Stolen MGZ40 (from me!) Now offered on ebay!!

[ChrisPCook]

Doesn't surprise me with the post office (all these escapades). I bought 3 MG13 Cut receivers from Don Bell (Omega Weapons systems). The package wasn't sent with any insurance, etc. When I picked the package up at the post office all looked well, came home and there were cans of air freshener in Christmas wrapping instead. I contacted Don and he gave me a prompt and courteous refund. Post Office said they couldn't do a thing....

On another occasion I had a package arrive with visible damage, opened up my insured package to find my 10x50 dienstglas in pieces. Package had peanuts, foam. the whole bit. My post office said, tough luck. Took it to another PO in town and they were very helpful. Filed the claim to St. Louis, waited months, nothing. Contacted St. Louis, no record of it ever being filed. Filed a 2nd claim, same thing...never got through or processed. 3rd try finally worked, took over a year, but finally got a refund.

Unfortunately I'm in Alaska,and UPS and Fedex rates are hideous, so I'm stuck at the mercy of the government. A GAO (general accounting office) report that was fairly recent estimated that the government lost 50% of paperwork. Tax dollars hard at work, wait til they run health care. We lost your referral to the oncologist. It'll take another 6 months to file, by then the cancer will have spread.

Chris...

[vulcan762]

Ya know. After reading all this a couple times Im still asking myself the same question over and over. Why didnt the original seller insure the items for the full amount of what the buyer paid? If I ship something worth $2000 I insure it for $2000.

[salt6]

I hate to say this but alot of shippers don't give a crap about shipping. Through it in a box, dump some "peanuts" in and you're good to go. I'll never understand how someone will do that with expensive and delicate items. I had a church ship some boxes the other day. They were returned and the boxes looked like hell had run them over. They had used cheap card board boxes orginal used to ship toilet paper. Or the guy who puts something heavy in a priority box and it punches through because it has sharp or pointy edges. Shipping something requires some thought.

Current postal insurance rates;

$600.01 to $5000 (maximum liability is $5,000) $7.70 plus $1.00 per $100 or fraction thereof
over $600 in declared value.

$2K would have been $7.70 plus $14 guess it would have been worth it. Some people get cheap and try to save a buck.

[bergflak]

Ya know. After reading all this a couple times Im still asking myself the same question over and over. Why didnt the original seller insure the items for the full amount of what the buyer paid? If I ship something worth $2000 I insure it for $2000.

Weeell, since I shipped it I ought to be the one with the answers.
First of all, you need to take into your calculations that this was a international transaction, with border crossing and the possibility for taxes included.
The postal service provided have insurance included to a maximum that was well breached in this case. Sending a parcel across the pond with a commercial company is out of the question, as their basic fee starts at 3x the postal rate.

With that said; I ship well over 100 letters and parcels, both registered and unregistered across the pond each year, and never experience loss of mail (counting out 2 or 3 times I forgot to fill in the zip code. They did arrive anyway, but just took a little longer to get there!).
So it must have just been a ton of bad luck that lady Godiva picked out THE most costly parcel I have ever sent to get lost, eh!?

In regards to wrapping, Salt; Well, I could also probably do better, but wrapping is also weighing in, and most people would like to pay as little in postage as possible. In this case it was expensive optics, so I actually took great care and double boxed it with styrofoam peanuts sandwiched in between. Should really have been able to take a beating, but never made it home......just bad luck I guess.

[Bil]

I got my search fire unit from Bergflak,came well packed,no problems.Sometimes it is the luck of the draw,Oakrodent just lost a real nice jig in the mail,it looks like someone either dropped the box or just tore it open.I would be leary of putting anything heavy or sharp in one of those Priority boxes,unless it was packed and taped extra good.As for Bergs packing,I even received an egg box,one dozen,no problems! As good as the day it was sent.Use common sense when shipping. ---bil

[eusebius]

Cutting budget on international mails??? I live in Europe, USPS international recorded parcells are soooo expensive, skyrocketed, as someone wrote on ebay.
If we are selling/buying really expensive things, we all should go for other options, fedex, dhl...

[oakrodent]

I got my search fire unit from Bergflak,came well packed,no problems.Sometimes it is the luck of the draw,Oakrodent just lost a real nice jig in the mail,it looks like someone either dropped the box or just tore it open.I would be leary of putting anything heavy or sharp in one of those Priority boxes,unless it was packed and taped extra good.As for Bergs packing,I even received an egg box,one dozen,no problems! As good as the day it was sent.Use common sense when shipping. ---bil

I packed the hell out of that jig, and taped the box really well, still some how there was a hole in the top to remove the jig. It was an actually amazing story but the guy I sent it to tracked it down and found it! I think he went bald in the process thou! Here is the link to that thread ( if your interested ) :
http://www.prexis.com/sten/homebuilder/ ... pic=9633.0

[Bil]

I followed your travels over on the prexis site,as I have a job that travels almost as much as I do! You were very lucky to have gotten it back.I wonder how this particular saga ever ended-did Bergflak ever get the rest of the money? Or is it another lost cause? ---bil

[bergflak]

Well Bil!

Ryan managed to sell off the sight with box on ebay for the same amount that he had to pay the seller to get the lot back. So he has still got the lense, carrying strap, brush, cloth and collimator to make a profit on. Ha also mentioned earlier in this thread that the USPS might reimburse him the original 2K since they actually "lost" (sold!) the parcel in the first place. He promised me that the earnings from the sales would cover my nett loss of the $ 700,- that I reimbursed him so I am pritty sure it will all work out fine when he gets around to do it....haven't heard much from him lately.

[Bil]

Haven't seen him here much either... ---bil

[sc413]

What do you wanna bet that he works for the shipping company that you used.

He probably does and im sure your not the first person he did this too

[Kammy1717]

FYI if you are shipping avoid the usps and ups, have had more than one controlled substance order to a supplier mysteriously come up missing, even had one show up at a destination with different contents than were sent, and had to deal with ATF. We only use fedex now , no issues ever. I'm a pharmacist somedays...