A Hamilton 992 stolen between Post Office acceptance and pickup at destination.
Serial # 2493668 Last week.

Keystone mainliner case # 9686469

Probably because of the insurance sticker one of the upstanding postal employees could not resist.

I'm sorry Phil. My mailperson told me to never insure a package because it is a dead giveaway that there is something valuable inside. I have been told the same thing by other people. It is a same to try and protect your valuables and by doing so you are taking a chance by the very people you pay to insure it. I will keep my eye open for that serial number.

Very sad Phil hen you cannot expect our own government employees to protect us from themselves.

There is only one way to send something that is 100% guaranteed to arrive at its destination, and that is by registered mail. There's no priority that way and something sent from the coast to Georgia might take 2 weeks, but it's a 100% sure thing.

Phil-

I have only had one lost out of the package like that over the entire time i have done ebay purchases. I went to the local post office and the watch was actually in the bottom of one of that days shipping carts (unharmed at that). I don't know how much you have spoke with the post office, but it may help to take any pics of the watch to your location post office along with the shipping info. It may be able to be found at one of the facilities that it was at. If the shipping info is not attached to the watch, it goes into the lost and found if found in the bottom of some cart. Thats where pictures may help if it was put in the lost and found at some location...

I'm not sure how far along the process you are, but worth a shot.

Jared

Well if everyone thinks that Ebay always settles in favor of the buyer, think again. I just lost this case with Ebay.

Phil since it was insured wouldn't the Post Office pay for the loss? I was under the impression that was what the insurance was for.

This is a lesson we could all learn from. If you insure the package do not put an insurance sticker on it.

Phil,

The package shows an insured sticker on the side. Therefore, sounds more like the Post Office needs to pony up on the insurance policy.

I have had to file claims with the Post Office, usually takes 4-8 weeks and few one-on-one "discussions" with the Post Master to put the fire under the folks that actually pay out on the insurance claim at the PO.

Keep on them... Of course, they don't want to pay out, but too bad...

As far as Ebay and pay pal are concerned lately, if the item shows it was "placed" at its final destination, via a tracking #, they feel the seller has done his/her job.

Good luck

As per Ebay policy, items valued over $250.00 must be blue label insured. Ebay most likely said no because you will collect from the post office. If they said yes, you would get paid twice. oddly enough, the blue label is what the SELLER must use to be covered for their loss. No matter who takes care of you, thieves stink. It is just horrible. No matter what Phil, do not give up, you can appeal on all levels. Just be sure YOU go to the post office, not the seller.

That blue sticker indicates you would have had to sign for the package. I would be on the phone to ebay complaining about that case if I didnt sign for the package. Let the seller file claims to get money back. If I understand right, they took out the insurance.

I think the insurance sticker is a dead give away that an expensive item is inside. Its one reason I dont use the post office insurance.
I use Shipsaver and I like the service. Its cheaper than the post office and the one claim I filed was paid out to me in under 3 weeks. Though it was to one of my better customers and he had the paperwork in fast when the box came smashed. There is also no marking on the package that its insured.

call back and appeal, do not give up

I gotta think that this doesn't happen all that often. When it does, the inspector general office persues and prosecutes vigorously.
I do not know how often thefts like this take place but I understand that the investigative office is very thorough.
Hopefully they will get this one. Meanwhile, take advantage of the insurance!

I just dont understand if a person were going to pay that much to have steal me stickers placed on the box why not just ship registered?

On higher value items, I just ship express mail. My thinking is it's moving too fast to think about, been 100% so far. Yeah, it costs little more but not THAT much, and customers are more than willing to pay the little extra to get their watch next day or 2 days at most in US.

I have my own insurance havent used PO for years after a similiar incident happened to me...sure I got paid...AFTER 10 MONTHS AND HOURS UPON HOURS WASTED FILLING OUT PAPERWORK. No thanks. Sorry for your loss Phil, in these hard economic times this is going to happen more and more...

**ATTENTION: TAKE A GOOD LOOK AT THAT PACKAGE**

That is the RISKIEST way you could possibly ship a watch. First of all, assume there are thieves in the postal system and its affiliates. They are probably using many part time workers now in their sorting hubs. the crooks dont have time to look at each individual package, and they are not stupid either. That small flat rate box with the big blue insurance sticker most always means a small item worth stealing is in there. They know many ebay watch sellers use this as the preferred method to ship. So they are on the watch for this type of package. The PO finds an open box puts it in a plastic wrap and it continues on its merry way.

(This should not be, they should stop it and report the item missing but they do not.)

