Potential thefts

[Ron Spokovich]

Just this past Saturday morning, I mailed a box of elk antler to a friend of mine about a twelve mile distance from my home. The item got there Monday, intact, but two holes were punched in the box in an attempt to see the contents, or steal them. Since it was a weekend, for some unexplained reason, some parcels go through the Pittsburgh post office, which is not normally done through the weekday. If mailing items through the USPS through a major city, you might want opt for another carrier, like UPS or FedEx, if this has happened to you. The hassle of insurance, which I had, doesn't replace the sent item. Just thought I'd pass this along, and I did raise hell with the post office. . .they don't know unless you tell them

 

[Crazy Horse]

I live in Philadelphia and have used the United States Postal Srevice for years and NEVER had a problem other than a package being sent to the wrong address. It took 2 weeks to be returned as the package was sent First Class, but they return it as 3rd Class, thus the delay. I've shipped many, many packages over the last several years and as I've said, never had a problem. (And NO, I don't work for the Postal Service.)

 

[John P. Anderson]

They may have been looking for something a bit greener than elk antlers.

 

[Marrinan]

The only problems I have with the NEW USPS is service. Takes ten days to get a letter from Insurance company in NC to Southeast GA. Only took 10 from St Joe to Sacramento and that was by horse. Happens week in week out. Send reg priority to Midwest Refinery once took 30 days. Tracking said went to Tallahassee then out for delivery for a month. Service BAH

 

[dogcatcher]

Before we retired in our business we received and shipped a lot of packages. Of the thousands we received the problem ones were the shipper's packing and addressing. Some boxes were so poorly constructed they had been re-taped numerous times or they were crushed. Most of the packages are handled by machines from the time the clerk accepts it until the carrier delivers it. The machine doesn't read fragile or this side up, it goes down a conveyor belt and is dropped in a hamper, if the next package is a manifold off of V8 yours better be packed well enough to take the hit.

Address, a transposed zip code can send a package in circles taking weeks to get where it is supposed to go. Our street had a "south" in front of the name, without the "south" it went to another carrier at another post office and we would get it a day late. The suffix was "drive", if the sender used "street" it was miss sent to another route, another days delay.

All of our problems were senders mistakes, not the post office mistakes, the sender screwed it up. In of a lot cases it was the post office that got the package to us even though the street address was wrong. They didn't have to do that, but they did. It would have been easier to return to sender, reason "no such address".

 

[DakotaDocMartin]

I'd recommend to never mail important packages so they sit over the weekend... especially anything that looks like a gun box. Too many guns go missing that way. I mail stuff off on a Monday normally.

 

[Eric Olson]

Regarding insurance, you would have a hard time recovering the value of the antlers unless you had an invoice showing how much you paid for them. The PO doesn't just fork over the amount of the insurance you paid for - you have to supply "proof of value" of the contents. They may also ask if you prepared the package yourself, and if anyone else was present to verify that the package actually contained what you claim.

 

[LVVP]

I'd recommend to never mail important packages so they sit over the weekend... especially anything that looks like a gun box. Too many guns go missing that way. I mail stuff off on a Monday normally.

Good advice, thanks

 

[golden forge]

I have had fairly good luck with the shipping that I have done, however.
One of the shops that I did contract work had several problems with UPS, on more than one occasion they received boxes with rifles that had been driven over.(had the tire tracks and all) I don't know if there was a UPS employe who was just anti gun, or had vary bad handling skills. I do know that one of the rifles was a nice custom high end engraved piece, and trying to get compensation out of them was a very long and difficult process for the shop.

 

[DakotaDocMartin]

...on more than one occasion they received boxes with rifles that had been driven over.(had the tire tracks and all)

Too bad they couldn't put tire tracks across the guy that did that. I'm guessing it was no accident.

Another good piece of advice for the newbies that might not know this: Never put anything in the address or return address that tells what may be inside. Instead of Ralph's Diamond and Gold Emporium... put RDGE or something like that for the name. Same with guns. Bob's Expensive Custom Rifles... BECR would be better. Just don't spell it out for them to make it easier.