Business-Pay for cancelation fee?

[Tayla]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?
Pennsylvania

Pardon if I am in the wrong forum- Request to have it moved if in the wrong area. Its a blended concern.

Our business receives its postal mail in a Mail box located on our property. Our business is Mon-Friday- closed on Weekends. We receive mail on Saturdays.
Approximately three weeks ago we noticed a decline in our clients mailing their monthly payments. These are reliable clients yet since this is a business we had to put them on notice of late pay. We hadn't received the checks.
Upon investigation, Banks showed the checks were not cashed by us and the clients show the check still open on their books. So where were the checks?
Turns out thru investigation that some local neighborhood kids were taking the mail from our business mailbox on Saturdays. This came from a neighboring business that reported the situation to the police. The police said that :
1:Because we didn't have solid proof-just the word from the business next door, that we couldn't really file charges since there is no one to charge.
2: Its a federal offense and we'd have to report the incident to the post office. In which they told us they are only responsible for delivering the mail, whatever happens after that is not there problem.
3: We are now having to go back to our clients and mail out letters informing them of this possible glitch and that we need them to re-issue any check that was mailed for payment yet not cashed or received into the ledger.
4: The Clients are each stating: Then you will re-imburst us for the cancellation fee because you have jeopardized our business checking account information by letting a third party get it.
Our business has since implemented a LOCK BOX on our mailbox. Mail can go in but only two personnel have the key to retrieve. This was recommended and approved by the postmaster in our area.
So my question of legal form is: Can our business be held liable to a client based on the circumstances above? Must our business absorb this cancellation cost that our clients must now initiate thru the banks to cancel the checks they may have sent in during this time frame? We are talking close to 3500$ in banking fees. Our business has asked that the client remit proof of cancellation for the check before we waive late fees, but we have not made a commitment to paying check cancellation fees til we get a better grip of where we stand .

[rhinocl]

Just from the point of goodwill, you probably need to reimburse. The legal ability for your customers to recover is probably not at issue as few people sue over $35.00 fees. Perhaps the ones who draw their checks on the same bank where your accounts are-perhaps your bank can be persuaded to waive or lower those fees.

[divona2000]

Originally Posted by Tayla

...Its a federal offense and we'd have to report the incident to the post office. In which they told us they are only responsible for delivering the mail, whatever happens after that is not there problem...

You need to go back to that Post Office and raise some cain with the Postmaster. Or go right to the U.S. Postal Inspectors, they investigate mail thefts, and arrest about 6,000 thieves every year.

Federal statute governing mail theft:
Section 1702.
Obstruction of correspondence
Whoever takes any letter, postal card, or package out of any post office or any authorized depository for mail matter, or from any letter or mail carrier, or which has been in any post office or authorized depository, or in the custody of any letter or mail carrier, before it has been delivered to the person to whom it was directed, with design to obstruct the correspondence, or to pry into the business or secrets of another, or opens, secretes, embezzles, or destroys the same, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.

and

18 USC sec. 1708, which punishes up to 5 years for "Whoever steals, takes, or abstracts, or by fraud or deception obtains, or attempts so to obtain, from or out of any mail, post office, or station thereof, letter box, mail receptacle, or any mail route or other authorized depository for mail matter, or from a letter or mail carrier, any letter, postal card, package, bag, or mail, or abstracts or removes from any such letter, package, bag, or mail, any article or thing contained therein, or secretes, embezzles, or destroys any such letter, postal card, package, bag, or mail, or any article or thing contained therein"

and

The United States Postal Inspection Service offers up to a $10,000 Reward for information and services leading to the arrest and conviction of any person for Mail Theft. Theft of mail, or even possession of stolen mail, is a Federal Felony and upon conviction each offense may be punishable by a fine up to $250,000 and imprisonment up to five years. (Title 18, United States Code, Section 1708)

Are there any security cameras that might show these thieves in action? (and you might want to check all surrounding areas, ditches, hedges, trash collection, etc, where they might have dumped the missing mail. Don't touch it if you find it-fingerprints).

[Tayla]

Thank you for the Postal data.
Our corporate lawyer was contacted last week on this matter.
Our company is willing to waive late fees but isnt willing to carry the burden of check cancellation fees.

[rhinocl]

Your company really is at fault. The person who neglected to switch over to a locked mailbox with this volume of checks coming in is lucky to still have a job. I know it's painful, but goodwill is worth a lot. You should really reimburse.

[Tayla]

Thank you Rhinoci. Our lawyer will provide the legal advise as yours is unfounded.
Can you state the PA law that states we are in non compliance for our postal box? Or even the US Postal regulations that states such?

[rhinocl]

Let me clarify, I did not mean to state you were at fault in a legal sense. That could really only be determined by a lawsuit. As I said earlier it is not the relevant issue, unless some one takes you to court over their bank fee. The relevant issue is the bad will you will foster by not taking care of this properly. If your company cannot afford to reimburse, now that is different from if it just chooses not to.

[debtcollector`]

Originally Posted by Tayla

Thank you Rhinoci. Our lawyer will provide the legal advise as yours is unfounded.
Can you state the PA law that states we are in non compliance for our postal box? Or even the US Postal regulations that states such?

If that is the tenor you plan to take with your customers, at least be courteous enough to call your competition and warn them they are about to get a spike in sales.

DC

[Tayla]

Debt Collector- And your advise from a legal stance applied to the original posting How? It doesnt.