mail fraud - what would you do?
 

i have an unsolved dilemma. i ordered over $50 worth of parts from a company and it was sent out via USPS with a delivery confirmation number. i checked the number from work one day to see that the package was delivered at my house at 2:44 pm. i got home, and there was no package.

i went to the post office the next morning, and they said 'sorry, our records show it was delivered'. my mail carrier said she put the package where she normally puts it, which is on my doorstep (on the side of the house).

the package was insured, but no claim can be made once the post office records it as 'delivered'. the only logical explanation is that the package was stolen off my porch.

going forward i'm going to have ALL packages delivered to my work address, but can anyone else think of something that can be done? if i want these same parts, i have to pay a SECOND time, which makes them extremely expensive at this point. they aren't parts i really needed, so i'm debating on just giving up... but is there something else i should try short of interviewing all my neighbors? i'm very frustrated on this one - it's never happened to me before... :grrrrrr:

contact the company you bought them from maybe they can help you out, at least give you a discount when you buy them the second time. Is anyone else that lives near you into rc too? keep an eye out on ebay. Good luck

Hmm, I would look up any kind of policies/procedures for the USPS first to see if the clerk/carrier was right in what she said. Maybe even speak to a supervisor or higher. I take it that the package wasn't insured?

Interviewing neighbors may help, unless they are the ones that took it.

ya if they took it of course they will be no help at all... it cant hurt to try though.

id contact the company. if they wont give you a good price...their wholesale price... theni would stop buying from them. they make plenty money as is and 50 bucks is nothing to them. or so i would think.

Well, it's not the company's fault. It would be nice if they offered a discount or something, but that would be going way above and beyond IMO.

It really sucks but at least it was "only" $50. Could have been a lot worse if it was something more pricey, or worse, something one-of-a-kind that couldn't be repurchased.

i know its not the companies fault but in my opinion things like this should be handled by them.

the way i see it is that it never got to the consumers hands so it is still with the sellers.

i can tell you a couple times that crap has happened to me with tower hobbies and they have refunded me no questions asked. they are a very reputable company and do what they can to keep the consumers happy. this is why i always go to them.

if your company does not do anything about this then what does that tell you about their customer support?

this is all just my opinion. im sure it is completely different than others.

this particular company isn't very large at all - it's quite small. i don't think they'd be able to eat this cost any easier than i could. i did contact the company and got their sympathy, and a suggestion to contact the mail carrier. i don't think it's their responsibility either, and i do agree that it's a good thing it wasn't a larger order - there were more things i wanted and decided at the last minute to only get the $50 worth of things. it could've been a $150 order, and 3x the loss.

no one near me is into r/c that i know of, but watching ebay is a great suggestion.

brian - the package was insured, but it's no longer the post office's responsibility when their records show the status as 'delivered'. which makes sense i guess, although i had a friend in the same situation through UPS and they covered the loss.

thanks guys - i'll try talking to the postmaster one more time.

Well, you could argue that it wasn't delivered to YOU. It was just put on your doorstep.

As far as I'm concerned, the post office should put packages some place thats less obvious. Having it sit in front of the door is just a huge invite to grab it. I usually get home about the time the post man has just came by, so the mail doesn't sit out for more than an hour, at most. Not only that, but I'm lucky to live in a very nice city/neighborhood.

Good luck ClodMaxx, hope it works out for ya. I think the company you purchased it from should at the least help you out by giving you cost prices. (They make no money, but they don't lose any either). You are right in the sense that they shouldn't replace it.

I think its unfair the post office could just tell you no just cause it has a "delivered status." For all we know it was an error and the package was lost.

i would knock on neighbor's doors and see if it was accidently place at the wrong house and they still have it. also to see if they seen something and make them awair of the problem for the future. we've had wrong deliveries on my street more than a few times in the past here.

the last delivered package i got, the same thing happened to me. the mail lady said she didn't remember if she delivered it or not, but she always brings packages to the door if they don't fit in the box. also she suggested to not believe the web site and actually contact the post office and check their records. after i got home early enough to catch her myself and not using my wife to pass info the next day, i got the same responce. mail runs about 3pm here. later that day, after 6pm i noticed my mail box door wasn't shut all the way. my package was in there. she must have came back and dropped it off. when we last spoke i asked if she's sure it didn't slide under here seat or something. she must have looked after she finished the route.

I had a pair of new car speakers swipped off my doorstep. I was SOL w/ UPS, even though I never signed anything allowing them to leave it there w/o sig. I fought it forever but....

G/L, talk to USPS, but you are kinda screwed usually

UPS once left a 32" LCD tv on my doorstep and I was away for the night... It was still their the next night when I got home but WHAT were they thinking!

I hate UPS. They are "brown" bc they are $hit.

They don't leave anything on my door step unless I request it to be... most/all of the time they leave a slip to pick it because they need a signature inorder for it to be released... when I get USPS, if I'm not home and it's too big to fit in the locked mail box.. they'll leave a slip.... Contact USPS, because they have no proof that it has been delivered... ask them where's the signature?..

