All Mods, Buyers & Sellers Please Read!!!!

Mods, Buyers & Sellers Please Read (UPDATE)10-28-03

I found out some information that will help the community.

When making a purchase for merchandise from a seller off of EBAY or any other forum, make sure that if you are purchasing insurance for shipping an item you need to know the following:

1) Make sure to get an "invoice" of some sort from the seller! The invoice will be your PROOF of purchase paid for said item.

2) You MUST print up the agreement between you (buyer) and seller. The post office will ask for this when you file a claim.

3) If anywhere in the auction or selling thread it is stated, "sold as is..or buy at your own risk,or any statement to that effect...the post office WILL NOT pay for your insurance claim.

4) If you receive an item that is damaged, make sure you keep all of the actual shipping equipment ( Box , tape, cushioning/stuffing). You (buyer)will need to take the shipping materials, as well as, the damaged item to your local Post Office. They will inspect the Shipping materials and the damaged item to determine if they were at fault.

5) ONLY the SELLER can file a claim. No matter what anyone tells you...ONLY the SELLER can file the actual claim...THERE ARE NO EXCEPTIONS!!!!!!

6) There is no such thing as an auction or sale that can contain the words "sold as is, buy at your own risk, no warranty implied...etc..etc.." with insurance involved. The POST OFFICE WILL NOT PAY ANY CLAIM where the auction or selling thread contains any of these words.

I am a employee of the United States Postal Service and I received this information from the claims department Supervisor in my Post Office. Please be very careful when making purchases involving the above situation. It can leave the buyer holding the bag.

Phillip

I hope a mod can make this a sticky for the community..

UPDATE**** I have received a few emails from people that said their local post office told them they can not file a claim for anything that was purchased on EBAY. This statement is COMPLETELY and 100% FALSE. The only EBAY packages that can not be claimed are the ones that are stated "sold as is" "buy at your own risk" or any statement to that effect.

If you purchased insurance for an item the seller should provide you with a seperate tracking number. The package should have a Blue and white sticker with a number starting with the letters VB. The label is probably a different color in other countries. I will try to find a picture of one and will post it up for you all to see what it looks like.

If anyone has any questions feel free to PM me at any time!!!!!

USEFUL! Thanks matey!

That was quite handy to know matey...

However... prob ask someone to move this to the General Discussion bit...

But THANKS for the info Bullet matey!!

Good to know! Thanks for the info!

thanks for the info

No problem guys. I will see if a mod will move this for me and make it a sticky at the top of one of the forums.

Phillip

To whomever made this a STICKY, I greatly appreciate it.

Phillip

Regarding Parts 3 & 6, do they apply to lost or stolen items as well?

Also, for international parcels you can not add insurance to global priority mail or air mail letter post--only air mail parcel post or EMS (if over $100)

Bulletnyourass said:

I found out some information that will help the community.

When making a purchase for merchandise from a seller off of EBAY or any other forum, make sure that if you are purchasing insurance for shipping an item you need to know the following:

1) Make sure to get an "invoice" of some sort from the seller! The invoice will be your PROOF of purchase paid for said item.

Click to expand...

i used the ebay invoice that sent by email as proof and everything went just fine.

What game is that abouve your windjammers??

16-bit said:

Regarding Parts 3 & 6, do they apply to lost or stolen items as well?

Also, for international parcels you can not add insurance to global priority mail or air mail letter post--only air mail parcel post or EMS (if over $100)

Click to expand...

16-bit

As long as you have a insured receipt ANY lost or stolen package will be paid for the full amount it was insured for. You should receive a tracking number for anything insured.

FOMOCO&CO said:

What game is that abouve your windjammers??

Click to expand...

FOMOCO&CO ,

The game above my Windjammers is Rage Of The Dragons US AES. Alot of people don't care for this game too much......I like it though....maybe I'm easily pleased. I guess I'm just glad that I have a Neo Geo and I like every game I have so far.

Phillip

I am looking to get one of those in mvs format soon

Phillip,

I sent you 2 PM's.....no replies.

