USPS strikes again

[dadx3]

So, after searching and finally finding a nice stock for a Smith Corona 1903a3, I worked out a trade for one from Washington state. It arrived with a nice crease in the shipping box, and the beautiful stock is now cracked almost completely through on both sides of the inletting for the action, between the reinforcing pins.

So.... the search continues.

Fortunately, I am not out anything, and the shipper is working on getting his insurance claim with the post office.

 

[mo mauser]

Sorry to hear that. I was very relieved earlier this week that a shipper agreed not to use USPS.

 

[fattboyzz]

 

[cimino289]

Well. Sorry to hear about that.

 

[dakota port]

there's a reason that you can add $5 to their free shipping on many sites to keep your package out of the usps system

the usps will find a way to fit a package in a space smaller then the box

 

[TheGman]

Old luck OP on both insurance abd new find


USPS left an UZI I sold (shipped) at the closed /locked door of a FFL dealer. Luckily owner of the building saw the package and that the store was closed, took it and returned it the following day.

 

[Kahrnut]

Have it shipped in this.

 

[Boz1911]

UPS has broken two rifle stock for me over the years and denied both claims. Looked they used the boxes for pole vaults. Don't waste your money on insurance.

 

[BanjoJohn]

Never have FRAGILE on the box, this means stomp and run over with the truck to USPS mail handlers.

 

[boxer90]

I've sold and shipped through eBay for years. In my personal experience:

USPS usually goes a good job, but if they break something, it's easy getting an insurance payment if you had insurance (and all Priority is now $50 insurance automatically, but used to be $100). They will lose a small package every once in a while too. I'd say over the years, out of thousands of items I've mailed out, they've lost less than five and have damaged ~10-12, with likely half of those being of value enough to get insurance. I usually won't insure if the value of the item is under $40-50 in the past, and now won't get insurance if it's under $100 due to the $50 free insurance provided. Truthfully, I've shipped many a dozen stocks out over the years almost always through USPS and have never had a single one break - a lot of the process involves proper packaging prior to shipping. Not saying that your seller didn't do that but if it's an older wood stock, I usually double box and use a ton of bubble. Costs me extra but it gets the product to it's destination safely.

UPS usually does a good job too. They're sometimes pricier than FedEx but their insurance claims process is simple if something does break. If I ever ship ammunition, I use UPS. I've only had two items get damaged by UPS in 10 years of selling and shipping.

FedEx is, well, FedEx. They usually do a good job but in my experience, God forbid they break something because they will nickle and dime over the insurance process. So nowadays I won't use them for anything expensive/invaluable/really fragile/etc. FedEx broke two things of mine; first one they paid out, then made a mistake to use them for a valuable item the second time and they refused to pay the insurance, so I ended up being out nearly $150 IIRC. Haven't made that mistake again. But I do like using them if the item is heavy AND I'm not too concerned about it breaking. Their heavy rates are usually the cheapest out of the three, and it can be a $20-40+ difference between them and USPS when shipping across the country.

Oh, and though not really talked about as much, I don't screw with DHL unless I'm receiving international. They can be a pain in the ass to work with, but their bread and butter is outside of the US and will go further for the most part than the other carriers.