Does anyone know what would happen if a package mailed Priority USPS is damaged? The receipt claims the contents are a lithium battery BUT in reality the contents are a childs' sweater and a box of cookies? Do I cut my loses or file a claim for the actual loss? Forgive me if this was discussed already.

I would certainly cut my losses rather than disclose that I had lied about the package contents.

@Rho* wrote:

Does anyone know what would happen if a package mailed Priority USPS is damaged? The receipt claims the contents are a lithium battery BUT in reality the contents are a childs' sweater and a box of cookies? Do I cut my loses or file a claim for the actual loss? Forgive me if this was discussed already.

Is this a hypothetical question? Or has a package been damaged while in transit as part of a shop?

Many guidelines state that routine problems with a meal / purchase / stay / whatever should be handled as a customer normally would do. If there are no pickles on your sandwich you ask for pickles. Many also say that major or catastrophic issues - things that might otherwise demand a full refund - should be handled through the MSC so your identity isn't revealed in the process. This sounds like the latter not the former.

Assuming the discrepancy between receipt and actual contents exist only because of the requirements of the shop I think you're stuck with working it out via the MSC. Marching in to the location with your receipt and trying to explain that discrepancy away is not going to go far AND will reveal you as a shopper.

I am not sure I like your odds regardless of method used. Even under ideal circumstances USPS seems to follow the Ferengi First Rule of Acquistion: Once you have their money, you never give it back.

Good luck getting this MSC to be responsive.

Ah, A Star Trek reference!



So, what was damaged? A box of cookies? Why would anyone put in a claim for a box of cookies? Someone mailed you a child's sweater worth $50?

Anyway, claims are now done totally on-line. If you did not throw away the package. IIRC, you have to submit a photo of the damaged packaging. I'm not sure, but I THINK the SENDER has to send the claim, not the recipient. So, keep the packaging, notify the sender of the damage, let them decide whether to submit a claim.

I think the OP was the sender. At least that was my impression. But I think it's going to be impossible to submit the claim since it was a hazmat shop and the box did not contain what the receipt stated it was.

I recently filed a claim online for a package I sent to a friend in Florida that was delivered to the empty house next door. It contained candy for her kids and by the time they found it, it was full of ants. It was a regular box shop. I was able to submit a claim online, providing receipts for the contents purchased, and I was sent a check pretty quickly.

I would never try to do that for a Hazmat shop. You would have to have a receipt for a lithium battery that you purchased in order to submit a claim.

Interesting. Back in my eBay days the recipient had to present the carton and damaged contents at the post office to get the claim verified there was damage and I forget what all I had to do but I do remember being royally p*ssed that although the buyer's purchase price was returned to me to refund her, the postage was not refunded and the buyer expected that to be reimbursed to her as well.

Similarly, I paid out of my pocket for priority mail with tracking to send our passports for renewal. They got lost in the system. They did show up a couple of weeks later but there was no refund for the 'guaranteed delivery' that was supposed to be within 2-3 days.

I am glad that the post office has seen the error of their ways and took steps to rectify the issues, Flash. That stinks you weren't compensated appropriately, though.

"Is this a hypothetical question? Or has a package been damaged while in transit as part of a shop?"

Hypothetical
I ship 18-32 oz. care packages to relatives with things like sweaters, food, books etc.
note to self---don't ship anything I can't replace on my own.

Yes the sender needs to file the claim.

They used to have shops that would have all 'no' to the Hazmat questions. Those I used to ship 'care packages' to my kids and they could have been pursued with the insurance if there was a problem. My kids knew their packages were the product of shops and if I had had a Hazmat to be answered 'yes' I probably would have sent a can of baked beans.

They still have regular box shops, too. Now $50 insurance and tracking are included with priority.

I put in a claim once several years ago. I called the scheduler and asked permission and was told to go for it. It was with the previous msc so I am not sure what this one would do. It was one of those dimsum boxes so I had quite a bit in it. I was asked for receipts and/or photos of the things in the box. I did not have receipts for all of it and sent photos off the website of where I made the purchases I had no or totally faded receipts per the post office instructions. Generally I pick up sale items for holiday gifts way in advance as i find them so that is what was in my box. Anyway the not only reimbursed me for the contents but also for the postage. I was able to replace all the sale items in the box at retail price since the postage was quite a bit and was also refunded by the msc.
This was not a hazmat shop but when I have been allowed to ship hazmat packages it has never said what was in my box on my receipt or even that I had declared hazmat.

