Coins Lost in the Mail

[+LadyBee4T]

Since I started collecting coins I have probably sent out hundreds. The people at the post office know me well. LOL I have had only 3 go missing. The first one she told me that she knew it wasn't my fault. There may have been a problem with her address. Anyway all three that have been lost were sent to Germany. Has anyone else had a problem with international shipping? I realize that only 3 is a pretty good percentage but since all three went to the same country I wondered if there is a problem.

 

I asked one friend and she told me that she has had problems sending to Germany too. She told one guy to check at the actual customs office for his region. After some "discussion" at that office his package was finally delivered. I think it happened more than once too.

 

I label them all as novelty tokens on the customs form. The post office told me that those forms are supposed to be scanned in the country it goes to. The only one that I found that was scanned went to my son in France.

 

After this latest one that I sent a month ago I wondered if others have had problems too.

[+jpbarr]

I live in Estonia and although everything I have sent out has been received I have had 3 packages sent to me go missing. One from the US, one from Germany and one from Holland. I had a replacement sent from Germany and it arrived within a week, as normal. And I had already received 2 packages from the same person in Holland. So who knows what happens to these packages. What iritates me the most is that when I ask at the post office I am told that unless they are registered then there is no way to find them and it is not the post offices resposibility!!!! Sorry but whose resposibility is it? They are the ones getting paid for the service and then not upholding their end of it. It is a problem but we dont seem to have any récourse

[GregsonVaux]

I have sent many hundreds of coins from the US to other countries and most go to the EU. I have only had one coin go missing and it was sent to Poland. However, Germany has also been a serious problem in that it can take up to two months for coins to arrive. Most recently, I had a customer report to me that he had not received his shipment after a month and I told him to continue waiting. I gave him the tracking number which showed how it moved through the US, but tracking ends after it leaves the US. He finally lodged a complaint against me with Ebay. My biggest gripe about that was that even though it had been sold on the US site, he was able to file his complaint on the German site so everything was in German and I had to use translation software. I asked Ebay to move the mediation to an English site, but they refused. Amazingly, the coin finally arrived during the mediation process, so everything worked out in the end.

 

Tracking within the US (delivery notification) costs nineteen cents, but international tracking costs about $27, so there really is not a valid option. In my mind, Germany has a postal system that I sadly do not trust, but I will continue to ship to there for now.

 

Often, my shipments to other countries seem to take about a week.

 

About the US, when I first started selling coins, I had many coins reported as missing, but as soon as I started using tracking, all coins arrived without any problem, hmmmm.

Edited November 28, 2011 by GregsonVaux

[+LadyBee4T]

I checked the tracking number on the customs forms of several packages that I have sent out in the past month or so. All show acceptance and then transfer to the sorting facility. Nothing after that. They have all been received at their destination except this one.

 

I have heard of the problem of nonreceipt that seems to clear up when using DC. But since I use paypal shipping I have DC all the time and no problems.

[+drneal]

I had sent a package of coins to the netherlands, that sadly was never received. As far as i can tell, all other packages (and i've sent coins to a lot of places,) have all been received....the slowest seems to be packages going to Canada.

 

ILYK

[+scificollector]

I have lost a few to Czech postal service before but the worst package was the one to Germany. It was a high priced coin that was shipped out with the proper customs form but was held up at customs none the less. It was 5 weeks before the buyer contacted me at which point we tracked it down to the customs in Germany. The problem they had with the package was no packing slip was included (an oversight on me part) and with a claimed value of $90 USD, they held it to determine the true value of the coin. I offered to fax a copy of the packing slip to them but they declined and refused to deliver to the buyer. Eventually they returned the coin to me which took approx 6 weeks and it was by far the most frustrating shipment I have had.

