I also sell used books on Half.com. I mailed a book in a DIM shop. As you know, the boxes are huge. Well, today I got the box back heavily damaged. I opened it up and it was full of stuff I did not send to the recipient. There was a note stating she mailed it back assuming I mailed it to the wrong person. I am assuming the box opened in transit, the contents spilled out, and the postal worker filled it with stuff they thought went in the box(from another opened box?). So, my customer did not get their book and I am now the proud owner of some truly crappy gifts. The only silver lining is there was a sweater from Macy's still with the tag. I am taking it to Macy's today in hopes that they give me some decent store credit. Maybe I'll make more in credit than the cost of my book I had to refund. :/

Maybe you got my present for my Dad! Take a look, please. It's about a hundred collectible coins with sentiments written on them. Either that, or some $%#^&^ who was a holiday hire spent them at face value. I HATE the post office. I was in a hurry so didn't drive to FedEx. And insurance? I have never, ever yet been able to collect, even when packing in front of the postal employee and videotaping the mailing. Insurance just shows the thieves which packages to open first.

No, they were not coins. They were items you can pick up at the dollar store....and the Macy's sweater. I am sorry for your loss in a truly great gift.

I hope you at least tried to find the rightful owner by reporting it to the postal inspector.

I have personally have had nothing but a superior service from USPS - including collecting on insurance in the two cases I had where the packages were lost (out of dozens). If you fill out the form claims correctly, you will get your $$ in a matter of a week or so, in my experience.

Yeah, I don't know how this would work out in terms of insurance, since the OP had the package returned from the recipient. Does the insurance cover it if the package is returned by the person who received it?

I applied for and got my insurance and also my mailing fees when my dim weight package was never delivered. I had to appeal the decision all the way to the postmaster general but once my application got there they approved it right away. It did take weeks to do the three appeals. You need to keep the damaged box and the contents to prove to the post office what happened. In my case the box never arrived although the post office claimed they delivered it. They ask for receipts or else you can send them an internet picture of what was inside the box along with an advertised price. They will reimburse for both the contents and the postage. If the recipient returned it to you I doubt that is an issue if they used the post office to do that so there is a record of that as well and any post office stamps or labels on the box. Good luck.
I also sent my two kids their holiday gifts in flat rate boxes as there were no dim weight shops at Chanukah. They both arrived but my son's box was destroyed and then taped together. The wrapping paper was off a few of his gifts but they were all intact. My daughter, in a different state, also got a destroyed box. Hers was also intact on the inside. The boxes say you can put up to 70 lbs in them. They were quite heavy I thought at around 10 pounds each and broke open. I cannot imagine how those boxes could hold 70 pounds. They seem to have issues around the holidays. All my boxes at other times of the year were fine.

Sorry, I am going to go a little off topic here, but this reminded me of a damage box I received.

My niece sent me this wonderful (I am pretty sure it was) box of bakery she thought I would like. The nice mailman, opened my gate and set it by my back door. When I got home from work, the box was lying on the ground and there was a hole in the side. The box was completely EMPTY.

I found all the packaging, next to my dog, who was pleasantly sleeping in the heated garage (that has a doggy door to the outside). He ate everything that was inside the box, except the packaging paper. I never even got a crumb!

And Fed Ex left a package sitting outside my house on a bench which is just feet from the well traveled sidewalk and under a light yesterday. It contained an expensive piece of electronics I had ordered. My husband was home all day. They did not even bother to ring the bell. It was surprising it was still there at 8PM when I got home.
I do not think any of the package delivery companies are doing the right thing. I understand it is probably cheaper for them to drop and run and settle a few claims but getting my money back if it had been stolen would not have been so fast and easy from my point of view.

I did my first DIM shop this month. The box got to the sender, but it got there 6 days after I mailed it. It was supposed to be 2-3.

I once got home and found a box on my front porch from my "secret santa" gift exchange from a chat room I was involved with. I opened the box and was confused to find a cardboard cone and some green foil pieces in the box. Upon closer inspection, I found the hole in the box. The squirrels had found the box with a Christmas tree made with green foil wrapped Hershey Kisses and had stolen all the chocolate. They must have worked for hours pulling all the chocolate kisses off the cardboard cone, taking one away and then kept coming back for more. I laughed so hard and had a great story for days.

@Chix wrote:

If you fill out the form claims correctly, you will get your $$ in a matter of a week or so, in my experience.

I'm glad it worked for you. In several cases for me, it has not. I'm guessing they pay the inexpensive claims and find a way around the others. FedEx has been wonderful for me; USPS, the opposite.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/01/2016 09:51PM by PasswordNotFound.

If I was a real customer who paid $35 to send a package, plus the cost of what was missing inside, I would definitely try to get my money back from USPS. But, since it was a shop where I am getting reimbursed the $35 anyway, I would feel like I'm double dipping by trying to get my shipping cost back. Plus, my receipt might flag me as the shopper and I don't want to risk losing future shops with the MSC by trying to double dip. The missing book from inside the box only cost me .25. I sold it for 6.50. So, really, I'm only out .25 and the potential profit of 6.25

There is a reason my fiance sends me packages via the USPS taped top to bottom in duct tape! I always know the silver boxes are from him!

