USPS....NOTIFICATION...

[.45colt]

Last August I bought some lead shot from a member here, the box arrived all torn up 25 lbs light, all taped up as if a 6 year old packaged it. I filed a report with the USPS mail recovery had to create an account , with a password . now anyone would know that a 25 lb bag of shot just doesn't go missing or lost .it was stolen.. In the meantime the seller made it right with Me (Thank You). fast forward to today. the USPS notified Me that after 6 months the search has expired. What a joke. .

[vancelw]

USPS is a joke. They have no oversight.
I won't use them if I can avoid it in any way. I make Amazon use FedEx or UPS.
I also refuse to send USPS money orders to pay for anything. They provide zero protection for the buyer.
My current carrier is too lazy to deliver a package to the house. She will lie and say there is no secure area or that a signature is required.

[marlinman93]

UPS and FedEx aren't any different. Got a delivery a year ago from Rotometals in Ca. for 80 lbs. of lead via UPS. I see the box on the porch and pick it up with one hand. Totally empty, with a hole in one end. Lead was either stolen, or it tore open and bars were falling out all along the delivery route. Either way they had to know, but kept sending the box along.

Then there's FedEx. Built a nice solid wood crate to ship a deluxe 1881 Marlin across the US. Glued, and screwed, with reinforcement all around the gun. Put the gun in a gun sock, and screwed the lid on. It arrived on the East Coast with the gun hanging about 1/3rd out of the crate, and the end of the crate missing!

Had a package via USPS that went to Pa. and the buyer got a slip saying it was attempted to be delivered. He got another the next day, but still missed his postman. After that USPS left a note for him to pick it up, as they wouldn't attempt another delivery. Two days later he went to pick it up and they couldn't find it. They said it was returned to the sender. It never got back to me, and they paid the insured amount. A year later it arrived at my door. I called the buyer and he still wanted it, so sent it back a 2nd time with no issues, but to his work place.

They ALL have problems.

[mikld]

Civil Service. BTDT 25+ years. The civil service employees are so "protected" and discipline is difficult so many (most?) times work ethics don't exist. The employee is almost guaranteed a life long job,and the customer is the one to suffer...

[AJMD429]

Last time I shipped a long-gun, I shipped the buttstock in a box I made using 2x4's laid flat with 3/4" plywood screwed to both sides, then the whole thing wrapped in brown paper, and the rest of the gun in a piece of 4" PVC with caps glued on both ends (and enough paper stuffed in each end so the recipient could just saw one end off), and that packed inside a triangular shipping carton.

Aside from arriving almost a week apart for some reason, they arrived unscathed. The packaging was overkill but I had all the scraps in the barn except one end-cap for the PVC, which was cheap, and the triangular carton from the shipping-store wasn't bad. Still a shame you have to do that though.

[Richardx]

A couple of years ago I ordered 50lbs of shot, got home one day and my mailbox was gone!
I found it down in the ditch with the shot box inside with my mail.
Old mail person would put packages on the porch but the new one figured she could put a 50lb box in the mailbox.
I had buy a new mail box and post, thanks USPS.

[crs]

MMM, after musing on why these delivery organizations have similar problems, I concluded that it may be that those organizations have grown to such size that they are not manageable.
Without naming companies, I can think of some very large organizations that seem to operate no better than huge government agencies. They can not fire known problem employees, avoid very ignorant business mistakes, make important business decisions in a timely manner, properly supervise their personnel, etc. They also have big problems with selecting vendors that can and will do a good job. Some of this is due to corruption and doing business with unproven entities, but ???

For example - who was responsible for the billions of dollars spent on the just cancelled California High Speed Rail project? Many experienced and respected transportation experts argued that it was a mistake from the beginning and NOW they are proven right due to the reasons they forecast that it would fail - just another boondoggle to steal the tax payers money once it is in the hands of the government.
We know that the California tax payers lost, but who won? The money trail should be sufficient to put many politicians and vendor personnel in prison. Is there a California prosecutor that will dare to follow that trail?

[Sixgun]

Everyone here has horror stories from ALL companies that deliver and it's not as if we are mailing stuff everyday. A couple of years ago I shipped a NIB Remington 1100 shotgun from first year of production..1964?...anyway, 10 days later the USPS tracking showed it never left a New Jersey depot. A talk with the supervisor led him to investigate it and he called me back, saying they found it in an area where packages are not supposed to be,,,downplaying it.....

What happened was this....a thug hid it waiting to work the midnight shift so the package would grow legs and walk out.---6

I've come to the conclusion that I just will not ship anything of high value anymore. I'll either find a semi local auction or meet face to face. ---6

[fordwannabe]

I am pretty sure the face to face thing works well.

[marlinman93]

Face to face is great, IF you've got a buyer who is knowledgeable, and willing to pay what a gun is worth. I often find that guns I put on my tables at our local collector gun show go unsold, and often not even looked at by most people. The ones who do look are usually just looking out of curiosity, and often tell me they are just looking for that reason, and not to buy.
I usually have to take great guns to places like Denver CGCA show, or other places that take 1-2 days drive to get them sold. Then they sell quickly, and usually at my asking price.
But when I do sell a gun that needs to be shipped, I ALWAYS remove the buttstocks. I don't ship it separately, but I remove them to eliminate the chance of the long package being broken easier, and to keep the OAL down so there's less chance of breakage (which seems to always be at the wrist of a two piece stock). Everything I own and collect in rifles has a 2 piece stock, and they're far more likely to suffer stock damage than a 1 piece stock.
Every time I have to ship a gun for sales, repair, or purchase. I worry from the moment it's turned over to whatever agency ships it, until it arrives and gets opened. It's just like rolling the dice, and occasionally it comes up craps.