# Post office damaged package, no parts and not their fault



## Kiss4aFrog (Nov 3, 2013)

So ... needed a shear pin for a Murray. The type with the space on one side so I ordered a packet of them.
Received the empty packet this afternoon with a good sized tear 3"+ at each end. Took it to the post office and since it wasn't insured that just my tough luck.

I really hate the post office.


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## Ray 1962 10ML60 (Oct 14, 2011)

Who did you order from? They may send you a new package...?


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## detdrbuzzard (Jan 20, 2012)

Kiss4aFrog said:


> So ... needed a shear pin for a Murray. The type with the space on one side so I ordered a packet of them.
> Received the empty packet this afternoon with a good sized tear 3"+ at each end. Took it to the post office and since it wasn't insured that just my tough luck.
> 
> I really hate the post office.


i know how you feel, a few years ago my friend in Frackville, pa got a Goldwing trike. he asked me if I had some brake reservour covers, silly me mailed them along with a gremlin bell. the bell was in the box but the covers were missing. it might cost more to use ups or fed-ex and I'm ok with that. if its not a letter its not going to be delivered by the us mail department


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## Kiss4aFrog (Nov 3, 2013)

Contacted the seller and waiting to see how that goes.

It's just irritating to go down there and show them the envelope and for the supervisor say that it's likely damage from handling and then say it's not covered. If they delivered it broken I'd understand but to deliver an empty bubble pack envelope with tears at each end ??


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## Coby7 (Nov 6, 2014)

But, but, but think about it. If you don't package your item properly it isn't the Post-Office's fault. You took a chance by not insuring and put your faith in the shippers packaging skills. I deal with PO all the time and make sure everything is addressed & packaged properly and never had a problem in 35 years doing business this way. Private carriers have always failed me over and over, be it DHL, UPS, FeDex, SameDay(Someday), Purolator(Purely later), ACS except MidLand delivery which so far has been flawless for big heavy items that PO can't deliver.


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## time2time (Jan 8, 2015)

I always feel that 'title' for anything ordered belongs to the seller until i receive it. The seller is responsible for getting the item into the buyer's hands (not merely claiming an effort to do so). If you paid by credit card, you do have leverage. I would contact the seller and let them know that the package arrived damaged, and that you notified the post office. 

I recently ordered a belt from a seller on Amazon. It did not arrive, even though the USPS site said it was delivered. I contacted the seller and explained that packages are often mis-delivered here by the USPS. I politely but firmly requested that they complete the order by sending a replacement. They were not happy, but they did so (and i gave them good feedback for making things right).


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## Kiss4aFrog (Nov 3, 2013)

Time2time, that's how I feel. If you do that poor a job packing it that it can't make it to the destination that should be on you. If it was something properly packed but broken somehow and I chose to not have insurance I would eat it without a problem.

There was no insurance offered and realistically who's going to insure ten nuts, bolts and spacers ??

With all the stuff I've sold I've never had a problem with a buyer not getting it or getting it broken. I pack how I'd expect to receive it.


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## ELaw (Feb 4, 2015)

Heh... funny this topic should come up now.

This afternoon shortly after I got home from work, I heard the sound of a vehicle and a "thump" out in our driveway.

I went out and looked and found a container (one of those USPS corrugated plastic bins) with close to 100 pieces of mail, some with postmarks going back to early January. Also one package appearing to contain checks, and another appearing to contain prescription drugs, addressed to people on the other side of town. And a half-filled-out card that said "mail hold" on the top... a mail hold we did not request.

Real effin' impressive.


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## time2time (Jan 8, 2015)

Kiss4aFrog said:


> Time2time, that's how I feel. If you do that poor a job packing it that it can't make it to the destination that should be on you. If it was something properly packed but broken somehow and I chose to not have insurance I would eat it without a problem.
> 
> There was no insurance offered and realistically who's going to insure ten nuts, bolts and spacers ??
> 
> With all the stuff I've sold I've never had a problem with a buyer not getting it or getting it broken. I pack how I'd expect to receive it.


Though ELaw's story was disturbing, I think that statistically, the USPS is good most of the time. For the small % of the time that a loss occurs, this should be considered a cost of doing business for the seller, just like shrinkage, or spoilage for perishables. 

If an item is not worth insuring, it is cheap enough to send a replacement. Most buyers are not trying to get over and steal a few dollars in hardware.


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## UNDERTAKER (Dec 30, 2013)

what do you expect it is government in action there BROTHER FROG. they do not break the backs to work that is for sure.