[+rsfish1]

I have shipped thousands overseas. I do more overseas business than US these days. I think I have lost the most going to Germany. Maybe 3 or 4 packages. But percentage wise I would bet they are one of the lowest in loss percentage. Canada is definitely the slowest. I always mark the customs forms as Game Tokens. From what I have heard, do not send more than 4 geocoins in the same package to Germany. Customs starts to get suspicious after that. Unfortunately many countries have lowered their limits on the dollar values let in and start charging VAT. I have found that many of the packages that are "Lost" are not lost, but stuck in customs and never claimed.

 

France is highest percentage lost. But I also stay away from all African and South American countries.

 

I have got one package back that I sent to Germany. It got returned to me almost 6 months after I mailed it out.

[+LadyBee4T]

I have lost a few to Czech postal service before but the worst package was the one to Germany. It was a high priced coin that was shipped out with the proper customs form but was held up at customs none the less. It was 5 weeks before the buyer contacted me at which point we tracked it down to the customs in Germany. The problem they had with the package was no packing slip was included (an oversight on me part) and with a claimed value of $90 USD, they held it to determine the true value of the coin. I offered to fax a copy of the packing slip to them but they declined and refused to deliver to the buyer. Eventually they returned the coin to me which took approx 6 weeks and it was by far the most frustrating shipment I have had.

 

What steps did you use to actually track it down to the customs in Germany? I usually do not put a packing slip in with the coin.

 

I have found that many of the packages that are "Lost" are not lost, but stuck in customs and never claimed.

 

 

If they are never notified that it is there, how does the buyer go about claiming it if it is stuck in customs?

 

I think that the 3 coins of mine that were lost were in customs but none were returned to me.

[+TeamEccs21]

So far I have lost more coins to cache thieves than to ny postal service. In fact so far I have never lost a coin in the mail.just recently I sent a trade to Germany and it was delivered in just a little over a week.

[+rsfish1]

"rsfish1, on 28 November 2011 - 05:33 PM, said:

 

I have found that many of the packages that are "Lost" are not lost, but stuck in customs and never claimed.

 

If they are never notified that it is there, how does the buyer go about claiming it if it is stuck in customs?

 

I think that the 3 coins of mine that were lost were in customs but none were returned to me. "

 

They are always notified if they owe money for taxes. Many times it is easier for them to say it was never received then saying they do not want to pay the extra taxes to actually recieve it. I do not think that they always get returned to the sender, if ever. But I think that may be up to each country. The only one I got back from Germany was because it was undeliverable to the address.

[+Tennessee Jed]

I have lost one package going to the Netherlands and one going to Estonia. One package of six coins mailed to Germany took 8 weeks to arrive. Recently another package of three coins to Germany was surprisingly returned to me because the person had moved. It took several months but they were not lost.

[+AtlantaGal]

I ship internationally numerous times a week. The problem countries for me are Germany and Portugal. They take the longest to deliver parcels.

 

With Germany, changes were made outsourcing the German Post in January 2011. Combine that with a terror alert from November 2010 & policy changes, the results are standard ship times of 2-4 weeks. Standard meaning that customs was not involved inspecting the package. When customs is involved, parcels take 4-8 weeks on average and in some cases 10-14 weeks, however, all do eventually arrive. Recipients on the German side should be more patient because this has been an on-going issue for them all year.

 

As far as the bar code on the customs form, it's only supposed to be scanned as it leaves US customs. Once it leaves the US, there is usually never a delivery scan, nor will there be. You basically got lucky with your France shipment because that is certainly not the norm.

Edited November 29, 2011 by AtlantaGal

[+AtlantaGal]

Some additional comments...

 

I never use a packing slip.

 

Customs forms are labeled "metal game tokens"

 

I tend to keep the valuation on the form at what the coin originally cost, rather than what it retailed for.

 

I will ship a max of 3-4 coins per international first class shipment, depending on weight. I have found that it's not the amount of coins, it's the weight of the package that makes customs more curious.

 

If flat rate priority is used, I will ship as many coins as the box will hold however, I do remind the customer that VAT will most likely be charged upon receipt.

[ATMouse]

The only lost coin I have had experience with was one I purchased. The seller had tracking on it and the P.O. system showed it got as close as the major postal hub nearest me...where it disappeared. That was three years ago, at least.

[+ice13-333]

I am from germany and have send many coins to overseas and inside europe.

Only one sended from me to netherlands and one inside germany have been lost.

And 1 sended to me (1 from switzerland) had never arrived.

Some of the usa bubble mailers needed a long time (up to 12 weeks), but they arrive sometimes....

[+rsfish1]

I wanted to add a link to this discussion. Although this has never helped me out, maybe it will help someone else. Track a Package

If you choose to "Track with Options" you can choose the country the package was sent to and it will try to find the package in the other country's postal system. I think it works better with Priority and Express Mail packages. But if this helps one person, it was worth posting.

[+scificollector]

I have lost a few to Czech postal service before but the worst package was the one to Germany. It was a high priced coin that was shipped out with the proper customs form but was held up at customs none the less. It was 5 weeks before the buyer contacted me at which point we tracked it down to the customs in Germany. The problem they had with the package was no packing slip was included (an oversight on me part) and with a claimed value of $90 USD, they held it to determine the true value of the coin. I offered to fax a copy of the packing slip to them but they declined and refused to deliver to the buyer. Eventually they returned the coin to me which took approx 6 weeks and it was by far the most frustrating shipment I have had.

 

What steps did you use to actually track it down to the customs in Germany? I usually do not put a packing slip in with the coin.

 

 

The buyer was sent the Customs number off of the shipment and contacted German customs to find out what the status of the package was. At that point he was told that there was no packing slip in the shipment and they were holding it. Reading some of the previous posts tho, it may have been a case of the buyer not wanting to pay the VAT tax on the coin and the buyer refusing to pick it up as I eventually refunded the money for the coin to him. I had before that time sent dozens of shipments to Germany without any customs trouble without any sort of packing list. :shrug:

[+ECplus3]

I've shipped to about 25 different countrie and the slowest for me is Portugal. I get more emails asking about the whereabouts of shipments than anywhere else. They always arrive though. The only shipment that has ever gone missing was shipped to the US.

 

The complaints about shipping to Canada are well founded (I am on the receiving end of that all the time!). However it is not Canada Post that is slow -- it is Canada Customs.

[+LadyBee4T]

This has been very informative to know that I'm not the only one that has a problem with Germany. None of the bar code scans from my customs forms show them getting to US customs although they did finally get to their destinations. As the post office here told me--somebody isn't doing their job.

 

rsfish1--I bookmarked that link. It didn't work for me this time but maybe the next it will.

 

I'm going to send this latest person some of your suggestions. Thanks!

[+rsfish1]

One last piece of advise I can think of. If you are shipping overseas and the value is more than you would like to risk loosing, insure it. Not through the US mail but through a secondary insurance company. I use a company called shipsurance. I think it is $2 or so per $100. They will not insure coins as in currency. But they will insure game tokens. And from everything I have dealt with and heard about them, they are easy to deal with when filing a claim for something lost. It at least gives you a fall back position if a package does go lost.

[+LadyBee4T]

One last piece of advise I can think of. If you are shipping overseas and the value is more than you would like to risk loosing, insure it. Not through the US mail but through a secondary insurance company. I use a company called shipsurance. I think it is $2 or so per $100. They will not insure coins as in currency. But they will insure game tokens. And from everything I have dealt with and heard about them, they are easy to deal with when filing a claim for something lost. It at least gives you a fall back position if a package does go lost.

 

That is excellent advise! I will look into that too.