Hate to hear that ClodMaxx, sounds like it was a crime of opportunity, someone saw it and took it on a lark. If they don't know what it is, they may just dump it. Face it, anyone who does something like this is stupid, plain and simple, stupid.

If your neighbors have unsupervised kids that are home before you are, then maybe you need to look in that direction - I had a robbery in Metairie, LA while living in a duplex - was my duplex neighbors kid - came in thru our shared attic. I set him up and caught him about 3 weeks later when he came over again thru the attic. Talk to the moms and dads, they may have seen it and if honest, you may get lucky.

Def have future pkgs sent to work if they don't mind.

I sell on Ebay. I only ship through USPS because they have a better track record. But they are not perfect. I have lost stuff I was sending. I feel your pain. I lost more than $50 on a package I dropped off at the post office. They have me on camera dropping it off. They have the clerk taking the package to the back. Yet thats where the package disappears. They have no record of me dropping it off. :grrrrrr:!@#$%^&* I fought for over a year about it but it comes down to they have no record of it or I h.ad the same thing happen when they delivered it and it never arrived. I hate USPS for that. You are not dealing with the local office when it comes to these problems. You are dealing with some desk nut on the east coast with nothing for a life that fully believes you are Lying!!!:surprised:AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Sorry but I feel you. Hate to say it but you are SOL.:gasp:

Hey bluonyx
Actually if the package is insured for less than $200 and has the black barcode label it just gets scanned and can be left without a signature. If it is insured for more than $200 and has one of the blue insurace barcode stickers on it then it has to be signed for on a PS3849. I leave packages all the time on my route, but I try not to leave them in plain sight. I will put them on the back steps, between doors or inside screened in porches if I can. If none of those are an option I normally leave notice and bring it back. It gets to be a pain this time of the year with all the packages, but I wouldn't want something like this happening to one of my customers.

Cool, its nice to have some people in the proper know^^. If I have an item that needs a sig or is too big for the letter box then the mailman always leaves a slip telling me to go to the local sorting office to sign for & collect the item. I would suggest a motion activated cctv camera in your porch- that would be a good way to tell when things are dropped off, and if anyone has swiped them.

Scott,
I feel your pain. I have all my mail sent to my office for 2 reasons. One is what you just went through and second privacy. I try to give my home address out as little as possible.

Yeah, sucks to hear that. Receiving packages at work is a good idea (unless its a huge package). Its happened to me before as a buyer and seller, and its frustrating on both sides.

If it is in fact your neighbors, you should definitely ask the friendlier ones first for some help. Multiple eyes working as a team is better than one person fending for themself. If your package got stolen, maybe one of theirs may have as well. If its a problem, you should definitely try some neighborhood watch type thing. Of course, this doesn't give anyone the right to start spying on eachother. So make it clear that its the mail you want watched, and not personal lives.

Another thing my brother did is install a closed circuit camera on his front door. It cost around $500 for the unit, and saves the video on your computer's hard drive. He hooked up an external HD so he doesn't fill his computer with video. Just delete the uneventful stuff once or twice a week and you're good to go.

I have had a package go missing recently too. Sent via USPS first class international mail. It was a battery bunker from Bishop. It was sent back in September and has just never turned up, no tracking and sent to my work. It worries me now having things sent in the mail. What if one of my expensive orders go missing?

I know what you mean, I sent a motor back to BK, Oct. 3, 06....and they seemed to had lost it, then in Feb. 08, i think...i get a email from them that they received it in Nov, and it got lost at customs, and that they tested it and it was on it's way back to me......by this time, I had given up on it, and purchased a different motor.....but shipping stuff Parcel Post sucks....... but i agree with you all

well, and update - i just found out yesterday that there were TWO packages delivered that day - so 2 packages were stolen. the other package was a christmas gift from my best friend in san diego - he called yesterday asking if i got it yet - i said 'nope', and after plugging the tracking number into UPS's site, it stated the package was delivered to the side door that same day.

so, i called the cops and an officer came over last night to take my statement and fill out a report. i'm also filing a complaint through the post office (i guess they have their own internal policing unit separate from local police). i won't get either package back, but hopefully more eyes will be open to this thief. i also spoke to a couple neighbors to forewarn them.

the first company i placed the order through did contact me asking for an update, and offered a 'holiday discount' if i order the parts again... which was nice. :yes:

An update on this too. Bishop has sent me an e-mail saying they have sent out another battery bunker :yipi: and I didn't even ask. I have to say a big Thumbs up to bishop power products for customer service on this one.

Clodmaxx the same thing just happened to OJ at a hotel. Heres what you do get a gun brake into there house and start screaming, I WANT MY MUTHER F....ING STUFF BACK! lol

BPP, RCM and CASTLE are the BEST companies I have EVER dealt with... We are very lucky they are all in this business!

:rofl::lol::rofl:

He also needs some good friends to go in with him and blame him for everything.:wink: