USPS experiences

Parents Forum Parent Cafe
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So, I am clearly clueless as I did not know about these policies until recently.

My husband got a coffee gift subscription from one of our sons recently. The first delivery (of 3) was misdelivered to another house by a substitute carrier (the local post office knows that because of their GPS tracking). It was marked as put at our door but was actually delivered elsewhere . The local post office admitted this .

We asked about putting in a claim and was directed to the district office. We got a call on our voicemail and then a letter apologizing and stating that federal law exempts them from liability for claims arising out of the “loss, miscarriage or negligent delivery of mail matter.” Unless something is insured, you are out of luck. Luckily, the business was willing to send again even though they were not at fault. I guess they do a cost/benefit analysis about insuring products they ship and choose not to insure .

Last year, I sent a $100 gift card via mail and wanted to insure it. After standing in line for about a half hour at the post office in the middle of a pandemic, I was informed that you can’t insure gift cards. I went ahead and sent it without insurance as I was already at the post office and luckily it got to the recipients okay .

So, lessons learned. I will never again send a gift card in the mail again unless I am willing to suffer a loss if the recipient doesn’t receive it. Email delivery seems safer. And I will continue to insure any package of value as things can be lost or misdelivered.

Just posting in case some are not aware of these issues. Any other policies I have missed that people should know about?

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UPS also won’t insure a gift card. Two years ago, I had a gift card to a restaurant in my daughter’s town that was suddenly closing in a week. My only way to get any use of the card was to send it quickly to my daughter. So, I sent it in a box with a few other items via UPS. I had sent her dozens of boxes over the years through UPS and this was the only one that completely disappeared (she did once find a box in the lobby next door to hers that was misdelivered). The default insurance for a UPS package (if you don’t pay for any extra insurance) is $100. Once they determined it was lost (took a while - maybe a month), they simply issued me a check for $100. I did not say it had a gift card in it - I only mentioned the other items in the box (it was some toiletries and other items that I can get easier where I live than she can). They didn’t care what was in it when they paid the claim.

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UPS and FedEx seem more expensive than USPS for package
shipping ? But , with UPS including coverage for up to a $100 loss , it could be worth it and provide more peace of mind for possible misdelivery issues .