It all started in October 2023 when I shipped 3 cards to psa for the reholder service. Crystal charizard, 1st edition base alakazam and 1st edition base clefairy all psa 9s. I purchased my label on the UPS website and paid for insurance for the full value of the cards ($8500). I dropped the package off at a UPS store and had the rep sign off on the insurance. The package made its way from NY to CA in a few days but the tracking stopped and eventually the status changed to “delayed”. I put a call into UPS they told me they were going to investigate and do a thorough search for the package before deeming it lost. Sure enough they found nothing and deemed it lost. The claim process began and I was told for 2 months I would be paid the full amount of the claim. The insurance adjuster even said “you did the everything right by purchasing the insurance and having the paperwork signed.” Two days before Christmas I received a voicemail stating protocol was not followed and insurance would not cover my claim. I quickly called and asked what protocol I failed to follow. “The UPS store is a third party retailer and not affiliated with UPS the insurance is invalid.” To recoup funds, I sold some cards I intended to keep which only added more frustrations to the situation. The anxiety of my cards getting lost in the mail made me never want to ship or sell cards ever again. Devastated to be out that amount of money/cards, I pursued legal action. It is not easy to sue somebody nor is it cost effective to hire a lawyer but I read up as much as I could about it and gave it a shot. After multiple visits to the courthouse, every summons was getting rejected with invalid credentials as I couldn’t gather the correct information. Finally after 7 months of this, I was ready to give up and accept my fate.
About 2 weeks ago I was at work and an email came in from PSA “Thank you for your order.” My jaw hit the floor! Where the cards sat for 7 months I’ll never know but somehow they made it to PSA. The moral of the story is to read the fine print when shipping high value items with insurance as to not get screwed by the courier, I will absolutely never ship with UPS for the rest of my life.
That’s pretty insane you were denied the payout because of this. I live in a large city and only know of 3 UPS facilities that have a customer service center where you can drop off packages, in 3 different cities. And only because I worked for UPS many years ago.
Just amazing your cards reappeared but all that wasted time and stress
I’m glad that everything was eventually resolved. However major companies doing everything they can to worm their way out of following through with their own polices is unfortunate. I feel what you are going through. I recently submitted a card and it hasn’t moved in a week. I paid for 2 day shipping service and it should’ve been back to me graded by now. All I’ve gotten is a message saying operation issues have occurred and your package has been delayed by a day. Week later it still hasn’t moved. 1 card submission with insurance at 1500. I’m glad everything worked out in the end even though it was an anxiety/frustrating experience for you.
Yes UPS. I’ve had issues in the past were it says delivered but doesn’t come for another week and I’ve had days where it said by end of day delivery and shows up 2 days later. There’s always something reason why I stopped using them for a while and stuck with usps and fedex. I only used them this time bc I didn’t get a chance to mail it out earlier and ups was still open so I just went there and of course another issues haha. Oh well this is a lesson learned again
You are not alone in this thought, especially with the way they they promo The UPS Store. I AM however surprised they said it wasn’t an authorized drop off, but The UPS Stores are listed in the UPS.com locations for drop off.
Felt like you got the worst of worst luck with this situation from the lost package to the adjuster. Unfortunately money speaks, I would wager that if you had gotten an attorney, you would’ve been paid out. There’s just too many things linking UPS and what they call “3rd party” UPS Store.
I will never willingly ship with UPS or FedEX. I’m sorry that this happened to you but I’m glad that you got your shipment found. Next time, you should consider using USPS Registered Mail for packages valued in the thousands. I have never had a package issue with USPS Registered Mail or with USPS Priority Mail Express Next Day and 2-Day.
That’s the 3 I normally use but they were closed by the time I could get out to mail it so I pressed my luck with UPS and then an issue appears fml. I could’ve just waited a day and actually pay less with usps and get it there by the same time anyway but I was impatient
I have to say that this was a nice read. Glad to hear you got your cards back after all that time. Usually when these threads are made, it usually has a bad ending.
Two things: 1) if it’s not an official store why do they even sell insurance if it can’t be claimed on? 2) it got shipped to a second location so the UPS store did their job, it was then out of their hands so they surely can’t play that 'not official ’ card again given it gets lost when it enters the system.
Maybe part 1 is sue-able because it basically becomes a void transaction if it’s unable to be acted upon unless they are just using their own third party insurance which would hold the store itself liable for the damages rather than UPS as a company
Even though OP got the cards, I think they should still be able to sue the 3rd party store & UPS since they had to go through all that emotional and financial turmoil. How can they sell you ‘insurance’ if it doesn’t cover anything?
I think the most likely explanation is that UPS has a department dedicated to finding any reason to deny everything insured since insurance doesn’t actually want to ever pay out on anything and so far they have been able to get away with it or there is not enough widespread knowledge for a class action.
Glad it all worked out well in the end, and sorry you had to go through all that trouble trying to figure out your legal options. This story almost sounds like Leonhart’s 1st edition Charizard and how it got lost in the mail and then randomly showed up one day. These stories just sound crazy, and dealing with insurance sounds like a huge pain.
The moral of the story isn’t to read the fine print with shipping. It’s to not ship with UPS or fedex. If you are based in the US, just simply don’t ship with those companies and you will be fine. It’s like we need an e4 member psa/banner to say hey we all know the inside scoop. Ship only high value items with registered mail USPS and there are no other options. Guess how many times that went wrong? Never.
These companies aren’t to be trusted, and even furthermore they have 3rd party stores that you aren’t privy to them not actually being 3rd party. At that point why should there have to be fine print to read? If they sell insurance and it doesn’t pay out it is a scam. It’s so painful for me to continuously see threads made titling something to the effect of “fedex/ups package lost, doesn’t pay out insurance, I am screwed, etc”. Year after year. People just don’t know.
I’ll take “Sorry our machines chewed your mail, but here’s what’s left. Insurance?”
over
“HTF should we know why your package got smashed or where it is?” and apparently, “That insurance isn’t legit” any day.
