USPS free service

[Zigner]

That has always interested me, how hard it is to hold them accountable. What triggered me was an erroneous charge for overweight package. The USPS simply helped themselves to a few dollars out of my account for a mistake that they made. I ship hundreds of items that all weigh an oz. Suddenly they charge me for one that they claim weighed 11 ounces. Unless it filled with rain water, that was a mistake. I filed a claim that was quickly rejected. Seemed to be no recourse and it really pissed me off. Then I started thinking about all the things they screw up for me and charging them for it. I have sued for principle before and both times settled out of court. Not adverse to the process.

Oh, so your earlier post was incorrect? You did not in fact pay for a service that you didn't receive?

I paid for service that I didn't receive even though the cost is hidden in the total. I was told that the post office will perform this service as time permits. He stated that during Holidays, time simply does not permit. So my point is that the service description should either say "time permitting" Or don't accept monies for a service that you are unable to perform.

 

[Taxing Matters]

So to be clear yes am prepared to small claims this. I do a lot of eBay shipping.

Here is the reality you face. The USPS is a federal government entity, not a private business. This has several implications for you. First, you must sue the federal government in federal court. As a result, there is no option to go to state small claims court for this. Second, in order to sue a federal agency for money damages, you must point to a federal statute that waives the government's sovereign immunity for the type of claim you wish to bring. Negligence claims are tort claims. When it comes to tort claims the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) provides the waiver needed for most tort actions. But unfortunately for you, the statute expressly excludes claims for negligent delivery of the mail from the FTCA. So you cannot successfully sue the USPS for negligence in handling the mail. It is also possible to sue the USPS for breach of contract, but you have the problem that the service is free, which makes meeting all the elements to prove a contract challenging. Even if you succeeded in doing that, you have no direct damages from the breach for which to sue. Consequential damages are generally not awarded in contract actions. Finally, even if you might have been able to win a few bucks, your costs to do it would far outweigh what you get, making it financially not worthwhile to pursue.

 

[LdiJ]

In addition, you get what you pay for. USPS is the least expensive way to ship items, therefore you put up with the inconsistencies in exchange for cheaper shipping. You could use UPS or another service instead and get all of the bells and whistles, but you would pay more for it.

 

[Myfriendhenry]

Oh, so your earlier post was incorrect? You did not in fact pay for a service that you didn't receive?

Based on the document that you found, that is correct. Assuming that document takes precedence over the description of tracking service as shown on another USPS site used to price a shipment. They describe the service two different ways. In the document, it states that tracking is basically delivery confirmation. On the other site, it describes the service as providing REAL-TIME information about the current status. The document seems to be the legalese small print if you will, while the shipping site contains the puffing (b.s.) to make the sale. Anyway in the legal sounding document it seems that only packages 3/4 inch or fatter are eligible for tracking. So my packages are not eligible. But most get tracking, so that is strange. Also that document seems to be quite dated and probably due for a good update.

 

[Myfriendhenry]

Here is the reality you face. The USPS is a federal government entity, not a private business. This has several implications for you. First, you must sue the federal government in federal court. As a result, there is no option to go to state small claims court for this. Second, in order to sue a federal agency for money damages, you must point to a federal statute that waives the government's sovereign immunity for the type of claim you wish to bring. Negligence claims are tort claims. When it comes to tort claims the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) provides the waiver needed for most tort actions. But unfortunately for you, the statute expressly excludes claims for negligent delivery of the mail from the FTCA. So you cannot successfully sue the USPS for negligence in handling the mail. It is also possible to sue the USPS for breach of contract, but you have the problem that the service is free, which makes meeting all the elements to prove a contract challenging. Even if you succeeded in doing that, you have no direct damages from the breach for which to sue. Consequential damages are generally not awarded in contract actions. Finally, even if you might have been able to win a few bucks, your costs to do it would far outweigh what you get, making it financially not worthwhile to pursue.

There are real damages actually for us eBay sellers. Ebay charges a larger percentage of each sale if you have too many packages that don't get an origin scan. Which is interesting in that I just learned today (FROM you folks) that the USPS doesn't promise an origin scan at all. They only describe the delivery scan. So eBay is punishing us for a required service that doesn't actually exist per the legal description. I filed a claim with the payment processor and they credited my aaccount for the amount that USPS took for their mistake, but they probably didn't collect on it. They probably just ate it.

 

[Taxing Matters]

There are real damages actually for us eBay sellers. Ebay charges a larger percentage of each sale if you have too many packages that don't get an origin scan.

That's a consequential damage, and the general rule with those sorts of damages is that you cannot recover them in a contract action.

Which is interesting in that I just learned today (FROM you folks) that the USPS doesn't promise an origin scan at all.

That's another problem. The USPS doen't really make any promises with the tracking service. Unless there is a promise by the USPS to do something as part of the fee that you pay there is contract. In other words, they can't breach a promise when no promise was made in the first place.

 

[Zigner]

Based on the document that you found, that is correct.

The "document" that I found is the final say on USPS matters. It's their bible.