# USPS Rant - Lost items



## alankulwicki7 (Oct 29, 2014)

Here's my USPS rant (it's three-fold)...


1. For the second time, the USPS has screwed me over by losing the contents of a package I mailed.


 Not the package itself, mind you. Just the contents.


  Last week, I sent a package of antler pen blanks to someone in Pennsylvania  for a pen blank swap. Today I get an email from that person saying that  they received a letter from USPS along with the mailing label from my  package stating that my box ended up empty somewhere along the line.  Instead of forwarding the empty box, USPS just sent along the label.


  I'm not quite sure how a small flat rate box that's taped on all sides  can mysteriously open up during shipment but evidently that is what  happened.


 Just another example of USPS incompetence.


2. The local PO told me I had to file my claim online but that part of their site has been down for 3 hours now.


3. I received a letter in the mail today for the wrong address. Somehow, the USPS thought Little Canada looked like Vadnais Heights and County Road B2 looked like County Road F 


Thanks for your time. Rant off!


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## randyrls (Oct 29, 2014)

One of the items on my website "Rant" page says: "Some time ago, companies discovered they  could make more money by not having any loyalty to their employees.  Now  employees don't have any loyalty to their company.  Companies are  perplexed by this!?"


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## nativewooder (Oct 29, 2014)

At the risk of annoying some members of USPS, you must realize that some of the employees of USPS are thieves, just like in any other type of work.

I made some pens and sent them to a church in the Florida panhandle and after not hearing from anyone, I found out the email for that church and the pastor asked the asst. pastor and they passed the buck and said they didn[t know anything about the pens.  I don;t know if the sponsor got them and kept them or if the branch post office I shipped them from decided they wanted them.  Who knows!

But, considering the employees and the machinery, USPS does a great job with their mission, in spite of the B.O.D.


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## dogcatcher (Oct 30, 2014)

Every package that I get that is screwed up it is about 99% the fault of the sender.  I ship and receive about 30 packages a week.  Mine make it there, but over a years time I will have 2 to 5 that I was supposed to receive show up empty.  One look at the package and anyone can tell it was poorly packed.   They blame the post office, I blame the shipper, and I refuse to deal with them anymore.


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## KBs Pensnmore (Oct 30, 2014)

I've had 3 parcels sent from the US, and only one had been delivered, they were marked pen blanks, so I think someone in customs decided that it was a unique way of getting American wood for nix.:biggrin:
It's a bit rough when people pay for a service and others take advantage of it!!
Kryn


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## TellicoTurning (Oct 30, 2014)

Australian customs is pretty strict on woods that arrive in country... anything with bark is a total no-no... not sure how they would handle normal pen blanks, but when I was shipping manager at a large export packer in Houston, anything going to Australia was sent with a fumigation certificate showing we had tented and bombed the wood crates... most of what we sent boxed was in processed plywood crates, but still got fumigated.

If the did seize a box, one would think they at least notified the recipient of the seizure.


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## Brian G (Oct 30, 2014)

I was wondering why my mailbox was full of deer antler.  :bulgy-eyes:


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## alankulwicki7 (Oct 30, 2014)

I'm really not sure what to make of this whole thing. I used a USPS small flat rate box and taped all sides. It would take a fair amount of effort to get into the box.

And since the USPS just forwarded the label to the other person, I don't have any proof of the packaging. I'm sure the USPS will blame it on me and not pay out the insurance on this....

And the online claim site is still down. Now I have to wait for USPS to mail me a claim form. Hopefully it gets here...


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## Bill Arnold (Oct 31, 2014)

alankulwicki7 said:


> ...   I used a USPS small flat rate box and taped all sides. It would take a fair amount of effort to get into the box.   ...



Here's a thought:  The box was x-rayed, then opened for inspection due to "questionable" content.  The inspector decided the content looked fine in his shop.  Just sayin..........


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## SDB777 (Nov 1, 2014)

Have only ever had one package 'lost' via USPS, and I'm not 100% sure it was 'lost'.  But having thousands of customers, I imagine there could be that 'one'....

Sent another package, and never heard from the customer 'one' again.....did I loose money, yup.  But USPS showed delivery via tracking and there was nothing I could do about it.




Scott (pretty good track record for me) B


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## CrimsonKeel (Nov 1, 2014)

Ive had two boxes mangled.  one shipped to me from my mom the postman put in my box after seeing me in the driveway. I walked over and grabbed it and it was a prepaid box completely destroyed and covered in grease.  looked like it fell into a machinery gears and got chewed up. I chased the mailman down the block and bitched him out about not saying something to me when he saw me.  he basically said not his problem (probably wasnt) and to file a claim.  usps finally paid us the 50 bucks they insure those boxes for but what a joke in service.


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## tbroye (Nov 1, 2014)

We have a stack of political mailers and other assorted political garbage that we have saved from May until now or next Thursday when the last of it should get here.  My wife wants to take back to the post office and have them return it to sender, we didn't ask for we don't want it.  Only thing it is good for is target practice.  I don't thing the recyclers want it either.


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## GRMiller (Nov 2, 2014)

Now not sure this novel Idea will help.  As a Postal Clerk in the service I seen my fair share of lack of respect for mail.  Myself I send everything certified as being that they have to be accounted for.  I have had no trouble adding that little extra cost  in my mailings.  Just a thought


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## Sawdust1825 (Nov 3, 2014)

I am not clear on this. Was there no tracking number? If there was what does it show? Is it possible you have been screwed by the addressee? Just wondering? If they are someone you have complete faith in for honesty my apologies. However I read of people doing that sort of thing to often. Claiming empty packages etc.