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## Big Ed (Feb 10, 2013)

Kiss4aFrog said:


> So ... needed a shear pin for a Murray. The type with the space on one side so I ordered a packet of them.
> Received the empty packet this afternoon with a good sized tear 3"+ at each end. Took it to the post office and since it wasn't insured that just my tough luck.
> 
> I really hate the post office.


*Are they shear pin # 9524 MA? With the spacer and nut?
Length 1 3/4" threads 1/4 x 20?
Did you get them off e bay for $15.98?

I just got 10 but I chose another seller, I paid $16.97.

The reason I chose to pay more was the feedback of the cheaper seller.
Some said poor packing, parts missing or hanging out. Among other things, and he did not reply to none.
*
My seller had a few red dots too, but he responded and some of the red dots you could tell was from an _ss. Some buyers blame the seller say if they order a wrong part or something stupid. But he did have better feedback than the other seller that is why I chose to pay the buck more.
I got home and the shear pins were there. In a bubble envelope, inside had 2 heavy plastic bags of 5 each.
I got mine from Georgia,* where did yours come from Indiana? *

I was tracking another package at the same time of trains worth $100. They were moving on the same time frame as the shear pins.

Now I go on the computer to check on the trains it says out for delivery.
I waited till 7pm after looking out the window every 15 mins for a box. All of the sudden it changed from out for delivery to *delivered!* 
Until I got home I also had 2 kids watching for the box of trains. I took over at 4pm.
No box was there...anywhere and it says delivered!
I track everything I get and it never said delivered till after I got it.

I amazingly got customer service at USPS at 7:30 pm and she started a claim/investigation. 

Well the next day it was delivered, since it was 2 day priority mail I think they just marked it as delivered knowing that they would deliver it the next day. The next day would have been the third day, what were they doing trying to save face?

I am still waiting for the results of their "investigation".

I normally never have a problem, but no matter who delivers they all just toss and run! It doesn't matter if there is over $500 sitting in the box and it calls for a signature they all just toss and run! USPS UPS and FEDEX.
My UPS guy used to get everything signed, but they transferred him to an industrial route as they said he was taking too long for his residential route. After that they all just toss and run!
My bro delivers for UPS and he tells me all about how management works.

I worked for this man 20 years ago who bought all his employees a big smoked ham for Christmas and had it delivered by UPS. It was a big ham must have cost him $75 bucks or more back then to have it sent. One day a bunch were thanking him for the ham. This was 4 days after they had got it. I asked him what were they thanking him for and he said for the ham he sent out. He asked if I enjoyed mine. I said I never got one! He said he had confirmation that it was delivered 4 days ago.
I went home that night and looked all over the front of the house under the bushes and in the snow piles. It was not there. 

Now.....my back yard is fenced in with a locked gate somehow the guy jumped my fence and put it by the back door. I NEVER GO OUT MY BACK DOOR ALL WINTER, not even to shovel! There sitting on a 2 foot high snow pile and under 1 foot of fresh snow was my ham!
Good thing I heard them thanking him or it would have not been found till spring. One thing good it was packed with dry ice and from sitting in all the snow was just like sitting in a freezer. It was still good.


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## Coby7 (Nov 6, 2014)

POWERSHIFT93 said:


> what do you expect it is government in action there BROTHER FROG. they do not break the backs to work that is for sure.


Not sure your quote is justified, most of these people are regular folks like me and you and do the best they can with what they have. If a parcel is shredded through the mechanical sorting it is not the employees fault. It is because the shipper didn't wrap or package the parcel properly. Again in 35 years I've never had a damaged parcel or failure of delivery with Canada Post or USPS and I ship to US 2 or 3 times a week. Proper packaging is the key.


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## brickcity (Jan 23, 2014)

I think usps and all the big private companies mentioned do a great job getting a box delivered to my house from a thousand miles away.
had a few damaged boxes delivered but even then the product was in good shape. 
if product damaged i was always able to get satisfaction from the seller.


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## RoyP (Oct 16, 2014)

time2time said:


> I always feel that 'title' for anything ordered belongs to the seller until i receive it. The seller is responsible for getting the item into the buyer's hands (not merely claiming an effort to do so). If you paid by credit card, you do have leverage. I would contact the seller and let them know that the package arrived damaged, and that you notified the post office.
> 
> I recently ordered a belt from a seller on Amazon. It did not arrive, even though the USPS site said it was delivered. I contacted the seller and explained that packages are often mis-delivered here by the USPS. I politely but firmly requested that they complete the order by sending a replacement. They were not happy, but they did so (and i gave them good feedback for making things right).


