Cue Lost - USPS Shipping - Who's Responsible??

Biloxi Boy

Man With A Golden Arm
Life Lesson Alert

An exchange of emails setting forth and confirming the important details of the transaction will prevent such drama.

If I regularly sold something, I would have a short, plain white vanilla, written contract which sets forth the terms under which I did business. As a general rule, a buyer would have to agree to these terms or we would not do business. However, if a particular deal meant enough to me, I would negotiate other terms and modify the contract accordingly.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
 
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ideologist

I don't never exaggerate
Silver Member
Life Lesson Alert

An exchange of emails setting forth and confirming the important details of the transaction will prevent such drama.

If I regularly sold something, I would have a short, plain white vanilla, written contract which set forth the terms under which I did business. As a general rule, a buyer would have to agree to these terms or we would not do business. However, if a particular deal meant enough to me, I would negotiate other terms and modify the contract accordingly.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

When pool players have the foresight to do good business, they will be titans of industry. Instead they come on an internet forum and blame liberals for their own misunderstanding of liability
 
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filerunner

New member
Question for the forum.

I'm trying to understand the best way I should handle a situation for a buyer where a cue was lost in shipping by USPS.


Background:

I sold an relatively inexpensive cue for $190 and it was lost by USPS by no fault of me or the buyer.

Purchase was made via PayPal including the normal fees (not friends and family)

I shipped it Priority 3-day, signature required and did not purchase additional insurance at the buyers direction.

I filed a claim with USPS and was paid the $50 plus the cost of shipping.

Now the buyer is out $190 and more than likely will not receive the cue.

If the buyer files a claim with PayPal does PayPal cover his loss?

Does PayPal take the money from me?

Should I refund the buyer his money?

I'm just not sure how this should work.

Any input is appreciated..

Thanks
Not sure what your liability is, but a word of caution about buying USPS insurance. If you do have a claim, you have to prove that what you what you have the claim in for is what you actually shipped. Also, you must prove the value of the item, if it's used or custom made good luck getting an appraisal after the fact. You would think that if you insured a package for $200.00 and it's lost, they will hand you $200.00, no way, be ready for a battle.
 

CESSNA10

AzB Gold Member
Gold Member
Silver Member
I don't have any advice, but a question. Are you sure the cue was lost, and not just Corona Delayed?
I had one that I shipped sit in atlanta distribution center
for a month. It finally showed up at the buyers address. I had already refunded the
buyer. He shipped the cue back as he had purchased another cue
 

Hungarian

C'mon, man!
Silver Member
Well, now you get to blast him publicly if he doesn't give the cash or item back. A rags-to-riches story of forum legend
It's all square and he kept the cue and all is good. It showed up at least 5 weeks late using USPS Priority Mail. Funny thing is I just bought a stunning segmented handle Coos Cue - shipped on Monday and received it today. UPS Ground - heavy duty round 3" tube.
John Chaplin ---> great guy to deal with. Great designer and great maker.
 

HawaiianEye

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
It's all square and he kept the cue and all is good. It showed up at least 5 weeks late using USPS Priority Mail. Funny thing is I just bought a stunning segmented handle Coos Cue - shipped on Monday and received it today. UPS Ground - heavy duty round 3" tube.
John Chaplin ---> great guy to deal with. Great designer and great maker.
Post up the cue from John.

We want pictures.
 

Hungarian

C'mon, man!
Silver Member
Post up the cue from John.

We want pictures.
I will post them here but also in the Cue Gallery. I totally love this cue. Segmented Handle is Madrone Burl and the rest of the cue is Pheasant Wood. I really like how the white ring work is subtle and not over powering.
 

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HawaiianEye

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I will post them here but also in the Cue Gallery. I totally love this cue. Segmented Handle is Madrone Burl and the rest of the cue is Pheasant Wood. I really like how the white ring work is subtle and not over powering.

That is a very nice cue.

I have never heard of or seen Pheasant Wood, but I like it.

I like the subtle rings, too. Bright white or colored rings sometimes take away from the overall look.

Have you had a chance to give it a test run yet?
 

Hungarian

C'mon, man!
Silver Member
That is a very nice cue.

I have never heard of or seen Pheasant Wood, but I like it.

I like the subtle rings, too. Bright white or colored rings sometimes take away from the overall look.

