Posted by C A Johnson on February 17, 2012, 6:25 am 67.233.115.11
Hello, I have been following a post on the Parker site pertaining to a gun that was shipped via the P.O.. Fortunately, the gun was located and know how relieved the owner is.Always request, if not asked by a clerk, to have a Delivery Confirmation ( Bright Green Tag ) included on the package. It will show scans as these are the ones that are used to track.I ship Priority,( usually 3 days or so ) Insured ( Blue Tag ) with full insurance and Delivery Conf. ( Green Tag ). Registered mail is also a good choice but will take longer and 7 - 14 days is not unheard of but will leave a signature all along the way. It usually follows the Parcel Post packages and is brought in by hand at each routing office towards destination and signed for. The Hope diamond was sent this way. Always package extremely well and tape well. I am a 27 year employee ( Rural Letter Carrier ) and enjoy all of our American doubles, the PO has been good to me and just wanted to offer a suggestion. Thank You.
Since we are talking about shipping, I thought I would share what i learned on a recent shipment. I sent a rather expensive new gun back to the factory for warranty work and I took it to one of the shipment centers for UPS shipment and the clerk told me of many horror stories related to shipping of gun and other items of high value. The clerk was looking out for me and asked to open my package to see if I had it package correctly. It was in a long long narrow carboard box that you would expect a gun to be shipped in and I had the gun wrapped in bubble wrap and a little bit of crushed up newspaper at the ends to take up slack between the gun, bubble wrap and the end of the box. The newspaper was the first problem he ponited out. He said that if it would have been damaged the first thing that the shipper would have found as an excuse is that newspaper is not an approved shipping material and they are off of the hook, even though I had plenty of "approved bubble wrap" around the firearm. I didn't do this but he reminded me to never write anything on the box to identify it as a firearm, even in the address he said if possible try not to put words that remington, winchester or other names that gives someone a clue that it is a firearm. He went on to tell me that if it was stolen, good luck on getting much more than $200. on the item regardless of what it was insured for and that as with any company there are always people trying to steal stuff and guns are a popular item to seek. He said all the tracking info is fine and people do get caught sometimes, but you may go through a lot of headache getting your valuable reimbursed or back. He was an older gentleman that has been doing shipping for a long time and heard a lot of the horror stories and i feel he was honestly looking out for me. He said about all you can do to protect yourself is use "approved" shipping materials and hope for the best. My package made it there and back fine,but I was puckered up for a couple weeks over it. I'm interested if anyone has a story they can share regarding a shipment gone bad. Tom
Never had a problem with UPS or FED EX. I like FED EX better because they seem to be faster and handle the package a little better. The real key in all of this is not to identify that it is a gun in any way and package it very well. Always insure it and track it. USPS Tracking is worthless. It tells you when you got the gun after you have it.
I sent a K-80 barrel ($4000) in for a tube set . Insurance would have been VERY expensive so I called NRA. They said "they covered it and I did not need extra insurance"
Even with full coverage insurance you are not likely to get your $ back for what you have it insured for. Not unless you have a signed/ offical appraisal done within 30 to 60 days of shipping and have the original reciept for what you paid for it and other forms showing you actually own the gun. Pictures of the gun and how you packed it are very helpful.
Re: Tracking a firearm via USPS
Posted by C A Johnson on February 18, 2012, 6:06 am, in reply to "Tracking a firearm via USPS" 67.233.115.11
I hope that my original post may be helpful to some. Shipping any fragile, valuable item is a chance proposition to some extent but with proper packaging, labeling and insurance, helps alleviate the probability of loss and or damage. I just related my experiences by way of a USPS employee and never intended to start a " let me tell my shipping horror story ". We all must remember that all of the domestic carriers handle millions of packages everyday and the only time that I experienced any issue with delivery was an improperly taped box, done by the sender, not caused by the shipping service.
A little off maybe,about 8 years ago I bought a very rare bicycle,1951 Columbia 5 Star,in mint condition from a seller in California.I payed the seller $1000. for the bike and $90. for shipping and insurance via UPS.The seller unknown to me shipped it uninsured.I tracked it to Arizona,then to Palos Illinois,in 2 packages,from Palos Il,only 1 package left,no tracking on the other package.When it arrived it was only the front fork and wheel assembly,and it was crushed beyond repair.When I inquired about the second package UPS had no answer.Upon finding out that the seller had not insured it of course he would not take calls or e-mails.UPS was very unfriendly and absolutely no help.3 weeks later by watching tracking I located the 2nd package in Pennsilvania,900 miles east of me.I called UPS and they had no answer for me.When it arrived,it had obviously been ran over with a fork lift or a truck.My local driver told me that in a 1990's laber strike the government stepped in and force UPS to contribute the moneys paid for shipping insurance to the employee retirement funds and that many times if a package is shipped without insurance there will be problems,not handled very well.UPS nor the seller ever made good of the package and it was a total loss for me.I have never again used UPS,always I use the post office or Fed Ex