Just a little off base: This reminds me of a friend, now deceased. He regularlly had medicine delivered by UPS, it was in a cooler box, needed to be kept refrigerated. On the day he was expecting it, it did not arrive. The VA told him it was shipped, UPS said they delivered it. A UPS supervisor found it was left on the steps of a vacant house down the street. Of course, after his 2nd delivery arrived. No one seems to care


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## RoyP (Oct 16, 2014)

time2time said:


> Though ELaw's story was disturbing, I think that statistically, the USPS is good most of the time. For the small % of the time that a loss occurs, this should be considered a cost of doing business for the seller, just like shrinkage, or spoilage for perishables.
> 
> If an item is not worth insuring, it is cheap enough to send a replacement. Most buyers are not trying to get over and steal a few dollars in hardware.


Unless you have seen what a USPS or UPS package has to go through. You have no idea......I hauled US Mail from Kearney NJ to Albany NY for years. The Kearney NJ mail sorting facility had over 100 miles of belts moving over head to move packages from inbound to the outbound trailers.


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## ELaw (Feb 4, 2015)

Coby7 said:


> ...most of these people are regular folks like me and you and do the best they can with what they have.


In general I agree with that sentiment, and I really do try to give people the benefit of the doubt... I don't get things right 100.0% of the time and I don't expect others to either.

And the truth is, 90% of the time I don't have any problem with the USPS. But when they screw up they seem to screw up badly, like in the case I mentioned. Or the numerous times they've left a slip claiming to have attempted to deliver a package when clearly they hadn't. And by "numerous" I don't mean once or twice, it's probably happened 30 or 40 times in the 12 years we've been at this address.

In cases like that I'm much less inclined to forgive what happened because 1) it wasn't a mistake, it was a deliberate action and 2) they lied about what they did.

In my job I might deliberately not do something because I ran out of time or something - but if I ever lied about it, I'd be fired on the spot.


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## time2time (Jan 8, 2015)

RoyP said:


> Unless you have seen what a USPS or UPS package has to go through. You have no idea......I hauled US Mail from Kearney NJ to Albany NY for years. The Kearney NJ mail sorting facility had over 100 miles of belts moving over head to move packages from inbound to the outbound trailers.


Once upon a time I did field service, and one of my accounts was on the floor of a mail processing facility in Mt Vernon, NY. I have worked in other (non-mail) factories, and have seen what happens on a factory floor- take a problem and multiply it times 100 with the magic of mechanical automation. (Ironically, I now live within a stone's throw of the Kearny facility you mentioned.)

If USPS handled over 100 billion pieces of mail and lost one tenth of one percent, that would be over 100 million pieces lost. Let's add another 200 million damaged. (The opened envelope at the beginning of this post has likely not been documented as a problem with USPS.) That is a small %, but leaves room for incredibly large mistakes.

It reminds me of flying- statistically, you are far safer than driving, but if you are in the miniscule % that experiences a crash, that fact is of little comfort. (Yet, if you crashed your car on the way to the airport, you would not think twice about the fact that driving is so much more dangerous than flying.) People are funny; we are very selective about what we note, and what we let pass.

If the post office were to eventually be privatized, I could see everyone looking back at the 'good old days' of the USPS today.


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## ELaw (Feb 4, 2015)

time2time said:


> If the post office were to eventually be privatized, I could see everyone looking back at the 'good old days' of the USPS today.


That I completely agree with!

In spite of my frustration with their occasional screwups, they deliver incredible value for what you pay in many cases. The most obvious one being the cost of mailing a letter - they charge $0.49 for a service that from UPS or Fedex would cost $7.00.


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## dhazelton (Dec 8, 2014)

Don't know how a bubble pack envelope is considered 'poor packaging.' I get stuff from Amazon like that all the time with zero issues. I've really limited how much I use ebay because so many sellers are just mom and pops and don't want to make good on undelivered or incorrectly described goods. Better to buy through Amazon and have at least a little bit of recourse.


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## Biketrax (Jan 28, 2015)

time2time said:


> If you paid by credit card, you do have leverage. I would contact the seller and let them know.


Call the credit card company, they will do the leg work for you.
I am not sure what pay pal will do, if you paid that way.


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## Kiss4aFrog (Nov 3, 2013)

dhazelton said:


> Don't know how a bubble pack envelope is considered 'poor packaging.'


