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How happy would you be...
LincolnCentMan
Posts: 5,347 ✭✭✭✭
...with the postal service.
Ok, you just bought the most pricey coin to this point in your life. It get's mailed on the 21st of last month, it's now the 2nd of this month, 12 days later. For the last five days, you've diligently went to the post office to check on your newly aquired prize... nothing. You finally get tired of waiting and ask the seller for the registared tracing number for the package. The next day, you stop by the post office on your way home from work. Nothing. You head home and have an e-mail from the seller with the registared mail tracking number on it, and a trace. According to the tracer, the coin's been setting in the same post office for the last six days. So you print the e-mail out, and head back to the post office. Once you get there, you stop to help some totally clueless hispanic guy (that speeks no english) understand his options with reguards to a speeding ticket you got. ...as you're explaining his situation to him, three people cut infront of you not knowing that you're actually standing in line. But you let it go b/c the guy you're helping really needs the help. Well, after a ten minute wait in line, you get your turn. You greet the clerk and show her the e-mail with the registared number. She disappers to the back, looking for the package. About five minutes later, her superior shows up with your e-mail and says that this was pretty unusual. You agree and add, expecially for a registard package. He seemed to agree and goes back to look for it some more. Well after twenty minutes he come back and said it is in the central post office for the area. So you head off to it.
Well, you get there with about two minutes to spair (before the window closes). You present your case to the new teller. She looks at you kind of funny (she is obviously not a coin collector) and goes to the back to find it. Five minutes later, some guy comes up to the front and says they're calling back over to the first post office you were at so they could find out where it is. Fifteen minutes later, the teller and her supervisor shows up with the package. You sign for it and head home with your price. Once you get home, you're savoring the moment. You set the package down and smile. You check and answer your e-mail. Then you think... it's time. You open the package and find this.
So my question... on a scale from one to ten, how happy would you be with the postal service?
David
Close-up
Ok, you just bought the most pricey coin to this point in your life. It get's mailed on the 21st of last month, it's now the 2nd of this month, 12 days later. For the last five days, you've diligently went to the post office to check on your newly aquired prize... nothing. You finally get tired of waiting and ask the seller for the registared tracing number for the package. The next day, you stop by the post office on your way home from work. Nothing. You head home and have an e-mail from the seller with the registared mail tracking number on it, and a trace. According to the tracer, the coin's been setting in the same post office for the last six days. So you print the e-mail out, and head back to the post office. Once you get there, you stop to help some totally clueless hispanic guy (that speeks no english) understand his options with reguards to a speeding ticket you got. ...as you're explaining his situation to him, three people cut infront of you not knowing that you're actually standing in line. But you let it go b/c the guy you're helping really needs the help. Well, after a ten minute wait in line, you get your turn. You greet the clerk and show her the e-mail with the registared number. She disappers to the back, looking for the package. About five minutes later, her superior shows up with your e-mail and says that this was pretty unusual. You agree and add, expecially for a registard package. He seemed to agree and goes back to look for it some more. Well after twenty minutes he come back and said it is in the central post office for the area. So you head off to it.
Well, you get there with about two minutes to spair (before the window closes). You present your case to the new teller. She looks at you kind of funny (she is obviously not a coin collector) and goes to the back to find it. Five minutes later, some guy comes up to the front and says they're calling back over to the first post office you were at so they could find out where it is. Fifteen minutes later, the teller and her supervisor shows up with the package. You sign for it and head home with your price. Once you get home, you're savoring the moment. You set the package down and smile. You check and answer your e-mail. Then you think... it's time. You open the package and find this.
So my question... on a scale from one to ten, how happy would you be with the postal service?
David
Close-up
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Comments
I was gonna post my experience from this week about a $25,000 registered package on mine that was lost for 10 days. Mine does not compare.
David
I think I know you well enough that you probably took it all in stride when you were waiting, talking then driving to the other station then waiting, talking and finally happy you got your package. Now once the package was opened and the slab was broken I am sure you need to stay home tomorrow from work especially if you own a gun. I would have freaked out!
This is just one of life experiences that hopefully you can look back on and somewhat laugh about and say WHY ME?
That is a straight crack down the center, looks like it was done with pliars almost. Plus it missed the coin, intentional or accidental? I don't know. I'd say someone has some questions to answer.
just kidding, that sucks and some restitution is due from somebody.
what do you want? reholder? refund?
Liberty: Parent of Science & Industry
I sent a $750 coin to a boardmember today. Although the agreement was for firstclass postage, I sent it priority mail so it would have better protection (box).
David
I tend to agree with you here. That has to be a very, very hard hit for that slab to crack like that. It's hard enough to do it without a whack of the hammer several times. Seems like foul play somewhere. Someone, somewhere owes you something. HOPEFULLY you can get it reholdered at the same level and explain it to PCGS?
