[Admin edit] AND will USPS pay for damage w/o ins?

[Hammerdrake]

[Admin edit - no naming names outside of BTR's. Next time I will just delete the whole post]
Okay, I've got two trades going poorly at this time and need some more help from the community.

I set up and agreed to a trade with [Admin edit]. We communicated frequently, he was very polite, had plenty of refences, and we agreed to a trade of items. I shipped first and recived the following from him on Thurs, 3 Mar:

Hey received your package, everything looks great! Im gonna try to ship your package out tomorrow. Cheers!

I send him a PM on Mon, 7 Mar, looking for a DC. I have not heard from him since. He was last on 2 something on the 7th, I PMd him around 5 that night. The PM is still in my outbox.

Anyone know him? Any suggestions? He's a BTown Regular rank and been trading since 2009, but he does have one negative.


Secondly, I just recieved a package shipped from another trade. I sent 2 40k Codex's (not yet delivered) and was sent 2 Warhammer faction books. Only 1 arrived in the package. I had recommended Media Mail. The bag arrived severely damaged. Only 1 faction book arrived in the package. Looks like one end was ripped off, then taped around in Priority Mail tape. It has a stamp on it that say's it was recieved "In Damaged Condition," which at first I thought just meant that he had used a bad-shape envelope. But, it's marked Medial Mail and I know the USPS never allows their Priority Mail tape on anything but Priority Mail. That fact combined with the fact that the USPS tape is over the postage sticker, clearly indicates that it was damaged in transit. Do I have any chance of recovering the book or $$ from USPS on this? I don't plan to pursue the matter with the sender for a variety of reasons, but if I can get something back from USPS I'll try!

Thanks!

[MagickalMemories]

Sorry, but nobody is going to be able to help you on the first guy. You canNOT name him publicly like that. Not in a complaint type thread.

As for your second issue... You should work it out with the sender. USPS isn't going to pay a claim if insurance isn't purchased. My stance is that it's the sender's responsibility to get the package to you in good condition. This means protecting the contents of the package in whatever way he can. Unless he gave YOU the option to buy insurance or accept the responsibility, he needs to step up to the bat.

Eric

[Hammerdrake]

Okay, thanks and sorry. Should I start a BTR then? Or give him more time?

The sender has offered to step up, he's done his part. I was just wondering if there was anything I could do with the USPS, sounds like not much.

[kturock]

You buy a car. You drive it off the lot and get into an accident. Try calling your insurance company and get them to pay for the car.

Now, in your case, you & he hired someone to drive the car from him to you. Neither of you bought insurance to cover the trip. The car gets totaled, or at least damaged, by a tree falling on it.

Who's gonna pay to repair it?

[Hammerdrake]

You buy a car. You drive it off the lot and get into an accident. Try calling your insurance company and get them to pay for the car.

Now, in your case, you & he hired someone to drive the car from him to you. Neither of you bought insurance to cover the trip. The car gets totaled, or at least damaged, by a tree falling on it.

Who's gonna pay to repair it?

Bad analogy, but to finish it up: The US Gov't Office in charge of tree removal that pushed the tree onto my car should pay to repair the damage they caused. In general, I expect someone that causes damage through negligence to pay for it.

However, I get that I'm fighting a losing battle here. It just drives me crazy that you have to insure your package to protect it from the people you are paying to transport it. I get the lack of coverage for broken items that were in appropriately packaged, but the USPS should cover damage that they do through carelessness.

I have a dream that I will show up tomorrow to complain and they'll say "Oh that's were this book belonged, here you go...."

[kturock]

You buy a car. You drive it off the lot and get into an accident. Try calling your insurance company and get them to pay for the car.

Now, in your case, you & he hired someone to drive the car from him to you. Neither of you bought insurance to cover the trip. The car gets totaled, or at least damaged, by a tree falling on it.

Who's gonna pay to repair it?

Bad analogy, but to finish it up: The US Gov't Office in charge of tree removal that pushed the tree onto my car should pay to repair the damage they caused. In general, I expect someone that causes damage through negligence to pay for it.

However, I get that I'm fighting a losing battle here. It just drives me crazy that you have to insure your package to protect it from the people you are paying to transport it. I get the lack of coverage for broken items that were in appropriately packaged, but the USPS should cover damage that they do through carelessness.

I have a dream that I will show up tomorrow to complain and they'll say "Oh that's were this book belonged, here you go...."

The book wasn't packed properly to protect it during handling.

To continue the analogy, the guy you hired wasn't an experienced driver. A tree fell and he ran into it.

If you pack a piece of glass in a box, and insure it, if it isn't packed properly and it breaks, you still don't get paid.

You buy car insurance to pay YOU if you drive into a tree.
You buy life insurance to pay you if die from eating poorly & not exercising.
You buy house insurance to pay you when you set your house on fire.

None of them will pay you if you miss a payment and you coverage lapses.

If the item in the package isn't worth the $2-3 to cover the price of insurance, it's not worth the time to complain online or in person.

[nightshade_eyes]

Bottom line is the USPS isn't private industry so isn't responsible for their actions.

But...

People on BT really need to learn how to prep a package for mailing so it doesn't fall apart in transit.

[kturock]

Bottom line is the USPS isn't private industry so isn't responsible for their actions.

But...

People on BT really need to learn how to prep a package for mailing so it doesn't fall apart in transit.

You're kinda wrong about that.

USPS is now partailly NOT a government agency. The postmaster was charged by George W. to start converting it over.
Look at the website. It's .com, not .gov.

And private industry isn't responsible for action either.

If you hired any common carier; UPS, Fed-Ex or any other who might still be in business; and you didn't buy insurance, you're still at fault. [some moving companies are now offering insurance in case they damge or something gets damged, while they are transporting it.]

Now, if you did get insurance, and it was, say on an airplane that 'landed on the Hudson River' USPS would pay for it. Even though, through no fault of theirs, you item got destroyed or damaged. [and btw, EVERY comercial airplane has mail on it.]