fishing liscense. The father was not quite comfortabel taking my word on it so he went to the state of Nevada Department of Parks and Recreation web site to check it out for himself. It said that there was free fishing in any of the state park controled waters. He thin called me and said that there was free fishin only in state parks. it took me only a split second to ask him what site he was looking at, i already suspected it was parks and recreation. I then told him to go to Nevada Department of Fish and Wildlife. He did and sure enough the announcement was that fishing was free throughout the entire state. I realize that this would never accour to the average person. but to me it is second nature to realize that Parks and Recreation will only announce fishing for the waters that are under there jurisdiction.

If you visit my campus, it is acting out of my job description to tell you where you can park. Because we cave a Parking Department. and they are the ones authorized to direct vehicle traffic on campus. I can tell the information booth is two blocks away but I cannot tell you the best place to park is just across the street.

Keep this in mind, this is the system that Obama wants to put in control of your health care. It will not get better just because what you need is not a parking spot but cancer treatment.
I am completely convinced that there is a conference room full of very intelligent people that are applying their entire mental capabilities to finding the most senseless and rediculously unproductive method to do anything.
 
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That was brilliant Daniel! Just brilliant!! Now from someone that is retired from the federal government after 32 years of service. It is worse on the federal level than on the state level.
 
I deal with various incarnations of federal, state, county, and city governments on an almost daily basis. It is always (100% of the time) a nightmare. Not to argue politics, but I really believe that if people were more familiar with how government actually operates, they would expect a lot less from it.
 
The more I hear what Daniel has to say, the more I realize he is quite correct.

Sometime the real world packs one heck of a punch!

FYI - Mr customer called me today to let me know the pens I showed him"were not made of Ironwood." So he's going to send me . . . Watch it Alice . . . a couple of "animals" carved from "his ironwood" for me to make the pens. His "ironwood" has maroon in it.
 
I think I know what he'll be sending. There is a big tourist trade in carved Ironwood in Mexico. But having seen the pieces up close, they are not Desert Ironwood, or have some kind of dark finish applied to them if they are. Not sure what it is for sure though.
 
Ironwood actually is a Generic term for many very hard woods. We have one here, Mountain Mahogany. Matching exactly what you had may be a challenge. certainly when your choices are nationwide as to replacements.

And dogcatcher, I know, I don't understand Fed Speak. I think that requires pert near fatal brain damage.
 
I have stopped using the USPS near my house as I have had about 30-40% success rate of packages making it safe and sound and about 3 out of 10 not even making it at all. :mad: On May 23rd I sent out 16 packages at once USPS Priority Mail. Only 12 have made it. One was to Canada and the rest were in the lower 48 states.:mad::mad::mad::mad:

Every time I use the Post Office next to my work, I have ZERO problems. [knocking on every piece of wood around me]:frown::frown::frown::biggrin:
 
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