I really can't comment on the delay as I'm used to it being at an overseas site served by an APO (a military extension of the USPS). I've waited over 30 days for packages and we can only submit a claim after 45 days!
Some other things that I can comment on though being the Postmaster of our APO:
Being Registered Mail, your package should have been completely sealed with paper reinforced tape. If the package shows any damage, the USPS should have marked it as such. Submit a claim and a Customer Service Form. If there is no visible damage to the packaging, then it was either improperly wrapped or worse, already broken before shipping.
Also being Registered Mail, there should not have been a "loss" in the chain of custody of that package. I highly recommend sending in a Customer Service Form explaining your trials. Believe me, these cards do get read and especially for Registered, will get somebody counselled at the very least.
I know that doesn't help but hopefully will keep you from going "POSTAL" on us! Stuff happens and at the very least, you need to let the USPS know about the situation. Take care, Dave
Emmmm... My inference is disagreable to this point. Since the plastic slabs are brittel, not ductile, a blunt force would crack the slab... and blunt force would not necessarily show damage to the package. This is NOT the first time I've had a slab split going through the mail. I'll see if I can find the other pic in an archive.
David
Again, I agree with you and I'll tell you why. One of the pictures you showed on your first post showed the coin in the slab, intact and not cracked. I find it hard to believe that between the time the photograph was taken and the time that it was shipped, the seller just suddenly decided to crack it with a hammer or if he cracked it by accident, I can't imagine that they would simply send it to you like that knowingly. It has certainly suffered some kind of blunt force trauma and I would say it was on account of the postal service. I don't know how, but their behavior just doesn't add up given what you have said.
Jeremy
BTW when I first started shipping I put a coin in a safe-t-holder in a regular envelope and it cracked exactly like that. I had a coin returned packaged the same way and it cracked exactly like that. I think they have machines that automatically handle mail and crack slabs at the same time. I now use safe-t-holder like stuff packed inside a bubble envelope. Apparently that is too thick for their machines and I haven't lost a coin since.
If an envelope is thick enough, it gets hand stamped... of course, that thick and it can't be 37c, either... minimum of 49c postage.
Jeremy
I just looked for that old pic. I think I deleted it. Oh well. At any rate, it was cracked in the same place, smooth in half. The funny thing is, the postal service has managed to do twice (on packages sent to me) what I cant even do myself... brake a slab into exactly two peices. Everytime I assalt one with a hammer, the sucker shatters.
Here's a nother reason it had to be done in one wack. The seam of the brake is so flush, that the two halves will actually "stick" together. When you put the two halves together. You can hold ONLY the top (label) half and the bottom half will stay. On top of that, you can shake it a little, and it'll still stay stuck.
For those of you wanting to see the coin pre-brake. Here's a link to the auction. $5 plus round trip postage is not going to kill me. The sad part is I'll have to part with the coin for another month while it's at PCGS. Darn it, I had to sacrifice a lot to get this coin, and I want to enjoy looking at it. A lot of the enjoyment is lost... looking at the broke holder... it's just not the same.
David
I'm certain I'll enjoy the coin more when it gets back. It's definatly going in, in the holder. I dont mind cracking out $50-$300 coins, but I can afford those hits.
I'm sure there wont be a problem reholdering the coin as a 65BN. The brake is extreamly flush. It would be impossible, IMHO, to ever crack two different holders that would produce a flushness like that... let-alone two MS 14-D holders. I had a 29-D 65RD that spilt the same way that I sent in about five months ago. They reholdered it with no problem.
David
That's more than I can say for a few!
I have been burned maybe a half a dozen times. Overall, I would say they lose 1.5% to 2% of my stuff, coming or going. I have gotten a broken PCGS slab once, too. But in my case, it was only a $20 proof Ike. (But then I was stuck with a broken slab and a coin not worth the trouble and expense of reholdering!)
Sorry you have to go through the reholdering hassle, but at least you got the coin, and it's a beauty!
Before I voted in the poll, I expected to see most of the votes in the middle (I voted a "6"). I was surprised to see most of the votes were either rock bottom or giddy-happy. I did not read your specific case before voting- I voted based on my own experiences.
Collector since 1976. On the CU forums here since 2001.
If there was no damage to the package, it would be REALLY difficult to get enough force to split that baby in half w/o an obvious indication that something sharp & VERY forceful hit that package & broke that holder - get one of those "sample" slabs & try & split it w/o a hammer - t'aint easy (as you'll find out - oh where or where are those crackers when you really need them?) - maybe it was nuked in a microwave?? sonic boom??
“It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so.” Mark Twain
Newmismatist
Collector since 1976. On the CU forums here since 2001.
At this point I would take it broken.
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