Has anyone ever had a gun lost during shipping?

[socalgunrunner]

Here's my situation. I purchased a gun on Gunbroker from an out of state seller. After the auction ended, I contacted the seller to give him my CC info. At that point I asked him how the gun would be shipped. He stated that he was going to ship it USPS Priority Mail. I then asked him if it were possible for him to ship it via FEDEX, or UPS overnight. He flat out refused. He said that he's shipped thousands of guns this way (he's an FFL) and the post office has never lost one yet. He seems to think that since they're federal employees, the postal workers are a much higher grade of people than those at either FEDEX, or UPS. Whatever.

Well here it is several days later, and the gun has still not arrived to my FFL. It did manage to make it to Santa Clarita, CA rather quickly though. The problem is it made it there last Friday, and still hasn't made it to it's final destination which is only 30 miles away. The USPS tracking system sucks, and their customer service department is of no help whatsoever.

I contacted the FFL, and he assured me that it would get there eventually. So I asked him if he at least insured it for the full dollar amount in case it was lost, or stolen. His response was "no". I asked him why not and he said that HE was insuring it personally. So if the package is lost, or stolen he would pay for a replacement gun out of his own pocket.

I have no idea why any gun store owner would do this. Especially if the customer was willing to pay the additional charges for overnight shipping, and insurance. It wouldn't have cost him anything to do this. He's one of those guys that thinks he's a know it all. All he kept saying was "I'm not new at this", and "Trust me, I know what I'm doing". Okay...so then where's my gun?

Have any of you had similar experiences?

[dac41]

Wow, I think you should be burning up the phones with the USPS and your seller. Something is fishy.

[djleisure]

I was under the impression that only UPS ships firearms, but I'm probably wrong. The insurance thing is stupid and the whole thing sounds a little "scammy" to me...

[dfens]

The reason they do this is because it's cheaper. They pay the same rate as any package that size and weight. Only a FFL can ship using USPS. Now if you were willing to pay over night shipping then I have no idea why he didn't do that unless he is just plain lazy.

Most likely the post office is closer and less paper work hasstle involved. UPS and Fed Ex you have to go to a hub for me that's downtown not the franchise store around the corner.

Last gun I bought online from Florida was shipped USPS and it arrived ok within about a week or so.

Just be patient, worry about it when it's been weeks or a month with no word and after it can't be found when they are looking for it.

[socalgunrunner]

I know I should be more patient, but I ship USPS Priority Mail all the time when I sell on eBay and the most it ever takes is 3 days.

It figures the first time I buy a gun on Gunbroker there has to be some sort of shipping delay.

[Turbinator]

I'm an avid eBay seller as well, and have had international shipments take up to 30 days to get there. Ouch! Good luck with your purchase, I am hoping everything arrives ok.

Turby

[Tillers_Rule]

I'd say start the paperwork if you don't get it by Monday. Just my opinion.

[truthseeker]

I had a upper that I traded bigmike82 on here get "lost" by UPS. Contact him and ask him what he had to do to get the insurance money.

[dfens]

I ship and mostly receive stuff all the time from all over the world. On average 2-3 days priority mail is the wait time key word average not guaranteed. Over night is a different story and it better be with the rate they charge. But it can be longer for a number of reasons. Take into account where it's coming from and where it's going to etc. Is it a remote area with less postal offices and so forth.

The tracking website service sucks, I had it update within a few a hours to 2-3 days after I already signed for my package.

One time in my life did it update almost real time, that was when my mom accidentally swiped my mail box key and I had to wait a day for her to bring it back. Said my package was delivered at such and such time, and it figured that it was in my box and I needed it asap.

Over night shipping through USP or Fed EX is just their policy they don't want to have possession so they try to get it to you as fast as possible. But since it's a private company their rules instead of charging say 30-40 bucks like with a normal package, once it's declared a fire arm it's doubles automatically.

Keep checking the site and call your FFL as well. I know the last time I did a transfer the gun was shipped to the business which he was never at and then had a employee drop it off at his home for the transfer which took even more time to arrange.

If anything did happen to it, once the postal inspector is involved and is told it's a gun, rest assured they'll find out what happened to it.

[socalgunrunner]

UPDATE: The gun was located. Evidently, the seller mistakenly shipped the gun to the P.O. Box address that I gave him for my credit card. He was supposed to ship it to the address on the FFL. Since I don't check my mail very often, I didn't know that the gun was sitting in my post office for about 10 days. When the clerk handed me the package, I was like "no way". So I ended up driving the package down to my transfer dealer to start the DROS.

The Gunbroker seller was very apologetic, and quite a bit relieved I should say. He said he just made a mental error, and that it was the first time he ever made a mistake like that. For his sake, I sure hope it doesn't happen again. Especially if he wants to hang on to his FFL.

So in conclusion, there was a happy ending after all.

[rmasold]

Glad to see it worked out.

[proudamerican831]

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[The SoCal Gunner]

Imagine that. Buy a gun online and have it go straight to you mail box!

[ke6guj]

it is nice when the USPS/UPS/Fedex man legally delivers firearms right to you.

[paul0660]

In cases like this where the firearm was shipped to the individual... can the person do a voluntary registration with the state or is it mandatory that he take it to an FFL?

Good question, I don't know. Certainly it should have been shipped to an FFL unless it was a long gun 50 years old or more and the buyer had a C&R license. I think the seller needs some reeducation.

As far as shipping guns goes, the Post Office will ship long guns from and to individuals, but only FFLs can ship handguns between each other. Priority mail is a great deal, and you can add insurance and delivery confirmation or signature required. 3-4 days coast to coast is normal, BUT it can take 2 days to go 30 miles, too. I use USPS when I can, but it really depends on the clerk or postmaster knowing the rules.