Insurance on coins when mailing
Thomas A.
USPS giving a customer trouble over a claim. I would actually like to know
the truth. Let's keep the shipping within the US for starters.
If I register and insure a box of coins for $5000 with the USPS and they
lose the box, do I get my $5000 or not?
ans 1) No. The USPS does not know what's really in the box or its true
value so you're in for a big fight and who knows what the outcome will be.
Write your senator.
ans 2) Yes. The USPS accepted the contract of insurance on the box for
recourse against loss. The USPS lost the box. They owe you $5000, even if
the box contained rocks.
ans 3) We actually have a law that covers reimbursement of money for a lost
package. That is what insurance *is*, after all. Or is it not? The answer
is...
If I get no guarantee of reimbursement against theft or loss, then why, oh
why, would I want to spend extra money to advertise on the outside of the
box that the contents are valuable and would be nice to steal? There really
should be a straight forward yes/no type of answer to this mess.
It seems to boil down to one simple question. Here is a box I value at $5K.
Will you insure it for a full $5K against loss to ship it or not? Yes or
no.
shreadvector
If it contains currency or coin over a certain value, it must be
shipped Registered and Insured. No time to look up the limit/USPS
regulations for you. It's in the "Mail Manual".
Mr. Jaggers
Yes.
James the Succinct
George D
and here is the real scoop.
read 620.3.2 and it is there clear as mud....
George
--
Government is a voracious monster that must have your labor to control
YOU! Your money is your liberty. The taxes you pay gently enslave you,
and eventually destroy any human liberty you have. Fear government, pray
for the country.
George D
Rick
stolen in the mail. Only a cut open envelope was returned to me. I
insured it for $49.00--the amount I sold it for on eBay. The USPS
jerked me around for three months, AND I had to show them the invoice
showing the amount it sold for and that the addressee matched the
invoice. They did finally pay off, however. I was still out the cost
of postage and insurance.
Rick
"Nobody gets to be a cowboy forever." Monte Walsh (1970)
Frank Galikanokus
You should fear the unregulated capitalist who considers you and your
labor nothing more than a necessary evil that is easily replaceable.
They bear no responsibility to their workers, community, country or
environment that make their profits possible.
JAM
Thomas A.
Take it easy Karl and Che; I not talking world enslavement by the elitist
oppressive war machine here.
I want to know if this USPS postal insurance is simply a fraud we dump money
into, or if I get my insured value back if they lose my insured package.
Simple question and I seek a simple yes or no answer. If the answer is a
"no" or a "qualified yes", whatever that means, I want to know why we all
pay for the insurance if it serves us no recourse.
Mr. Jaggers
There's a big difference between purchasing "insurance" and paying for
"registration." "Insured" (a/k/a "steal me") mail is not monitored as it
progresses through the mailstream, and thus is subject to being rifled at
any point along the way. Then when a claim is made, the burden falls
entirely on the sender (the one who paid the fee) to corroborate his claim
as to the value of the contents.
Registered mail is entirely different, the pampered child of the USPS. At
each waypoint the piece must be signed for by the staff member who is
specifically assigned to the duty before it goes off to the next
destination. Normally registered mail travels in a locked container of some
sort. The package itself has to be wrapped in such a way as to be
tamper-evident. Due to these precautions, there are vanishingly few
opportunities for a registered piece to go astray. If it does indeed go
astray and a claim is made, USPS follows a procedure to find out exactly
where it went astray and put it back onto the proper trajectory. By the
way, when you submit a package for registration, you do not *have* to pay
for insurance. I always buy the insurance along with, but if you choose not
to, that's your business.
The most common way for Registered to go AWOL results in this delightful
message to be stamped on the outside:
http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff9/lugburzman/SupposedlyEmpty.jpg
Over the years I have had three registered packages sent to me that failed
to arrive on time, and they all bore that same stamp, so it must be more
common than USPS would care to admit. But the bottom line is: they *did*
find the packages in each case, and therefore the necessity to haggle over
package value is moot. In short, registration comes close to guaranteeing
(eventual) delivery.
