Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire USPS Frustration

I recently picked up a brand new Winchester Model70 Supergrade in 30-06, it had a cracked/split stock.
I paid $400.
I’ve got the original box, packaging etc from the guy who originally bought it.

Called Winchester, they said it was made in 2022, has a 5 year warranty, but they needed the complete gun in order to replace the stock, not just the stock.

Saturday 1/27 I carefully packaged up the rifle in a plain nondescript brown box, put $2,000 of insurance on it and sent it off, that ran $80 for shipping.

The rifle was supposed to the Winchester service center outside St Louis on Tuesday 1/30.

The tracking has not updated since I dropped it off/paid.

Called Winchester this morning, they have not received the gun.

I’ve filed a claim with USPS but I’m pretty certain my Supergrade was stolen.

Frustrated but focused on getting this figured out and my $2,000 of insurance money

First, that picture makes me sick to my stomach. Second, I sent six packages last week and they ALL were delayed and the tracking wasn't always updated. One of the packages from the week before spent 13 days traveling back and forth daily from Duluth, MN to St Paul. What a train wreck!

Good luck with them paying the insurance. Even if you show proof for the cost of the item, they'll deny it. At least in my experience.

In your past experience, did they approve any of the insurance or just a small percentage of what it was insured for?

If your rifle doesn't show up at Winchester you are totally screwed. The way the USPS insurance fraud works is this......
1. You file a claim and provide the info that they require on the claim form. Including a sales receipt that YOU paid for. They will deny any claim if you are not the original purchaser and can prove it.

2. They will deny the claim even if you can and do prove you purchased the item the first time. That's their strategy to avoid paying the claim.

3. They will deny the claim appeal for a different reason, usually for 'missing information' even when that information was not required on the claim form.

4. Your last option is to appeal to the USPS consumer protection office in DC which requires all the original claim paperwork plus a letter stating why the claim should be paid.


I had a $150 worth of bullets get stolen or lost last spring. It took 5 months of their bull [bleep] to finally get $110 out of them. I called their 'Criminal theft and fraud division' office in Chicago and talked to the nice lady and said that I was a victim of fraud. She was happy to help right up to the time when she asked me if I knew the identity of the perpetrator of the fraud. When I told her that the USPS was the guilty party for selling me insurance on my parcel and failing to pay off on the product that I purchased. I demanded to start a fraud claim and forced the issue to the point of actually having a case number. A couple of days later I got a call from a postal inspector requesting that I drop the fraud complaint and I promptly refused. About a week later the claim check arrived in my mail box.
They are rotten SOB's that have no intent to pay on your claim. The money that you paid for the $2000 insurance was wasted and would have been better spent on anything else other that USPS insurance.

Great, I’m screwed as I bought the rifle 2nd hand, paid cash and no need for a receipt on a gun in AL.

Hang in there. I recently had a package that had no updates for 16 days, filed a missing mail search and it showed up 3 days later.

I hope you have similar luck.

LHS

I bet it shows up. Things are taking longer in the system and getting to point B and the no updates does not necessarily mean it’s lost.

Honestly I’d give it another week or so before I got torqued. Everything sucks right now. USPS, FedEx, UPS, chick filet, Victoria’s Secret, pornhub, etc.

just print up a fake receipt on your computer. submit it.

Large packages are taking 2 to 3 weeks and USPS is not updating the system. The last large package I shipped from Virginia to Florida took over 3 weeks and USPS didn't update the system other than the intake regional center.

A USPS Money Order took 14 days from Indianapolis to Tuscon.

Glad to see I’m not the only one having trouble, well I guess l will be patient.

Really hoping it shows up at Winchester and comes back to my house with a new stock

It’s probably still in route. I know it isn’t easy but you gotta give them more than a week before you start getting too freaked out. Their tracking system is always sketchy at best.

Consider al the mail. Most goes through on time.

If it does make it to Winchester I will be surprised if they do not replace for free. That is as clear a case of defective materials (caused by defective workmanship) as you can get! The trained [bleep] put the blank in the duplicator upside down.

AU7MM08: The Rifle is gone, there should be absolutely NO quibbling or hesitancy by u.s.p.s. in paying your claim for the EXACT amount YOU paid to insure it for!
Sadly that has NOT been my experience over the last 30 years, with the horrific, bloated, inefficient, entity now known as u.s.p.s. (united states parcel smashers!)!
The amounts paid in insurance for packages at the u.s.p.s. are so INFLATED that u.s.p.s. could lose 1 out of every 10 packages - pay off the 1 out of 10 offended customers and still make 50% off of those inflated insurance rates.
And yet they stall, delay, obfuscate and make their customers jump through hoops and wait for settlements that they try, in every way, to diminish!
I am old enough to remember when the u.s.p.s. was an honest, efficient and professional servant to the citizens of this country.
I honestly think the country would be better off with scrapping the u.s.p.s. and their grossly over-paid workers and turning its duties over to private contractors/entities.
It couldn't be any worse.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Forget any fantasy you may have that the USPS will pay your claim. It WILL NOT happen. I know this from personal experience shipping my handmade knives, that were “lost”. The USPS even admitted one of their own stole my knives! They admitted a “small box” with $500 insurance on it was too tempting of a target, using every excuse in the book not to pay my claim. I even got a friend of mine who is a US Senator to intervene on my part, with the USPS becoming non responsive to any form of contact from me or my friend.

Forget it…

Its scarey to ship a $1K firearm with USPS

Or UPS........

Last year I bought a Ruger #1 from a guy on another forum. IIRC tracking showed "in transit" for three weeks. I was patient with the seller so we went another two weeks then he sent me back my funds. He filed a claim, provided the original ad with my agreement to buy, copies of my cashed check and USPS said they were investigating. He fought for a couple of months to no avail. Fully four months since shipment my FFL called to advise my rifle had arrived. USPS never indicated delivered. I sent the seller the funds back. We were both pleased in the end.