lost gold coin in the mail

monsterman

i bought a 1,000 dollar gold coin on ebay from a guy who said he mailed it...i think its 30/70 he did....i paid by check

anyway i paid for insurance and he said he would file a claim...i thought you had to wait 30 days ...and the po had 180 days to pay

question 1---is that true

question 2---since i didnt get the coin isnt it procedure for him to refund my money and deal with the insurance himself

thanks for any imput in advance

gregg

MS70ORBUST

It depends. Did you use a credit card with pay pal? If so file a product not received with them and wait the 10 days they require to investigate. After that call your credit card and file non receipt of product. If you used something other than a card, then good luck. I have been ripped 4 times on Ebay and never lost a cent thanks to my card.

relayer

I think they recently changed the time period from 21 days from 30 days that you have to wait before filing a claim.

But once the claim is filed it goes to St. Louis where it waits with all of the other claims from across the country. It took me about 3 months from the close of auction until I got an insurance check once, so 180 days is probably the stated rule.

The post office will pay the claim to either the sender or addressee. Assuming no postal fraud on either side, whos fault is it the coin is lost?

Now the seller is even - he has no coin but has the money so there is no reason for him to put himself in a worse position by giving you a refund and seeing if maybe the post office will pay the claim months down the road.

If I was the seller, I'd have the buyer deal with the insurance.

Stork

I would say you bought a coin and he's obligated to deliver it. If there is no delivery of the coin, then he has violated the terms of the deal and needs to return your money. End of story. Just like if you paid for a service (like having your house painted), if the money is taken and the service is not provided, someone has violated a contract and/or commited fraud.

My own take on insurance is that it really is there to protect the seller, though it's fine to make the fees part of the shipping and handling.

Anyway, the seller needs to return your money and deal with the post office himself. (Assuming he insured via the post office, some sellers use alternative insurance).

gil

Go to the bank spend the $30.00 to put a stop pay on the check. That will grab his attention. Then pay by paypal or cedit card,if the deal is still good this way you have some protection. I did this a few years ago and I got my item and boy that stop pay will get anyones attention, quick !!!

fivecents

Sorry to hear that. Ask the seller to email you a picture of the US postal insurance slip. At least this way you will know that he mailed the coin and it was insured.

pf70collector

I bought a $400 gold coin commemorative from a dealer that was lost in the mail. He send me another one right a way to replace it. This was the only coin I bought that was ever lost in the mail. I think he should either try to replace the coin if refund you the money. Its his responsibility I believe to deal with the post office since he originally took out the insurance in his name.

ebaytrader

A $1k item should have been sent registered mail. The chance of loss on registered mail is very slim to none. Waiting period for filing a claim on lost registered mail is 15 days. The postal circus takes a dim view of employees stealing registered mail and the last person to touch it (each employee must sign for the package along its routing) will be fired after being given 1 hour to recover the package.

If the item were sent with blue label insurance the postage on the package would have screamed 'steal me!!!!!!' to any postal employee.
These are sent along with other mail in its class and is only tracked station to station.
The last time I checked, the waiting time to file a claim on blue label insured packages is 30 days.

Have the sender provide you with proof of insurance such as a photo of his receipt. Then cooperate in the filing of the claim.

If he can not provide you proof of insuranc then demand an immediate refund and go on the attack.

As a seller I would not refund your money until the claim has been paid as most of the 'lost package' claims I've had have been false - including one from a board member - and the sender must have the cooperation of the receiver to obtain a refund.

JimC

Do not file a non receipt of item with paypal yet!!!!

Reason - I purchased a Type 2 1979 proof set noted in auction as no problems - pics discolsed beautiful DCAM coins with close up pics that noted type 2 coins. I purchased the set, several weeks and many emails to the individual elapsed noting the item was sent so I filed a non receipt of the item with paypal. Three days later after seller was notified by paypal of the non receipt I received item in mail - not as described or pictured. The coins were type 2, however they were carbon spotted and discolored.
I notified paypal of the receipt of the coins and that they were not as described in the auction. I was informed by paypal that there is only one claim per transaction and since I did receive the coins the claim for non receipt was closed and they would not help me or provide assistance to rectify this with the seller. I went to ebay and they noted I had to file a claim through paypal for the refund. The dispute I filed with ebay went unanswered and to this date I have not received any satisfaction on this. I filed a negative on this seller and noted two weeks later after the neg that she was selling the type 2 set again with the exact same pics I purchased from. I emailed all buyers of this with pics of my auction with her and pics of what was received and she ended up taking another but for far less than she took me. Moral to the story, I am out, the other buyer is out, she has negs but is still selling on ebay. If you decide to file a non receipt consider filing a neg on seller before the non receipt making her/him respond to ebay and then file a non receipt - if you have not or received/not as described if the individual was like the one I had as a seller.

jim

AlaBill

How do you combat scams like this on ebay?

I think it is more prevalent with coins due to their high dollar value.

mozin

You did not give us a time line on this transaction. Since you paid by check it is not uncommon for a seller to hold off shipping for ten business days so potentially we are talking about 18 calendar days between your check being mailed and the package being mailed. Some sellers only ship on a certain day of the week so it is possible to stretch the 18 days to even 24 days. A $1000 package should be sent registered which could take as long as 14 days, some have taken longer but they almost always arrive.

We have a rough maximum total of 38 days delivery to your door. After that time you need to consider how to handle the transaction because something went wrong. Sorry, I know first hand how hard it is to wait for a package such as yours but maybe you have nothing to worry about with this one.

RegistryCoin

Just email him a pic of your self. That should impose quite an impression... I'd bet you would have the matter settled within seconds.

dbldie55

Remind me never to sell anything to most of you.

1) Yes, he has to wait 30 days to file a claim (it may have changed since I have gone through this). If it was registered, the wait is shorter.

2) Since you did not receive the item, he has to file the claim. The PO will then send you a form to sign to show you never received the item. Anyone who would send a refund until all of the paper work is done is pretty stupid.

As for registered mail, they get stolen too. We had the Post Office tell us that one our ours was missing. They still made us wait the required time to file a claim and have the (non) recipient sign the form that they never got it.

This process is a royal pain, but that is the way it is.

K6AZ

Lost blue label insured packages can now be filed in 21 days. Your seller will need to get a postal form 1000, fill out his part and send it to you to fill out your part. You must then send the form back to the seller. At this point he should refund your money, and he will wait for the indemnity check. They will pay up as long as he did insure it, and it doesn't show in their internal system as being delivered.

monsterman

another question

i am a rather large customer with my bank...the check cleared 3 weeks ago..can they ( they will if its allowed ) go back and recollect my check

thanks

gregg

ps..all you guys input is really helpful and i appreciate it

K6AZ

No, once a check of yours is paid, you can't reverse it unless it was forged.

At this point, try to work with the seller. He will need to get the claim form, send it to you to fill out your portion, then return the form to the seller so he can file it. At that point he should give you a refund.

BigD5

Dlbdie55 and K6az have it correct.

You should ask the seller for the blue label insurance ticket, or the registered mail number. If he gives you the blue ticket insurance number, go to your post office, and VERY NICELY explain that you have a lost package, and provide the blue ticket insurance number. The USPS CAN do an internal "check" on the status of that package. It may or may not be able to offer additional help in finding the package, but it's worth persuing.

If your seller doesn't provide you with the insurance or registered mail numbers, I would start to worry. Until then, things should/could be resolved within 2 or 3 weeks.

Good luck.