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My Eleanor (finally thought I got it, and it's gone)

Scarecrow Boat
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Larry S Larry S
Insured, FED Ex or DHL. I have a parcel pro account. I don't trust UPS - too loosey goosey. Left a 3K camera on my stoop after I had specified hold for pickup.
Reminds me of a time when I shipped @JwRosenthal a Rolex Sub, paid a substantial amount to NDA it with AM delivery, adult signature required with ID, and they delivered it in 3 days, leaving it on a table on his front porch, in clear view of the populated busy street outside of his house. FedEx refused to reimburse any of the price I paid claiming the package had been successfully delivered.

In another instance, DHL was used to ship a $4,000 watch to me that I had purchased. Signature was required, but it wasn’t upheld by the driver, who left the package at an unmarked maintenance building that was so clearly not a place of residence. I only found it when I went out on foot looking for a door that resembled the one in the “proof of delivery” photo that had been uploaded to the tracking. It was a block away from my house.

That said, I have had excellent experiences with all the carries available to me, but in the same breath, have also had truly shit experiences with them as well.
 
E
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Scarecrow Boat Scarecrow Boat
Reminds me of a time when I shipped @JwRosenthal a Rolex Sub, paid a substantial amount to NDA it with AM delivery, adult signature required with ID, and they delivered it in 3 days, leaving it on a table on his front porch, in clear view of the populated busy street outside of his house. FedEx refused to reimburse any of the price I paid claiming the package had been successfully delivered.

In another instance, DHL was used to ship a $4,000 watch to me that I had purchased. Signature was required, but it wasn’t upheld by the driver, who left the package at an unmarked maintenance building that was so clearly not a place of residence. I only found it when I went out on foot looking for a door that resembled the one in the “proof of delivery” photo that had been uploaded to the tracking. It was a block away from my house.

That said, I have had excellent experiences with all the carries available to me, but in the same breath, have also had truly shit experiences with them as well.
Heh, NONE of my carriers actually even wait for a signature from me, they drop it off at my door and sign themselves (assuming they bother to come to the door... I've watched Fedex not even bothering to come up my driveway and mark us as 'not home'). The only way I've had watches NOT just get dropped on my doorstep was when certain insurers required that it be picked up with ID at a Fedex drop location.
 
ErichPryde
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I had a similar experience with FedEx purchasing a watch a couple years ago. I had it shipped to my brother's house and was worried about whether his signature would work since he wasn't the purchaser and they just left it on the front porch rail and never even rang the bell. 🙄
 
Larry S
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e
Scarecrow Boat Scarecrow Boat
Reminds me of a time when I shipped @JwRosenthal a Rolex Sub, paid a substantial amount to NDA it with AM delivery, adult signature required with ID, and they delivered it in 3 days, leaving it on a table on his front porch, in clear view of the populated busy street outside of his house. FedEx refused to reimburse any of the price I paid claiming the package had been successfully delivered.

In another instance, DHL was used to ship a $4,000 watch to me that I had purchased. Signature was required, but it wasn’t upheld by the driver, who left the package at an unmarked maintenance building that was so clearly not a place of residence. I only found it when I went out on foot looking for a door that resembled the one in the “proof of delivery” photo that had been uploaded to the tracking. It was a block away from my house.

That said, I have had excellent experiences with all the carries available to me, but in the same breath, have also had truly shit experiences with them as well.
Hence my always specifying hold for pick up.
 
ErichPryde
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Larry S Larry S
Hence my always specifying hold for pick up.

I started doing the same thing with all my FedEx packages- there's a local Walgreens that seems to have the process relatively well figured out.
 
EuroDriver
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I really appreciate all the sentiments and anecdotes. But my question is this: Has anyone gone through this experience? I mean, USPS stole from me (most likely).

This should not be a matter of whether I purchased insurance or not - I entrusted USPS to deliver the watch to me and my package was not lost or stolen en route or upon delivery. The contents was stolen by USPS - if an employee stole it, it was stolen by USPS. Do I have recourse to have USPS compensate me, or do they have a legal right to say "we stole from you, but since you didn't pay us for insurance, go pound sand."

That's the ultimate question I'd like to have an answer to.
 
ErichPryde
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EuroDriver EuroDriver
I really appreciate all the sentiments and anecdotes. But my question is this: Has anyone gone through this experience? I mean, USPS stole from me (most likely).

This should not be a matter of whether I purchased insurance or not - I entrusted USPS to deliver the watch to me and my package was not lost or stolen en route or upon delivery. The contents was stolen by USPS - if an employee stole it, it was stolen by USPS. Do I have recourse to have USPS compensate me, or do they have a legal right to say "we stole from you, but since you didn't pay us for insurance, go pound sand."

That's the ultimate question I'd like to have an answer to.

I think, unfortunately, this is a case where insurance literally helps cover all the risk you can't properly account for, and that includes the many hands that touch your package while it is being handled by USPS.

it's not fair, but we're talking about an essential institution that is overworked and essentially totally unappreciated by both the public and its governing body. No funds to rework their structure and no desire, and no time, interest, or money to perform a meaningful investigation. A private business known for customer service would be a different matter.

