Lost A Valuable Set To USPS / Cbp

Great, but why is it in customs so long? Bureaucratic red tape?


Peter

Hope you don't think this is a "told you so"
But I had every confidence it would arrive.

Sometimes from my dealer in North America I would wait 3 months
The Postal system has let me down once, in 20 years.

(My first swap to Yugoslavia)

Nice to see you have your precious cargo at last

Rod,

My lack of confidence comes from experience. I've lost a lot of stamps to US Customs or USPS.

Right.
That must be very distressing Postmaster.
I recall the anguish when my 5Kg of mounts were 3 months late
Thought I had lost that one.

It isn't just NY holding up stamps.

I live in Atlanta, GA and just last week had a package of stamps I ordered from the Netherlands stopped and opened by customs. Luckily they did not hold them for long. I think the fact the seller sent them with a copy of my eBay invoice helped them realize there was no wrongdoing or espionage at foot.

Sadly, FEDEX has lost a Stamp from the Philatelic Foundation. Now I must contact the PF, especially since I sent it there for authentication (Used 155 or 166). It was the most valuable of what was my great grandfather's collection and I'm saddest because of that. I'm also concerned because I sent another (MNH 595) in and was notified by FEDEX a label was created on 31 January but it has never moved as of 15 February. Hoping the PF is helpful as they must now start the claim process, but I'm doubtful I will use their services because I never had issues with APS, except it took much longer - but longer is better than never!

Numerous people including myself have used the PF for years and the service has always been the same, excellent.

What has changed are the shipping services. The USPS, FedEx and UPS are NOT what they once were. I can give you horror stories from all three in recent years. The common denominator is employees. Everyone had and maybe has issues finding good people and it shows. The best is UPS maybe because of Teamster union employees that are well compensated but FedEx uses a lot of contract employees that cannot even speak English or read a mailbox number. USPS has turned into an incompetent clown show especially in rural areas. People don't care as much or take as much pride in what they do anymore.

Unfortunately places like the PF are stuck with few options.

Definitely not the PF's doing. Had to drive to a FedEx store to talk with an employee, who was helpful in that they told me how to get to talk to a real person. That person was friendly, but not helpful. I will contact the PF because the exact Stamp is an unknown Scott# (to me anyway) and hopefully they can help get me started on the claim. Also need to let them know that a label was created by them for my second Stamp (US #595), but that was 31 January and it has never been updated since then. Only other shipping are Registered or US Express. Any of those better? Cost wise it seemed FedEx was best choice - but you get what you pay for.

Registered will take FOREVER. I have had registered (with stamps) take a month to get from NY to MA. Express really is Express and I have never had an issue likely because it is not in the system long enough for someone to screw things up.

Good to know, thanks. I get stamps from auction houses in flat rate priority, tracked mailers with little to no issue. Last one took longer than expected and was never cancelled. I'll probably spend the extra and have it sent express next time. I used FedEx because they bill my account instead of paying when I send the material.

The PF was outstanding in helping with my lost item. They actually recalled the shipment after seeing it sit in FedEx's system for a few days. FedEx is still unaware where these packages are, but rest assured the PF had them and is sending them out again - this time instead of my home, a FedEx Office store not too far from me. EXTREMELY helpful! A+

Very happy for you!

If you asked for my opinion ,you would get a total different answer .

You are all missing a major reason this is happening . Please look at the type of material we are seeing and discussing here that is not making it's way out of U.S.CUSTOMS or it takes a long time to be return to the mail system and then delivered .

There are employees at U.S.CUSTOMS who think they are the new generation of "The MONUMENTS MEN " {if you don't understand me ,go see the movie . } They want to be the one's who become hero's .

Things are going to get even slower internationally. The new tariff rules that may or not be applied do not exempt small packages and letters as they had in the past. US Customs will probably end up doing what Canada has done in the past, at least initially, opening every piece coming across the border, something like 2 million a day was one estimate. Canada used to, may still do, charge a fee just for opening the sending whether it had any contents subject to customs or not, payable by the addressee. Considering the firing of Federal Employees, especially new hires, by Doge, who knows how long US Customs will take to process mail and shipments.

US Customs has an onsite facility here in Louisville at Muhammad Ali International which is UPS's main hub and they seize about $30 million worth of counterfeit jewelry, clothes, accessories, watches, etc. a month out of UPS international packages. They also seize cash under the assumption it is tied to illegal purposes under civil forfeiture. For some reason the airport is considered part of the Cleveland port of entry. They seem to be doing a lot of press conferences recently to make sure certain parties know they are productive, and do not want to lose any staff.

Regular mail here is still backed up from the holidays. First Class mail from my son's family in Phoenix regularly takes over two weeks now. A friends invoice from an auction firm in the Chicago area took two weeks.

Put USPS and US Customs processing together, lord knows how long delivery will take. I actually had a shipment of stamps from an auction in PA that went to West Virginia, Cincinnati, Louisville where it sat in USPS distribution center for 5 days, then sent to Oklahoma City, Wichita, Chicago, Columbus, Cincinnati, Lexington, and back to Louisville and finally in my mail box 18 days after posting, all neatly tracked with 28 scan entries on my informed delivery. And the stamps were uncanceled, but it has a package label as well.