 

Rivercacher and I talked about international shipping and sales. He told me he had so many lost that he was considering to just stop shipping international altogether. I don't consider 3 lost to be too bad of a percentage except that they were all to Germany. I may start insuring the ones going there

 

Edit to say: I just checked out shipsurance prices and they are LOW. Even within the US. I haven't used ebay shipping for international packages but it looks like if I did the insurance would be able to be used there too. Glad I staeted this topic

Edited November 29, 2011 by LadyBee4T

[+LadyBee4T]

double post. I haven't had one of those in awhile now. Maybe it was because I was so impressed with the low rates

Edited November 29, 2011 by LadyBee4T

[+yanagi]

Only one package that was sent to me (I'm living in Germany) was lost and one package arrived open and empty. But as ice13-333 mentioned: sometimes it takes up to three months and sometimes just a week. When I get packages of 4 and more coins I often have to go to the customs. You get a notification by mail and the you have to pick it up within 2 weeks. If you miss that they will be send back automatically. I never had to go to customs for packages with 3 or less coins.

 

On the other side only one package that I sent to Estonia didn't make it.

 

It is a real shame that Germany makes such great problems but to tell the truth I was a liitle bit surprised that no one from germany was allowed to bid on the new compass roses that were sold on the e-place. They told me that they don't want to ship such a worthy coin to Germany and risk it never gets to the buyer

[avroair]

Germany and Czech Republic, can take up to 17 weeks to deliver.

[+AtlantaGal]

It is a real shame that Germany makes such great problems but to tell the truth I was a liitle bit surprised that no one from germany was allowed to bid on the new compass roses that were sold on the e-place. They told me that they don't want to ship such a worthy coin to Germany and risk it never gets to the buyer

 

That's too bad, but I know many regular vendors who have had loads of problems with German shipments. And because I have shipped all over Europe for years, I can honestly tell you that Germany went from one of my best & fastest shipping lanes to the worst, and that happened this year.

 

I too have considered simply not shipping to Germany, but with it being the strongest buying country in Europe, I have hesitated to do so.

[+AtlantaGal]

One last piece of advise I can think of. If you are shipping overseas and the value is more than you would like to risk loosing, insure it. Not through the US mail but through a secondary insurance company. I use a company called shipsurance. I think it is $2 or so per $100. They will not insure coins as in currency. But they will insure game tokens. And from everything I have dealt with and heard about them, they are easy to deal with when filing a claim for something lost. It at least gives you a fall back position if a package does go lost.

 

Have you ever made a claim through them?

[+rsfish1]

One last piece of advise I can think of. If you are shipping overseas and the value is more than you would like to risk loosing, insure it. Not through the US mail but through a secondary insurance company. I use a company called shipsurance. I think it is $2 or so per $100. They will not insure coins as in currency. But they will insure game tokens. And from everything I have dealt with and heard about them, they are easy to deal with when filing a claim for something lost. It at least gives you a fall back position if a package does go lost.

 

Have you ever made a claim through them?

Personally no I have not. I only insure $100 plus packages. But I have had discussions with some who have. Usually it is 30-45 days before you can make a claim. The shipper and receiver are required to sign a sheet saying the package never arrived. One person had an overseas buyer that either did not understand they needed to sign the sheet or just did not want to. They attached the email from the buyer saying they did not receive the package and the claim was paid.

[+rsfish1]

I just looked and was a little surprised. I do not have the country specifics, but I have refunded more "Lost" packages than I had thought. Out of about 1650 packages shipped this year, 14 have came up "Lost". I say "Lost" because that is the claim of what happened and sometimes you cannot tell if the receiver is being truthful or not. Sometime when I find more time, I will have to break those 14 down and see what the countries are.

[+ECplus3]

I just looked and was a little surprised. I do not have the country specifics, but I have refunded more "Lost" packages than I had thought. Out of about 1650 packages shipped this year, 14 have came up "Lost". I say "Lost" because that is the claim of what happened and sometimes you cannot tell if the receiver is being truthful or not. Sometime when I find more time, I will have to break those 14 down and see what the countries are.

