USPS is accusing me of mailing a gun when I mailed a barrel

[Rick Lee]

I sold a P226 .357SIG barrel only to a guy in FL a few months ago. I foolishly skipped the insurance, though I guess it wouldn't have mattered in the end. I sent it USPS Priority Mail, which includes $50 of insurance. The barrel never arrived. USPS claimed it was delivered, and it may well have been, but the buyer never saw it.

I filed a claim with USPS and instantly lost because they said it was delivered. Oh well, case closed because they claim it was delivered! Such idiots.

I appealed, said it may have been delivered, but it was not delivered to the correct address and the intended recipient never saw it. Their next letter totally ignored my appeal and said I cannot mail guns via USPS and asked for a copy of my FFL. Can you believe this? I appealed again, told them a barrel is not a gun and can be mailed and received in any state via USPS sans FFL. Once again, they ignored that appeal, sent me another letter saying case is closed and reminding me that I cannot mail guns without an FFL. Gee, you'd think if they really thought I mailed a gun sans FFL to another non-FFL, they might want to track down that missing gun.

I refunded the buyer his money, but at this point I just want someone at USPS to acknowledge their utter incompetence and ignorance. Not like my US Senators' staffers will care at all. But I'm getting close to finding someone at USPS on LinkedIn and writing them a longer letter than USPS allows in their 255 character online appeal template. I hate everyone.

[RANDY P]

I haven't seen any cards (CC, DL, otherwise) in the mail from USPS in months. I get all their junk mail tho.

rjp

[Hockey fan]

Not related to your specific item but I ship daily and learned that each Priority delivery scan creates an internal GPS location upon delivery. This isn't anything you can see as a customer but going to my local post office and politely asking the clerk to check the tracking number they were able to find a package I sent. Like yours it was marked delivered but it was actually delivered across town. In a perfect world the person that incorrectly received the package would give it back to a carrier but in my case the carrier retrieved the package from the incorrect address and re-delivered to the proper address. Worth a shot asking a postmaster at a local PO on your end to help you find a mis-delivered package.

[Jrboulder]

I can’t imagine they’d be disappointed to drive off another citizen-customer, it just helps them focus on their primary business of junk mail and stuff from China.

[john70t]

What Hockey fan said.
I went through the same thing around x-mas. After about 3 weeks later the package magically showed up, but a duplicate shipment was already sent out.

It's a little confusing but (according to what I was told by employees) looking up the tracking number and seeing "Received" doesn't mean actual delivery to an actual address. It doesn't mean received by the local branch office in charge of area mail. It means received by the hub area which could be extensive. I'm not sure why they do it that way.

[RANDY P]

Items I've purchased off Ebay have been stolen when the item wasn't totally securely packed. Boxes with wrenches have been torn open at the corners (to make it look like damaged during shipping) and of course, all tools inside gone.

When I have to ship USPS I use enough packing tape it's impossible for someone to tear the box open.

Also, look for USPS Informed Delivery- a service where you mail gets scanned and emailed to you daily. At least you can tell what you didn't get, and then file a compliant about it- then, wait.

[speeder]

Do they have any official policy wrt mailing gun parts?

[masraum]

Originally Posted by Rick Lee

I sold a P226 .357SIG barrel only to a guy in FL a few months ago. I foolishly skipped the insurance, though I guess it wouldn't have mattered in the end. I sent it USPS Priority Mail, which includes $50 of insurance. The barrel never arrived. USPS claimed it was delivered, and it may well have been, but the buyer never saw it.

I filed a claim with USPS and instantly lost because they said it was delivered. Oh well, case closed because they claim it was delivered! Such idiots.

I appealed, said it may have been delivered, but it was not delivered to the correct address and the intended recipient never saw it. Their next letter totally ignored my appeal and said I cannot mail guns via USPS and asked for a copy of my FFL. Can you believe this? I appealed again, told them a barrel is not a gun and can be mailed and received in any state via USPS sans FFL. Once again, they ignored that appeal, sent me another letter saying case is closed and reminding me that I cannot mail guns without an FFL. Gee, you'd think if they really thought I mailed a gun sans FFL to another non-FFL, they might want to track down that missing gun.

I refunded the buyer his money, but at this point I just want someone at USPS to acknowledge their utter incompetence and ignorance. Not like my US Senators' staffers will care at all. But I'm getting close to finding someone at USPS on LinkedIn and writing them a longer letter than USPS allows in their 255 character online appeal template. I hate everyone.

