Post Office Lost My Nakaya

[budopo]

My brand new Nakaya Neo-Standard (aka-tamenuri, broad cursive-Italic nib) had a minor ink flow problem (it wrote beautifully, but would skip a little every once in a while). I sent it to Mike Masuyama to fix it (he did a beautiful job grinding it to the cursive-Italic, by the way, and I highly recommend him). Since he's kind of busy now, I figured I'd send it next-day mail, so he wouldn't be quite so rushed to get to it. I also insured it for its actual value.

 

Naturally, the pen hasn't arrived yet. It's somewhere between Maryland and Georgia. It's only 1 day late so far, so hopefully, it'll show up, but I've already started the insurance claim with the post office, and I'll stop by the local branch to get my postage refund (it was guaranteed delivery).

 

So, while I'm rather upset, at least I had tracking and I paid for insurance (although I shudder to think of what the claim process will be like). I thought I'd pass on the lesson learned for shipping something valuable. The next-day service was expensive and not really necessary, but tracking and insurance are just a few dollars and worth it.

[Reene]

Yup, you were smart putting insurance on it. I sent my uncle a Waterman Kultur and some blank journals last week by Priority mail to Brooklyn, it's been 9 days now and it's still hasn't been delivered. It said it was "out for delivery" on Friday, but now it just keeps saying status not updated and he hasn't gotten it yet. What's more frustrating is trying to reach the post office..the line is ALWAYS busy, even after hours. I've faxed them four times, talked to to two different people at that 800 USPS number...and they said they'd email them to tell them to contact me. Nothing.

Thankfully it wasn't an expensive pen, but still, it cost over $10 bucks just to ship it, plus the items.

First time this has happened to me, so I can feel your concern. Hope your pen gets there. After nine days, I'm getting a bit concerned over mine.

 

 

 

Update! He got the pen! It still doesn't say that it was "delivered" on the delivery confirmation website, but he's got it!...whew...close call...yes, insurance all the time from now on! Big lesson learned!

Edited October 20, 2011 by Reene

[kaisede]

+1 on insurance.

 

I still remember one time I send my CS for repair and the postal worker asked me how much I want to insure it. I said $1k, she looked at me as if I was shipping some contra ban or something. I had to tell her that it is an fountain pen.

[olivier78860]

I bought a Mabie Todd Black Bird at the end of august. It's still in California, according to USPS's tracking website.

 

I had read USPS was slow, but to this point, héhé.

 

Thankfully it's "just" $100. Hope I'll get it for christmas

Edited October 20, 2011 by olivier78860

[TMac]

I hope the pen arrives after it's delay. Really smart move on the insurance if you have a worst case situation. Good luck and let us know how it turns out.

[Bo Bo Olson]

Expensive pens should be sent insured.

 

I've seen that mentioned by victims often enough.

[budopo]

Update: The post office tracking website says it arrived in Georgia October 20 at 10:30 and they expect delivery to be on October 19th. Perhaps if the delivery truck can get up to 88 mph and the flux capacitor is working, but I'm doubtful.

 

Getting the refund for the delivery charge was fairly painless. It just took a trip to the post office, with my copy of the mailing label. I did NOT ask for a refund of the insurance. It's just a few dollars, and if I did get the refund for the insurance, I can see the post office arguing that it therefore is not insured (if the pen is damaged or lost). I asked Mike Masuyama to check it for damage and to let me know when it arrives.

 

By the way, the post office guy said the handheld scanners that the delivery men use don't update the status until they get back to the post office. So, it can be delivered at, say 1:00, but the tracking status on the internet won't change until maybe 6:00, when the handheld scanner data is uploaded. Just FYI.

[Torculus Resupinus]

Interesting about levels of insurance (kaisede's comment on the reaction to $1k). In the UK, there's a fairly low standard level of insurance for International Signed For (the method I recently used to send a nib back to Italy for exchange), but the only other option is the maximum of £500 (approx. $750). Fortunately it's not very expensive, as budopo says, and fortunately my nib got to the maker OK. I'll refrain from the jokes (or horror stories) they used to tell about the Italian postal service when I lived in Italy 30 years ago . . .

