Leu wins thread

[Julius Germanicus]

12 hours ago, DonnaML said:

Not in today's mail either, and no change in or further elaboration of the "delivery exception" status. So I will definitely file an online inquiry with the local post office branch in time for them to have it first thing Monday morning.

Has anyone ever had a package disappear like this after it was already "out for delivery," with its status changed to "delivery exception," and still had the package  show up eventually? 

How long should I wait before notifying Leu of the non-delivery, so it can contact its insurance company?

It would be a great shame if those two @Julius Germanicus sestertii I purchased were lost forever.

 

 

Oh no!!! I pray Commodus and Crispina will arrive with you soon. 

One of the reasons I lost the fun in coin collecting and decided to sell most of my collection was that a tracked package including four of my Sestertii were stolen (presumably by a USPS employee) within a US Post Office on the way from the scanning machine to David Sear‘s PO Box a year ago.

The last coin I ever bought (a Nero Triumphal Arch Sestertius) was marked as delivered to my mailbox by DPD but never arrived. That was the final straw.

Two more coins that I bought and one that I sold were were also lost in/by the mail. Out of about 200 coins that I ever bought or sent around for certification, eight were lost in the mail. That is an alarming 4 %.

I am glad that I handed in my coins to Leu in person and can only say the best about the treatment by Mr. Gunzenreiner and his team.

[Ed Snible]

15 hours ago, DonnaML said:

Has anyone ever had a package disappear like this after it was already "out for delivery," with its status changed to "delivery exception," and still had the package  show up eventually? 

We live in the same city.  In the past five years I have had nine delivery exceptions.  In all of these cases the letter showed up.

In some of the cases I had already received the letter when the email about the exception arrived.  A common reason is that some carriers neglect to scan registered letters with foreign bar codes.  Something gets scanned getting on a truck, then it gets delivered without a scan.

Another reason is if something gets loaded on a truck and the postman doesn't complete the route for the day.

Don't get me wrong -- I've had registered letters from my own city go missing in the mail.  I'm not saying the mail is great, merely that "exception" usually means a required scan didn't happen.  Even more stressful is confirmation of a delivery that didn't happen.  Some postmen will scan things as delivered that they haven't delivered to get good numbers, then deliver the next day.

[sand]

2 hours ago, Julius Germanicus said:

Oh no!!! I pray Commodus and Crispina will arrive with you soon. 

One of the reasons I lost the fun in coin collecting and decided to sell most of my collection was that a tracked package including four of my Sestertii were stolen (presumably by a USPS employee) within a US Post Office on the way from the scanning machine to David Sear‘s PO Box a year ago.

The last coin I ever bought (a Nero Triumphal Arch Sestertius) was marked as delivered to my mailbox by DPD but never arrived. That was the final straw.

Two more coins that I bought and one that I sold were were also lost in/by the mail. Out of about 200 coins that I ever bought or sent around for certification, eight were lost in the mail. That is an alarming 4 %.

I am glad that I handed in my coins to Leu in person and can only say the best about the treatment by Mr. Gunzenreiner and his team.

My "never arrived" percentage is somewhat better, fortunately. Out of approximately 180 coins that I have ordered, only 1 never arrived, which is less than 1 percent. However, I've also had 4 instances, in which I received incorrect coins. If I add up the 1 plus the 4, then that's 5 failures out of 180, which is 2.8%, which is still better than your percentage fortunately. Also fortunately, none of the 5 failures involved extremely valuable coins, but each failure was enough to bug me, for awhile. I live in the US.  The coin that never arrived was from Europe. 2 incorrect coins were from Europe. 1 incorrect coin was from Canada. 1 incorrect coin was from the US. Almost all of the 180 coins, which I have ordered, I have ordered within the past 5 years.

Edited August 13, 2023 by sand

[Nerosmyfavorite68]

Since 1993, I've had one lost coin, which was in 2009, a lovely Khrusru II Drachm. I had ordered the 4/$20 Allen Berman Byzantine junk box special at the same time.  After a long while, the Berman package showed up, slightly mauled. Hence, it was a machine issue, and I tracked it down to my local station, but I never did get the coin.  I would have rather the other one showed up.

About 10 years earlier, an expensive coin took forever, every bit of 30 days.  I was sweating bullets.

I've had a much larger proportion (mostly this year) of mauled ones, but those were all Priority mail.  3/4 arrived with some kind of package damage, two very serious.  Lesson: avoid Priority mail.

Edit: Mercifully, the coins survived the Priority mail damage.