ROFLMAO. That's a great punchline.

It's a bummer that you had that sort of issue.

[pwd72s]

Reminds me of years ago, when I got my Garand through the old DCM program. Notice in our mailbox a package for me. Cindy went to the local post office to pick it up. Seeing the package, she blurted: "Oh, it's Paul's rifle." Postal clerk phreaked..saying you can't send a rifle through the mail. Cindy just pointed to the return address..."They can." HA! United States Army, department of civilian marksmanship.

My, how times have changed. Not all change is good, eh?

[Racerbvd]

Originally Posted by speeder

Do they have any official policy wrt mailing gun parts?

Unless it has changed, you can mail some gun parts, now a complete gun is still a no no.

"432 Mailability | Postal Explorer" https://pe.usps.com/text/pub52/pub52c4_009.htm

[Baz]

Originally Posted by pwd72s

Reminds me of years ago, when I got my Garand through the old DCM program. Notice in our mailbox a package for me. Cindy went to the local post office to pick it up. Seeing the package, she blurted: "Oh, it's Paul's rifle." Postal clerk phreaked..saying you can't send a rifle through the mail. Cindy just pointed to the return address..."They can." HA! United States Army, department of civilian marksmanship.

My, how times have changed. Not all change is good, eh?

Ha - GREAT story! You GO, Cindy!

[Noah930]

Originally Posted by Rick Lee

I refunded the buyer his money, but at this point I just want someone at USPS to acknowledge their utter incompetence and ignorance. Not like my US Senators' staffers will care at all.

Good luck with that. I don't mean that in a snippy way, but rather out of sympathy. No one (with any sort of authority) at USPS cares.

[Chocaholic]

Sent two boxes to my son via the Army to his deployment location in Syria. Both sent to the identical APO address. After 6 weeks, one was returned to me indicating invalid address...the second one was delivered to him without issue. Had to pay again and resend.

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by Hockey fan

Not related to your specific item but I ship daily and learned that each Priority delivery scan creates an internal GPS location upon delivery. This isn't anything you can see as a customer but going to my local post office and politely asking the clerk to check the tracking number they were able to find a package I sent. Like yours it was marked delivered but it was actually delivered across town. In a perfect world the person that incorrectly received the package would give it back to a carrier but in my case the carrier retrieved the package from the incorrect address and re-delivered to the proper address. Worth a shot asking a postmaster at a local PO on your end to help you find a mis-delivered package.

And in my wife's case, she never received a piece of china she bought on the flea. USPS tracked it down and it was delivered to the next block up to an address one number off that would have put it up in the next block. However the seller was able to prove that they addressed the package correctly. A notice was sent to the address in the next block by USPS and the recipient refused to cooperate instead choosing to keep the package. IOW, stealing it even though it was given to them by mistake.

At this point the USPS told my wife game over, nothing we can do and pound sand. The eBay seller graciously refunded the entire purchase even though not at fault. eBay itself didn't want to take a stand on the issue and participate with their so called "buyers guarantee."

At least we know where one dirtbag lives one block up. I hope the piece has lots of lead in it and they die.

[rusnak]

USPS absolute do not care.

They really need to go under. Really.

[Rapewta]

Went to the UPS store six months ago to ship a wooden rifle stock.
The employee asked me what was I shipping and I told him "A wooden rifle stock."
He said no can do but if you just tell me it is a piece of wood then it is all good.
It shipped but really....?

[Rick Lee]

You can send any part of a gun other than a serialized frame or lower receiver. You can buy Poly80 online all day and have them shipped to your house via USPS. You can buy gun barrels on eBay and from every manufacturer and have them delivered in any state in the US via USPS, no FFL needed. I would be able to live with USPS just insisting they had delivered it and know I'm out the barrel and headache. But some know-nothing, termination-proof postal employee accusing me of mailing a gun and trying to warn me is beyond the pale. I will be pursuing this.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

You can't ship guns via USPS? I have, no problems.

I like their new loyalty program. Somehow I've earned $60 of free shipping recently.

[onewhippedpuppy]

Originally Posted by rusnak

USPS absolute do not care.

They really need to go under. Really.

Yup. Eff those pieces of crap. I have had more issues with shipping USPS than all other means combined. That’s what happens when you have a government unionized organization competing against private enterprise.

[Arizona_928]

Post master