My rant to PCGS yesterday

[chriskfla]

Am I being unreasonable? I haven’t received a reply yet. Coins get stolen in the mail from what I’ve read. What recourse would I have?

“Hello, thankfully I just received this shipment intact. I have major concerns about your shipping process however. This shipment has a value in excess of $15,000. I declared the value at $25,200 and I paid you $66 to ship it back to me USPS Registered with that much insurance. You shipped it USPS Priority Signature with $100 of insurance.

I don’t understand this at all. This is not what I paid you for and if this is the case I am requesting a credit to my account for the difference of Registered with $25,200 of insurance versus your ship method. What if it was stolen during shipment?

To further complicate the matter the postal delivery person left it in my mailbox without getting my signature. She then falsified the delivery by claiming I signed for it, which I did not. My wife and I just watched her leave it in the mailbox at the road and I have video evidence of her leaving it and driving off.

This is all wrong.”

[chriskfla]

It just happened again! PCGS shipped me $7,500 worth of coins Priority Mail Signature Required with $100 of insurance. I caught the mail carrier as she was about to “sign” for me again and told her how wrong this is and whoever in her chain thinks it’s ok is dead wrong. She was very apologetic and said she wouldn’t do it again. I didn’t even tell her that my brother in Greensboro is neighbors with the Postmaster General.

[DHalladay]

PCGS very probably has insurance through a private carrier.

[messydesk]

Nobody that ships any sort of volume of valuables uses USPS insurance. They all have some sort of private insurance or even self-insure. Shipping labels that say INSURED are also known as "steal me" labels, as they tell everyone that a package is valuable. The return address is also from an individual in the shipping department, and does not say PCGS. Any loss would have been paid to you by PCGS based on the value of the coins you sent them. The delivery person was wrong not to get your signature, but that's about it.

[iceman]

Hi All
Yes PCGS has a private insurance , So your declared value is what it insured for on its way back . But on the way to PCGS you need to have the USPS insurance . I almost went thru this also , I had a investigation on where my coins got delivered to from PCGS , the Post Person
fiannly tracked the package down , The normal post person was on vacation and a alternate was doing the deliverys , Well the Normal USPS person ,whom came off vacation, tracked down the package ( I always trust her ) . But I was thinking about getting a PO Box to just eliminate some of the personal in the chain of delivery . Yep that was a total experience for me and I learned things from it .

John

[RogerB]

Do PCGS, NGC and ANACS openly inform customers that they carry private insurance to cover the stated value of a shipment?

[messydesk]

Do PCGS, NGC and ANACS openly inform customers that they carry private insurance to cover the stated value of a shipment?

PCGS's submission forms state that the declared value is for insurance purposes. I don't have the others in front of me. They don't inform how stuff is insured, but whether they pay for a policy or self-insure is irrelevant as long as someone who suffers a loss is made whole.

[RogerB]

"...as long as someone who suffers a loss is made whole."

That's my concern. They might state they carry private insurance, but is that only while in possession or does it include transit, etc. What I'm curious about is do the TPGs have clear statements of responsibility and valuation of items received/in custody, or sent by them?

[Bigbub]

UPS delivery has been signing for the customer for quite some time now. Its because of COVID, they don't want their machine handled by the public. They do verify you are home though, or they won't leave the package.

Same thing happened the other day with a USPS signature. They ring the bell and step away and scribble. I was home but my mailbox is on the house, not on the road. I recently got a delivery confirmation on email from USPS on Saturday but no package. It arrived the next Monday, so somebody scanned it but didn't deliver. Sketchy.

[SilverToken]

The big elephant in the room question.....

Does PCGS through their insurance use PCGS posted values of the coin(s) that was stolen/lost to make you whole?

[messydesk]

The big elephant in the room question.....

Does PCGS through their insurance use PCGS posted values of the coin(s) that was stolen/lost to make you whole?

They state that they use the fair market value, not to exceed the declared value.

[iceman]

Messydesk
And its hard for them to put a Dollar Amount on a VAM , at least proper dollar amount , So I put my declared value a bit higher . Of course hopefully we wont have to truly figure this out with Lost VAMS . So fingers crossed for safe returns !!!
Just dont want to have someone get screwed with the " Fair Market Value" thing .


John