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Hello,
As the title says I painted a mini for a friend and put a lot of time into it and built up the base. I then wrap each part in bubble wrap and ship it, (it was a tech marine so I took 2 of the servo arms, the base, and the axe arm off). He gets it today and the package is rattling, and there is now tape on it where I did not put it. Upon opening it, it appears as if the marine was skidded across a floor (alot of paint looked melted) and the arms are bent to hell, as well as part of the base is missing. He finds a single scrap of bubble wrap in the box with no tape on it whatsoever, that appeared to be ripped off of something. There was no note or comment card on the box, and it took 2 extra days to get to location, so I told him to visit the post office and ask them, wth? So I am tring to figure what to charge them for my time, should I have to redo this job. Any comments?

Did you insure the package? I don't know the inner workings of the post office but I'm pretty sure you'd get back what you insured it for if it was damaged en-route. No idea what would happen if you didn't though.

In the UK anything sent through the post is insured for £14 or something even if you don't buy specific insurance.

I would be surprised if the US post office didn't have some similar scheme. There is a basic assumption that what you post shouldn't be smashed or lost.

As the sender you should contact the PO to complain.

Um, if you didn't insure it, you're probably SOL.

If you did, the question is how you boxed it.

What kind of box did you use, and so on.


Me personally, when I ship, I start with a corrugated cardboard box, and glue the box panels together before sealing all edges with tape. So far, I've never had an issue with box damage, as gluing the box makes it far stronger by reinforcing itself, while the tape prevents snags or punctures. Inside is fully-padded, so no issues there.

I did a quick look up of our beloved US postal services, and from what I gather, you're screwed if you didn't send it Express. Express comes with $100 insurance built in, nothing else seems to include the insurance.

If it were done in South Africa then it probably would not even have made it to its destination... yes... it's that bad.
Otherwise I am more curious as to what happened for it to end up like that

Yea that sounds pretty damn bad lol. Ive only had 1 WTF moment in dealing with the US post office. I ordered a rather pricey PEZ dispenser and it took SO friggin long to get it, finally I get a card about it being at the post office. I show up, then had to pay even more money to get it (at this point I was charged about $25 more then I should have) Finally get it and the box is just beat to gak. It looked like it had fallen into some gears or something, as the box was all jacked up and covered in grease.

Luckily the PEZ was unharmed, how Ive no idea. But it was Aok

Wow thats some Bs man I'm sorry that happened I personally think my mail man steals some of our mail lots of birthday cards never reached me and my family sends them religiously

yea, when I lived it a trailer park, the mail person SUCKED! Im not kidding, Id regularly get the Sunday paper around Wednesday. One time I ACTUALLY won a mail in contest, but by the time I got it, I was a day late to claim the prize. I was so pissed.