# making insurance claim at post office when you've lost your insurance receipt...

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-insurance-claim-at-post-office-when-youve-lost-your-insurance-receipt/135236>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 4, 2002, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-insurance-claim-at-post-office-when-youve-lost-your-insurance-receipt/135236 "2002-11-04T16:52:54Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![lukaspriest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b5a626/32.png) [@lukaspriest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lukaspriest)\
**Post date:** [November 4, 2002, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-insurance-claim-at-post-office-when-youve-lost-your-insurance-receipt/135236/1 "2002-11-04T16:52:54Z")

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I recently purchased some relatively pricey computer speakers online. To my dismay, they were defective and I returned them. I sent them back via the US postal service, parcel post. I put $150 of insurance on them. Well, I’m becoming concerned because its been just shy of two weeks (they told me it would take about 5 days), and the company still hasnt received them. And to make matters worse, I seem to have misplaced my insurance stub. Am I totally screwed? I remember the exact day, time, weight, and of course how much insurance I put on them. If I go to the post office, will they have that informationon record, or will they smugly tell me to get bent?

At the same time, It makes me wonder how they could lose a huge, heavy box with the address clearly laminated.

Thanks for any responses!

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**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\
**Post date:** [November 5, 2002, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-insurance-claim-at-post-office-when-youve-lost-your-insurance-receipt/135236/2 "2002-11-05T19:01:21Z")

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The Better Half came home for lunch and I ran your question past him. His response:

> [@](#):
>
> First of all, the speakers are _somewhere_. Speakers don’t just disappear; the Post Office doesn’t just put them somewhere and forget about them, especially if it’s a huge heavy box with the address clearly laminated.
> 
> Two weeks isn’t that long for Parcel Post. Be patient. Trucks break down. Mail backs up. Letter carriers get sick. If the supervisor is shorthanded, since First Class and time-sensitive Bulk Rate get dibs on available manpower, he may not have anybody to “deliver parcels”.
> 
> Normally, if you lose your receipt, you are S.O.L. However, if it’s a very small local post office, there’s a chance that they might, if you asked them nicely, go through their book. They keep a record of all the insurance receipts, so if you know the exact date you bought it, and can prove your identity, and if they like you, you _might_ be able to persuade them to reimburse you the $150.
> 
> However, there’s no way you can do this at a large Post Office, because they sell hundreds of these things, and it just isn’t physically possible to go through all the receipt books for that day.
> 
> Also, it’s not impossible that the speaker company _did_ get them, but they just don’t know it yet, maybe they’ve got Ms. Clueless working the phones, or the boss’s nephew working the mailroom…