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## alankulwicki7 (Nov 3, 2014)

Sawdust1825 said:


> I am not clear on this. Was there no tracking number? If there was what does it show? Is it possible you have been screwed by the addressee? Just wondering? If they are someone you have complete faith in for honesty my apologies. However I read of people doing that sort of thing to often. Claiming empty packages etc.



I shipped the items Priority Mail so the package had tracking. The recipient received a letter from the PO (along with the mailing label that was cut off the package) stating that the package was opened somewhere along the line and the contents were lost.

He sent me photos of the letter and the mailing label so I don't think he's trying to screw me over. If he's trying to pull one over on me, he's doing a great job with the fake letters 

This same thing happened to me two years ago so I know it does happen.


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## Smitty37 (Nov 3, 2014)

*Maybe I'm just lucky*

I have not had a problem with something not being delivered yet. In 6 years of shipping .....


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## alankulwicki7 (Nov 4, 2014)

Smitty37 said:


> I have not had a problem with something not being delivered yet. In 6 years of shipping .....



I have bought and sold over 1,000 items on Ebay in the last 16 years and didn't have a problem until recently. 

This latest incident is more of a hassle because the lost items were easily replaceable pen blanks. 

The last time it happened the items were a limited edition set of bobbleheads. Two identical packages sent to the same address. One arrived complete and the other never made it. I just received the mailing label and a letter from the USPS. I filed a claim but never received anything in return. I was out $300 on that deal.


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## alankulwicki7 (Nov 12, 2014)

So now I  received a letter from the USPS yesterday in regards to the lost items  from this package. After receiving just the label  from the USPS, the package recipient filled out a search form that  included *this picture of the exact items* that were lost. 



 Now the USPS is looking for a better description.


 I'm not sure I can be any more clear than this....


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## CrimsonKeel (Nov 13, 2014)

my recent USPS issue is i ordered a package last Friday.  it arrived in the south west Detroit area. i live in north west Detroit area.  Tuesday at midnight it got there.  it then shipped to Birmingham north of my town, then shipped to Pontiac even farther north of me town. Im scared where it will travel to today because my est delivery is now Friday.  four days to go 20 miles.


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## TellicoTurning (Nov 13, 2014)

Not to defend the attitudes of some of our postal workers, nor to excuse  the seeming lack of attention or care, but mail is moved in bulk from  origin to a sort station, to another sort station to another etc. until  it is sorted to destination.   Most of the postal workers have no  control on how or where the mail travels.  If your origin station has a  sort station in the opposite direction, it will travel away from the  destination until it does reach a station that is sorted for the  destination... sounds ludicrous when described in this manner, but it  does work and has worked... considering that the post office handles  millions of pieces of mail daily,  it works fairly well... percentages  of error will dictate and a number of pieces will be mishandled simply  by sheer force of numbers.  You fell into that percentage of error this  time.... tomorrow it may be me or another of our brethren here.

Many  tout and extoll the merits of using Fedex... works the same way... I  used to send letters of credit worth thousands and hundreds of thousands  of $$ with all the documents to negotiate from the north east side of  Houston to the banks in downtown Houston... 20-30 miles away... Fedex  delivered them next day, but overnight, they flew from Houston airport  to Memphis where they were sorted and flown back to Houston... if I  remember correctly, Fedex used Hobby Airport which is on the south west  side of Houston... to get from my office to Hobby, the trucks passed  through or within 1 mile of downtown Houston.  I could have used local  couriers to deliver the documents, but Fedex was cheaper and more  reliable. 

This day and age most cargo moves in this manner... I  spent 40 years moving cargo, and mail is just cargo, I had a few  glitches, but for the most part it moves as planned... it's just  frustrating and annoying when your particular cargo goes awry.


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## Two Hair (Nov 13, 2014)

I use a dymo label maker, hence no argument over not being able to read the address.  Post office personnel I deal with say it makes their job much easier.


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## butchf18a (Nov 16, 2014)

The USPS has a secret policy memo directing employees to specifically target packages which may contain pens or pen components, especially antler of endangered deer mice. The contents are then repackaged and sent to holding facility in Pensalvania where they are inventoried and sold on Pen-Station.org/USPS. Proceeds used to offset budget shortages resulting from waste and inefficiencies created as result of inefficiencies within the department.


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## alankulwicki7 (Nov 22, 2014)

Just a follow up to this post:

I filed an insurance claim for the lost antler blanks a few weeks ago and today I received a check from the USPS for $48 (the amount I claimed the blanks were worth).
Nice to know that the insurance claims do sometimes get paid out :wink:


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## SDB777 (Nov 23, 2014)

alankulwicki7 said:


> Just a follow up to this post:
> 
> I filed an insurance claim for the lost antler blanks a few weeks ago and today I received a check from the USPS for $48 (the amount I claimed the blanks were worth).
> Nice to know that the insurance claims do sometimes get paid out :wink:


 

I'm surprised, I was always told the 'insurance' from them would never be paid out?{and that was from one of the employee's-on the 'down-low'}

Hoping your customer and you are still in good relations about the whole thing!





Scott (cheers are more fun then rants) B


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## alankulwicki7 (Nov 23, 2014)

SDB777 said:


> Hoping your customer and you are still in good relations about the whole thing!
> 
> 
> 
> ...




Yes, he was very understanding. This was a blank swap so since he didn't get any blanks, I send him some replacements even before the USPS paid the claim....


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## TellicoTurning (Nov 23, 2014)

SDB777 said:


> alankulwicki7 said:
> 
> 
> > Just a follow up to this post:
> ...



I've file two claims with the post office and collected on both.  I don't remember the amount on the first as it was a few years back, but the last was last year for a set of 4 of my wine glasses that arrived broken... insurance was for $200 and collected $200.


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