Post Office Horror Story

GFMMackensen

GFMMackensen

Member
Some of the members may know I collect regimental histories of the Imperial German regiments of World War One . I have a friend in Hamburg who receives my purchases from German bookstores and individuals that will not ship to the United States ( you will see why) . On August 2nd, 2022 she shipped to me in Tacoma, Washington, a large package of almost 60 pounds of 21 books and a couple of military medals and a Prussian officer's belt . The tracking number was: CY561777622DE.
It made it to Carson ,California distribution center south of Los Angeles with no problems with customs and then was "put in transit to the next destination" on August 15th. The package has totally vanished. I have received numerous apologies from postal workers at call centers a thousand miles away but no explanation of where my package is. . Twice before my friend has sent similar packages with no problem (they went through New York). I guess this third time was charm. You can imagine how upset I am that a 60 pound box of books can disappear in the distribution center in Carson. In the past I have seen news pictures of ransacked packages in the Los Angeles "River" and I hope that is not their fate. I'm sure gang members don't read German in fraktur script. Anyway , if any of you in your future travels see the following books, that I hope survived, buy them and I will pay you for them.
Regiments Number:77, 96,108,113,114,115,117,124, 142, 143,148,150,153 155, 158, 160,172,178,180.and 186. At least there were no calvary regiments (my primary interest ) in the box. I will very slowly start searching for them again and tell my friend to use FedEx next time but never USPS.
Kyle
 
so sorry to hear, these stories are becoming more and more common.

I hope that out of nowhere you package shows up!

James
 
Sorry… It’s Happened to me a few times years ago. I understand the frustration and anxiety
 
Sorry to read this Kyle. I know such problems with shipping companies, although not with UPS.
I had problems with Hermes last week. I shipped a package to the USA, but 2 days later they sent it back to sender. It should be arrived 4 days ago but it did not. And because I have generally allowed Hermes to leave packages on my property, Hermes declines all responsibility. Anyway, it was just a M95 helmet eagle in my case, not a collection of rare books like yours.
 
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GFMMackensen said:
Some of the members may know I collect regimental histories of the Imperial German regiments of World War One . I have a friend in Hamburg who receives my purchases from German bookstores and individuals that will not ship to the United States ( you will see why) . On August 2nd, 2022 she shipped to me in Tacoma, Washington, a large package of almost 60 pounds of 21 books and a couple of military medals and a Prussian officer's belt . The tracking number was: CY561777622DE.
It made it to Carson ,California distribution center south of Los Angeles with no problems with customs and then was "put in transit to the next destination" on August 15th. The package has totally vanished. I have received numerous apologies from postal workers at call centers a thousand miles away but no explanation of where my package is. . Twice before my friend has sent similar packages with no problem (they went through New York). I guess this third time was charm. You can imagine how upset I am that a 60 pound box of books can disappear in the distribution center in Carson. In the past I have seen news pictures of ransacked packages in the Los Angeles "River" and I hope that is not their fate. I'm sure gang members don't read German in fraktur script. Anyway , if any of you in your future travels see the following books, that I hope survived, buy them and I will pay you for them.
Regiments Number:77, 96,108,113,114,115,117,124, 142, 143,148,150,153 155, 158, 160,172,178,180.and 186. At least there were no calvary regiments (my primary interest ) in the box. I will very slowly start searching for them again and tell my friend to use FedEx next time but never USPS.
Kyle
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I hope that you used PayPal they will refund your money
Steve
 
As many of you know I have helmets sent to me for restoration. Fortunately, I have never had anything lost either sent or returned. Most of these helmets are coming from the US. There have been a couple of delays in delivery or return but things do reach their destinations eventually thankfully. Very sorry to hear of this loss of rare items. In order to have a bit more insurance, I have also rented a PO Box at my local post office so that items are no longer delivered to my door, I have to pick them up.
 
Kyle, man, that’s a huge loss, sorry to hear. I’ve had a couple packages go missing over the years but it’s been a long time now, fortunately. Fingers crossed they show up at some point.

Dennis
 
I lost 3 or 4 collector reference books from a seller out west in the U.S. some years ago. They were all shipped in one box and may not have been packaged properly in light of how heavy they were. The box likely split open by the time it made it to my home state of Iowa's main post office sorting hub in Des Moines. They never made it to me, even though they were only 90 miles from my town's post office. They were shipped up to Minnesota to the damaged goods US Postal Service Hub in the Twin Cities. I begged and pleaded with my local post office that I wanted the books, but they could do nothing about it. They went into the black hole of the damaged goods department of the US Postal Service, never to be seen again.

