American Shipper being denied service - solutions?

H Wally

H Wally

CGN Ultra frequent flyer
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Canada/New Zealand
Here's the dealio:

I bought an antique revolver from a seller in the states. He's unfamiliar with shipping firearms in general, but happy to ship north with the appropriate paperwork.

However, all of the postal outlets in his town are unwilling to let him ship the revolver without an FFL. As an antique it does not require this, and furthermore the USPS website has rules explicitly stating this, however he has been denied service at the post office even after he showed them this.

Anyone have any ideas how to proceed?
 
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first off they should have NO KNOWLEDGE of what is in the package!

The customs declaration need only read "pre-1898 antique"

ship USPS Ground

put the factual documentation inside the box in the event that customs opens it.

That's all.
 
Hmmm - I'll pass that on. I'm not sure, but I'd imagine the posties would get a bug up their butt if they weren't told what the "pre-1898 antique" was. Ah well, hopefully we'll be able to get this resolved.
 
Have him get a "Fragile" label on it too - it'll work with the Antique description, to throw them off (unless maybe they like to "throw" "fragile" stuff)
 
H Wally said:
Hmmm - I'll pass that on. I'm not sure, but I'd imagine the posties would get a bug up their butt if they weren't told what the "pre-1898 antique" was. Ah well, hopefully we'll be able to get this resolved.
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it's none of their business what's in the package,antique or otherwise.
When have you ever had to tell the desk clerk WHAT you were mailing?
You make the declaration and it's up to customs to verify it...that's why they open them and charge you $
Simple as that.
I expect your seller was volunteering information that enabled the postal employees to decide something that they don't have a say in.
Declare it as an antique cartridge distribution apparatus ;)
 
-OR-

If he signs up for click'n'ship with USPS, as long as he has a scale and a tape measure at home, he can buy his shipping label online and then all he has to do is drop the package in any mailbox. Thus avoiding all interaction with post offices stooges altogether. :) Easy peezy.
 
krausb said:
-OR-

If he signs up for click'n'ship with USPS, as long as he has a scale and a tape measure at home, he can buy his shipping label online and then all he has to do is drop the package in any mailbox. Thus avoiding all interaction with post offices stooges altogether. :) Easy peezy.
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Thats the ticket . I have heard of mail being returned to sender doing this online shipping, but its rare.

I just had a fellow ship me a nice Colt 1889 DA 41 LC the poor guy i felt bad for him he got hasseled by the old ladys at his PO but he stood his ground made them look up the Regs and they read them and let him mail the antique handgun to Canada. He had a RCMP letter and everything to prove it was a Antique to.
The bad part was they wouldnt cash the Canadian Postal MO in USA funds then he found the regs on that which say they can be cashed.
Then they said we dont have enough money to cover it so he took what they had in cash and $300 worth of stamps. :D

Needless to say i felt bad for the guy but he was a good sport and stood his ground when so many duck and run theses days.
 
dingus said:
Thats the ticket . I have heard of mail being returned to sender doing this online shipping, but its rare.

I just had a fellow ship me a nice Colt 1889 DA 41 LC the poor guy i felt bad for him he got hasseled by the old ladys at his PO but he stood his ground made them look up the Regs and they read them and let him mail the antique handgun to Canada. He had a RCMP letter and everything to prove it was a Antique to.
The bad part was they wouldnt cash the Canadian Postal MO in USA funds then he found the regs on that which say they can be cashed.
Then they said we dont have enough money to cover it so he took what they had in cash and $300 worth of stamps. :D

Needless to say i felt bad for the guy but he was a good sport and stood his ground when so many duck and run theses days.
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Yeah, you got that one too cheap. I first saw the auction and emailed forth and back with him and convinced him to sell to Canada. Then you bid on it and he closed the auction early because some detail about the gun was wrong.

:mad:
 
I'm starting to think that the USPS sent out a memo...for the first time ever I had a fella say "after about 25 minutes they agreed to send it.Wasn't sure it was gonna happen til then"
I'm startin to think the loop is gettin smaller...or too much iron has this way come...
 
It's pretty clear in their regulations... I think it's mostly a matter of ignorant and petty outlet staff running their own little kingdoms. There's no centralised USPS that's accessable to the public, so they probably just get away saying and doing what they want.
 
Not this time...... but I've dealt with him and he was fine with me.... extra pics, extra details, etc etc. I suspect he's a lot like some cgn'ers... a bit crusty and very stand offish when dealt with aggressively :p

Nah, this one is a guy who has never shipped to Canada before... I don't think this is helping his interest in doing so again.
 
scianna54 said:
Yeah, you got that one too cheap. I first saw the auction and emailed forth and back with him and convinced him to sell to Canada. Then you bid on it and he closed the auction early because some detail about the gun was wrong.

:mad:
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Next time i will pull out my crystal ball and polish it harder :p
I got the gun today it was OK but needs some TLC.
He only told me some other GB member told him the barrel address was wrong for a Colt DA 1889 so he stoped the auction and was obliged to sell the gun to me acording to the GB rules of the auction.
I told him to go ahead and relist it if he wanted or sell it to me at that price, i didnt care either way.
He decided because i was so nice about it to sell it to me for that price.


Back onto Wallys Trobles.... its all in how each outlet interupts there own regulations.
Phone a USPS supervisor they will tell you that its so confuseing that its up to each usps office to interupt there regulations.
Sometimes they see the light, some times they only see fear and there jobs on the line so say no you cant do that.
It sucks but thats the way it is.
 
dingus said:
The bad part was they wouldnt cash the Canadian Postal MO in USA funds then he found the regs on that which say they can be cashed.
Then they said we dont have enough money to cover it so he took what they had in cash and $300 worth of stamps. :D
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I would have bought a USPS money order instead of taking $300 worth of stamps and then cash it later...
 
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