Recently bought a card, and the package arrived looking extremely dirty and worn. There was also a huge puncture that went completely through to the other side. When I opened up the card, I found that it had been punctured itself. The hole actually penetrated through the toploader! I’m naturally pretty pissed at the postal service for allowing this. Has anyone else ever had a problem like this?
PICS: imgur.com/a/4tioT
that’s brutal 
Never had that happen. Just bad luck:(
What was the cost of the card? Did you pay for insurance?
15 dollar card, so not a huge deal, just annoying that I now have to contact the seller, explain, etc. And I don’t believe I paid insurance because the card was so cheap.
Package got stuck in sorting machine for what it looks like.
No matter how much you paid, it sucks. Here in Holland I could contact the postal service for bad handling and try to get some money back, even if not insured. I succeeded in that once over a 10 year span.
This is a good case study for all of us.
How should this be decided?
Keep in mind, neither buyer nor seller did anything wrong.
Unfortunately this is a rare case of buyer takes hit. The seller used bubble, tracking, and toploader for a $15 card which is impressive in itself so props to the seller here. USPS should take responsibility for pitiful handling but doubtful that they will without insurance unless this is a $50 free insurance shipping situation? If not then you have to accept that you got extremely unlucky but only on a $15 purchase. Oh well.
@genosha I was thinking the same thing!
This is definitely the fault of USPS. The seller did their job for the value of this card. Very unfortunate and rare occurrence. Sorry for your loss @scott315.
I agree with what everybody has said so far. It’s obviously not fair to force the seller to refund me, so I may take a crack at calling USPS tomorrow. Lucky that wasn’t a 1st ed charizard or something.
Totally agree that it’s the fault of USPS. In my dealings both on eBay and outside of eBay it’s the seller’s responsibility until the package reaches it’s destination. Not that it’d be fair to either party but that’s how it’s been explained to me.
Side note, whatever machine can puncture like that… keep your hands away from that beast!
USPS should never have even delivered it like that to you. Insurance be damned this is their fault and they should take responsibility. Not likely they will tho.
Technically I think the burden falls on the seller but for $15 I think I’d just take the hit myself. Now if it was a 1st edition charizard, I’m sorry but I’d be getting the refund. Of course a card like that would never be shipped as casually.
Sorry it happened to you.
Assuming this card was purchased through eBay - and the buyer wanted to go that route - the seller would have to take the hit on this card. Unfortunately, it is the seller’s responsibility until the buyer receives the item (even during transit to the buyer).
However, being both a collector and re-seller, on something like this (where the cost was so low) I would message the seller in-hopes that they would be willing to split the difference (50% Refund). Depending upon the seller’s response, the transaction would either result in a positive feedback (despite the damage); or, if the seller has a nasty response (which hopefully is not the case), I would simply open an IND Case and get my full refund.
I messaged the seller and we’re working out a return. He’s gonna refund me my money (minus shipping) and I’ll send the damaged card back to him. Not sure what he’s gonna do with the card now that it has a huge hole in it, but this was his idea.
I have never had USPS destroy something and my mail guy is amazing however … here is my frustration with USPS. On two separate occasions, once about 6 months ago and the other about 3 years ago, I received a package with a plastic-like bag. The bag basically reads something among the lines: “Sorry we damaged your package blah blah blah” but no phone number or any information regarding the process of contacting USPS but the bag did say we fucked up your package on accident. On both occasions I was lucky enough that the inside was untouched and it was just the box ( about the size of a video game case). I promised myself to contact them and I never did but it was the biggest fuck you ever. It was like a note that said: " sorry we hit your car, we are just pretending to be leaving a phone number but we are not bye!"
Good luck.
This is an open and shut case of Ess happens. That is why they sell insurance.
USPS should have to take responsibility but since they aren’t threatened with loss of business and since no employee there actually cares about the individual more than they do a pay check they won’t. Best of luck to anyone who ever calls USPS. Around here every USPS has 1-2 star ratings and they NEVER answer the phones. And here I was thinking my cardboard/bubble wrap insulation was bulletproof.
Insurance is a scam imo especially for goods, good thing the seller was willing to refund the purchase even if it was just 15 bucks.
Try getting UPS, Fedex, or DHL to eat a loss. Fedex what a bunch of lying, thieving bastards.
Not really a scam, but it definitely a profitable instrument for everyone who sells it. It is definitely a losing proposition for sellers except in the case of deals that are too big to be able to take a loss on. Package wise, I insure everything over $750 as that is the new threshold for when eBay requires buyer signature for seller protection. Not insuring is just too risky at those values basically for multiple reasons. 1. Risk of USPS damage/loss like this and being SOL on getting money back. 2. Risk of scamming buyer claiming item not received and not qualifying for eBay seller protection.
That being said, insurance has its place in life for things that are just too large of a loss to take. Homeowners insurance, renters insurance, (term) life insurance in some cases, high $$$ value shipment insurance, car insurance (mostly the liability end of it, less so on collision especially for older higher mileage cars).
Scam insurance includes what they will allow you to add on to your appliance purchases, some automobile purchases, car rentals, whole life insurance, consumer electronics etc.
I’ve had that come up 4-5 times in my history with USPS. They put damaged items in that overpack bag when they see a hole in the packaging to prevent anything from falling out. I have had a couple with no harm to the item, so no foul there, but I have also seen damage to the items as well. I think every time there was damage it was a situation in which I had the $50 insurance that was included since it was a priority mail shipment. I have always had good luck at my local P.O. with insurance claims as everyone knows me there since I stop in at least 3 times a week. I have built a good relationship with them and they know the few times things come up that I am not trying to pull anything over on them. They have always reimbursed me for the item value (proven with eBay invoice/pack slip) plus the cost of postage. Usually took a few weeks to get the check but it always came in eventually.