The Great Homosassa Hassle: or A Trip Through the Wonder World of USPS Insurance Claims Adjustment
- By Frank Bequaert
Filing a postal claim is not always as easy as it appears.
By Frank Bequaert
My wife Lucia and I run an antiquarian book business in Fitzwilliam New Hampshire. Our shop is a quarter mile from the Post Office which makes it convenient for mailing packages for our internet business. Our local Postmaster is always helpful and has endless patience in dealing with both our problems and the idiosyncrasies of the U. S. Postal System. For 17 years all went well until last January.
We sell books on a number of internet services including Alibris. If Alibris receives an order from overseas for one of our books, we ship the book to their facility in Sparks Nevada. They then ship the book to the customer. This system is nice for the bookseller as it eliminates the need to request extra postage or cancel a sale because a service has not collected sufficient overseas postage from a customer. Even though Alibris provides postpaid labels for shipping books to Sparks, if a book is worth more than $100., we usually insure it and eat the cost of postage and insurance. Hence this tale.
At the end of January 2007, Alibris ordered 2 of our books worth over $200. each for shipment to Sparks. We put both the books in the same box and shipped them off. We insured the package for $200. Several weeks later, Alibris returned one of the books to us stating that the book condition was "not as described". They also cancelled the order for the other book stating that they had "not received the book". When the returned book arrived in Fitzwilliam it was badly damaged and appeared to have been mauled by a major piece of Post Office equipment. We figure that when the package got chewed up, one book got lost and the damaged book and the remains of the package made it to Alibris. The insurance form on the package was apparently lost as it had not been scanned after it left Fitzwilliam.
Assuming that we had a straightforward damage claim, we filed a claim for $200. for the damaged book with our Postmaster. She duly shipped off the paperwork to the Claims Office. Unfortunately, that claim got lost in the mail so we had to refile the claim two months later.
The second time the claim was sent in it was processed and rejected. We were told that the proper procedure is for the recipient of a damaged item to take that item and the damaged package to their local Post Office where it can be inspected. However, if the recipient does mail the damaged article back to the sender, it has to be sent via U. S. Mail. If it is sent by another carrier (e.g. UPS) the Postal Service can claim that the article could have been damaged by that carrier. Alibris sent the book back via UPS.
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The Great Homosassa Hassle: or A Trip Through the Wonder World of USPS Insurance Claims Adjustment
- By Frank Bequaert
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Unfortunately, we did not hear about the rejection until we called to check on the status of the claim. Apparently when transcribing the data on our claims form to the computer someone typed an extra "4" in our zip code (03447) and thus entered the zip for Homosassa Springs, Florida instead (34447). Thus all mail regarding our claim went to Florida. If any of the mail was returned, no one forwarded it to us. When we talked to the Claims Department, we told the person we talked to that our zip code was in error in their computer and should be changed.
We now decided to try filing a claim for the other book in the package, the one that was lost. Our Postmaster duly filed that claim. We tried to have her send in that claim by certified mail, but she said that Postal Regulations prevented her from doing so. That claim simply vanished into the void. Perhaps it was lost in the mails. Perhaps it was simply thrown away. Perhaps the rejection notice was sent to Homosassa Springs.
We then filed a claims appeal for the damaged book with the Postal Service Claims Appeal Office in St. Louis. Again we did not hear back for many weeks but when we called to find out the status of the claim, we discovered that our appeal had been rejected for the same reasons as was the original claim. There had been a letter sent to us, but again it went to Homosassa Springs.
There was, however, a final appeal we could make, to the "USPS Consumer Advocate". We packed up our documentation (now a quarter inch thick) and shipped it off to them with a cover letter that made it very clear that they should reply to our address in Fitzwilliam, not to Homosassa Springs. ("This is a letter. It has a heading. The heading contains a return address. Please mail your reply to that return address. Please do not send your reply to Homossasa Springs, Florida.")
Well, the letter worked. Two months after we sent in the appeal, we got our $200. refund. And they mailed the check to us in Fitzwilliam. The downside? Our post office was not allowed to return the damaged book to us.
Thus ended an expensive (in time) lesson in the ways of the U.S. Postal Service. Hopefully what we learned may be of some use to other book dealers. Here are some points to consider:
1. You may wish to use Delivery Confirmation (tracking) instead of insurance on all but the most valuable of the books you ship. It is less expensive and provides a simple way you can prove that a package has been (or has not yet been) delivered. And you can do the tracking yourself on the Internet.
2. If you insure a book, you may want to put a note inside the book indicating how the recipient should handle a damaged book. Here is the note we now send with our insured books:
PLEASE NOTE: This package has been insured for loss or damage. Please inspect the book and the box it came in for damage. If the book has been damaged in transit, do not return the book to us but contact us immediately. We can then discuss the available options.
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The Great Homosassa Hassle: or A Trip Through the Wonder World of USPS Insurance Claims Adjustment
- By Frank Bequaert
none
The U. S. Postal Service procedure for making a claim for insured goods damaged in transit requests that you return the damaged article and the packing material to your local post office before you make a claim. Your Post Office will probably want to keep the book until the claim is paid or rejected. If the claim is paid, they probably will not return the book to you. However, if there is damage to a book that can be repaired, they may be willing to pay for those repairs. In this case, the book would be returned to you.
3. If you file an insurance claim for a book lost in the mail, make sure that the initial claim you file is as complete and as accurate as possible. Whatever you put on that first claim form will be what is entered in the Claims Department computer. If you appeal the claim, the person handling the appeal will probably look at what is in their computer for that claim number, not at any additional information you send them. Also, I would suggest that you have the claim sent in with Delivery Confirmation or Certified Mail even if you have to pay the extra cost of that service.
4. The Post Office Claims Department operates an "amorphorous" system. There is no specific individual assigned to dealing with a claim. For example, each time you call to get information, you will probably speak to a different individual and if anyone calls you back, it will not be a person you have talked to before. However, each of the individuals you talk to will look up your claim number on their computer and will read you the same information from the computer screen. However, they may not be able to alter erroneous information in the computer. If your claim is refused, it buys nothing to get angry with the person you are talking to as they are not the one who actually rejected your claim.
5. If you purchase books through the mail for resale, it may be better to have the shipper use Delivery Confirmation rather than insuring the package. We recently received a shipment of books that were slightly damaged (corners bumped) in transit. The package was insured, but if we tried to collect the insured value, the Post Office would have kept the books. Even though we had to lower the sale price of the books, we still came out ahead by keeping the damaged books rather than simply collecting back our cost and losing the books.
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