Lost item?
 

Has USPS ever lost an item that you sent out? And is getting the insurance worth it?

Packages are very very rarely lost and even then they usually get where they're going eventually. Stolen packages can happen but generally thieves swipe stuff that is an obvious winner.

Hmm ya but there's tracking and it never showed leaving my state to go East, so that's why I was wondering.

Sent one to Brazil. Never got there. Not sure where it got lost.

I hear Brazil is a nightmare to ship to. I know that even when I get tracking for packages that ship from the US to Canada, it only occasionally shows where it is after it leaves the US which kind of makes it annoying.

Brazil is now blocked from my eBay list of places to ship to

That sucks an ebay transaction or arker?

eBay. They got their money back

And did they pull the funds from your account?

Hell yeah they did. Even with proof of delivery I was not covered

Yup happened to me as well. That sucks...whoa there was proof of delivery too? I bet the buyer scammed you than. That is why Ebay is evil....

I usually get delivery confirmation for anything I ship, and insurance at the least for anything I ship outside of the US.

Thankfully, everything I've sent has arrived without issue. But I did have one that USPS has never said it delivered. It got to the person ok, but the tracking never showed it actually being delivered.

Anytime I put something up on eBay I limit the shipping range to US only, and occasionally I'll open it up to Canadian buyers too but that can be really expensive on anything that has a perimeter of 36 in. or more and that weighs more than 4 pounds (I learned this the hard way). Because of this, a package can easily go from $10 shipping to $30+. I have also noticed that damn near every auction I've ever listed has had people from Brazil, Greece, etc. asking me to let them bid but I always just politely decline. eBay is a flawed system so it is best to limit your shipping range if you're worried about getting scammed.

Does insurance actually work though for USPS for a lost item? I've heard the post office doesn't reimburse you for the amount. I may do that later on, how much more is the insurance?

I can't say whether they scammed me or not but the item through USPS never showed that it was delivered (only sent from my PO) so I was not covered.

I've had a package with and without insurance (all within the US) go M.I.A. on me with USPS. In all fairness, that's two out of about one hundred transactions for me, but it's not fun if you need to contact them for a missing package. You'll get your $ from them, if you bought insurance, but it'll take a long time and require you to make phone calls every few days.

If I'm shipping anything of value, that I'd want insured, I use UPS.

Was it tracking or just DC? I remember that the USPS tracking can be kind of wonky. Sometimes it shows nothing after the first scan and then it gets delivered and the other six stops suddenly show up all at once.

The postal insurance can be very hard to get them to pay you and then proving the value can sometimes be a point of contention. If it was an ebay auction then at least you can show them that. The problem is that the post office has always had a lot of fraud and people claiming lost packages are worth way more than they really are so they make it hard to get your money if they mess up :(

Ah I see. Yes it was tracking, still showed it in my home state, when the item is suppose to going East. Good thing it wasn't anything valuable.
I talked the CSR she said when it comes to the tracking, it shows like that because that's when it got scanned last. She said sometimes the scan will get missed because they don't always scan it that's why the tracking is not always accurate. Crazy I know.

A friend of mine from California sent me something; it never got here. Another buddy USPS'd me a Joe figure that never got here, either. I'm in Canada with an "ethnic" name, if that's any explanation.

That sucks, especially sending it to Canada!

Canada Post sucks too! One of my first trades with a fellow arker (Omega) took over a month to get to him!!! I didn't get tracking -FIRST AND LAST TIME I did a trade without it.

Must've just been bad luck. Canada Post is fast and reliable, even their standard, non-Express Post service. If you mail a letter from the Atlantic Provinces and it'll be in Vancouver in two days. I've never had any issues with them.

I'd say depends on the item.
I had a friend send me a bunch of stuff, and the package got to me and almost everything was busted (At least a $100 worth). He didn't insure it, and we're both out.

If something is cheap, I don't bother with insurance. If it gets lost or stolen, I'll comp the person. But if it's over $20, I always insure everything. But then, I'm very paranoid.