Missing/lost or stolen photos from the post

[WWIIBuff]

15 & 16

[WWIIBuff]

17 & 18

[WWIIBuff]

19 & 20

[WWIIBuff]

21 & 22

[WWIIBuff]

23


It was not until now that I have realized how many are missing. Obviously I am out hundreds and hundreds of dollars, but I am actually more concerned about the fact that these historic images are lost.

These are all Ebay Deutschland purchases, I will post more missing pictures later that were bought from sellers with their own websites.

[jmark]

How many separate envelopes do you think have gone missing?

[WWIIBuff]

At least 20 separate parcels are missing since December 28th. This is more than 40 photos missing and about $2,000 lost.

I did just receive a 36.00 euro refund from a seller today. Other sellers are working with Deutsche post to hopefully do the same, but I'd rather have the photos, especially a couple of these that I was REALLY looking forward to.

[i.spring]

jesus scary whats going on !
i have a collection of more than 220 color farbdias slides from 1939 coming from the states at the moment... id bloody kill myself if they didnt turn up....
scary....

Ian

[WWIIBuff]

I am bringing this back to the top to ask if anyone is still having recent issues with missing photos from Deutsche post?

I have had to completely stop buying photos from Germany Ebay because it has gotten to the point where 85% of my purchases were disappearing. Insured parcels are almost guaranteed to disappear.

Plus now after waiting many months for sellers to have Deutsche post search for the parcel, some of the sellers are keeping the refunds for themselves instead of returning the money to me.

Ebay can care less, Deutsche post could care less, and the US post office is useless.

[W Petz]

I've had a few more gone missing from Germany and it's getting close to around 20 missing lots.

I been to the Post Office and they swear up and down that once a registered letter from Germany arrives that it is tracked in the system. I don't believe it for one minute. As I have had some registered letters arrive with no notices and those that I do receive a notice it is only logged into the local post office once it arrives. So I'm not quite sure where the actual problem lays. Germany or the USPS central distribution center in New York.

I have advised the German sellers to go through the Bundespost to initiate an inquiry. I've been getting the letters from the USPS foreign mail inquiry center and once I fill it out and send it back...that is the last thing I hear from it on 98% of the sellers...no money coming back to me.

Maybe by posting who the sellers (handlers/dealers) are on this thread as I did on my photos we can get an idea of whether it is the post or possibly some of the sellers saying they posted photos but not actually doing so knowing our postal system is useless in tracking registered letters.

I too am about to stop buying from Ebay Germany and go totally private via my German friends and maybe even using the APO system as I still have friends working for the US Army in Germany...which is a bit more trustworthy.

Bill

[WWIIBuff]

Hi Bill,

I'm sorry to hear you too are still having problems with this. My purchases have always been delivered to my office, but recently I've tried to have them delivered to my home, (which is in a different city, and a different post office), but I'm still having the same problem.

I'm glad you have a couple other options, unfortunately I do not, so my collecting will have to stop. I've lost over 30 parcels, several with many photos in them. The more expensive the photo, the less chance it will get through.

I agree about sharing the names of the sellers. I will post a complete list later, but for now, here are the two sellers that have led me on for months, supposedly waiting for the results from Deutsche post. Then they ignored me after getting the refunds from Deutsche post and kept the money for themselves:

1) dw-auction (Darius Werner)
2) fotobethge (Enrico Bethge) Fotos from his personal listing as well as Ebay

I should also point out that Ebay has gone out of their way to make it as difficult as possible for things like this to ever get worked out. They have figured out how to keep us from sharing our email address with sellers, even when trying to disguise it, and they now cut off conversations between buyers and sellers after a certain amount of time. I wish there was also an alternative to Ebay!!!

[WWIIBuff]

Here are a few more that went missing...

[WWIIBuff]

and more...

[HouweTrouwe]

I can't understand that so many parcels get lost? Especially WWII Buff, when you said 85% of your post.. Sorry but I just think either someone is not sending you the letters or someone is stealing them when they are on its way to you. Also I just want to say that the two names you mention aren't 100% thrustworthy sellers. Bethge is known for faking and selling many reproductive photographs also dw-auction sells either reproductions from the internet or archives or so.. I saw him listing some photographs from my collection as well from someone else who I know has the original and they weren't reproduced ! And still they were popping up at them (after they were shown on the internet) .. You'll see that "dw-auction" always has high quality photographs..

I keep away from the big guns or "known" sellers like above and I never had any disappearing. I also do not buy as much as Bill or so so he has more chance that things may get lost. But it looks like many "disappearing mail" happen in the US?

[Joe Slavick]

Indeed there is a problem where accountability is lost when registered letters cross between German and US postal services.

My collecting niche is so very small, as I only collect and archive auxiliary cruiser materials. So far I have lost upwards of 12 separate mailings. it is heartbreaking as these photos are now lost into history with no chance for research or posterity.... Gone and lost--History destroyed.

Reporting it to the US postal service...will get you some lame-ass answer like, "you must file a claim with the German Post..."

When you report the problem to the German Post, they can only track the item until "transferred to US postal service," then the tracking stops.

The trick is...have your senders stop sending the letters via "registered" mail. It provides no accountability across the two postal services and it actually may
make the letter a target for the those that are criminals working in the sorting facility.

What I've been told is there are some dishonest, criminal pieces of feces working at the US international mail receiving/sorting facilities who routinely rip open international registered letters looking for cash. When all they find is a "useless" photograph or piece of paper, they just discard it all.

The only way to change this is to join me in complaining loudly and calling for the Postmasters General in charge of these USPS International Sort Facilities to ACT! They must establish ACCOUNTABILITY; INVESTIGATE; and PROSECUTE these pieces of Scheiße. Once a few of these dishonest government employees winds up in a US federal prison....watch how fast all the registered start to get through....