Also- although we believe you, this is literally your word against USPS. They don't have incentive or reason to believe you at all, but with insurance they do have a grudging reason to at least pay you.
 
calalum
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Didn't you say above that the USPS is immune from lawsuits? If that is the case, what path would you pursue? And in any event, keep in mind the cost of litigation, including mental anguish, lawyer fees (unless a small claims court case), emotional energy, etc. Best of luck either way.
 
Dan S
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I don't think you can sue usps for lost mail, but you can sue them for negligence/wrongful-act, and probably other things. But obviously you will need some sort of evidence. Maybe you should hire an attorney and have the attorney send usps a letter.
 
Archer
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If USPS would cover you for loss while in their possession, why wouldn’t they also cover for damage while in their possession?

If they covered you for both of those, what would the insurance actually be for?

I think you are twisting this around in your own head a bit too much…you didn’t purchase insurance, so you are SOL…
 
Larry S
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USPS has lots of attorneys . I know a guy pretty high up on their legal org chart. Indeed, you took a chance and it didn’t work out for you. Expensive lesson. We’ve all had em.
 
EuroDriver
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I get everyone's point of view and I am well aware that I'm pretty much SOL. It's still infuriating though that I entrusted my watch to USPS, they stole it and I have no recourse unless I paid them for them to insure me against them stealing from me.
 
Porteroso
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Of course it's frustrating. One more thing you might try is contacting your representatives in Congress. Tell them it is unacceptable. It will trigger an internal investigation. Might just be an aide that calls someone, might go further than that, who knows, but they will attempt to do something.
Edited:
 
EuroDriver
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I just spent half my morning following up on this. USPS has referred the investigation to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. I called them and at least they gave me hope that sometimes they are successful in recovering stolen items. If they are able to connect the item with the owner, they will deliver it to me. In cases they cannot determine who the owner is, they return it to the post office's loose/missing items department. Unfortunately, there's no guarantee of a follow-up unless they actually recover it. I was advised to do the following:

1) File a report for lost/missing mail under the USPS website's help section. In case the watch makes it way to the loose/missing items, it will be the most likely way to recover it.
2) File an insurance claim. If USPS pays out the claim and the watch is later recovered and delivered to me, they contact me to reimburse the claim payout.

I will keep you posted on the outcome.
 
Ron_W
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EuroDriver EuroDriver
I just spent half my morning following up on this. USPS has referred the investigation to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. I called them and at least they gave me hope that sometimes they are successful in recovering stolen items. If they are able to connect the item with the owner, they will deliver it to me. In cases they cannot determine who the owner is, they return it to the post office's loose/missing items department. Unfortunately, there's no guarantee of a follow-up unless they actually recover it. I was advised to do the following:

1) File a report for lost/missing mail under the USPS website's help section. In case the watch makes it way to the loose/missing items, it will be the most likely way to recover it.
2) File an insurance claim. If USPS pays out the claim and the watch is later recovered and delivered to me, they contact me to reimburse the claim payout.

I will keep you posted on the outcome.
I hope this will work out for you, what a bummer if your stuff gets stolen while in the care of others.
 
EuroDriver
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Archer Archer
If USPS would cover you for loss while in their possession, why wouldn’t they also cover for damage while in their possession?

If they covered you for both of those, what would the insurance actually be for?

I think you are twisting this around in your own head a bit too much…you didn’t purchase insurance, so you are SOL…

I may be, because I'm currently a wounded animal. However, I still see logic to my argument:
If my package got lost in transit, was tossed around and damaged, broke open and contents lost, insurance would cover it.
If my package was stolen from the post office counter or my mailbox, insurance would cover it.
If I receive the package and have someone steal the contents, insurance would not cover it.

In this case, my package arrived as expected but presumably, the theft was an inside job - that falls outside of insurance coverage, as it is a criminal act by an insider.

To me, this is the same as someone stealing from themselves and trying to get their insurance to cover it, "dissapearing" a vehicle and making an insurance claim, killing a spouse and collecting life insurance, etc. Not only is it exempt from coverage, it is a crime.

If I flip your argument around, USPS workers are free to steal the contents of all insured packages because the owner has coverage.

The premise of insurance is to cover unforeseen circumstances, not self-dealing, intentional acts. I could be wrong, but...
 
EuroDriver
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On another note, I'd like to share the following details, in case someone sees the watch posted somewhere out in the wild near these areas:

Serial number: 8070266
Transit destinations:
1/31: WEST BOYLSTON, MA - USPS in possession
1/31: SPRINGFIELD MA DISTRIBUTION CENTER arrived at origin facility
2/2: SAN DIEGO CA DISTRIBUTION CENTER arrived at regional destination facility
2/2: CHULA VISTA, CA arrived at USPS facility
2/3: CHULA VISTA, CA arrived at post office

Anyone near these areas, if you can help me keep an eye out for it, I would greatly appreciate it.
 
bsowers34
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It'd be classic if we see it on WRUW in the future.....
 
Scarecrow Boat
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EuroDriver EuroDriver
I was advised to do the following:

2) File an insurance claim. If USPS pays out the claim and the watch is later recovered and delivered to me, they contact me to reimburse the claim payout.
You have already stated you didn’t purchase insurance. 🤔
 
EuroDriver
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bsowers34 bsowers34
It'd be classic if we see it on WRUW in the future.....

Anything is possible

Scarecrow Boat Scarecrow Boat
You have already stated you didn’t purchase insurance. 🤔

There was $100 in insurance automatically included, lol
 
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