Mad as &$##... not going to take it anymore!

[visiondr]

Please let me vent... and relay a story you may want to heed.

It all began innocently enought as I gave my 50 mm summicron over the United States Postal Service to be delivered across the country. Some of you are probably wincing as you read this already. Rich Pinto at Photo Village in New York had offered to buy it from me. As I handed the well packed box to the clerk, I hesitated, then decided to include $1000 worth of insurance to the Priority Mail cost. Gosh, that was a stroke of inspiration! It's now three weeks and the package is nowhere! I don't have it, Rich doesn't have it and, apparently, the Post Office doesn't have it.

Now, I have to brave the beaurocracy in an attempt to make my claim for the insurance. I am hopping mad !!! I, for one, will never trust an important package to the USPS ever again. I wonder if I should check eSpay to see if my former lens is out there.

That's all I have to say for now.

Thanks for letting me extemporise tonight.

Ron

 

[back alley]

only ever had a problem with the usps once, a lens arrived broken.
that was in may and it's still not resolved.
joe

 

[tetrisattack]

On your behalf, I just yelled that out my window.

 

[dostacos]

trade YA.... I sent my back up Bessa R to Cameraquest to get it's horizontal focus fixed. I don't have it. Stephen does not have it and I LOST THE RECEIPT!:bang: :bang: :bang: :bang: :bang:

 

[visiondr]

trade YA.... I sent my back up Bessa R to Cameraquest to get it's horizontal focus fixed. I don't have it. Stephen does not have it and I LOST THE RECEIPT!:bang: :bang: :bang: :bang: :bang:

Sorry to hear about your loss (sounds like I'm consoling someone over a loved one's death, doesn't it?)

You know, the thought has crossed my mind that insuring a package for a certain amount of money might actually alert unscrupulous people and convert an amoral bugger into a thief. :bang:

Ron

Please, if anyone has a good thing to say about insurance claims and the USPS... I neeeeed to hear about it.

 

[flashover]

you think the USPS is bad. I would trade them in a second for Canada Post.

 

[wlewisiii]

Canada Post is the place where joe & I are still waiting on. USPS recently told me that they were finished months ago and if it had been a domestic delivery the addressee would have been paid long ago.

William

 

[NL2377]

I sent a check in the mail via USPS Priority weeks ago, and it has still yet to have been found. I've already cancelled the check at my bank, but it's sad, because I can only recieve mail via USPS, otherwise I have to go pick the package up at UPS which is 15mi away.

 

[back alley]

Canada Post is the place where joe & I are still waiting on. USPS recently told me that they were finished months ago and if it had been a domestic delivery the addressee would have been paid long ago.

William

i not too sure about that.
i sent the last bunch of forms to colorado, to the usps.
i think they are who we are waiting on.
joe

 

[wlewisiii]

Lovely. I wish we'd both just get a straight answer from someone. That info was from the claims person at the local PO, so I thought it was correct. Figures...

Still better than the only time I had to fight with UPS though. At least USPS doesn't try to claim nothing was sent and I was fraudulently claiming there was...

William

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

A package from Milwaukee took 12 days to get to Minneapolis (it finally arrived last week)

Only nonindustrialized countries are supposed to have a postal system that is as efficient as plotting fractals using an abacus.

 

[ampguy]

Did you...

Did you...

do a green delivery confirmation for $0.50 and/or a signature confiration for about $1.00 ??

At what point did it fall of the web tracking site?

Please let me vent... and relay a story you may want to heed.

It all began innocently enought as I gave my 50 mm summicron over the United States Postal Service to be delivered across the country. Some of you are probably wincing as you read this already. Rich Pinto at Photo Village in New York had offered to buy it from me. As I handed the well packed box to the clerk, I hesitated, then decided to include $1000 worth of insurance to the Priority Mail cost. Gosh, that was a stroke of inspiration! It's now three weeks and the package is nowhere! I don't have it, Rich doesn't have it and, apparently, the Post Office doesn't have it.

Now, I have to brave the beaurocracy in an attempt to make my claim for the insurance. I am hopping mad !!! I, for one, will never trust an important package to the USPS ever again. I wonder if I should check eSpay to see if my former lens is out there.

That's all I have to say for now.

Thanks for letting me extemporise tonight.

Ron

 

[triplefinger]

DHL, Fed-Ex... i find them worth the extra bucks for important stuff. Admittedly, I have been lucky with the USPS

 

[ARCHIVIST]

Living in Australia and buying photo gear out of the US ( eBay and shop purchaes ) I have used USPS quite a lot, both air and surface. I have lost 3 items over the past 5 years. With one of these I phoned a USPS office in the state the item was lost, when e-mails failed to attract a reply, and complained. To this I received the most arogant reply...." we are the USPS and we do not lose itmes". My reply can not be printed here!

Regards
Peter

 

[bmicklea]

you think the USPS is bad. I would trade them in a second for Canada Post.

Tragically I have to agree. They really do make USPS employees look like diligent, hard working and dedicated individuals.

I lived in Japan for a couple of years and still wish that the Japanese government would just openly take over every postal system in the world. We'd be much better off...

 

[visiondr]

do a green delivery confirmation for $0.50 and/or a signature confiration for about $1.00 ??

Green delivery conf. only (bloody cheapskate... me!)

At what point did it fall of the web tracking site?

It was scanned in here in Portland and that is all.

Ron

 

[40oz]

Let's be realistic. I worked for a law firm for a couple years. I sent dozens of items every day both regular post and registered, and nothing was ever "lost." I worked as a shipping clerk for a number of years for a couple different organizations. Roughly once a month UPS would "lose" a package, according to the recipient and sender. After a quick call to the UPS center, I was always able to get a signer's name (and once a fax of the signature), and track down said person in a matter of minutes and find said "lost" package.

FedEx once let a pallet of boxes of paper goods sit outside in a rainstorm on a runway, and resolving the issue was a PITA, but resolved it was, and everyone was at least mildly appeased, if not happy.

It is quite possible, depending on packaging, for the address label to fall off/tear off/otherwise disappear, thereby rendering a package undeliverable unless the sender had the foresight to include an address form inside the package. As far as insurance goes, you might pay for $1 million in insurance, but unless you have documentation of said value, you will only get the market value of the item.

Moral of the story - include an address inside the package, don't wrap a box in paper for shipping, and don't over-insure. Nobody is infallible, modern shipping is in all likelihood much more reliable than ever, but systems involving machines and humans run at the product of the failure rate of both men and machines. Recovery from failure, however, depends soley on mere mortals, so be kind.

 

[ClaremontPhoto]

Somebody stole my (decent) watch going in for service. I've given the watch company the serial number and asked then to 'watch' out for it.

 

[Dfin]

Sorry to read about your loss, and it is a bit like loosing a member of the family. I have recently bought 4 items locally, 3 battery converters from the Yashic Guy and all have arrived on time and intact. Here in Australia postal workers are not the most highly paid and are under pressure to perform, ie. sort 18 letters/minute. So mistakes are going to happen. I know this doesn`t excuse or compensate for your loss, but thieves exist in all companies and organisations. Hopfully inusurance will cover your loss.

 

[Hiyawaan]

I agree, UPS sucks! I rented five un-operational WW I rifles, accessories and uniforms for a comercial shoot from an LA rental house and UPS lost them.Only clothes and accesories showed up. Luckily the rental house insisted on $5000 insurance so we were saved but the shoot suffered. I now use DHL.