Bubble pack wasn't the problem. It was a small heavy metal product that appears to have been in a small bag tossed into the bubble pack envelope with no buffering material around it. When it got tossed around as you know they will the package stopped but the bolts kept going  

Bubble pack at the end of the flap where there is only the thickness of the paper flap itself is what has a tear big enough for my product to fall out of. They should have added one or two sheets of crumpled paper to position the bolts to they wouldn't be shifting back and forth or get close to the paper and rip it. At least tape over the flap to give it a little extra strength. But no clue if they packed it or it's a drop shipment location.

I finally did get a response and they are going to resend. The seller was Castobc and they have over 8K sales and a 99.2% positive feedback.

They have their share of nasty feedback (didn't look before I ordered) but so far I don't have any complaints as time is on my side, no snow.
And you never know with complaints who that person is complaining or if they ordered the right thing in the first place, are trying to get a free second one or if anything on earth would make them happy.


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## Coby7 (Nov 6, 2014)

I always fold the bubble envelope a ½" before the flap so this doesn't happen. I ship key FOBs by the ½dozen every week and so far for the pass 4 years they have all made it to their destination from British Columbia to Calafornia to Florida to NewFoundland and everywhere in between.


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## Kiss4aFrog (Nov 3, 2013)

And that's the thing. A key fob doesn't really have enough weight to break it's way out the package.
If I was doing it I would likely tape the package of bolts to a chunk of cardboard so it couldn't shift around. Not that much trouble and saves a lot of trouble.


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## RoyP (Oct 16, 2014)

I ordered shear pins, for auger & impeller drive shaft. Mine arrived in great condition, all were there. I believe mine came in the white plastic bag or whatever it is. Can't barely tear it, or cut it. However they were in a plastic bag within the white shipping bag. 

It's very possible that your package got caught in the machinery within the post office.


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## Kiss4aFrog (Nov 3, 2013)

The supervisor at the local office said it looked like one of the tears was from another package. Apparently it happens enough she has an eye for it !! That's why I think they should have taped it to something a bit bigger that fitted the bubble package.

Now I just hope the second one makes it OK


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## Blue Hill (Mar 31, 2013)

ELaw said:


> That I completely agree with!
> 
> In spite of my frustration with their occasional screwups, they deliver incredible value for what you pay in many cases. The most obvious one being the cost of mailing a letter - they charge $0.49 for a service that from UPS or Fedex would cost $7.00.


I won't order anything from the U.S.A. if it is going to be shipped UPS. They tack on a bogus "brokerage fee" that most times amounts to more than the original shipment is worth, shipping included and I have to pay the extra $35.00 before I can get the shipment. This is after I have already payed up front for the item plus shipping.
I never have that problem when an item is shipped USPS.


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## Coby7 (Nov 6, 2014)

That's happened to me, if the only way they'll ship it is UPS, I don't buy it. I returned the last package and asked for a full refund which the seller did after receiving his merchandise back. I believe the item plus shipping was something like 17 or 18 dollars US and UPS wanted $35 Cdn for brokerage fees. Thank You McKenna for negotiating this deal for UPS and screwing the little guy.


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## knu2xs (Jan 6, 2015)

Kiss4aFrog said:


> Now I just hope the second one makes it OK


I can relate.......... 

Last week I received a Beach / Pier Fishing Cart, via UPS, that they (UPS) did a real number on while getting it here. 
This is a big box that weighs close to 40 lbs. that looked like it got caught somewhere in their conveyer system. 
On top of that there were footprints on the box. 

It took me a whole roll of packaging tape just to get the box suitable for return. 

According to UPS tracking my "second cart" will be here by the end of the day so I have my fingers crossed.


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## Kiss4aFrog (Nov 3, 2013)

I know the UPS guys are under the gun. I know they toss stuff into the truck and I can pack around that and I can live with it.
BUT, footprints ... I'd be waving that package in someone's face and uttering things only Marines say during a firefight.








If the truck is that poorly packed he has to walk on my package to get to Fred or Gingers package maybe it's time for them to use drones 

Might need to be a tad bigger to haul 40lbs though


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## Shryp (Jan 1, 2011)

Just remember one thing. A minimum of at least 10-15 UPS employees have to touch your package before it gets to your driver. Don't take it out on your driver, because often times it isn't his footprints. I work in a medium sized UPS hub and I see that kind of thing all the time. It happens with very large boxes a lot because the way they get loaded into the semi trucks makes it kind of hard to get to all the other boxes on top of them without standing on something.


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## Big Ed (Feb 10, 2013)

But then again there are others who don't give a crap.
Not all but some.
(note, my brother delivers for UPS)
UPS, FedEx or USPS.












SOME FUNNY ONES IN THIS ONE.


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