It's usually some of the approved shippers like the UPS store who put the box contents on the receipts.

Every time I go to the UPS store they tell me my Priority mail shipment does not include tracking or insurance and my package could take a week to ten days. Then they charge me double or triple the post office price.
Sometimes they are handing over the tracking number to me while they speak. Then I go home and worry I will not be reimbursed the entire amt until the day my payment is approved. This only happens to me at UPS, not at the other approved shippers. I have always gotten the full reimbursement but it has been questioned once.
I have stopped doing the UPS stores as it is too much aggravation.

In my experience, only,y third-party shippers such as UPS out the contents on the receipt. The USPS does not. No matter which shipper accepte3d it for shipment by Priority Mail, they should not have done so, but they did. My advice to ask the MSC. Since the shop guidelines allow you to actually buy "ecess" insurance (not reimbursed), there is IMHO an implicit assumption that claims against insurance sometimes are going to be filed.

I just wish some of the jobs would do a follow up question about whether, how fast, in what shape the package arrived at the other end. Of course they could pay a few dollars more and those who ship to family or someone they know could take those jobs and make it a closed loop.

Actually, I think that they already know. You provide the tracking number, and they can then automatically determine the delivery time in a totally automated manner if they want. Every package (and every letter) is photographed as it moves through the postal system (if you have signed up for Informed Delivery, you get an email every day with photos of your mail). So, there is no need to pay anyone on the receiving end - the automated system knows everything already. One simple computer program for sucking up the data, and they have it if they want it.

@sandyf wrote:

I just wish some of the jobs would do a follow up question about whether, how fast, in what shape the package arrived at the other end. Of course they could pay a few dollars more and those who ship to family or someone they know could take those jobs and make it a closed loop.

I doubt they have someone looking through the millions of pics of packages that go by or even have some computerized program to alert them if a package or its contents are or more likely look damaged. Yes they could do that, but do they? They could also have a camera on the exterior and interior of every post office so they can see if the flag is flying, or the interior is messy and they could have customers fill in a short survey as they leave to say whether or not they thought service was good and or fast. It would save us rate payers a lot of money.

We type in the tracking number in the report. It would be easy for an automated program to extract those numbers, and to calculate the delivery time by tracking number (you can do it online for batches of 20 packages using the USPS online tools - you do have to "manually subtract days and times, however). No need for any human intervention. Collect the data automatically. Use a simple data program to calculate the percentage delivered early, on-time, and late. As far as damaged packages, if they want to identify them in photographs, they could use AI to do it. There are automated programs to identify burned potato chips on conveyer belts and then blow them off the line with a puff of air - I have seen them in potato chip factories. Have you seen the IBM TV ad that shows identifying wild animals using AI? These days, there is no need for "someone" to scan millions of pics. Is AI perfect? No. Is it good enough? Probably, and getting better.

As far as identifying early, on-time, and late packages, that is truly trivial. I have personally done it for thousands of shipments using Excel and for millions of customer call center calls using Minitab.

By the way, they already use a customer survey. The clerks are supposed to circle the survey request on the bottom of each receipt.

@sandyf wrote:

I doubt they have someone looking through the millions of pics of packages that go by or even have some computerized program to alert them if a package or its contents are or more likely look damaged. Yes they could do that, but do they? They could also have a camera on the exterior and interior of every post office so they can see if the flag is flying, or the interior is messy and they could have customers fill in a short survey as they leave to say whether or not they thought service was good and or fast. It would save us rate payers a lot of money.

