I purchased a rifle from WhelenAway and he shipped it 11-27-23 with insurance through USPS. It has been stuck in Missouri City, TX about 20 miles from my FFL since 11-30-23. I called the 800 number and got through the postmaster for South Houston where it should have gone. I have called every day and they run the tracking number, and the package/rifle is just setting in the Missouri City, TX plant and they tell me there is nothing that can be done, and said it is going to just take time. Also, the postmaster tells me my FFL dealer can't go and get it and I don't understand why.

At this point WhelenAway is thinking he should file a claim.

Have any of you guy had issues like this or have any info that could help? This is the 1st time I had had this happen.

Tracy

You can't change the unchangeable, 20 miles isn't that far to make anything more inconvenient. Go get it, then forget it...

If it was shipped priority mail, have him file the claim. Priority packages are just that priority they get sorted first. If USPS say it's not lost, call BS. If priority mail has not move in 11 days, it's lost.

If it was USPS ground - I have hade them be stuck for 3 weeks and they may not accept the claim as readily.

They tell me that it is not possible because it's a plant where they rout packages to post offices, not for the public. I am off on Monday, and I may go over there to see what I can do.

USPS is the worst.

Filing a claim with USPS is like pulling teeth. I've had similar situations. If it were me, I'd call them daily until it's borderline harassment. I hope you can get it resolved.
Andy.

It was shipped USPS Ground Advantage.

I had one out for 31 days before it got to its destination,
$1800.00 floating around in Evansville Indiana USPS warehouse,
But I'm sure the new postage hike will solve everything,

Two years ado I had a Barrett Fieldcraft disappear coming to Colorado from Alabama. Ended up collecting insurance and writing it off as lost or stolen. It showed up at my FFL 3 months later and I had to refund my insurance for them to complete delivery. Yours will probably surface eventually, the wait is unpredictable!

I have a rifle that has been in transit since 11-28. Every time I track it I get the same message that it is in the system and will be arriving late.

I’ve had a few slow or lost packages. They all got to the destination eventually.

Don’t file a claim. Just be patient and it will arrive

Don't ever try and save money and send anything of any value USPS ground. It's like 3rd class junk mail. It sits until they don't have anything else to do. First class and priority go first. USPS is short handed on labor like everybody else. It will get there eventually.

Lesson learned.

Have a small package thats been routed through the same facility now 10-12 times.

Had a pistol drop out of sight once, showed up about three weeks late.

IRS refund check years ago showed up 4 1/2 years later.

Shipping between Thanksgiving and Christmas is always rough. Had a few close calls this year but everything made it.... eventually.

Not USPS, but when UPS lost my Ruger Blackhawk and Pre-64 M70 in Chitcago, I had to file a lost/stolen gun report with my local PD. The sending FFL holder had to file a similar report with the ATF. The Pre 64 M70 magically appeared within 72 hours. I never saw the Ruger again.

I have heard USPS claims take 6 months to a year to clear up

Wait until the day one of your neighbors show up with a restricted signature package for you, because the delivery person dropped it off at the wrong address (same number, completely different street). And it's always worst post Thanksgiving, because of the temp holiday hires.

Fudex and UPS is no better.

Wow, you got your pistol and then got a refund check years later!

It looks like I will never go ground again and never during the holiday season. Thanks for the advice, guys.

Tracy

How can he pick up a package that is mailed to an FFL?

The post office is all but dead and gone since Covid. Why anyone would do anything other than mail a letter is beyond me. Plus FedEx and ups are both cheaper and WAY more dependable

Yes but, unless something has changed they won't ship a gun from an individual to an FFL.

You can, just don't tell them. No requirement to tell them.

I was wondering the same thing???

Good luck with making a lost or damaged claim when shipping a prohibited item with them.

I had a rifle badly damaged by ups in the past, they paid the claim but a lot of paperwork including verifying I was shipping properly to FFL. If u break their rules they will flat out deny any claim.

You can absolutely ship a long gun to an FFL from an individual. That said, many USPS counter workers don't know the regs. 432 is the Section of the Regulations.

You previously stated that they won't then you say they can, make up your mind. I self-insure.

I made up my mind. They, UPS, will not ship them as individual to an ffl, it is in their rules NOW. That damaged gun from UPS I made a claim was about 15 years ago when you could do that. So now, as u stated with UPS unless u lie to them about what is in the box or don’t tell them as us said, u can not ship a gun or gun parts even as an individual. If you do and something happens they will not honor the claim as you violated their rules. These companies will us anything they can to not pay a claim, violating their written rules makes it easy for them to deny the claim.

I don't care about their rules. Something is either LEGAL or ILLEGAL. Is it ILLEGAL to ship via UPS? Nope. I understand that a lot of you prefer to kowtow, but that's not what made AMERICA.

