doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Lost in Shipping...

Due to insurance requirements I always ship long guns USPS Priority with $201 in insurance so I can get a signature required at the other end. They have always been delivered in 3 days. Furthermore I bought an item in Australia awhile back and it arrived in 5 days from the time payment was received by the seller.
Two weeks? Three weeks? a Month to get a firearm delivered? Something seems really wrong with this picture!
Jim

You think your frustrated now, wait to you file a claim with the post offce. I had had a couple of friends use registered mail, one gun got broken, the other lost. Let us know if you ever get paid, the one guy did not, the other took 6 months.

John Boyd

Good luck.

I ship hundreds of packages Priority mail insured/tracked(That's a bad joke) domestic and international. I also send large &/or delicate items Fedex/UPS. I cross my fingers and HOPE that they arrive and are still in one piece wehn I give them to USPS. The majority do, but it is still a miracle.

The only service I ever have had any major issues with was USPS, and they are too common.

I create almost all of my shipping and customs forms with online accounts and keep PDF copies of everything as well as packing slips. It is all dropped of at either the local post office or the Fedex/UPS terminals.

The USPS packages routinely do not even show that they were actually shipped when I check the status, even when I force the drones to scan them in. There is almost never any intermediate scan and much of the time it won't even show a delivery scan even tho I have gotten feedback from the recipient that it has arrived. It tends to only show "shipping label created".

I have had the USPS refuse claims on lost/stolen items stating that it was never shipped since it was never scanned-in and only shows "shipping label created" (It is also USPS policy NOT to routinely scan-in items creating a convenient catch-22).

I am currently waiting 4 weeks for an insured/tracked priority mail package to show up after it was returned from NC due to an invalid delivery address. They have NO idea where it is and no idea if/when it will ever show up.

I just got a Intl Parcel post package returned to me from Australia due to recipient problems. That was shipped over 6 months ago and sent back by OZ postal 5 1/2 months ago. The USPS had NO idea where it was and the box was virtually shredded. It had more in common with an abused bean bag than the overpacked heavy duty package that I sent.

Any time that I have tried to get missing items tracked down I get a blank stare and the admission that they have NO WAY to do that outside of looking on their own local shelves. Even when a claim is put in and the Postmaster tries to press the issue it amounts to them calling one or two "likely" distribution centers and getting the manager there to TRY and find the stray package(Never successful).

I have had packages delivered by them that looked like accordians when they arrived and the contents in many pieces. Their routine response to the insurance claims has been to attempt to deny it and say it was improperly packaged!
I pack my stuff very well to protect delicate items from most any abusive gorilla but they manage to crush/destroy packages that I could stand on without denting.

Oh yes; The post office does NOT guaranty delivery time, they only give you an estimate that may/not have anything to do with reality.

As to cost; on Domestic items, and usually into Canada, Fedex regular ground costs me 1/3-1/2 of what USPS does. International is definitley much more expensive than USPS. They also track EVERY step and provide me with emails for every major step/exception and almost always deliver the day that they say they will (usually within 1-3 work days but never more than 5).

just my own experience as well as that of many businesses that I talk with, but your experience may differ.

Lee my buisness experience is exactly the opposite. I now ship 100% with the post office.

I would hang in there, Bob, if I were you. Mail this time of year travels incredibly slow. Especially betwen Thanksgiving and Christmas. Mailing letters is one thing but packages are a different story from what I always heard. Good luck.

I have shipped stuff to just about anywhere you would be willing to live and many others that you would not be caught dead in. If UPS or FedX does not go there I have to say it is a real crap shoot. UPSP offers and delivers no tracking, no follow up, no help finding and now real interest in customer satisfaction. Why computerize tracking data if they can not track the package?

I over pack stuff and pay or charge extra for the weight. Rather pay five extra bucks than try to get any of the shippers pay a claim. Just like every plane crash gets blamed on pilot error every broken item is blamed on poor packaging. Bulls---. If you did not crush, throw, back over with a forklift, abuse or otherwise molest packages everyone would get there in one piece.

Do not give up hope. It has not been but as month. Give them another two months before you get real worried.

Bob - Don't wait for the paperwork to arrive in the mail. The form is online. Just Google up "USPS registered mail claim". I believe the form # is PS100. The form clearly states that claims for registered can be presented after 15 days. My local post office told me I had to wait 30 days to file a claim. I discovered the 15 day thing when I downloaded the form. Good luck. Bill

My experiences with both UPS and the USPS has been 100% shipping firearms, never had a problem with about 30 shipments over the years.

I now use registered mail exclusively since UPS limits their liability on guns and other items.

Haven't tried Fedex.

My experience is lucky, I think all of us "casual" users can get unlucky or lucky. I think you'd have to listen to the guys that do volume, 100+ shipments/year. But check the UPS liability limits.

I also think that collecting a claim from the USPS can be helped along if you have a good relationship with your postmaster. The few times I have made claims for loss or damage with the USPS (non-gun). I did it though my local office and was paid promptly.

My Experience in shipping is the same as Lee's. The best by far for me has been FedX ground. I ship thousands of heavy cartons every year and have not had a damged or loss since switching to FedX 2.5 years ago.

Jeff G.

Who started the "USPS is better" myth?

There doesn't seem to many quantitative comparisons of shipping reliability, in the only 2 I've seen, the experiences of a couple of companies one had USPS losses about 20% worse than UPS, for the other, which didn't post the actual numbers, USPS was 200% worse, but these are limited samples.

I've never had a loss shipping hundreds of firearms either UPS or Fedex. My only loss has been one gunstock sent Priority Mail, the last time - ever - that I shipped USPS, mainly because even if they delivered undamaged their tracking stinks.

There is an insurance problem with the commercial carriers in that they wont cover unusual items or those which can't be duplicated for more than a nominal amount, and this sometimes catches those losing an expensive gun. However Collectors Insurance policies include coverage for full value during shipping.