My son actually wrote a program for computer identification several years ago so I am aware of these programs and I am a retired statistician in a field that cares for actual people. You would be amazed at the junk the big data computers throw out into the world. It is not usually the computers fault however, but garbage in, garbage out and a lack of understanding by those viewing or even doing the programming and even those who are the managers requesting input of things that make no sense to those with feet on the ground. The human touch sometimes is the best..hence mystery shoppers with real people.
When my packages got lost in the delivery stage the post office assured me that my package was delivered. However, I assume they dropped it off in a conspicuous place on a busy street during a holiday season on a Sunday when they said delivery would be Monday and during a time when the po did not normally deliver on Sundays. They told me that it may in fact be sitting on a shelf somewhere in any city since it could not be found. It took a person to follow up to find that it was not delivered correctly. That person was me and not a post office employee. There are also many packages I have sent by the alternate post office places where they tell me it could take up to 7 days for the triple the 2 day rate...Since it is so easy to track these things I wonder why they continue to operate that way.
As a customer of the post office I would much rather my package was delivered correctly and on time in good condition than the clerk made small talk with me and said have a nice day. All are important tho.

Sandy - As someone who has trained thousands of employees in using Minitab to do statistical data analysis, I am sure that I could join you to exchange many stories involving "garbage in, garbage out". UPS has begun using GPS locators on their scanners. Put the package at the door, then scan it using GPS. That theoretically addresses the issue of leaving the package at the wrong address. I don't think that USPS does that yet. FedEx does it in selected neighborhoods around here to prove delivery.

I believe there is a shop done once a year or so through a different MSC that is about first class shipping times.

Not if you are not claiming the battery was damaged. Other items can be or could have been in the box.

@JASFLALMT wrote:

I would never try to do that for a Hazmat shop. You would have to have a receipt for a lithium battery that you purchased in order to submit a claim.

Are you suggesting that someone should lie to file a claim?

When I filed the claim online for the package I sent to a friend (not a hazmat shop) that got damaged, I had to submit receipts for the items that were in the package. They will not allow you to file a claim without receipts. So if you are claiming that the non-existent battery was damaged, you would need to have proof of purchase for it.

If someone was sending other items along with a lithium battery in a box, they wouldn't be likely to be able keep the weight between 1-2 pounds.

@ShoppingDad wrote:

Not if you are not claiming the battery was damaged. Other items can be or could have been in the box.

@JASFLALMT wrote:

I would never try to do that for a Hazmat shop. You would have to have a receipt for a lithium battery that you purchased in order to submit a claim.

Since we are not supposed to have a lithium battery in the box you should have only other items. If the regular post office ships the box there is no notation anywhere that you shipped a battery based on jobs I did so it seems it would be okay to file a claim for damage if the msc says it is okay.
If you are going to an APC? or any of those other letters that are not official post offices where they might list what was in the box it is probably best not to put in anything where you don't mind losing it if it gets damaged.

The OP stated that the receipt shows it was a lithium battery, so it has to be an approved shipper and not the actual post office.

@Rho* wrote:

Does anyone know what would happen if a package mailed Priority USPS is damaged? The receipt claims the contents are a lithium battery BUT in reality the contents are a childs' sweater and a box of cookies? Do I cut my loses or file a claim for the actual loss? Forgive me if this was discussed already.

Yes in this case it was a specific circumstance. My response was to the wider audience. A child's sweater does not weigh much and perhaps a small box of cookies could be packed with a battery. If anyone knows the weight range for different batteries I suppose there is a chance those things could be included in that box. The time I reported a missing box they had no idea what the contents were. With a damaged box they may want to inspect the whole thing. Of course it is very possible the battery in it's original packaging that was protected somewhat by the sweater was fine. If they do not need a pic of all the contents you might try. Otherwise you might have to purchase a battery to show a pic and lie and also claim you sent an illegal item. Was that sweater and cookies worth enough to bother in this case?

At UPS and other approved shippers, they usually don't ask the hazmat questions, but instead ask you specifically what is in the box. You did not say it was a lithium battery, sweater, and cookies, and so the receipt only shows the battery. To file a claim, they would ask why you didn't declare the sweater and cookies at the time you were asked.

They would also think you were nuts to pack cookies with hazardous materials that could contaminate food. And packing the sweater with a potentially flammable lithium battery? Then there is the weight issue...if the package weighed about 2 pounds with the sweater, cookies, and cardboard, they are going to know it was impossible for all three items to be in there or it would have weighed more...