Marlinguy: You didn't indicate if you had insurance on the shipment.  I have sent many boxed items through the USPS and always include insurance up to the minimum amount I think it is worth to me. I was told once the PO doesn't like to loose insured items. Not sure if that is true, but my experience has been 10/10.
Mike.

Hopefully the rifle will show up. That stinks.

My last rifle purchase from Gunbroker was shipped usps adult signature required. Since I have a C&R ffl it was shipped directly to me. The rifle arrived at my local post office earlier than expected on a Sunday, tracking said delivery on Monday. On Monday tracking showed at 6:18 AM, No access to delivery location, delivery will be made the next business day, no further action required. Well two more days went by and no delivery attempt at all nor a post card telling me to come pick up my package. So I finally stopped in at the post office to inquire about my package, after giving the clerk the correct tracking number, she found my package sitting on a shelf. They absolutely made no attempt to deliver it! 

     I've actually received very good assistance from our Local small town Postal clerks.  On two occasions when a few items seemed to be caught in a loop circling between distant locations for a couple weeks during the worst of the Chinese virus outbreak;  they phoned around until they were able to locate the packages and have someone intervene.   I had both in-hand only a couple days later.  Unlike many people I see at the Post Office, I didn't go in giving them Hell as I cleared the front door.  I explained the problem and requested help.  From what I've witnessed the attitude of the customer (locally) affects the attitude of the postal worker (locally).  It's just a job.  Often they receive no thanks for doing more than absolutely required.  And I'm fortunate that we Have someone I can speak to in-person.  Often if I need to ship an item they'll make suggestions to reduce the cost or improve the chances of it making the trip successfully; options I wasn't aware of.  They've Always been cheerful and helpful. A difficult attitude to maintain in the face of daily abuse from a handful of clueless, vulgar, often non-English speaking "customers"  Unable to grasp that the United States Postal Service isn't the UPS, located elsewhere.  Oh, the stories I could tell...
   

    On the other hand... in the town where I used to live only 10 miles away; things were So bad in the 70's and 80's,  customers would drive to another town instead of  trying to deal with the terrible attitude and service.  Oh, the stories I could tell! 
Eventually the problem went away, with retirements.  Afterwards I and others received pretty good service.  Not up to the level I get now..., but no complaints. 

   I don't question the reports from others.   I simply wanted to relate that not All postal workers, or the postal service itself are necessarily lousy.

Marlin I can certainly understand your contempt for USPS service and I for one have been jacked-up by them several times and think it would be rare to hear of anybody who has shipped through their maze of blunders many times to not have experienced this crap. However assertions of theft don’t help at all without real proof. Accusations like that get your claim and correspondence thrown in the ‘ nutball ‘ bin unless you have a high pocket mouthpiece hitched up and stomping his feet. 

It is quite common these past ten years or more to have packages go adrift in the USPS system and float around or get stuck at some terminal where the boneheads inside don’t care or have the initiative to investigate. Then for some mysterious reason days before an insurance claim can be activated the package shows up.  I might add pursuing legal action is like butting your head against the wall as USPS kind of operates under a semi-federal govt umbrella and I’ve never once heard if there is a real insurance carrier/underwriter on the claims end.

marlinguy wrote on Sep 15^th, 2022 at 5:50pm:


I ordered a Tig welding gas lens kit from a YouTuber in the USA 
4 or 5 years ago. Got a tracking No. with the receipt - I "followed it" for several days. For some unknown reason tracking showed it going USA, Israel, Canada. I did finally get it.

It’s funny that if you look USPS self-insures their vehicles and property but I can’t find out anything about who insures their package service. When you try to file a claim like Val did they make you jump through all kinds of hoops, neglect your calls etc and act like it’s their money ?  Why so secretive I wonder.

If one of the major companies was writing this you’d have to generally deal with adjusters, you’d get a claim number and possibly see inspectors but it would be such a large book of business the stock market would certainly know. Maybe somebody here knows the answer but I couldn’t find it. 

In the past I've had my issues with every carrier; USPS, UPS, and FedEx. FedEx was the worst with one firearm purchase stolen, and two more damaged. UPS has been the best, with only one damaged package. USPS has misplaced, or lost two previously, but both of those eventually showed up. One took a month, and the other took 13 months, and the insurance claim was already paid on it a year earlier.

My local PO staff is worthless. Wont answer their phone, and wont do anything at the counter except take packages and your money. When I went in there to discuss this package he simply gave me a phone number, and a online site to contact. Neither was helpful. I've had issues with my branch before, and had to take the same package to another branch when I called the main PO here and was told to just go to another branch if I had one close.
I've learned the hard way there are things that USPS wont advise you on shipping, but they're happy to take your money even when they know they don't provide the service. I once paid for Priority, registered, insured shipment on a very valuable Ballard #7 Long-Range. I wanted to be sure it got here quickly, and carefully. They took $80 to pay for it, even though there's no such thing as Priority-Registered mail. Once it's registered mail it's going to go via the slowest route USPS has, as it gets taken off the truck and locked up at every stop the truck makes. And it can't travel by air if it's registered mail package. So my package took 12 days, instead of the 4 days estimated, and I was freaking out until I spoke with my local postmaster and he told me how it all works.
So with three players in the shipping business, and none of them worth a darn, we're at their mercy and no good options.

UPS and FedEx both have higher insurance maximums than USPS has. USPS told me they wont insure any package for over $5,000. 
Years ago I shipped a minty Alexander Henry factory engraved, and gold inlaid rifle to a friend who bought it. Tried to insure it for $9500, but they said that was over their limit. I took it back home and removed the stock and forearm, and packaged them up separately. Shipped the barreled action for $5000, and stock and forearm for $4500.