Anybody ever have anything lost in the US mail?

I had ordered three Arc LE's from TTS a week ago last Tuesday via Priority Mail (alledged two to three day delivery). At the USPS web site, the tracking confirmed it to have been received in the Houston post office on the 11th but not delivered. I guess I'll have to call the post office 1-800 number and see if I can get it declared lost. Has anybody ever been thru this before? Obviously it's not TTS's fault but will the postal service take responsibility and I'll either get my money refunded or have them redelivered? I only hope they'll be more Arc LE's manufactured to replace them. Because of a delivery commitment, I was forced to give away my spare Arc LE and now only have the one on the keychain left. Also is UPS more reliable the the US mail? From now on I will pay extra for UPS delivery.

I had some dvd's lost in the mail. the vendor made good on them. don't know if they insured them and recovered the money.

We also had a couple of items delivered by UPS to our door and they were stolen. UPS always leaves the boxes unless a signature is required. That one took a few weeks to resolve, as we had to have the sender file the claim - doh!

Now I just have everything sent to work, whether USPS or UPS. Now Fedex - I don't think they will deliver without a signature, so no risk of having it ripped off.

That's my sad story...

Also, snail mail is really bad now - if it's not sent by priority (and that doesn't necessarily do better either), it can show up anywhere from it's normal expected time to 3 weeks later! We've been sending lots of packages since 9/11 and it's very sporadic.

But maybe in your case, the postal carrier is a flash-a-holic and wanted to test them out for a couple of days!

I swear our carrier watches the dvd's i get. sometimes they come when expected - other times they're days late.

Its really funny your talking about US mail, my father worked for the post office for about a year, he said it was a joke, he worked in mail sorting rooms in NYC and most of the workers would go to sleep on big bags of mail(Finally the post office got smart and installed two way mirror booths so they could keep an eye on the employees.)
The funnest thing was that if you wanted to make overtime they would put you on this train that went to who knows where and you would have to sort the mail onboard, they would give you a S&W .38 revolver and a holster!!!! (you would recieve no training on how to fire it, my dad said he doubted if the guns even worked).
I get a percision shooting catalog (Dillan Precision), on every issue, it has a picture of an attractive woman in a bikini on the cover. When ever i recieve the catolog, the two small pieces of tape which keep it closed are always cut, and it looks like someone has been thumbing through it. I guess the postman gets a big surprise when he finds out that instead of seeing pictures of girls, he sees pictures of ammo, reloading gear and holsters .

Geepondy: All I can say is good luck on filing that claim because you will need it. I had a car amplifier stolen (A pricey piece of hardware) in the U.S. Mail a few years back that was fully insured by the USPS and it was a nightmare ever getting my money out of the claim. On top of that I was good friends with the postal worker that was working the claim, otherwise, I'm not sure if I ever would have got my money. He worked very hard on my case for a very long time before finally getting my money. In all I was over 6 months in getting my money from my claim! To me, that was a heck of a lot of money to be tied up in the system for over 6 months. I'm not saying that the US Mail is as big of a mess as it was back then, but who knows. Does anyone else have any, more recent, experiences?

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by X-CalBR8:
Does anyone else have any, more recent, experiences?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I just had a Christmas card addressed to a friend on the east coast come back "undeliverable as addressed", but there was nothing wrong with the address. I've sent him dozens of letters & packages using that same address.

So I drew a little toilet bowl above that "hand" stamp the post office uses, put another stamp on it, and popped it back in the mail. So we'll see what happens.

Over the summer, I bought some insulators on ebay, and they came smashed to itty bitty sharp little bits, yet the box didn't have a scratch on it and the insulators were adequately packed. It was almost like somebody opened it, threw pool balls in there to bust up the insulators, then sewed it back up & sent it on its way.

Later, I got a *very* mangled and crushed box from Koehler-Bright Star with one of their flashlights in it. The box was crushed almost beyond recognition and its guts were splattered out through a corner and three sides, but the flashlight inside (partially poking out one corner) was untouched and worked perfectly.

As for losing packages, I've lost four outbounds over the summer. One box and three large padded pouches that never reached their destinations and never got returned.

TTS generously offered to send me free replacements with overnight delivery. Since by this point, I had made alternative Christmas present arrangements, I declined his very generous offer to wait and see if it might show up this upcoming week. I'm not holding my breath, though. I didn't realize the US mail was this terrible. From now on I think I will choose even UPS regular ground over USPS priority mail.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by geepondy:
From now on I think I will choose even UPS regular ground over USPS priority mail.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

UPS has delivered several wet and/or mutilated boxes to me over the last year, so don't think they're perfect either.

Fortunately for them, everything that arrived in those smashed boxes came out alright.

Hmmm actually the only thing I've had lost in the mail are the checks I send to my credit card company. Imagine that!

I hope you get your package soon Geepondy!

-The local LiteFreek

Same here.... the *only* time I've had a letter sent by me and not making it to it's destination was a check for a credit card company.

On the "receiving" end however, I've had many things not get delivered.
USPS sucks nowadays and alot of businesses refuse to deal with them and go with UPS or FedEx instead.
I'd like to know when these postal workers find the time to read/open/steal peoples' mail and packages. It would certainly explain things not arriving on time, if at all.

I'm sad to say that UPS is very little better than the US Mail. My UPS delivery men have been witnessed by me, personally, to throw packages all the way from the door of their vehicle to my doorstep (About 15 feet) and not only that, but they have left packages on my front porch in the middle of thunderstorms without even having the courtesy to knock on my door and let me know it was out there! What ever happened to the days of "signing" for packages? I was lucky one day and happened to hear him as he sneaked away so that I could save my package from being drowned in a thunderstorm. So really, both options suck and it's a crapshoot as to whether you will ever get what you ordered or not so I usually just go for whatever shipping method is cheapest or fastest. Fedex is a bit more reliable, but almost always significantly more expensive than the other shipping options.

One thing about UPS though is that I've heard that it is much easier and faster to file a claim with them if something is broken or stolen than with the US Mail. Does anyone here have any experiences with filing an insurance claim with UPS? Did they pay up, and if so, how long did they take to cough up the cash?