[meteorite-list] Postal insurance claim or stamps.com.

From: Yinan Wang <veomega_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri, 29 Mar 2013 13:51:06 -0400
Message-ID: <CALpO9Hfqsmi-wSTD9ijnmhXuh9bVWBdkkLWSA=ZnrfseaOZSeg_at_mail.gmail.com>

To answer Paul about why they wanted to keep the broken item:

When the post office's insurance pays out for something, they own it,
whether or it's broken, destroyed, etc. The broken item's are
eventually sold off as salvage or entered into the Lost Package
Auctions. This is how they recover part of the insurance payouts.

Every month the post office holds a big auction (or at least until
recently when they contracted it out) where they auction off lots
composed of items that were lost in the mail or had insurance paid out
on it.

I've attended these auctions before, they are quite amazing, they take
place in a warehouse the size of a football field. Items are grouped
in lots, for example: an 80 lb hamper of jeans, a cubic meter of
textbooks, a cabinet of thousands of silver coins, entire boxes of
gold rings, and yes, there is usually a small cabinet composed of
rocks and loose stones. So yes, if you lose a meteorite in the mail or
had insurance pay out and they keep it, it will end up at one of these
auctions.

Before anyone jumps in with angry claims that they're purposefully
losing mail: this is packages only, they don't sell letters or other
postal things. They do make an effort to return things (open packages
and look for addresses inside, look for any contact info, etc) and
usually return a decent percentage of items.

-Yinan




On Fri, Mar 29, 2013 at 1:41 PM, Paul Gessler <cetuspa at shaw.ca> wrote:
> Mike , I had an experience like this back in 1995 (so not sure if still
> relevant?)
> I purchased a cut slab of Huckitta pallasite from Michael Casper.
> It was 112grams for $1.75 a gram back then.
> It was shipped US postal service and insured through them for $200
> When it arrived the box had been crushed and the riker box inside shattered
> with the slab breaking into two pieces. I remember filing a complaint and
> scheduled a
> meeting with the post master at my end. They contacted Mr Casper to get the
> value
> from him. I argued along with Casper that the collectability had been
> destroyed because
> it was broken in two. (those were the days before Bessy specks I think) The
> post office
> agreed and gave me my $200 back. BUT they wanted to keep the meteorite? I
> demanded
> they return it as it still had scientific value and they were supposedly
> going to just throw it away.
> They finally relented and gave it back to me. My experience was that nothing
> was easy
> or straight forward. I had to prove the damage by showing the crushed box
> etc and demonstrate the
> obvious careless handling resulted in damage. Then I had to talk them out of
> the object that
> had been written off as destroyed. Why would you keep something that was
> considered destroyed?
> You could also argue sentimental value with this I guess. Same reasoning.
> Anyway had to jump through some hoops but in the end I got a full refund and
> got to keep
> the broken Huckitta.
>
> Regards- Paul Gessler
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message----- From: Mike Miller
> Sent: Thursday, March 28, 2013 5:26 PM
> To: meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
> Subject: [meteorite-list] Postal insurance claim or stamps.com.
>
>
> I am wondering if anyone can share their experience involving the loss
> of an insured package. Whether it was successful or not and with any
> of the carriers. I am especially interested in stamps.com or the Us
> postal service. I am asking the question because I ship a lot of
> meteorites and have lost some but never any that were insured. Today I
> talked with a representative of stamps.com and I was told they only
> insure the value that I paid for the meteorite or its value at the
> time of loss whichever is less.
>
> --
> Mike Miller Kingman Az 86409
>
>
>
>
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Received on Fri 29 Mar 2013 01:51:06 PM PDT