[Ghost Plane]

I mostly use the scanner information to ascertain to whom the parcels were delivered when they obviously haven't come to me. Had fairly good service from USPS lately, but when they DO go bad, they're awful. :bonk: Non-delivery is such a habit for them that Amazon.com now asks you to wait for 3 days while they try to ascertain where the parcel went when it's posted "delivered". Funny how every call to Amazon results in a delivery the day after the call :hmm1:

[WanderingAuthor]

I agree that insurance and tracking are good ideas... but I really wish the postal service were a bit more trustworthy, since I cannot think of a single pen I own which I would happily sell for its official value. I have a good few pens - not even considering those with sentimental value - which just happen to be such nice writers that I wouldn't think of parting with them for ten times their "book value". So I would add my own thoughts, that it is only a good idea to entrust pens you really don't want to lose to the postal lottery, uh, service if there is absolutely no other alternative. (No, so far I haven't lost a single pen. Which is good, because I have had no other alternative than to send out a few pens I really didn't want to lose, including a couple with sentimental value that I wouldn't consider selling for a million times their "value".)

 

And, of course, if you happen to have been very, very lucky with a really cheap pen, you're out of luck. I've got Chinese pens I paid $10 for, including shipping, that I wouldn't want to sell for $50, because the exact pen turned out to be a nice writer. (Yes, I've got some that didn't work out so well, too, but I wouldn't be as worried about those...) The cost of insurance just isn't worth it in those cases, considering how little I'd get back, and the costs of trying, over and over, to get just the right one again. I'm not disagreeing with the thought that often insurance is the best you can do, but pointing out that there are times when it just doesn't work out so great. (And the terms are stupid, anyhow: if I paid for insurance at a certain level, then I ought to be paid in terms of what I valued the item at, and paid to insure it at, not at what someone else says I "should" be able to replace it for. But, even if I paid for $500 worth of insurance, if they can find an idiot on eBay selling the same thing for fifty cents, that's all they'll give me... Edited to add: Although I've never had to go through the process for a pen, I've dealt with it once. And I suspect they wouldn't care that I paid more to buy a pen from, say, Richard Binder or HisNibs or whoever because they make sure the nib works in the first place - to them, any old seller is the same.)

Edited October 20, 2011 by WanderingAuthor

[Blooze]

As a side note on people with delivery time issues. I traded a duplicate vintage razor I had for a restored Esterbrook SJ last month. My razor arrived in two days from TX to FL. The pen took almost three weeks. It was stamped the same day I sent the razor. We were already working out a return on the razor when the pen finally arrived. Obviously insurance on either end wasn't an issue, but on anything over about $50 I put it on there.

[ellen1]

If something is very valuable or non-replaceable, I suggest looking at Registered Mail. It is more secure than the regular mail, although it is not as fast as overnite/two day.

Details on it can be found on the USPS at https://www.usps.com/ship/insurance-and-extra-services.htm.

[rogerb]

Just be absolutely sure that, if you send abroad, the insurance covers you right to the destination.

I discovered, the hard and expensive way, that the expensive pens I sent 'insured' to Arizona from Spain were only, effectively, insured as far as the Spanish border

So, as they were 'lost' in the US Customs ..... tough luck...

This is quite ludicrous, and probably illegal, but I wasn't prepared to try to fight it through the Spanish courts

[Margana]

Slow/late/if ever delivery, damaged/lost/stolen packages, mail delivered to wrong addresses, and yet the USPS will raise its fees in January. Hrumph!

[WanderingAuthor]

Just be absolutely sure that, if you send abroad, the insurance covers you right to the destination.

I discovered, the hard and expensive way, that the expensive pens I sent 'insured' to Arizona from Spain were only, effectively, insured as far as the Spanish border

So, as they were 'lost' in the US Customs ..... tough luck...

