Photo Missing from Mail

[jmark]

Well, it finally happened to me. First time ever, after many, many years and hundreds of letters, a registered letter sent 28 August 2013 from Germany has not arrived in Australia after 6 weeks. Normal delivery time is 1-2 weeks. The seller is koelsch333 (Marco Meyer). He's working with me to find out what happened. We've both submitted tracing requests to Deutsche Post.

Worse, another letter – with a photo I'm keenly awaiting – has not arrived after 2 weeks.

I wrote to Deutsche Post and suggested that they have a thief at work in their Frankfurt mail centre who targets registered letters.

From now on, I'm going to ask German sellers to send their letters to a trusted German friend who can scan the photos hi-res before forwarding them to me via a more secure/stealthy method.

Jason

[jmark]

Forgot to mention that some German sellers seem to be aware of this problem. Two days ago, I received a small box (23cm x 15 x 4) from a major German Ebay seller, and it contained just 5 small photos. I guess the theory behind this is that thieves will not bother stealing a few boxes when they could concentrate of stuffing their pockets with dozens of small registered letters.

Jason

[jonathancol]

I have done many deals and have been lucky to have just 2 go missing. Both out of Germany and both registered. They both showed stuck there and didn't make it to the US. Both were small items.

I like the idea of the box and will definitely keep that in mind when sending internationally.

[Tim W]

I've always wondered this, since I've lost 4 photos this year that were sent from Germany and they were registered, that I'm sure the envelope was the size of say a birthday card,rigid because of those old postcards that are used to reinforce the photos inside make the letter look and feel like a birthday card with money inside. What I would think makes the letter a target for thieves. I've started suggesting to the seller to mark on the envelope" photographic material". Or ship in a small box. Registered mail is out for me.
Tim

[WWIIBuff]

The whole system is a joke and none of the officials that are paid to make it work will do a darn thing about it.

After being a major purchaser of photos from Germany for the last 10 years, I have completely stopped buying any photos from Ebay Germany.

[12thPanzer]

Well one of the sellers that some of my more recent photos were lost from has tried to help out and made a claim to the German Postal Admin. I got a letter from the International Inquiry Center (US) regarding our claim of lost Registered Envelopes from Germany. Supposedly the USPS (Inquiry Center) is willing to get into contact with the Foreign Postal Administration to look into the matter of the lost packages. I have a case # now, and have forwarded all Registered/tracking #'s to the Int'l Inquiry Center, and informed them that this is an ongoing problem involving many others from the US buying from Germany.
Not sure if anyone has tried this, or received one of these letters themselves....but I will let you guys know if anything can be achieved from this. I'm not holding my breath though!! lol

Here is the # for Int'l Inquiry Center (US) - 1-800-222-1811.
It helps if you have the Tracking #'s of course. But if enough of us make these claims, maybe something can be done

[CollectRussia]

There is definitely a problem with Registered mail between Germany and USA. Specifically Frankfurt to NYC. Registered mail was once so secure it was nearly impossible for a theif to make off with anything and not get caught. But now its practically a free-for-all, far less safe than regular airmail.

Approximately 10 percent of my inbound Registered mail vanishes, last known location is usually the USPS sorting facility near Kennedy Airport in Queens NY. This has been going on for about 5 years now. If this is typical, then there must be an enormous amount of registered mail going missing, and it is almost certainly stolen by crooked postal employees. They are probably looking for money, or its possible they collect 3R photos and specifically target Registered mail arriving from Germany.

Perhaps we can do something to stop this person or persons if enough victims complain to the Inspector General. Besides following up with the seller to get the insurance money, be sure to keep records and inform the USPS Inspector General's Office here:

https://www.uspsoig.gov/form/new-complaint-form

Obviously the thief is counting on the PO security people doing what they do best, which seems to be nothing at all. However if enough complaints come in, the postal cops may feel some pressure to remove the problem employee/s. So they can get back to surfing web porn or whatever the hell it is they do to wile away the hours until they can collect their gold plated pension.

Dave