I rest my case.

Probably the safest way to ship a long gun is through UPS or FedEx FFL to FFL and insured. An extra FFL fee is a lot better than this waiting game I am having to deal with.

Commie

What happens when they lose your gun? You sure can't tell them you want your insurance money without proof of what was in the package. Maybe you could tell them it was a long handled digital torque wrench??

I'll refund the money. What is so difficult to comprehend? I guess patriotism is A'ok, so long as it doesn't touch your wallet. Said state of affairs.

I'm fairly certain there is a requirement to state the contents of all UPS packages. Be sure to insure the UPS package for $1000 or more. They maintain a chain of custody with high value packages. A good friend of mine is an ammunition manufacturer. UPS lost something like 8 of his packages in his first year of business and he had to either refund his customer's money or send another package with new ammo in it. Once he started to insure the packages for $1000 none of them have been lost. He's going on 11 years of doing business.

They will ship a long gun individual to FFL, but handgun must go FFL to FFl.

USPS is still the best way you can ship a gun. You can take it to any little podunk post office and send it, assuming the clerks know the law, which sometimes they do not.

Got a package I sent from Ohio to Wisconsin. It's in Puerto Rico. Wtf?

USPS Ground Advantage can take forever, have had stuff take over 2 weeks to reach me or the person I sold a item to.

This has been my experience as well--though have had to ask some USPS employees to look at their own regulations.

Had a woman postmaster around 15 years ago who had delusions about regs. I told her what they actually were, and suggested she look 'em up. That was when our little PO first started using cameras to record transactions between employees and customers, and very soon afterward she got "retired."

One of the other reasons I use USPS is that the nearest Fedex and UPS outlets are a 65-mile round-trip away, and the UPS only accepts firearms at their distribution center--which is only open for such stuff 2 hours a day, 2 days a week.

Fedex is better but still just as far away. Could pay extra for them to pick stuff up, but the local PO works better.

Fedex is also kinda screwy here. A custom rifle company shipped me an expensive rifle for a review article a couple years ago, and "delivered" it to a house on the opposite side of the street, a block away. Luckily, this is a small town and the guy walked down the street and asked if I was the guy on the shipping label.

On another occasion around the same time, Fedex left a package on my porch addressed to the same street number, but on the SOUTH end of the street, several blocks away. Luckily, the guy's phone number was on the label, and I called him--then dropped it off on my way to the PO.

I shipped a rifle “priority” a while back that took 29 days to make the trip.

I ship alot of things USPS. probably about 500 packages and only had one issue with my package going missing. I had to get the postal inspector involved and then it magically started moving in transit. Now I've had trouble with ups in the past as an receiving ffl. Saying some of my packages were delivered when in fact they weren't. I had to threaten to call the aft and then they show up.

I like this, at this point we will reserve this for a little later if it does not show up soon.

From ATF site: "In addition, federal law requires that the carrier be notified that the shipment contains a firearm or ammunition"

That has not been my experience; most have averaged about 3 business days

That's my general experience as well, though there can be exceptions to anything. Have also found certain post offices are less efficient than others.

We mail hundreds of packages of books USPS media-mail every year, which is supposed to to take 2-8 business days, depending on where it's going in the U.S. It almost always does, but on some occasions a package gets stuck somewhere. One place they sometimes get stuck is Denver, where one package "rested" for about a month before heading to its destination--which only took 2-3 days after escaping what we sometimes call "The Denver Vortex."

Plus, for some reason first-class mail coming from the San Antonio area to where we live in southwestern Montana usually takes at least a week, and sometimes two. Yet mail from New Mexico usually only takes 2-3 days.

I will throw something else out there. I live in a rural area close to the middle of a triangle with sides between Des Arc, Carlisle, and Beebe Arkansas. Carlisle is on the Grand Prairie, Des Arc is on the Lower White river, and Beebe is on the line where the flat farm lands of east Arkansas turn into foot hills of the Ozarks. As the crow flies I am Thirty miles from Stuttgart, Ar. that bills itself as the rice and duck capitol of the world. It is only about fifteen miles from the white river to the Cache river and then Bayou Deview. In other words, there are lots of ducks and duck hunting in this area. For the last three years, All of the post offices near me, did not have any duck stamps. Did not stock them. I bought from the post office in Hazen, Ar. which I rarely go to. You would think that a stamp, Mandatory for duck hunting would be a requirement to be in stock during the duck hunting season. miles

Can't they be purchased online now?

Some of you are going to be in for a rude awakening when you try to ship a firearm through UPS or FedEx unless you're either an FFL or a liar.

I'm thinkin in USPS jargon that means thttat is where is was stolen and removed from the system.

I'm sorry that you failed reading comprehension.

