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Today is a bad day. For the 1st time in my young bat collecting career, I have had a bat stolen form me. Today I received an empty tube for a 2004 Doug Mientkiewicz bat, but the COA was still inside. Stamps on the box say it was received UNSEALED but I'm not sure when that was stamped on there. The bat came from Minnesota to California. Trying to get USPS on the phone hasn't proved very easy. The sender also did NOT insure the bat. Any suggestions? Has anyone ever lost a bat & had them find it? Anyone ever gotten JUST the tube delivered?!?!
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Re: Had my 1st bat stolen from USPS
I used to play of lot of competitive softball and there were message boards for softball players to trade and sell bats. The average softball bat was $300.
Read about too many stories about empty bat tubes. Either the seller was duping the buyer, or the shipper got a hold of the bat. I"ve seen where pipes replaced the bats as well....sad but true.
If the buyer didn't pay for insurance, that he was SOL. The seller did his part and sent the bat...he would have proof he sent the bat. What happened inbetween would fall on the shipper, and in most cases, nothing came about it.
Hope you receive better news and a better outcome than I'm telling you.
-Desi -
Re: Had my 1st bat stolen from USPS
I actually have to disagree, I feel as though it is the seller's responsibility to insure the bat and make sure it gets to the buyer. Granted the buyer should pay for the insurance which is why I include it in my shipping quote and always insure anything I sell. Just my .02Ricardo Montoya
ri.montoya at yahoo dot comComment
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Re: Had my 1st bat stolen from USPS
I have a mantra that "anything of value being delivered in a way other than personally by myself, must be insured".
How did you pay for it? If you used paypal you should be covered with an 'item not as described' case. If you used a credit card you could possibly file a chargeback. If you paid by any other method you might be out of luck.
Have you contacted the seller and asked them to start an investigation? How they sent it?
I feel terrible for you and hope that you can find a solution.Comment
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Re: Had my 1st bat stolen from USPS
i just had 2 bats shipped to me by usps also and they came in a usps priority shipping (long) box. they left the box outside my door. both ends had tape but on one end it was completely open, i could see the bats. the usps delivery person clearly looked to see what was inside(gordon beckham, alex rios bats). no way they could have been shipped that way by the seller and also not fallen out. luckily the person didnt take them but its ridiculous. also had a very fishy situation with a stanton auto card i was supposed to get, it simply had to be dropped off in the mail box and when i looked at the tracking it said notice left. there was never a notice and no need for a notice to be left. usps didnt know what happend to the card and i never got it
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Re: Had my 1st bat stolen from USPS
Hate to say it but what to you expect from government workers. It's sad but there are some employees with no morals and they don't care. I'm in no way saying everyone with USPS is that way but a few bad apple spoils it for the rest of them.Comment
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Re: Had my 1st bat stolen from USPS
Thanks for the input guys. I paid through PayPal so I will file a claim. The seller is communicating very well but all he can do is swear that he sent it. I'm going to go to my post office tomorrow to speak to someone. Such a bummer.Comment
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Re: Had my 1st bat stolen from USPS
Speaking of USPS I have noticed that the Chicago hub seems to be where it all goes south.
I have shipped a few things through Chicago and it gets scanned out for delivery then that is it. Next day I check tracking it says delivery status not updated. The items never got marked delivered.Comment
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Re: Had my 1st bat stolen from USPS
i had $2500 in motorcyce parts and camera gear taken out of the box. they sent the postage back said i can get a refund for that. but the USPS dont relly help. unless you can find someone who is reselling it.Comment
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Re: Had my 1st bat stolen from USPS
The seller should have a reciept with the weight marked on it. If they can send you a copy with the full weight marked on it, you know it was USPS that took it. It's not like a bat would fall out and not be noticed.Comment
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Re: Had my 1st bat stolen from USPS
It my take some work on your end but instead of calling USPS,
1) Get a statement from the Seller that he did enclose the bat;
2) Take the statement and packaging and go "in-person" to your local Post Office and after that,
3) Go to your local Police Department. Take the Seller's statement, packaging and scans of the bat and file a stolen property report. The Police should place the bat into the NCIC/SCIC computer system and if the bat shows up, you can contact the Police.
Just some ideas,
JimComment
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Re: Had my 1st bat stolen from USPS
I have been shipping football helmets and other sports gear including bats through UPS for the last 19 years with very very few problems. I have started shipping smaller items - facemasks, mini helmets, jerseys, etc through USPS in the last couple of years using their on-line label service. i have had more issues in the last two years using USPS than all of the other years using UPS. Additionally, within the last six months I have had two packages show up empty from purchases that I had bought through ebay. Both were from USPS, both were opened, and luckily, both were stamped from the post office that the contents was missing. Nothing is worse than emailing the seller and telling him/her that you received their package but it was empty. You feel like a scammer. That is the reason I was thankful for the stamps on the outside of the package to send a photo to the seller. Both times the seller refunded me immediately without me having to file a claim through paypal. It sucks for both the seller and the buyer. Any more if I purchase an expensive item that cannot be replaced, I am requesting that the seller use UPS, even if I have to pay a bit more.Buying game used helmets of Packers - all eras as well as game used helmets of HOFers or future HOFers.Comment
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Re: Had my 1st bat stolen from USPS
I had a similar issue last week. I have shipped over a thousand collectibles and only previously had one or two issues of loss or damage. I have likewise received nearly a thousand packages with only a couple of lost or damaged. My personal policy had always been to insure anything i am shipping worth $50 or more. I never have had an item not get delivered on either side that was insured. All of my losses have come on uninsured packages. But based on the fact I've probably spent thousands on insurance for shipped packages, with next to no incidents, I decided to change my shipping insurance threshold to $100.
Lo and behold the 4th package I ship uninsured winds up undeliverable. It was sold for $76. I have always printed my postage electronically and heavily taped my printed postage to the package. The USPS claims my package did not have proper address or return address and so my package was sent to "Mail Recovery Center". Now whats funny is my package made it three checkpoints before it became undeliverable and the big kicker is the tracking information is still on the package as USPS confirms they have tracked the package all the way into the Mail Recovery Center. So, somebody had to have intentionally destroyed the address label partially and only where the address is located.
I used the tracking number to file a stop delivery return to sender request, but it fails because the package was marked "return to sender". Duh. Nobody will give out the Mail Recovery Center contact info. And when I get routed through to somebody who "wants" to help, they claim they do not know how to get to the Mail Recovery people and the supervisor is out.
Now, I do see that the Mail Recovery Center opens these packages and destroys anything they consider to be worth less than $25. Anything they feel is worth more than that, they sell at auction and keep the proceeds. So, yes... The USPS profits off losing packages.
Ridiculous.sigpic
Wes CampbellComment
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