USPS ISC New York - Stolen photos!
 

Am I the only one who is having a problem with photos or postcards being stolen by the USPS International Service Center in New York?

I'd say close to 10% of the ones I buy in Germany don't survive the trip through New York. The better, rarer, the picture the more likely to vanish. Oddly, registered mail seems to get stolen far more often than regular. Perhaps the registration flags them are more valuable.

Mike, have you filed a written complaint with the Postmaster there? They takemail theft pretty seriously, and definitely will look into it.

wow, that is weird. Maybe someone was saying, i wonder if these photos are really worth $xx and started poaching them?

Really good seeing and talking to you at the show and dinners!

Registration will allow them to track them through the shipment and customs clearance process. Is this many losses over a period of time? If so, time to contact your postmaster and ask for cases to be opened with the Postal Inspection Service.

Are they paying off on the insurance claims?

Don't wait. Give them a chance to find the guilty ones.
Jack

I posted this on the Still Forum:

I have had problems with the ISC (Customs) on three occasions over the last two years. All had tracking numbers and were dead at ISC. The seller refunded my money but I would much rather have what I purchased. I contacted the Post Office in my area and I have one word for them- WORTHLESS. Finally, I contacted my senator's office and filed a complaint. That caused some action from someone at ICS. Unfortunately, my postcards were never found. The whole process took over four months only to give me the bad news. All during that time the USPS tracking showed my shipment at ICS NY. Out of seven orders placed I received four. Terrible service. Perhaps if enough complaints were given to the senator that overseas the postal service we might get better results. For now, it's just a crap shoot.

G2

It's not just the post office.
https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdtx/pr...aling-firearms

Off the subject a bit, but I happened upon 4 copies of Jan Still books, bought one and the guy sent it priority, i of course received it (he was in Florida or something). Bought the other three and he sent them media but with tracking. it showed them arrive to Philly and sit there. I called philly and they looked for them, could not find them. I sent pictures of the books and the tracking number. They could not be found.

I thought, okay, my name on the label was torn off, but it seemed hard to believe that both our names on the label but the tracking sticker was still there, but... It sure seemed that it could have been sent back to sender

Then they moved from philly to the dead letter building - all the time I am sending emails and calling the customer service people. I keep telling them, hey, if you can send me tracking emails when it gets scanned, why can't you pull the boxes or have it alert. NOPE and I never saw those three books. Once it reaches the dead letter place they just get put into a large room and then sold if never claimed.

That has been my only time to not get something fairly valuable and it was a weird experience to see it go along coming towards me, stop, sit, sit and go away.

I've got an incoming package from Europe that hit the ISC New York tracking this morning. We'll see how long it takes to clear customs and make it to NC...

Marc

It is 1 day later, and I just got tracking that the package cleared ISC and is at a Nassau NY postal facility.

Searches indicate that most things at normal times of the year clear in about 3 days or less. Anything longer and something probably went wrong.

During holidays, all bets are off.

Is is Monday and the package arrived in this morning's mail. Here's the redacted tracking to show normal progress to the East Coast:

USPS Tracking® e-mail update information provided by the U.S. Postal Service.

Tracking Number: xxxx

Updated Delivery Date: March 6, 2017

Service Type: Registered Mail™


Shipment ActivityLocationDate & TimeWith Partner

Delivered, Left with Individual HOME TOWN, NC 27xxx March 6, 2017 12:35 pm
Arrived at Unit HOME TOWN, NC 27xxx March 6, 2017 3:55 am
Departed USPS Facility MAIL CENTER, NC 27xxx March 5, 2017 11:14 pm
Arrived at USPS Facility MAIL CENTER, NC 27xxx March 5, 2017 11:13 pm
In Transit to Destination March 5, 2017 6:08 pm
Departed USPS Facility WESTERN NASSAU, NY March 5, 2017 6:43 am
Arrived at USPS Facility WESTERN NASSAU, NY March 4, 2017 6:08 pm
Processed Through Facility ISC NEW YORK NY(USPS) March 3, 2017 7:31 am
Origin Post is Preparing Shipment
Processed Through Facility STOCKHOLM UTRIKES, SWEDEN March 1, 2017 4:08 am
Acceptance SWEDEN February 27, 2017 7:37 pm

Naturally I have tried everything to recover the photos. My local postmaster just throws up her hands, as does the ISC in New York. Since it is international mail, only the sender can initiate tracking. When they do, I will eventually get a letter from the USPS asking if I have received it. Check yes or no and mail it back. Eventually the sender is told by DeutschePost that it went to the US and was lost. At that point I generally get my money back.

But these are great one of a kind photos. Which probably explains why they get stolen.

The USPS IG says they'll look into it, but all segments of the USPS basically say that they can't track the location of international registered mail, it isn't logged in or out of customs, nor tracked at the ISC. There are entirely too many people who are losing photos like this for it to be accidental.

Packages seem to be better tracked. I've never had a problem with one. Letters with photos are crazy. Sometimes it takes 6 or 8 weeks to make it through NY. I just got a photo today that was mailed 11 January. The good news is it came!! Some really good ones haven't.