I hope that is not the case with your books Kyle.

The seller gave me a full refund on the books and the postage which I had paid him.

Your situation is different with buying them from various sources in Germany and having them shipped to a friend in Germany who forwards them to you. You already paid for each book, and you were simply paying your friend in Germany to forward them to you, all in one large heavy box. I hope that your box did not split open due to the weight of the package or from poor packaging. I hope you will eventually receive your books. When I lived in the Czech Republic for a year's time, I found that the quality of the cardboard was not very good compared to what I could get with boxes here in the States, and it was sometimes difficult to locate a good box for shipping something heavy back to the US or to some other country without fear of it getting damaged in a flimsy cardboard box.
 
Terrible story indeed. I had similar experience with a uniform from the Finnish Continuation war on hikishop.com.

I do not recommend shopping on Hikishop due to their poor customer service, and depending on where you live, slow deliveries.

I wish you the best of luck though.
 
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Here is some good news! The missing 66 pound package full of regimental histories was delivered by my regular post man yesterday to my house. out of the blue. The package apparently was stuck in California from August 15th until it showed up in Seattle on October 19th and Tacoma ,my hometown, on the the 20th. Three official internal searches and they could not find it . I have learned about the internal workings of the post office since that time. It can be a crap shoot that is for sure . Fully insure and hope for the best! Thanks for the above members comments.
 
GFMMackensen said:
Here is some good news! The missing 66 pound package full of regimental histories was delivered by my regular post man yesterday to my house. out of the blue. The package apparently was stuck in California from August 15th until it showed up in Seattle on October 19th and Tacoma ,my hometown, on the the 20th. Three official internal searches and they could not find it . I have learned about the internal workings of the post office since that time. It can be a crap shoot that is for sure . Fully insure and hope for the best! Thanks for the above members comments.
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Cheers, Kyle!
 
GFMMackensen said:
Here is some good news! The missing 66 pound package full of regimental histories was delivered by my regular post man yesterday to my house. out of the blue. The package apparently was stuck in California from August 15th until it showed up in Seattle on October 19th and Tacoma ,my hometown, on the the 20th. Three official internal searches and they could not find it . I have learned about the internal workings of the post office since that time. It can be a crap shoot that is for sure . Fully insure and hope for the best! Thanks for the above members comments.
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So happy for you!!!
 
Good it turned out well.
I had a similar case; also a big a heavy parcel was lost goign from me to some one in Scandinavia.
To cut a long story short; the parcel got lost and recovered a few times , but in the end (six months later) it seemed lost for good and I got a partial refund.
And then one day out of the blue the parcel reappeard at my postal point, and I got my stuff back, and nobody ever asked for the refund....

A friend of mine lost a 3.5 ton old printing press on his way from Austria to Antwerp...And that was never recovered.

At this very moment I am still waiting for any news about a (10 k €!) parcel send to my old adress by the services of Hermann Historica. No answer to my phone calls or my written complains. Had to take a lawyer, but still no news since...
 
stuka f said:
Good it turned out well.
I had a similar case; also a big a heavy parcel was lost goign from me to some one in Scandinavia.
To cut a long story short; the parcel got lost and recovered a few times , but in the end (six months later) it seemed lost for good and I got a partial refund.
And then one day out of the blue the parcel reappeard at my postal point, and I got my stuff back, and nobody ever asked for the refund....

A friend of mine lost a 3.5 ton old printing press on his way from Austria to Antwerp...And that was never recovered.

At this very moment I am still waiting for any news about a (10 k €!) parcel send to my old adress by the services of Hermann Historica. No answer to my phone calls or my written complains. Had to take a lawyer, but still no news since...
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Sorry for problem with HH
I think that I remember that they charge for insurance ?
Another thing is that they declare full value of the item for customs
I won an expensive item from them
The state that I live in later got a copy of the invoice
after months had gone by the state sent me a state sales tax bill
for over $3,000 and charged me a late fee also
after that happened, I won some other items
but had a friend pick them up at HH and he shipped them
to me via my instructions
Steve
 
Great to see you finally have them. It is the greatest nightmare for a collector.
I recently send a mail to you.

About this book. Do you know this book?

Eike Mohr: Heeres- und Truppengeschichte des Deutschen Reiches und seiner Länder 1806 bis 1918
Osnabrück Biblio verlag 1989 ISBV 3-7648-1770-4

That is an incredibly good reference book about all the Regimental histories.

Greetings,

Henk Koelewijn
 
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