Possible claim on business in USA

[Troy]

Hey guys. I bought a fairly expensive item from the US in January which, despite being shipped by tracked USPS system, got lost.

The claim process has been going on for a while now, and I expect a positive answer soon.

The business I bought the item from however, will not send a replacement until his claim is paid out.

In my eyes, he should either pay me back, or send a new item ASAP.

My question is:

If his claim is rejected, and he decides not to either repay me or send a new one, what are my options there?

Here in Oz we have the Dept of consumer affairs, but not sure what you have state side.

Cheers

 

[Rick Muck- Mark IV]

I understand your frustration, but the problem is downstream of the vendor. He sent it insured USPS and they are the issue. Some vendors will re-ship upon confirmation of a loss claim, some will not. Understand that the vendor will be out the cost of the replacement for a while until the claim is settled so he may not be willing/able to replace until he is paid for the replacement.

If the claim is regected, that is another story. Why is it denied? Poor packing? The shipper is at fault. Improper address? The shipper is at fault. Lost in transit? Now it is the fault of the carrier and you/the shipper have recourse to the USPS.

I have been there and I have paid for a package that was properly packed, labeled and shipped but never received. The buyer did not want insurance nor paid for it, but to stop his online bitching, I paid for a replacement just to keep the message board chatter down to a dull roar.

Sucks I know, but look at it from the other side.......

 

[Jeff Young]

Troy, send me a pm (I'm an attorney in the US and do a fair amount of transportation matters).

Some basic questions -- do you know where the contractual delivery point was for the good? It should be in your documentation with the seller and sophisticated sellers will usually include language making the delivery point to you at their place of business.

What does this mean? It means you had risk of loss during the transit and unfortunately your only recourse is against USPS.

Now, if the sale documentation is silent on place of delivery, then you have a good argument that it was the seller's risk when the package was lost.

That's the pretty legal theory.

The harsh reality is even if whatever you bought was "real money" (say $10k or more) it's not going to be worth your while to take legal action in the US against the shipper. Just not worth it and no real guarantee of success.

The other route you mentioned, contacting our consumer affairs agencies, usually (a) costs nothing but (b) gets you nowhere. In the states, we generally have two groups you want to contact (and you should, there is no downside to doing so).

First is the Better Business Bureau, which keeps a listing of complaints against vendors and sometimes provides minimal assistance in dealing with "bad" businesses. But in general the value of contacting the BBB is that "good" sellers don't want to be listed on the problem vendors list.

Second is the State Attorney General for the state in which the vendor/shipper is located. They will usually have a consumer affairs branch that will listen to you and MIGHT take some action on your claim against the vendor to try and get them to resolve.

In the short run though the bestest, easiest and mostest fastest way out is to get the carrier's insurance to pay.

PM me if you have any other questions.

 

[Troy]

Thanks guys.

I'm confident that the USPS will pay the insurance claim on the item, I just thought I'd get a bit of back ground info for interest's sake.

I've been very patient with this vendor (not anyone I've ever seen mentioned on GT40s.com - don't worry), but I have paid upfront, and would expect that being a business, he'd ship another item without delay.

The item was posted with the USPS via their tracked International Express service, to a registered business address in Australia that all my items are sent to. Tracking stopped as soon as it left the USA. 3 weeks later, they say it was scanned somewhere in Oman (hard to believe, since it was shipping to Australia).

A USPS investigation was carried out, and came to the conclusion that it was lost. Claim form submitted by vendor, and USPS quoted (get this) 1 - 30 days to process. It's nearing the end of the 30 day period, and I'm just getting edgey, that's all.

USPS won't give out their Claims Dept phone number (in St Louis). It's just a very frustrating situation.