Registered Mail Not As Great As Generally Believed. 0

[kav]

11 minutes ago, Tony S said:

   loosing  

Ps I have one friend I have corrected him countless times but he still spells it 'loosing' and 'looser'-for some reason this drives me insane! 

[kav]

Looser: "My pants are looser than they used to be"
Loosing: "We will be loosing a barrage of weaponry at our foes"
Loose: "I'm gunna cut loose"

Edited August 4, 2020 by kav

[SOTIcollector]

On 8/2/2020 at 8:22 PM, Tony S said:

Consider this a public service announcement:

Registered Mail is NOT near as great as presented or generally believed.  Registered Mail CAN and DOES get lost.  USPS - because the items insured are collectibles - CAN and WILL do everything possible to avoid paying a claim for a lost package.  

I submitted 12 books to CGC for a client back in December 2019. The books were graded and shipped back to him via Registered Mail insured for $500 in January 2020.  There was a problem delivering - conflicting accounts as to why..  Most likely his address not on his mailbox.  But might of been just because he wasn't at home at the time of the attempted delivery. So USPS held the package a couple of weeks and then marked it for return. That is the end of tracking information. The package was never returned to CGC. Never delivered to the owner. Nothing in USPS tracking since marked for return. 

Initially a  request was made by CGC to USPS to look for the package. After a few weeks of no reply from USPS, a claim was filed by CGC  USPS was unable find the package and USPS denied paying the claim. Said they wanted actual receipts showing what the owner paid for the books. 

USPS's own website says that for proof of value you can submit statements from reputable dealers. Being one myself, I submitted such with the first claim. As already said, the claim was denied and closed out. CGC appealed. This time I submitted another statement of value and  I got the owner of a local comic book store to submit a statement of value. So two dealer statements.  AND  I looked up and printed out recent completed sales on eBay of the each and every exact book (CGC and grade)  All of this submitted as proof of value. I also submitted proof - actual receipts - of the pressing costs and the CGC grading costs.  

Denied again.  The owner appealed. USPS still wants receipts showing what he paid for the books. These are collectibles. What was paid for the books does not represent  their value.  What these books  routinely sell for is their value. And with CGC grading and encapsulation, the books become much more ....monetized. It is easy to see what a CGC book routinely sells for.  I own books I paid 12 cents for in 1968 that are worth thousands of dollars now. Not only is 12 cents not a reasonable settlement if USPS looses the insured package said books are shipped in, NEITHER do I have the RECEIPTS for those 12 cent purchases 50 years ago. 

As of this moment, USPS can't find the package and wants receipts for what the owner paid for the books to consider an insurance payout.  Over six months since the books went missing. 

So yeah.... You can forget that Registered Mail is the "gold standard" in shipping.  We pay a premium for Registered mail because it's supposed to be handled with greater care and insurance is available up to $50,000.  But if packages do get lost and insurance claims are denied- or only settled for a maximum of the original purchase price by the owner - what are we paying premium prices for? Perhaps the gold standard is private shipping insurance and UPS. 

What I'm reading here seems to my layman's eyes to be fraud.  They sell you insurance based on something's VALUE, but then later tell you that you can only be reimbursed for that item's COST. 

What if my hypothetical grandmother paid $2,000 for her house in 1943, and she carried homeowner's insurance for its current value of, say, $300,000.  What if her house burned down and the insurance company tried to settle with her for $2,000, despite market reports, Zillow, and tax assessments showing that the house is worth $300,000?  I get that insurance companies regularly try to obtain as low as possible a market value for payout, but they still base premiums and payouts on VALUE, not cost.  If her insurance company based premiums on value, sold her insurance to cover the house's value, and then after she had a claim told her that payouts are based only on cost, it would be fraud.  

I'm glad I'm reading this story after my most valuable comic book, Phantom Lady 17, came back from Sarasota safely.

I'm curious as to whether anybody else on the boards has had a similar bait-and-switch situation with USPS insurance (registered mail or otherwise).

 

 

 

[F For Fake]

9 hours ago, gadzukes said:

I had an AF15 being shipped to me "registered" about 8 years ago (at the time maybe a $6000 comic).

I was checking the delivery status daily to watch the slow but steady progress the package was making.

One morning when I checked the status it showed it had been delivered.  It had NOT!

I brought my problem up on the boards and a boardie who worked for the PO said if I gave him the confirmation number that he would be able to get me a scan of the actual signature (CGC boardies ROCK!!!!).  

I got the scan.  The signature was not a forgery of my name (which is what I thought I'd see), it was a regular signature of a person who I don't know.

I got on the phone with my PO and demanded to talk to the manager.  I explained the situation.  She said to give her a few minutes to make some inquiries and she'd call me back.

5 minutes later she calls.  She's apologetic and somewhat distressed.  She tells me that they had a "substitute" delivering on the route that day and the sub delivered it to the wrong house.  She says the sub knows what house it was delivered to, and that she personally (the manager) was going to drive to the house herself to get it.

30 minutes later my doorbell rings and the manager gives me my package (with many more apologies).

I got lucky.... thank God the person who signed for it didn't open the package.

Now I always make friends with my carriers.  We exchange cel phone numbers, etc.... they tell me when they're going on vacations, when subs will be on the routes, etc... all good info to have.

My carrier tells me ALL the mistakes seem to happen when substitutes are on the routes.  I asked if the sub got fired that mishandled my registered package.  Nope.... the PO is so hard up for workers that you can screw things up bad and they still wont fire you.

Wow, that story gave me the cold sweats as I was reading it, and a knot in the stomach, all these years later. I'm so glad it worked out.

I wish we had a regular USPS person. When we first moved into the neighborhood nearly 8 years ago, we had a regular guy, John. Lasted about two years. Since then we can't seem to keep the same person more than a couple of weeks, and sometimes it changes day to day. I have no idea why. But I send a lot of packages out, so I have a lot of issues with the packages not getting picked up even when I schedule the pickup online. They just forget to get them sometimes. And believe me, I understand, it's not an easy job, there's a lot going on, so I don't get mad about it. I just wish we could get some continuity.

With the situation I mentioned before with the package getting lost, it was never scanned as "picked up" from my house. There were several packages that never got scanned in, but all of the rest of them showed up. They DID end up firing that guy, for that reason and for several others, apparently. I don't want to cost anyone their job, but they didn't ask me my opinion.

[Damore]

Question.  What private insurance do you use for shipping?  That sounds like a much better option that USPS insurance.

[Math Teacher]

On 8/3/2020 at 4:40 PM, kav said:

Apparently shipping to a business address is safer as they have to come back and hand mail to an actual person.  Not clear on the exact details but thats what my comic shop buddy told me.

When I am working at school, I have all my packages sent to my place of work, a high school. Knock on wood, I've never had a problem when I get a package shipped to my place of work.

[Tony S]

1 hour ago, Damore said:

Question.  What private insurance do you use for shipping?  That sounds like a much better option that USPS insurance.

https://collectinsure.com/

They sell insurance on collectible comic books and that insurance includes private shipping insurance on collectibles shipped to you and collectibles you ship somewhere. 

Exact terms and details vary by policy type and coverage limit. Mine - and most I believe have a $200 deductible & the package must require a signature on delivery. With the collectors policies, I believe coverage maximums vary based on choice of shipping service and the class of shipping (ground, express, next day, registered, etc) Dealer policies are also sold with expanded benefits and coverage. 

Edited August 4, 2020 by Tony S