Just like this one, it will be delivered. Then comes the fight to prove it was actually stolen.
Think about it next time you are shipping one. Use different packaging. Get a private insurance company (If you spend more than $50 a month insuring items you can use mine) or send registered or Express or better yet FEDEX or UPS like Jerry (below) does. It's sad folks, and will probably get worse before it is done.

Sorry to hear about your loss Phil....I have lost in the past as well....

Nowadays, when I ship a high dollar item, it goes FedEx overnight....have not lost one that way, yet....of course anything can and will eventually will happen....

I agree with those that are suggesting that you collect on your insurance, however, with the post office, the sender is the one that is insured not the receiver....at least that is what happened to me one time....

Good luck at any rate....

Regards,

Jerry

Here is the update, this is the short version.

MC999 philsan1a, we've reversed the outcome for case (5017754600) and payment is on its way

Dear philsan1a (philsanchez2020@gmail.com)

We've reviewed the appeal of case 5017754600 involving this transaction with :

38044914XXXX - HAMILTON 16S 992 21 JEWELS BOX CAR NUMBER DIAL GREAT RAILROADER

We've reversed the outcome of the case. If you paid for your purchase with PayPal, we'll credit your PayPal account. Payment processing for your credit may take up to 7 days.
--------------------------------------------------

Just so you will know in case you did not already, according to the P.O. claim form the buyer cannot file a claim for the insurance without original mailing receipt & evidence of value.

This hard headed seller absolutely would not file the insurance claim nor return my purchase price even though I was going to mail him the box and Post Office bag as evidence. I informed him that the insurance was for his benefit not mine, that Ebay guaranteed me buyer protection.
He earned himself not only the loss of the watch & the purchase price he also earned a big fat negative feedback. As much as I hated doing that he deserved it.
I cannot name the seller here as this is in public view.

________________________________________________________________________________

Just so you will know in case you did not already, according to the P.O. claim form the buyer cannot file a claim for the insurance without original mailing receipt & evidence of value.

________________________________________________________________________________

That is exactly what happened to me about 2 years ago....it was not dealing with eBay but a friend of my sisters in Tulsa, Oklahoma....No need to go into detail here....

Glad to hear that eBay is reimbursing you at any rate....we can say what we want to, and do, about eBay, but they aren't near as bad as we make them out to be at times....

That is just my opinion though and those that differ have every right to do so....

Regards to all,

Jerry

Glad to hear you got it reversed Phil. I would send the box, and the bag to the guy. Even though he was a jerk no one deserves to loose the price of a 992 when the item is insured. That way its on him if he wants to file a claim.

The seller should have wrapped the plastic prority tape all around the edge and a couple of times across, that package would never have looked like this one. Geno

I am mailing the box to him because that is the kind of man that my Mother raised.
If he responds any any fashion I will post here.

This is the way he responded. Bought 10 of my pouches under a second ID gave me a neutral and posted this feedback.

Tried to extort money from me, a real crook SWINDLER!

slagging your reputation through use of another listing is forbidden on eBay-report him,and respond to his comment in kind

Tom, I reported him 2 days ago, so far nothing. I don't have the jazz with Ebay that Andy has. He has his own Rep all I have is an Email sent.
Andy how about using some of your mojo for a poor old country boy?

Phil, sometimes evil people do bad things. Dont give him the satisfaction of replying. Dont wait on an email from ebay, use the phone. Point out the lack of any messaging between you. That alone will wipe out the negative feedback if there was no contact before giving it.

had an old friend in Iowa till he stung me twice (second time clearly my fault) but he also had special contacts in eBay ,quite annoyed me really

and talking about extortion (and the price of your little baggies) I was very pleased with my second and larger order. Then saw some at a really cheap price and bought a bunch. OOOH what CRAP!!!!! Will be back for more if I need them as yours are first class!!!!

I have followed this with some interest because I had a buyer, a member of IHC, from Europe, who decided to return a watch to me and notified me that it was going to be returned. No problem with that, but 3 days latter the SOB wrote to tell me that he would have to file a complaint against me with Ebay because his paypal account had not been credited. As most will know normal mail from Europe takes time to get here and he did not send it express. The man was absolutely a pompous *** and when the watch arrived several days latter I credited his account. The nice thing is that Ebay did not fault me. The only other time I ran into a problem was a fellow with a $25 item who demanded a refund plus another $25 for his trouble. I informed Ebay and they nailed him for trying to extort money under threat of a negative feed back. So sometimes Ebay does the right thing.

After much calling Ebay removed the neutral feedback with the nasty comments.
Hopefully he also is punished.
Sellers & buyers need be aware of this clown.

can you privately distribute his ID's?

Phil send me his Id to my email please
pkaszubski@msn.com

I would like to know also.

Here are the two Ebay ID's follow this private link