Technically the USPS is not to accept boxes with duct tape FYI. I know they do but heads up only.

@fyrekittyn wrote:

There is a reason my fiance sends me packages via the USPS taped top to bottom in duct tape! I always know the silver boxes are from him!

@sandyf wrote:

I also sent my two kids their holiday gifts in flat rate boxes as there were no dim weight shops at Chanukah. They both arrived but my son's box was destroyed and then taped together. The wrapping paper was off a few of his gifts but they were all intact. My daughter, in a different state, also got a destroyed box. Hers was also intact on the inside. The boxes say you can put up to 70 lbs in them. They were quite heavy I thought at around 10 pounds each and broke open. I cannot imagine how those boxes could hold 70 pounds. They seem to have issues around the holidays. All my boxes at other times of the year were fine.

I sent their large mostly square flat rate boxes filled to the brim to Iraq (my fiance was deployed) every other week for a year. He got every single one of them intact.

@CANADAMOMMY wrote:

Technically the USPS is not to accept boxes with duct tape FYI. I know they do but heads up only.

@fyrekittyn wrote:

There is a reason my fiance sends me packages via the USPS taped top to bottom in duct tape! I always know the silver boxes are from him!

This specifically does not prohibit duct tape, though it does suggest other forms of tape.

[pe.usps.com]

That's interesting, quite a few of the post offices I visited over the past few months had signs up for holiday shipping with a list things that should not be used to secure boxes, and duct tape was on the list. It caught my attention because I'd never thought of using duct tape.

@fyrekittyn wrote:

@CANADAMOMMY wrote:

Technically the USPS is not to accept boxes with duct tape FYI. I know they do but heads up only.

@fyrekittyn wrote:

There is a reason my fiance sends me packages via the USPS taped top to bottom in duct tape! I always know the silver boxes are from him!

This specifically does not prohibit duct tape, though it does suggest other forms of tape.

[pe.usps.com]

I have been at a USPS and heard them tell a customer they could not accept his box with duct tape on it.

I was curious today based upon this thread, and asked at USPS and was told that they would not accept packages sealed with duct tape. I am curious as to why, but rules are rules.

@myst4au wrote:

I was curious today based upon this thread, and asked at USPS and was told that they would not accept packages sealed with duct tape. I am curious as to why, but rules are rules.

From what I understand, the duct tape can gum up their machinery more than regular tape.

I've been 'yelled at' or otherwise spoken harshly to, by USPS employees more than once when I used the only tape that I could find to seal a package - which was duct tape. With a sour face, they usually put clear or Priority tape over it. I do know however, because I was once told, that I cannot use masking tape because it does not have enough adhesive to last through the shipping process.

I have mailed many priority mail packages, most of them NOT for a mystery shop. I have always put just my street address, city, state and zip code for the return address, without a name. Yesterday for the first time ever, I was told that I had to have at least a last name in the return address or the clerk could not accept the package. Very odd.

Delizzy

Hi Everyone - I am severely challenged by sending items which are DIM. I donate a lot - and smaller boxes are a non-issue. But, I can not in good conscience send such a large box containing usually only one item. When it was the DC FB it was a non-issue. Now I am at a loss. I do not have anyone to ship to in zone 5. Are there any suggestions that anyone has? I like doing DIM's and would hate to lose them over this issue? I assume the DC FB would prefer to no longer deal with these mammoth boxes? Any ideas?

@hackwid, it is not necessary to say the same thing on several threads....we will see it!
Thanks

@hackwid wrote:

Hi Everyone - I am severely challenged by sending items which are DIM. I donate a lot - and smaller boxes are a non-issue. But, I can not in good conscience send such a large box containing usually only one item. When it was the DC FB it was a non-issue. Now I am at a loss. I do not have anyone to ship to in zone 5. Are there any suggestions that anyone has? I like doing DIM's and would hate to lose them over this issue? I assume the DC FB would prefer to no longer deal with these mammoth boxes? Any ideas?

There is a thread about post office buddies somewhere that was started 6 months or so ago. See if you can find it with the search tool.

I replied with suggestions on the other thread. One question per forum seems like a better idea than same question on multiple threads.

I do not use the post office to send packages because anything I have sent using them including overnight delivery arrives late. My overnight delivery items have arrive four day to ten days late. Letters sent from my local post office have been three months or so getting to their destination leaving me hearing from collection agencies. One time my property taxes arrived late taking three weeks to get to a local address.. Letters sent that need a signature from the person involved end up in my mail box and as a result of tlhis I had the police show up at my door looking for someone who did not live there any more at 7:00 in the morning to arrest him. I still get letters for people who no longer live at my address even though the local post office has been informed of the fact that they no longer live there