This is quite ludicrous, and probably illegal, but I wasn't prepared to try to fight it through the Spanish courts

 

I certainly agree it is absurd, unethical, just plain wrong. If it had happened to me, I'd probably be more upset than you are. But since the government of Spain makes the laws that govern what they can do, there is a good chance it isn't technically illegal... Which, actually, makes it that much more infuriating, but although courts have been known to rule against their own governments, the fight to convince them to is usually so brutal, it would be easier to just replace the pens yourself. So I think you made the wise choice in deciding not to fight it. Although, if I were you, I'd be wasting a lot of time wishing plagues upon the lawyers for the Spanish postal authorities who figured out that little wrinkle...

 

Although I do have to ask; was there any proof, other than electronic "tracking data" (which any ten year old could fiddle) that the US Customs ever even got the package? Again, I'm sure the fight wouldn't have been worth it, as the Spanish courts would naturally tend to be very impressed with whatever data Spanish postal authorities gave them, but I was just wondering how you even know where it was lost.

[Chris Chalmers]

Here where I live the parcel delivery service of the PO has several trucks but only one scanner - so all packages get scanned first thing and then delivered later! How do I know? My husband ordered something for his golf, it didn't arrive at our house, but showed "delivered" on tracking, so he set out in the car and found the boss of the delivery service - she was explaining about the only scanner..........when one of the honest people in this neighbourhood turned up with Ray's package which had been delivered to him by mistake!!!!

Multiply that by how many districts..........and you have mayhem - and that is just Tasmania!

 

I hope your pen arrives safely for you.

[SamCapote]

I have never had anything get lost that I mailed with USPS, but when I send things insured, it makes me wonder what is the standard of proof of what I shipped....especially collector's vintage pens.

[Rose Nibs]

My wife bought an expensive pendulum clock from the US which arrived with a lot of broken glass and other damage. When she tried to make an insurance claim USPS said that photos weren't enough, she would have to post the clock back to them for appraisal and they would consider the claim. But where did the damage occur? In the US, over the Pacific or in some Guantanamo Bay for clocks managed by Australia Post? The cost of repairs wasn't much more than the cost of sending the clock back (insured and carefully packaged, of course). We didn't proceed.

[Dave the brew guy]

I have never had anything get lost that I mailed with USPS, but when I send things insured, it makes me wonder what is the standard of proof of what I shipped....especially collector's vintage pens.

+1, USPS is the only carrier that's never lost or damaged anything on me. My loss rate for UPS is close to 5% and they easily hold the record for damage too. Fedex is better but they've lost one and damaged a few. The worst part is the premium UPS and Fedex charge for their inferior "service."

I have recently started to include "shipping method" when I consider making an online purchase, if USPS isn't an option I have to decide if I want to wait longer and pay extra for something I may never see. Several vendors have lost my business simply due to their refusal to ship via USPS.

[WanderingAuthor]

I have never had anything get lost that I mailed with USPS, but when I send things insured, it makes me wonder what is the standard of proof of what I shipped....especially collector's vintage pens.

+1, USPS is the only carrier that's never lost or damaged anything on me. My loss rate for UPS is close to 5% and they easily hold the record for damage too. Fedex is better but they've lost one and damaged a few. The worst part is the premium UPS and Fedex charge for their inferior "service."

I have recently started to include "shipping method" when I consider making an online purchase, if USPS isn't an option I have to decide if I want to wait longer and pay extra for something I may never see. Several vendors have lost my business simply due to their refusal to ship via USPS.

 

I've had problems with all of them. UPS gets the medal for the most epic fail, though. I ordered a C/C fountain pen that came with a set of cartridges. It came packed well enough in styrofoam peanuts - but the delivery guy threw the package up onto our porch hard enough that all the cartridges burst. (We saw him. And there was nothing wrong with the cartridges. Until that day, I never even knew that was possible, at least not unless you dropped the package out of an airplane from a mile up or something...)