 

It is a bit of work, but I record the tracking number of every coin I ship. If a package is reported missing, I wait a couple of months (just in case it does show up) and then activate the coins. I've only had to do this once but I haven't received any emails asking why the coin is activated.

 

[+Toojin]

So, anybody know what is cheapest way to add tracking for a coin package?

 

The cheapest way my post office will let me ship coins is as a first class package and I can't figure out a way to add tracking to that? (And my post office can't either, but as we have frequently discovered here, this group can actually figure out things that others can't...)

[+LadyBee4T]

So, anybody know what is cheapest way to add tracking for a coin package?

 

The cheapest way my post office will let me ship coins is as a first class package and I can't figure out a way to add tracking to that? (And my post office can't either, but as we have frequently discovered here, this group can actually figure out things that others can't...)

 

Are you asking about international or US? I assume that you are asking about international. But just in case you're not--In the US I use paypal shipping and delivery confirmation is required for $0.19. The package needs to be at least 3/4" thick I believe but when a coin is wrapped in something and then put inside a bubble mailer it is pretty much over that thickness. You need a postal scale to do this easily.

 

I have never added international tracking. I think it can be done on priority but that is too expensive to send out one or two coins.

[+rsfish1]

So, anybody know what is cheapest way to add tracking for a coin package?

 

The cheapest way my post office will let me ship coins is as a first class package and I can't figure out a way to add tracking to that? (And my post office can't either, but as we have frequently discovered here, this group can actually figure out things that others can't...)

 

Are you asking about international or US? I assume that you are asking about international. But just in case you're not--In the US I use paypal shipping and delivery confirmation is required for $0.19. The package needs to be at least 3/4" thick I believe but when a coin is wrapped in something and then put inside a bubble mailer it is pretty much over that thickness. You need a postal scale to do this easily.

 

I have never added international tracking. I think it can be done on priority but that is too expensive to send out one or two coins.

From the US to abroad it is about $23. I believe it is Express Mail. There is no tracking available for First Class outside the US. That is why I use a secondary insurance. It is cheaper to send it without tracking and pay the insurance.

 

Follow the instructions above for US. If it is 3/4" thick or rigid, it is considered a package and can have tracking in the US added to it. If it is too thin, then it is considered a letter which cannot have tracking. So the post office will charge the recipient of the letter the priority rate before they will deliver it. To make it simple, save the next box you get that has packing peanuts in it. If you are shipping US to US, just throw a couple of peanuts in and avoid the charges.

[+Toojin]

So, anybody know what is cheapest way to add tracking for a coin package?

 

The cheapest way my post office will let me ship coins is as a first class package and I can't figure out a way to add tracking to that? (And my post office can't either, but as we have frequently discovered here, this group can actually figure out things that others can't...)

 

Are you asking about international or US?

 

Yup, asking about international. I always ship using PayPal tracking for the U.S. for trades or purchases.

 

Question came up because of a Long e-mail conversation with a Canadian coin purchaser who thought I could add tracking for 80 cents...

 

Thanks for the feedback. rsfish1, I too will investigate your insurance option.

[+anne.and.eli]

I haven't had any issues until about halfway through this year. Then suddenly things to Germany started taking up to 8 weeks to get delivered. I use Stamps.com which has its own insurance available. I've only had to get reimbursed once, and the insurance process was totally painless.

 

I am not sure why things to Germany have started getting held by customs for ages, but it makes me very sad.

[+SunbeamBatteries]

Germany is the worst. They take the products I send out of the envelopes and send the empty envelope back with a big VOID stamp. So I no longer sell to Germany because of that.

[+yanagi]

Germany is the worst. They take the products I send out of the envelopes and send the empty envelope back with a big VOID stamp. So I no longer sell to Germany because of that.

 

Hä??? I live in Germany and get a lot of packages from overseas but never had a problem like that! Yes, packages take a long time and sometimes (not usually!) they take up to 12 weeks but my experience is that they usually they arrive. As I said only one package was lost and that is almost 2 years ago.

