Beware: Strange things afoot at the USPS...(long!)

Howdy, folks...

I have a peculiar story to relate that happened to me today. Being an admirer of gadgets and neat techie stuff, I've had a Luminox watch for about three years now. The time had come to send it in to the service center for battery replacement, reseal, and pressure test.

So, I went to the post office (first mistake) and proceeded to get them to get a Priority Mail box from the back since they only had the video-tape sized ones up front. I got the box and taped it along the bottom seam, wrote out the note with instructions for the service center to perform along with my return address and phone number. Watch was wrapped in large bubble wrap and the box sealed with the watch (in bubble wrap), money order (payment to change the battery), and the note.

I got a phone call today -- the repair center had received the package, BUT...there was no watch inside...along with no bubble wrap. Instead, they had the box with my note and the money order, an "air-pac" (plastic, inflated bag type packaging), and a couple of styrofoam peanuts -- NO bubble wrap, no watch.

They claim something happened to it in shipping because they have cameras all over their receiving area to prevent things like this (employees "losing" watches sent in for repair). So anyway, just a note letting folks know they should think about alternatives to shipping via USPS... Fortunately for me, I had the forethought to get insurance and delivery confirmation. It's looking like the postal service will not honor the claim if they can't tell the box had been opened before it got to the repair center. The only thing I can figure is that if someone in USPS did this, they must have opened the box from the bottom seam and retaped it. It was sealed on the top with their Priority Mail tape they use.

Has this happened to anyone else? Common occurance? Course of action? The nice lady that called me from the repair center will hopefully call me back tomorrow so I can ask her about the condition of the box. She did say it was "a little crunched" but in my disbelief that the contents had been swapped, I forgot to ask if it looked like someone had gone into it before it got to them. It sounds like it was just a mixup at the repair center, but she was fairly adimant that wouldn't have happened. I'll probably never know and with my luck, probably won't be able to collect on the insurance either.

Any helpful hints or tips (or sympathy) appreciated...

JM-99

I've had computer parts disappear like that also, both with USPS and with UPS. If you continue to press the issue, escalate it up the ladder to supervisors and higher, you will usually be able to collect on the insurance eventually.

I would say that it is between USPS and the service center to decide who is going to get the bill. I would present it that way.
If the service center got a tampered box and didn't say 'wait a minute' it would be their fault. However both can point at you and say you didn't put it in the box in the first place.
Hope things work out for you.

The ole' USPS weighed that box when you mailed it, they accepted it. There had to be a weight difference with the missing contents. Someone is pulling your chain and I hope they get caught and of course that you get reimbursed! FEDERAL CRIME! I'd do all the applicable paperwork and hope that the Postal Inspectors take it on!

I had an antique wall phone get "crunched" evidently enroute to me from the Lower 48 States. It was insured of course. I took pictures filled out all of the "red tape forms", and in several months they paid. I realize it wasn't an empty box...but do what has to be done and be patient.

They can all deny it, point is - it's missing and that's what insurance and Postal Inspectors are for!

That isn't the only strange thing going on with the USPS. Since I got my Mandrake Linux Powerpack Edition CD set, directly from Mandrakesoft in Paris, France, ALL of my domestic parcels (coming to me), get delayed by up to 2 weeks. This happened before the 2002 holiday season, is only USPS, and only every so often.

Everything arrived intact, just vastly delayed. Seems like I am on some sort of 'Subversives' list somewhere.

Seems to me if you were going to remove a watch from the factory you'd do it on the way OUT rather than steal a broken watch!

but then the same logic applies to the USPS, they must know that people send stuff back to the factory to be repaired.

Just as is true in most cases the crooks are not real bright, keep hounding the postal inspector, they will figure it out if you make them. If you let them brush you off then they will sure take the easy way out.

Good luck, and be sure to let us know what happens!

You will find theft an issue with any of the common carriers. Always insure items that have any real value. FedEx, UPS, and USPS all have their respective problems.

I wouldn't rule out Luminox being the culprit.
They lost my watch while it was still in their facility.
I'd returned it to them and they acknowledged receipt and repair -- they just couldn't show that it had ever been returned to me.
I don't know which "nice" lady you talked to but the female I dealt with was a pain in the *** and made me wait a month before she even agreed to take it to the next level.