Marker Monkeys And Other Stamp Crimes.

Riley,

That's painful to look at!

It's nice to see this thread continuing, even though most of the items shown and talked about are a negative side to the hobby.

Here is an example of cheating....or so it seems. It will fall under the 'Stamp Crimes' part of the title.

Last autumn I sent two packets to a SCF member after sales/auctions. Both were registered.
One arrived a long time after mailing and in quite a dishevelled condition. The registered label, whilst torn and the number illegible, was still affixed. The receiver was not asked to sign for it. The contents, thankfully, were fine.
The other packet did not arrive.

I have claimed and have been told that they were signed for, even though they obviously weren't. I know that very often items sent registered are not signed which makes the service a complete waste of time. And I can understand why many [nay, most] don't bother paying the extra for this service.

Someone in that Postal service is forging a signature or another Postal service is lying to avoid payment. As the amount is small and I have never had a problem with claiming before, my mind is working overtime.

I will be asking Israel Post to check again. I will also be asking for the letter in English as well as Hebrew. That way, I can send it to the Australia Post and see what develops.

It is very frustrating, a also a little sad.

Londonbus1

Londonbus, the days of stellar customer service are long past in almost every business. Postal services are no exception.

You are right Rohumpy.

But it irks me to think that a Postman has forged probably two signatures, while TWO postal services just accept what they see and/or are told.

The customer loses out every time. If I do not get a result here [and I will keep filling out forms just to keep someone busy-including myself I know ] then I will at least be demanding the extra postage back so I can reinburse the buyer in a small way. Why should I pay for registered when I am not getting registered?

Londonbus1

LB:

I'm sorry to hear about your woes.

As you probably know, the USPS offers a couple of related services, "Delivery Confirmation" and "Signature Confirmation." With the first, the letter has a barcode that is scanned by the carrier at the time of delivery. The latter also has a barcode, AND requires a live person to sign at the time of delivery.

The carriers in my area will NEVER just leave a "Signature Confirmation" package without that signature. Since I'm often not home during the day, they leave a little pink slip telling me of the attempted delivery. I then have to make a trip down to the local P.O. to sign for and receive my package. APS requires its Circuit Books be forwarded with Signature Confirmation.

As for other carriers, the UPS drivers all know me, so if I'm not home, they leave my packages inside the stoop. The nearest FedEx center is an hour away, so those folks don't know me as well. I usually leave a note on the door for them authorizing them to leave my packages - most of the time it works. Once in a while, they insist on a face-to-face meeting for me to sign.

Anyway, I've forgotten what point I wanted to make. But I will say I'm lucky that all the postal employees in my are are almost always helpful, efficient, and pleasant to deal with (except for the occasional marker monkey incident).

KirkS

As far as I am aware, in the UK anyway, you can ask to see a copy of the signature. Its usually, if not always now, done on a digital tablet with a stylus, so an immediate digital version is availbale.

It makes me sick when I see what some idiot did to those stamps. I have been very lucky and have not had this happen to me yet.

I receive a lot of parcels from Australia and this hasn't happened, yet. But, I did purchase a 5sh Sydney Harbour Bridge
that has a blue and red crayon mark through it. I was told that registered parcels did have this happen to them from time to time.

If it's not the marker monkeys, it's the rubber band man! I've had covers bent and dented with rubber bands. I really hate that. Then again, I've
also had mail "shot" with a stapler too! :(

Here my contribution. I just received supplies from Golden Valley and was surprised to see stamps on the box but then I noticed that the monkeymarker attacked them. I guess it's better then just a metered sticker.

the other side of the stamp so to speak is receiving letters that dont have any cancels on them - I have received a lot of letters from the UK in recent times that dont have any cancels at all on them - what are the UK postal authorities thinking? - some of the covers would have been very attractive with cancels but have been consigned to the "possible soak one day bin" as they would most likley be taken as forgeries if I tried to sell/pass them on

the other side of the stamp so to speak is receiving letters that dont have any cancels on them - I have received a lot of letters from the UK in recent times that dont have any cancels at all on them - what are the UK postal authorities thinking? - some of the covers would have been very attractive with cancels but have been consigned to the "possible soak one day bin" as they would most likley be taken as forgeries if I tried to sell/pass them on

An exmaple of no cancels on letter from the UK - would have been a good cover but alas

This was returned the other day and it took me awhile to remember who I sent it to. The only thing I have changed in the picture is to white-out my address on the return label.

did you actuallty scribble that out with a grease pencil? lol

I've been saving up all the priority mail envelopes I've received from Regency/Superior and a few other auction houses. They use a wide variety of stamps to make the $4.95 per envelope, but they are never canceled. I don't think it's really right to reuse the stamps, but at least the marker monkey was held at bay so I found an alternative solution. I took the covers with the uncanceled stamps to my local post office and the postmaster canceled them with nice neat postmarks. Granted, it's not from the point of origin or even on the same daily of mailing, but it lease it removes the stamps from the "used, but uncanceled" limbo. I don't know if all post offices will do this for a customer, but can't hurt to ask...unless they are wielding a bat then good luck. :)