RW,

I sent you a reply via PM...this has been a tough week for me...although that is no excuse for not returning your PM. Message me when you read the pm and let me know.

Phillip

****UPDATE 10-28-2003*****

UPDATE**** I have received a few emails from people that said their local post office told them they can not file a claim for anything that was purchased on EBAY. This statement is COMPLETELY and 100% FALSE. The only EBAY packages that can not be claimed are the ones that are stated "sold as is" "buy at your own risk" or any statement to that effect.

If you purchased insurance for an item the seller should provide you with a seperate tracking number. The package should have a Blue and white sticker with a number starting with the letters VB. The label is probably a different color in other countries. I will try to find a picture of one and will post it up for you all to see what it looks like.

Phillip

Re: ****UPDATE 10-28-2003*****

Bulletnyourass said:

UPDATE**** I have received a few emails from people that said their local post office told them they can not file a claim for anything that was purchased on EBAY. This statement is COMPLETELY and 100% FALSE. The only EBAY packages that can not be claimed are the ones that are stated "sold as is" "buy at your own risk" or any statement to that effect.

If you purchased insurance for an item the seller should provide you with a seperate tracking number. The package should have a Blue and white sticker with a number starting with the letters VB. The label is probably a different color in other countries. I will try to find a picture of one and will post it up for you all to see what it looks like.

Phillip

Click to expand...

but how do you convince them otherwise... IF they tell you that you cannot file?

I never have had a problem... just in the future.

Some USPS people ARE AHOLES to say the least.



†B†V†

Re: ****UPDATE 10-28-2003*****

Bulletnyourass said:

If you purchased insurance for an item the seller should provide you with a seperate tracking number. The package should have a Blue and white sticker with a number starting with the letters VB. The label is probably a different color in other countries. I will try to find a picture of one and will post it up for you all to see what it looks like.

Phillip

Click to expand...

Lower priced items, that are insured under $25, do not have tracking numbers. They simply stamp the parcel with Insured, and give you a Form 3813 not the blue 3813-P . There is no tracking number on the 3813 & there is also no tracking number on the receipt that prints out. Also most of the blue 3813-P insurance forms I have now are VC not VB, but there could still be some VB forms in use in other parts of the US.

^^^ Actually is less than $50, but the rest is correct. ;-)

You both are correct but for a nominal charge of about .50 cents you can add delivery confirmation to that and be able to track the same parcel.

Phillip

.50 cents for DC! Yep you must be a USPS employee!

I pay exactly .13 cents for DC unless it's priority then it's completely free.

All I was saying up above is that you don't always receive the same slips with tracking on insured packages. I'm not totally sure where the cutoff is between the two different insurance slips, but I do sell lots of cheap individual games often cheap $15-20 and when people want insurance on them I don't have anything to send the customer, besides for my DC number which I put on everthing inside the US.

Also it's a little different on international packages, I sent a lot to Australia last week that was insured for $35 it received a blue insurance receipt with tracking number. Maybe all international are this way? Or above a cutoff like domestic? I'm not sure.

OK I havent updated this with new info in awhile.

If you buy something from a private seller. You should get insurance and delivery confirmation. For people shipping items through the mail; make sure that the seller verifies your mailing address BEFORE shipping it to you. Please make sure that he put's his return address on it. During the Christmas season, we received several packages that had Insufficient addresses for the sender (normally missing the unit/suite #) and the same packages had no return addresses on them. Little things like this will alleviate alot of possible problems. I will edit this reply tomorrow to add more to it.

Phillip

I am very confused by this policy of not honouring insurance if an item bought for has the words 'sold as is' or 'buy at your own risk'. Legally there is no way the postoffice can do this as the contract between buyer and seller and the contract between seller and post office are 2 totally different transactions and services. I can understand the arguement of the post office saying the goods were not damaged in shipment but instead they were obiously faulty when seller packed them. The problem here is this does not account for non delivered items or a situation where the seller has pictures of the item being sold before it is shipped and the goods arriving in a brokem state.

Can you clarify on this more?

Raz