About a month ago I Priority Mailed a lift adapter to one of our community. I didn't declare extra value and pay extra insurance because if they lost / damaged it, the guaranteed $50 plus the refunded postage covers most of the loss. And they rarely lose or damage anything in Priority Mail.
I didn't track the package as it's typically 2 days or 3 and it's there. I'm busy with other customers and if there's a problem this Iowan knows my number.
About 3 weeks later he says, "Where is it"? I said it left on time, immediately. Let me check.
So it turns out, it's sitting in Des Moines, not moving. I initiate a trace.
Well that gets it moving. Apparently to the Dead Letter Office. This Iowan tries to intercede at his end - they told him the same thing. He said his impression was, the Dead Letter Office is their pseudonym for Lost, or Timbuktu, or Outer Space. Basically he was told, don't expect it to ever be found. I said how could it be lost - THEY SAID THEY SENT IT TO THE DEAD LETTER OFFICE - THEY KNOW WHERE IT IS. The USPS Regional Rate 2 Box provided by them, had the label taped on with clear packing tape (can't be peeled off) and inside, the lift adapter is heat sealed into 3 layers of bubble pak with the invoice inside that with both addresses on it. This is all a LIE.
Here's their tracking:
So I filed a claim using their proper channel, providing everything they asked for. And meanwhile replaced the missing product to the customer at my expense.
In the mail today, DENIED. Because "our records indicate this package was dead mail/sent to recovery center."
Interesting. If your guaranteed, insured Priority Mail package properly labelled in the box they provide gets lost by the USPO, they don't own it, don't have to be responsible, don't have to pay the claim, don't refund the postage when they can just say "it became dead mail and went to the recovery center."
Does this make sense to ANYBODY? Besides Government thinkers, I mean.
Here's their denial. With persons living and dead redacted to protect the innocent.
Do these idiots have any idea how much I spend on mail? Do they care? Of course not. About 15 years ago UPS was worldwide class-action sued for Breach of Contract on Extra Value Insurance. Just about identical to this case. I had them deny damage claims repeatedly, when I had kept proof of good packaging (photos, detailed descriptions of the packaging - do that to this day on all pipe shipments). They lost the lawsuit - the solution was, $20M to the lawyers, and a discount from UPS on your next shipments. Which did me no good as I fired them and have never gone back. They have lost around $20K in my shipping business.
BTW - ask ANY of my customers if my products are packaged well. WAY beyond the packaging I have seen from other bike pipe shippers.
Now I can't do that with USPS. They are still the cheapest and quickest on small packages. But I'm fighting them on this one. I'd like to see them sued like UPS was.
CBS called them out on this a few years ago. At
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/postal-service-spanked-over-priority-mail-insurance/ They regularly deny claims, hanging their hat on asterisks buried in the disclaimers.
"NAD told the Postal Service it needs to be more upfront about what isn't covered by the $50 of insurance that's supposed to come with Priority Mail. The Postal Service said it will, but it could take time to get it all done."
They've had time - the above article dateline is July, 2014.
