USPS Registered mail lost need help with some values

While it is true that registered mail is handled very carefully, with postal employees signing for the package at hand-off and being locked-down at other times, the tracking system doesn't display transit information. Some say it is intentional, for security.

Tracking software will show only that the package was accepted and not be updated until it is delivered.

It is not uncommon for registered mail to take a couple of weeks for delivery. I waited three weeks once for the coin to cross the country. I hope yours shows up soon.
Lance.

 

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I dont think registered is automatically insured for 25k, you have to pay for the insurance but it is cheaper than insurance on priority packages.

 

Given that you were sending the coins in to be graded by a TPG, I believe USPS is indemnified from paying off an insurance claim above what you paid. As another member stated, USPS Registered Mail is signed for at EVERY hand-off. Per USPS.com:

Note: Due to extraordinary security precautions, the delivery length for Registered Mail may be 10-14 days. Registered Mail is not recommended if speed of delivery is important.

By definition, any package sent Registered Mail would be FCM or Priority class. The notation above is to make it clear to the shipper that the package will be SLOWER than normal Priority Mail. If your package was sent on 29 April, as Conder said, the post office wouldn't open an investigation until 30 May, at the earliest. Heck, 20 May would still be within the window of reasonable delivery time given the class of mail and Registered status.

That said, USPS has been slow this year. I had a package that was being sent to me Priority Mail from New York. It took 10 days for the package to leave the state. In all, 13 postal days of shipping time (2.5 weeks) for a package shipped "Priority."

 

I insured it for $3994.00. Odd amount I know but I had to redo values for my claim and the value was closer to $4500. I know it is not that much but some of the coins I found in the 1990's. I went to a different post office and the Postmaster at first thought it was his branch that it was missing from and was having a fit. He said that type of mail just does not go missing. I will see what ahppens and let everyone know. thanks Darrow

 

Funny...I just had consummated a trade deal with another forum member (after another member, who shall remain nameless, committed to a deal for these coins, but just walked away from it). My package made it (priority mail, with del confirm) in it's anticipated time. The package sent by the other member had del confirm on it. He dropped it off at a physical P.O., not just dropped it in a mail box. It NEVER got scanned at the P.O. he dropped it off at (BIG problem there....he paid for del confirm, and it was basically ignored).

I can check the USPS website and track the del confirm #, and to this very minute, it shows the ONLY place this package got scanned at was when it hit the regional sorting facility (Boston area), on it's way to my city's sort facility. For at least 10 days we figured it got lost.....and 'lost' was confirmed by the regional Postal office (the one you call with problems, where the people have brains, not the local Post Office, where an untrained chimp could get hired). Unbeknownst to me, it got delivered to the house, wound up in a pile of mail a jacket got put on top of. It was shipped on the 7th. When it was delivered, we'll have NO idea. I figure between the day it got dropped off at his local P.O. (where it SHOULD have been scanned IN as 'received'), to the time it got delivered to my house, a minimum of 6 postal employees handled it...perhaps more.....and only ONE bothered to scan it.

This was the SECOND package in that same week that got lost on me (second one was a cell phone battery...got sorted to another carrier's route....thankfully, the person who received it was honest enough to bring it to my house). The service the USPS gives is DEPLORABLE. I have absolutely NO faith in them. The worst part is, I have perhaps 20 coins all packaged, some high grade varieties worth more than just a few bucks, that WERE going to go to PCGS....now I don't know what to do, short of UPS, FedEx, or even delivering by hand....3,200 miles away.

This is on the heels (in November) of a $600 HK medal that had sig confirm on it....only to be signed for by a postal employee at 9PM, marked as 'delivered'.....at 9PM!!! How many letter carriers are still delivering mail at 9:00 at night? NONE! Needless to say, that employee is no longer with them (theft or not, we'll never know). Yes, it was insured, and the claim was paid (took 3 months)...BUT, only the cost of the medal...they still keep the $$ they charge for postage, so I actually lost $$ on it.

I have absolutely NO faith in the P.O. whatsoever, absolutely NONE....their heads are stuck so far up 'there', they can't see the light of day. And the worst part is, it really isn't brain surgery. Fortunately, things have worked out just OK, no thanks to the USPS. I hope the OP has better luck than I've had lately.

 

No it isn't. You have to declare a value for the package and you pay the Registered mail fee and insurance up to the value you declared. As blu62vette said these insurance rates are MUCH lower than the rates for regular insured mail. The $25K figure is the MAXIMUM you can insure it for, but you can declare values higher than that amount. If you declare over the $25K figure you will pay an addition dollar per $1K of value or any portion thereof. For example If you declare $35K you would pay the fee for $25K plus $10. If it gets lost though they will NOT pay more than $25K even though you declared the higher amount and paid the fee. (They have similar rules for regular insured, but there the MAXIMUM amout you can insure or get paid for is $5K.)

Darrowcrowe, what did you pay for the insurance? Priority insured for $4K would have been about $48.85 Express mail insured for $4K would have been about $71.25 Registered for $4K would have been about $23.85 The amount you paid would tell us how it was shipped.

I assumed a small flat priority box, and a flat rate express mail envelope.

 

Registered mail is automatically insured, that's why you have to pay more to ship an item the more expensive it is. up to $25k

http://www.usps.com/send/waystosendmail/extraservices/registeredmailservice.htm

Items you send with Registered Mail are placed under tight security from the point of mailing to the point of delivery, and insured up to $25,000 against loss or damage. And you can verify the date and time of delivery and the delivery attempts online.

also

Registered for $4K would have been about $18.85 on top of regular postage

 

It is automatically insured only if you pay for it. See http://www.usps.com/prices/registered-mail-prices.htm. i.e. 0 value = $10.75; 1,000.01 to $25,000 = $14.65 plus $1.40 handling charge for each $1,000 or fraction thereof over $1,000.00

 

Yes but you are required to pay for it.... and it is on top of regular shipping. I guess if you lie to them and tell them your item is worth $0 then yeah... you screwed yourself, but I don't lie so have always told them exactly what the item/items were worth and was charged accordingly.

I guess my point being, you don't need to, and can't buy additional insurance on top of the total when you mail something registered mail. It is also cheaper to mail registered mail as opposed to priority with insurance after a certain dollar amount.

 

I don't see it on the site now but they used to have a note on there that you could only declare a zero value for things such as documents. Any merchandise had to have a declared non-zero value. The break point at which registered starts becoming cheaper is somewhere between $800 and $1K.

Found the reference to what can be sent with a zero value Domestic Mail Manual Sec 502 2.3.1 Fees and Liabilities

"Only articles of no value may be mailed as Registered Mail without insurance."

then in the table that follows shows these as no value items

Nonnegotiable Instrument [registered bonds, warehouse receipts, checks, drafts, deeds, wills, abstracts, and similar documents (certificates of stock considered nonnegotiable so far as declaration of value is concerned unless endorsed in blank)]

Nonvaluable (matter without intrinsic value such as letters, files, records)

 

What I am trying to tell you is that registered mail is no more insured than first class mail. If you mail a package registered for $10.75 and it is lost, you will recover a total of nothing, zero, nada. If you mail a pound of gold and only pay $14.65 and they lose that also, you will only recover $1,000. Period. You do need to buy the insurance if you expect to recover anything.

 

When sending something registered mail, do not lie about it's value.