That said, I suppose that a tiny, tiny fraction of registered packages does
indeed go astray without a trace, and a monetary claim has to be made. In
those cases, it is reasonable to expect that the postal employee of record
will get his/her hiney chewed bigtime or even fired, depending on the
circumstances.
I have two critiques of registered mail:
1) It can take twice, three times, or more time to reach its destination,
and may not follow the usual flowchart among post offices.
2) In spite of the somewhat exorbitant fee charged for registration,
registered mail cannot be tracked online - not by the sender, not by the
receiver, not by USPS employees themselves. One *can* verify online when
and from where the package was mailed, and find out when it makes landfall
at the destination post office, but nothing in between.
James the Clarifier
'it was either a one-word answer or the above diatribe - take your choice'
Thomas A.
Very, very clear. Thank you.
Jud
> The most common way for Registered to go AWOL results in this delightful
> message to be stamped on the outside:
>
> http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff9/lugburzman/SupposedlyEmpty.jpg
>
> Over the years I have had three registered packages sent to me that failed
> to arrive on time, and they all bore that same stamp, so it must be more
> common than USPS would care to admit. But the bottom line is: they *did*
> find the packages in each case, and therefore the necessity to haggle over
> package value is moot. In short, registration comes close to guaranteeing
> (eventual) delivery.
Yep, that particular stamp gets used more than it should be. It was on
a package that took 14 months to arrive at my doorstep. The package
had a tracking number, so I knew that it took 2 days to get from the
west coast to my local PO, and then more than a year to go the last 3
miles. Go figure!
Frank Galikanokus
Um, yes it is. There is a bar code on the insurance label and it is
tracked as it moves through the system.
and thus is subject to being rifled at
> any point along the way. Then when a claim is made, the burden falls
> entirely on the sender (the one who paid the fee) to corroborate his claim
> as to the value of the contents.
If you have the paper work, sales receipt, copy of correspondence, as
stated in the regs. then you will be reimbursed.
Slime Lowlife
> Thomas A. wrote:
> The most common way for Registered to go AWOL results in this delightful
> message to be stamped on the outside:
>
> http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff9/lugburzman/SupposedlyEmpty.jpg
>
> Over the years I have had three registered packages sent to me that failed
> to arrive on time, and they all bore that same stamp, so it must be more
> common than USPS would care to admit. But the bottom line is: they *did*
> find the packages in each case, and therefore the necessity to haggle over
> package value is moot. In short, registration comes close to guaranteeing
> (eventual) delivery.
>
> That said, I suppose that a tiny, tiny fraction of registered packages does
> indeed go astray without a trace, and a monetary claim has to be made. In
> those cases, it is reasonable to expect that the postal employee of record
> will get his/her hiney chewed bigtime or even fired, depending on the
> circumstances.
>
A coin dealer once told me of the misadventures a colleague of his had
with the USPS. The mail-order dealer posted a package to a customer,
sending it via registered mail. After a few weeks, the customer
contacted the mail-order dealer, indicating he had not received his
order yet. The mail-order dealer then made inquiries at the Post
Office, & after a very long investigation, they came back to him
saying, in effect, that they had no idea what happened. I forget if
the package was insured, but the matter seemed closed at that point, &
the mail-order dealer & his aggrieved customer worked out something.
Several months later, the package showed up in the mail-order dealer's
box, much worse for wear. Now, I think this is a good point to mention
that the original destination of the parcel was a lovely Illinois town
called Peru.
Yes.
Some USPS worker, channelling Magellan, decided it had to be sent to
South America, & the package bounced around the Peruvian postal system
for I don't know how long till they tried to deliver it to someone;
perhaps they just tried finding a person with a similar name to the
original customer, I don't know. But whoever he was, he was honest &
refused to accept the package, which prompted its return to the
mail-order dealer.... many, many months later.