Brass on ebay

This has now happened to me twice.  The first time: I bidded on ebay last June on a 3\" round of brass 12\" long.  The starting bid was $75 and I waited until just before it expired to place my bid.  There was no other bidders, so I got it for $75.  I was thrilled because that\'s a $200 dollar piece.  I couldn\'t believe my luck or so I thought.  Three days later here comes the box in the mail.  The Mail lady said to my wife, \"I don\'t think you\'re going to be happy because this box has been broken into and it\'s empty and should weigh 27 lbs.  The mail lady had showed it to the Postmaster and he said by Postal rules, it has to be delivered.  This happened before we ever received it, thank goodness.  Well, ebay \"buyer protection plan\" covered it and charged the seller.  I asked the seller to call the Post office and talk to the Postmaster and even gave him the phone number.  He never did.  He didn\'t even have it insured..??  Never heard from the guy until I gave him a bad rating for what I thought was a scam.  

Fast forward to the end of December.

I saw a 3\" square of brass 12\" long for $100 starting bid on ebay.  I waited until the end and bid on it.  I won it for the $100.  I\'m happy but a little concerned.  So, I told my wife when she sees our Mail lady again, tell her to watch for a package coming in a couple of days.  The next day here comes the Mail lady carrying on empty, broke into box.  Her comment was \"I don\'t believe this and you\'re not going to either,  it\'s empty and broke into.  This time my wife refused the delivery but got out her cell phone and took pictures of it.  We called ebay and paypal and told them what happened and gave them the info and \"buyer protection plan\" returned our money and charged it back to the seller.  The seller thought it humorous about what happened until he got the charge back and then he got mad.  He wanted to know how is he to know if I actually got the package.  I told him that, when you refuse a package because of damage, that it automatically gets mailed back to the seller.  Gave hime the number of the Post Office and who to talk to.   Haven\'t heard a word from him either.  Two completely different sellers.  One from Ohio and one from South Carolina and both had 100% ratings.  I feel it\'s either a scam or theives at the Atlanta sorting facility (lots of cameras) or the Post Office here, which I doubt.  Anyone else have anything like this happen to them?

Brassless Don

I\'ve lost heavy stuff due to it breaking the box open due to poor packing and shaking en-route.  Could you tell if the boxes had been opened by a person or just one really heavy thing bouncing around in a truck full of other boxes?  Once a chunk like that gets moving it turns into a great battering-ram.

Both boxes were poorly packaged.  But, I would think that if an item came out of the box, then they would at least take the item and hold it until it could be claimed.  Where does 30 lbs of brass go?  In both cases it looked busted, not cut into.

[quote name=\"DonLans\"]Both boxes were poorly packaged.  But, I would think that if an item came out of the box, then they would at least take the item and hold it until it could be claimed.  Where does 30 lbs of brass go?  In both cases it looked busted, not cut into.[/quote]
In theory they take the parts that have been dropped out of boxes into some giant warehouse somewhere and try to match them up with lost and insurance claims.  In reality, I have never had anything come back from such a trace/search request, even very identifiable items.

Big chunks of brass are going to get used as doorstops until somebody does a delivery to the scrapyard, then it\'s into the boys beer fund.

I had a similar thing happen last week.

Before Christmas I ordered 3 pieces on C1018 1-1/4\" X 2\" X48\" from OnLine Metals. I had called to be sure the bars were in stock before ordering since the order required Test Reports and Certification of Domestic Origin. They confirmed that they had the material and would ship the next day. Days passed and the status of the material kept showing In Process with me calling every couple of days. Finally, on January 2nd I called upset since the machined parts were due the next day. OnLine was very appoligetic and offer to ship the bars Next Day Air on their tab which they did.

The next day UPS shows up at 8:00am and the driver has the shipping tube over his shoulder. I am thinking that this is one VERY STRONG dude since the net weight of the three bars is 103#. He sets the shipping tube down, it only contains one bar and the end of the tube is broken open. The driver gets on the phone to the UPS Store and apparently knows who to talk to. They find the two other bars in the flight container where apparently they have fallen out of the tube and another truck gets the material out about an hour and a half later.

So we are now machining the parts and very late due to the delay from OnLine Metals, it would be substiantially worse if the material had actually disappeared in route. Outstanding service from UPS and to their credit OnLine did ship and pay the overnight fee, all $680 of it.

nitewatchman

For some reason round tubes seem to fare the worst in shipping.  I thought a couple feet of an tough cardboard tube would be great to protect an x-mas present last year... nope, got beat to heck and back.  A friend said its because tubes don\'t work well with the automatic box sorters and often get thrown around a lot more because of that.

Both of the boxes sent to me were in square boxes.  What I get upset about is that the senders are not following up with the Post Office.  If I sent a package and it arrived empty at the destination, I would be all over the Post Offices\' case.  The senders don\'t want to talk to them.  Why would they send these items uninsured?  Plus, both senders thought that, once they sent the item, it was out of their hands.  I, as the receiver, can\'t insure it for them.

Just happened again.  I ordered 3/8\" brass 6 foot long from Enco, free shipping.  $25.  UPS drops it off at the door and the tube is empty.  There was a tiny hole in the plastic end that looked like it was drilled and one of the staples was gone.  Looks as if they peered inside and saw brass and slid it out.  It maybe weighed 4 pounds.  Are these people that desperate?

[quote name=\"DonLans\"]This has now happened to me twice.  The first time: I bidded on ebay last June on a 3\" round of brass 12\" long.  The starting bid was $75 and I waited until just before it expired to place my bid.  There was no other bidders, so I got it for $75.  I was thrilled because that\'s a $200 dollar piece.  I couldn\'t believe my luck or so I thought.  Three days later here comes the box in the mail.  The Mail lady said to my wife, \"I don\'t think you\'re going to be happy because this box has been broken into and it\'s empty and should weigh 27 lbs.  The mail lady had showed it to the Postmaster and he said by Postal rules, it has to be delivered.  This happened before we ever received it, thank goodness.  Well, ebay \"buyer protection plan\" covered it and charged the seller.  I asked the seller to call the Post office and talk to the Postmaster and even gave him the phone number.  He never did.  He didn\'t even have it insured..??  Never heard from the guy until I gave him a bad rating for what I thought was a scam.  

Fast forward to the end of December.

I saw a 3\" square of brass 12\" long for $100 starting bid on ebay.  I waited until the end and bid on it.  I won it for the $100.  I\'m happy but a little concerned.  So, I told my wife when she sees our Mail lady again, tell her to watch for a package coming in a couple of days.  The next day here comes the Mail lady carrying on empty, broke into box.  Her comment was \"I don\'t believe this and you\'re not going to either,  it\'s empty and broke into.  This time my wife refused the delivery but got out her cell phone and took pictures of it.  We called ebay and paypal and told them what happened and gave them the info and \"buyer protection plan\" returned our money and charged it back to the seller.  The seller thought it humorous about what happened until he got the charge back and then he got mad.  He wanted to know how is he to know if I actually got the package.  I told him that, when you refuse a package because of damage, that it automatically gets mailed back to the seller.  Gave hime the number of the Post Office and who to talk to.   Haven\'t heard a word from him either.  Two completely different sellers.  One from Ohio and one from South Carolina and both had 100% ratings.  I feel it\'s either a scam or theives at the Atlanta sorting facility (lots of cameras) or the Post Office here, which I doubt.  Anyone else have anything like this happen to them?

Brassless Don[/quote]

Your better off buying a cut piece from Online Metals, I buy all of my metal from them, it comes well packaged and is cheaper in the long run!