Show me the law on that one as well, concerning shipping a handgun via Fedex and UPS. You need to ship FFL to FFL via USPS, but not via Fedex and UPS. I don't give a shiet about their rules, only laws.

Learn to read and comprehend. Going through life stupid is not a good option. Of course all the other idiots on here will back you, because idiots find comfort in groups, hence the reason Biden is in office.

UPS and FEDEX policy is they will only ship a firearm from an FFL. Others have stated that they don't need to know what is in the package however if it is lost or damaged they will automatically deny your claim. That isn't a risk I am willing to take so I use USPS. Yes it is more expensive, yes it is slower but it makes me feel better that at least I have a chance of a refund on a lost or damaged package. To each their own.

Locally Fedex hires EXTRA's that are just as dumb as 'DIRT". They may leave your packages anywhere, front or back, just poorly trained DUMB ASSES !!!! UPS is pretty solid here. They work them hard, but pay them well !!

Holy Crap! Someone call Bricktop!

There is so much misinformation here, it is hard to sort out anything that is true.

UPS and FedEx both require an FFL to FFL transfer for shipping firearms. It isn't a law, it is policy within those 2 organizations.

Sure, you can ship and hope you don't get caught, but if something happens to the gun in shipment, you will be out as they will NOT honor any insurance or damage without the proper procedures of their policies. It is not illegal to do so, but they will stand by their shipping policies and deny any claims.

USPS, however, will ship long guns from an individual to an FFL and USPS is NOT more expensive than either UPS or FedEx. Furthermore, Priority rated for shipping isn't but a couple dollars over their ground rate and the package will get delivered every bit as quick and sometyimes even faster than UPS or FedEx.

USPS requires FFL to FFL for shipping handguns, but they don't force you to ship second day air and again, USPS is much cheaper and going priority mail, they are as fast ot faster than UPS or FedEx. Again, you could probably ship a handgun by sneaking it through the post office, as it isn't illegal by the Federal BATF standards, but USPS won't honor any claims due to damage or loss if not shipped FFL to FFL.

Exactly, Kirk....

I have to correct part of this statement. For the shipment in question, Priority Mail was quoted almost exactly $20 more than Ground Advantage, and the expected delivery date was 1 day sooner than Ground Advantage.

For 99/100ths of the trip, the gamble was a winner. The rifle arrived in Missouri City, TX in 3 days. But now it has been sitting there, 20 miles from the destination, with no movement for 16 days.

In pressing my postmaster to try and move it, I questioned whether I should file an insurance claim. He stated it was a seasonal issue, and that I should wait at least a couple more weeks before filing a claim.

If USPS wasn't a government subsidized monopoly, they would have gone out of business 50 years ago.

Personally I would report it stolen/lost to local LE. If they conduct any sort of investigation whatsoever they may find it and expedite it's delivery. They may also find it's gone for good too.

Only a FFL can report a gun stolen or lost in transit to the ATF.

When my rifle and pistol were lost in transit by UPS the shipping FFL filed a complaint with the ATF and provided a case number from my local LE agency. I sometimes wonder if the increase in losses prompted the ATF to lean on commercial carriers. Maybe that caused UPS and Fedex to change their policies.

I’m waiting on a handgun shipped FFL to FFL. Priority Mail. Was supposed to be here last Thursday. Since Tuesday it has been “in transit from Origin Facility”. Some jamoke probably using it as a booster seat. Or out taking it for a test drive…

Well after 34 days later my FFL finely got the rifle today! A few weeks ago WhelenAway filed a claim and that got their attention, they found out that it was in a sorting facility in Missouri City when it should have been in a sorting facility in South Houston. So, in this case the squeaky wheel gets the grease.

Talking with the Postmaster at South Houston it would not have made a difference if it was sent priority mail. The problem was it went to the wrong sorting facility.

Much thanks to WhelenAway staying in contact with me dealing with this problem and filing that claim as soon as possible. Also, my postman that gave me the number to the Postmaster at South Houston. I called that dude almost every day.

Also thanks to all that replied to this post, it helped me to understand the USPS craziness.

Next time I will not ship or send a shipment so close to Christmas.

Tracy

Tag

I recently sent a NIB 260 Remington Mountain Rifle to West Virginia from New Jersey via USPS and it took 32 days!

Wow, it sounds like the same crap I delt with.

I agree about the post office being bad now. I sent a guy some original solid bases to Louisiana and they never showed up. I did the nobel thing and paid back the guys money. Now, anytime I ship anything, I use FedEx or UPS. UPS and FedEx have now changed their rules where they will not ship a gun to an FFL from an individual. in order to avoid any hassle, I tell them that it is "machine parts" that are in the box. And,
you can always visit the website SHIP MY GUN and do it that way.