 

Did that happened once or more often? It is really hard for me to believe that German customs took coins out of the envelope and send it back.

[+JackHoe]

The problem I had with coins getting lost in the mail where send to me from different countries. Most of them were send from the US, simply because most of my coins came from there. But it also happend that it got lost inside the Netherlands, were I live. I think that it can happen everywhere. I have no idea if there are high risk countries for shipping coins to or receive from. I think "where people work, they make mistakes".

[+SunbeamBatteries]

Germany is the worst. They take the products I send out of the envelopes and send the empty envelope back with a big VOID stamp. So I no longer sell to Germany because of that.

 

Hä??? I live in Germany and get a lot of packages from overseas but never had a problem like that! Yes, packages take a long time and sometimes (not usually!) they take up to 12 weeks but my experience is that they usually they arrive. As I said only one package was lost and that is almost 2 years ago.

 

Did that happened once or more often? It is really hard for me to believe that German customs took coins out of the envelope and send it back.

 

I've sent out 10 orders and all of them have come back empty and VOIDed

[+rsfish1]

I had to chuckle this afternoon. I was thinking about this thread and realised I had not yet got my Fingerprint geocoins from geoquino. I guess it has been about 6 or 7 weeks now from the Czech Republic. And I just got an order from Germany that was shipped the 7th of November. Almost a month for it to get here. This time of year package shipping time gets so strung out. But people start thinking the packages are lost.

[+LadyBee4T]

Germany is the worst. They take the products I send out of the envelopes and send the empty envelope back with a big VOID stamp. So I no longer sell to Germany because of that.

 

Hä??? I live in Germany and get a lot of packages from overseas but never had a problem like that! Yes, packages take a long time and sometimes (not usually!) they take up to 12 weeks but my experience is that they usually they arrive. As I said only one package was lost and that is almost 2 years ago.

 

Did that happened once or more often? It is really hard for me to believe that German customs took coins out of the envelope and send it back.

 

I've sent out 10 orders and all of them have come back empty and VOIDed

 

OH MY!!! I don't think I would send to Germany with that record either!

[+rsfish1]

Germany is the worst. They take the products I send out of the envelopes and send the empty envelope back with a big VOID stamp. So I no longer sell to Germany because of that.

 

Hä??? I live in Germany and get a lot of packages from overseas but never had a problem like that! Yes, packages take a long time and sometimes (not usually!) they take up to 12 weeks but my experience is that they usually they arrive. As I said only one package was lost and that is almost 2 years ago.

 

Did that happened once or more often? It is really hard for me to believe that German customs took coins out of the envelope and send it back.

 

I've sent out 10 orders and all of them have come back empty and VOIDed

What type of envelope did you ship them in? Almost sounds like the envelopes might have been an issue. Was there any labels on them from the post office with an explanaion?

[+ECplus3]

Germany is the worst. They take the products I send out of the envelopes and send the empty envelope back with a big VOID stamp. So I no longer sell to Germany because of that.

 

Hä??? I live in Germany and get a lot of packages from overseas but never had a problem like that! Yes, packages take a long time and sometimes (not usually!) they take up to 12 weeks but my experience is that they usually they arrive. As I said only one package was lost and that is almost 2 years ago.

 

Did that happened once or more often? It is really hard for me to believe that German customs took coins out of the envelope and send it back.

 

I've sent out 10 orders and all of them have come back empty and VOIDed

What type of envelope did you ship them in? Almost sounds like the envelopes might have been an issue. Was there any labels on them from the post office with an explanaion?

 

Not sure what your 'product' is that you ship, but given your caching name I would assume batteries. German import regulations do not allow more than 2 lithium ion batteries to be shipped per package, and they must shipped inside an electronic device. This would explain the empty returned packages with the VOID stamp.