I had an ebay buyer ask me for a refund because the package I sent him was torn open, and it was delivered empty, in another envelope with a note stuck to it saying the package was found damaged and empty. I packaged it perfectly well. Because of this, I filed a complaint with the USPS. How likely am I to be reimbursed and how long should it take?
I once filed a damage claim from the USPS 18 years ago. I gave up on getting an answer, either yay or nay.
The value of the claim ($35) wasn’t worth the headache of pushing the issue.
The USPS once damaged a 40MB PCMCIA flash drive I mailed. I filed a claim for the cost, about $800 (obviously this was many years ago, when flash memory was much more bulky and expensive than it is now), and they paid it in full after a few months. I had to send them a receipt and the broken card itself, but it went fairly smoothly.
Another vote for the nay column. I received damaged goods once thru the USPS and even though it was insured it turned into such a bureaucratic nightmare (the people there are union and cannot be fired so they literally don’t give a shit about customer service) that I just gave up.
Short answer: If you ever need to send a package that’s valuable enough to require insurance DO NOT use the US Postal Service. Use UPS or if it has to get there quickly FedEx…
I guess it wasn’t as bad as everyone said. I got my check in the mail today, didn’t have to fight with them at all.