Anyone else have a bad shipping experience?
 

A while back I purchased a few LEGO Toy Story minifigures from eBay as a small gift for my sister. Today I checked the mail and I found a strange envelope from the USPS with a "We're sorry that your article was damaged during processing" sticker on it. I opened it up, and found the mutilated remnants of what should have been my LEGO purchase.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/17857818/DSCI1246.JPG

I contacted the seller about it and asked for either a replacement or a refund, but I was just wondering if any of you guys have had anything like this happen?

Ouch. Was there any insurance involved?

Not from an ebay seller no. It's usually USPS fault if it's damaged though, my friend got his Archangel figure from the mail order and the box was smashed with a cut in the box. I as well received a care box from my fiance, and the box was kind of cut up.

What did the seller say?

No, but it wasn't an expensive item and I've had good results with sellers reimbursing me. They probably didn't package it very well, but I still think USPS screwed up big time.

I haven't heard back from them yet, but a picture is worth a thousand words and I bet it'll get resolved. With all the drama going on with the USPS I'm not overly surprised that my stuff was damaged so badly, but damn, they only sent scraps of what was once there. Is that normal?

Yeah, those letters are always nice. "Sorry we messed up your stuff." - signed, Don't-Give-A-Shit.

I've one or two items arrive in the mail, normally from overseas sellers, where something like a DCUC figure is wrapped up with paper and twine, and basically shows up at my place torn to shreads with an apology note, but fortunately everything is usually fine. I just got a $350 order come in a box where the side was dented in and partially shredded. After I calmed down from my momentary freakout, I checked it and luckily it was fine. But man, that was close.

Sucks for you man. I hope the seller can do something for you, but you might be S.O.L.

USPS really has to set their game up. As it is they are worried about resources and finances... maybe quality control should be stepped up. A few weeks ago I ordered something and USPS tracking said "estimated arrival: Nov 16th" ... well that was on the 17th of November and the last update had my items in CA... I live in NH. I can wait for my package if I decide to be cheap with shipping but give me more accurate info and take care of my package!

Cool, may not be the seller's fault at all though, asking for a refund maybe a bit much. But you never know.

Agreed, USPS sucks, that's why they're so in the red now financially...they keep putting the $ we spend towards their pension and not to the customers. They're tracking system is slow.

On a side note regarding Ebay, hate how they changed their look for the shipping manifest.

I agree, but I asked for them to fix it because they have the ability as a seller to make USPS fix things. The seller offered to take care of it, and they did list a confirmation number with the item, so they probably stand a good chance of getting some kind of reimbursement too. The actual package that arrived didn't have the confirmation # because what was left of it was sent by the actual USPS, but the confirmation # is still traceable and that is where we both win.