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I just wanted to share my experience with everyone on having to try and cash in on the USPS insurance I posted for a $450 laptop that I sold on eBay, that ended up getting damaged in the mail. So I am suppose to receive a check for the $450 but I went through a long process and feel like I got very lucky, I do not plan on getting insurance through the USPS on anything over $100 again. Below is my story.
I sold a laptop for $450 on eBay to a longtime eBay'er with high feedback. The item was shipped on 9/1 and arrived on 9/6. The buyer opened a case for INAD and added pictures to the claim, so I filed a claim with USPS and submitted the pictures. I then got a letter from the post office accounting branch on the 10th, the letter was dated the 7th. It requested I bring the item and it's original packaging to a post office to be inspected within 20 days. Now, this is frustrating because on the USPS Claim webpage it says
'If you received something damaged, please hang onto the original packaging and the damaged item until your claim is settled. You may be asked to take them to your local Post Office™ for inspection later. Please do not reship the package.'
This is difficult because the buyer has no obligation to take the item and contents to the post office, but the post office specifically says do not reship the damaged item. Luckily, I had a good honest buyer and they took the item and packaging contents to his local post office and provided me a receipt from them, this was on 9/19.
Yesterday 10/11 I checked my claim and found out it was denied, the reason being that I took to long to respond to their request to bring the item in. This was clearly not the case and I had proof so I put in a appeal online, uploading the receipt the buyer sent me that they got showing they turned in the laptop to their post office. I got the letter on the 7th, and he turned it in on the 19th so I was well within the 20 days response time. With that being said, I did not have much faith in the online process so I went to my local post office and provided proof of everything, my insurance, the damage, when I filed the claim, when I received the letter requesting proof, and the receipt for when the laptop was turned in. The clerk was clueless, telling me I had to have the buyer ship back the item. Also to add, the buyer told me their post office tried to tell him the same thing and only after he continually question this did they go through the process and took the laptop in to review the damage. So I got no help from the local post office and went home and called the USPS 1800 number, after being on hold for well over an hour I got the number to the Help Desk Accounting department. Let me note that this number is not ANYWHERE on the USPS for claims purposes or any accounting purposes that I could find. I suspect this is because they want to make this procedure as hard as possible. So I call the # and am on hold for 30 minutes and finally get someone. I ask them to review everything including the receipt I got from the buyer that showed they turned the laptop into the post office. At first he tried giving me the run around saying their receipt was suspect because it wasn't stamped. I kept pushing and they escalated the case to tier two level.
Got a call this morning and was informed I will be received payment in the mail. So I did get my money back but WHAT A HASSLE. Also, I was lucky enough to get an honest patient buyer that went out of his way to help me. We all know how rare that is. I'd say ship UPS or use the insurance offered via 3rd party through eBay. Do not make the same mistake I did, I got extremely lucky but I'm betting 9 times out of 10 for items worth that much claims through USPS are denied.