Have you had a chance to give it a test run yet?

FYI - The cue is cored with purple heart and will be dead straight long after we are dust. The swirl of the burl segments line up and the grain of the butt sleeve and forearm line up. It's really rich looking when you look into the wood grain closely. John really pays attention to the details. Hits great and I really noticed how much throw I can get on banks and how lively both shafts play. Way more than my Cog or anything else I played with. It feels kind of similar to my Cog but better. Only metal is the cue is the pin, which I like. Shaft wood is tight and hard which I like. And I really can't tell the difference between the shafts yet although I'm sure after some time I will notice some difference. I'm really happy with it and I would highly recommend John Chaplin to anyone looking for a great quality playing cue.
 

HawaiianEye

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
FYI - The cue is cored with purple heart and will be dead straight long after we are dust. The swirl of the burl segments line up and the grain of the butt sleeve and forearm line up. It's really rich looking when you look into the wood grain closely. John really pays attention to the details. Hits great and I really noticed how much throw I can get on banks and how lively both shafts play. Way more than my Cog or anything else I played with. It feels kind of similar to my Cog but better. Only metal is the cue is the pin, which I like. Shaft wood is tight and hard which I like. And I really can't tell the difference between the shafts yet although I'm sure after some time I will notice some difference. I'm really happy with it and I would highly recommend John Chaplin to anyone looking for a great quality playing cue.





The shafts he made for me are almost identical twins.

I have a third shaft that matches the two in the photos.
 
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alstl

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
That was fairly expensive the last time I looked at it although it does give you more checking along the way. For a $190 item, I'd just go self-insured.

The cost of Registered Mail is based upon the declared value of your shipment with rates at $12.60 and up.

I think priority mail is $7.50. I know pool players who will bet $5 on a coin flip but they are too cheap to spend $5 extra for registered mail. It is also unlikely to take 30 days to arrive because every step of the way someone signs for the item and is liable for it unlike the rest of the mail they handle. As a result they want to pass it on to the next person ASAP and then that person wants to pass it on ASAP until it is delivered. They also aren't going to leave it on your porch. It is also less likely to get damaged because it is separated from the rest of the mail stream.

I had a neighbor who owned a restaurant and one day UPS delivered a large part for a grill to me. I have my address posted twice - once on the garage and once on the mail box. They still delivered it to the wrong address and didn't even knock. I called his restaurant and told him I had a large package for him on my front porch and he came and got it. Someone driving by could have seen it and stolen it. If it was misdelivered to an unethical person they might have stolen it.
 

Bob Jewett

AZB Osmium Member
Staff member
Gold Member
Silver Member

The cost of Registered Mail is based upon the declared value of your shipment with rates at $12.60 and up.

I think priority mail is $7.50. ...
A three-pound box (like for a cue stick) is about $20 for USPS priority mail, which includes $50 of insurance. Registered mail is an additional $12.60 as an added service -- it does not cover postage.

A word about stamps.com. That is a private company that sells you postage stickers for USPS mailing that you print from the stamps.com website. I signed up with them because they sell media mail postage which the USPS does not sell online. It saved me from standing in line at the Post Office. What I didn't notice for a while is that stamps.com was charging my credit card $20/month for "membership". Stay away from them unless you feel the service is worth that much to you. The USPS provides online postage printing from their website, but not for media mail.
 

ericdraven

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
to add my 2 cents about nothing or cues , i guy sold me and item it arrived 3 years later. just thought id add a lil funny ,
 

cuenut

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I DO Everything you do, but the problem right now is- a lot of the packages being mailed via USPS are just not getting to destination AND their tracking info is the WORST imaginable- well government should NEVER have been in the mail business from day one. Covid should have nothing to do with handling a package or delivering it to someone's home-
Ship USPS Registered. Only way to go for high value cues. Totally different process for handling compared to normal mail and packages. Every person who touches it has to sign for it. It doesn't get thrown in with normal mail for processing. They hate it because they have to handle it with kid gloves. I sent 7 cues with insured value of $12,000 and it cost me about $120total, and that was at a shipping store including cost of box, shipping peanuts, and tape (you have to cover all seams with brown tape that can be stamped at post office to ensure the package seals are not broken). The box was bigger than one of those 12X24 dealer cases and was very light (had several cases in box).
 
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