Edited August 13, 2023 by Nerosmyfavorite68

[kapphnwn]

My coin arrived on Friday August 11 which would be 8 days after it was sent. There is still no record of it in the Canada Post web site and the tracking information sent by Leu still indicates nothing past the 3rd of Augustus. Still happy. 

In response to @DonnaML I suspect that your package may have run afoul of the dreaded US Customs. I have seen that with some of my packages coming to me via Fed Ex here in Canada. Usually it gets resolved. 

Edited August 13, 2023 by kapphnwn
missed putting in my pic

[DonnaML]

6 minutes ago, kapphnwn said:

My coin arrived on Friday August 11 which would be 8 days after it was sent. There is still no record of it in the Canada Post web site and the tracking information sent by Leu still indicates nothing past the 3rd of Augustus. Still happy. 

In response to @DonnaML I suspect that your package may have run afoul of the dreaded US Customs. I have seen that with some of my packages coming to me via Fed Ex here in Canada. Usually it gets resolved. 

Glad you got it!

My situation is definitely not a Customs issue (for once!): the package came out of Customs without any delay and went to the regional and then my local NYC Post Office, and actually was "out for delivery" on Thursday before apparently disappearing. I will submit an online inquiry later today, so the local post office has it first thing Monday morning. If I don't receive a substantive response within 24 hours, I will contact Leu.

 

[Edessa]

I believe I told this story on another Forvm long ago, but in 30 years I have only had three lost coins. One was recovered later. A full year later, long after it had been declared lost and insurance paid, it showed up in my mailbox. We lived in a rural area with a small post office, and I knew everyone there, so I inquired about it. They said that they just had the building renovated and my package had fallen behind a set of cabinets that had not been moved in years.

[Valentinian]

My Leu coins (inexpensive Ramskold late Roman copper coins) from Auction 26 arrived today, August 14, a day more than a month after the auction closed. Each coin is a tiny bit nicer than its photo, so I'm happy.  The sheen of metal is hard to capture in a photo. The Leu photos are very good and show all the details just right, but lack some of the elusive sheen of the coins. I doubt I can do any better, but I will try. 

[Julius Germanicus]

On 8/13/2023 at 7:44 PM, kapphnwn said:

My coin arrived on Friday August 11 which would be 8 days after it was sent. There is still no record of it in the Canada Post web site and the tracking information sent by Leu still indicates nothing past the 3rd of Augustus. Still happy. 

In response to @DonnaML I suspect that your package may have run afoul of the dreaded US Customs. I have seen that with some of my packages coming to me via Fed Ex here in Canada. Usually it gets resolved. 

I am glad (and hope it is a good omen for the other two still on the way to Donna) that my Postumus made it to his new home already 😊. I hope you like it as much as I did!

[DonnaML]

6 hours ago, Julius Germanicus said:

I am glad (and hope it is a good omen for the other two still on the way to Donna) that my Postumus made it to his new home already 😊. I 

Thanks. I submitted an inquiry last night. If I haven't heard anything by Wednesday I will write to Leu, with a copy to their US office. I am sure that they will refund my payment if the package never arrives, but I would much rather have the coins!

[Valentinian]

Here is one of my Leu wins that arrived yesterday, first with their photo and then with mine:

Mine was taken with a ten-year-old iPad and a "daylight" LED bulb. Their photo shows all the detail, maybe even better. On the other hand, their photo lacks any metallic sheen. In hand, I'd say the coin looks just like my crude image, which, in my opinion, is warmer and less dry-looking than theirs. I could say the same about the other five late Roman AE I got. 

I think it is worthwhile, after you get coins, to compare them to the photos you bought them from. You can learn how each dealer's photos represent the coins. 

 

[DonnaML]

I am so disgusted and disappointed by the current situation that I feel completely uninterested in buying any more coins, at least until things are resolved. My initial inquiry was supposed to go straight to my local post office branch, but it went instead to general "customer service," which replied a couple of days later with a reference to the "trucking number" and the following brilliant suggestion: "Suggest you free time walk in to your local post office to look at your package." Gee, thanks!

My local post office branch is almost an hour's walk round trip for me, a difficult task for reasons I won't go into, and there's no way I'm going to do it unless I know they have it. I've  tried repeatedly to call them on the telephone, but even after going through the automatic menu, I've never succeeded in reaching a live human being -- the phone just rings endlessly. 

So I filled out and submitted a "missing mail" search form this afternoon -- complete with attached photos of the three missing coins -- and have written to Leu, with a copy to Ken McDevitt, their US representative.

I am not optimistic. I'm beginning to think that the package was stolen. I hope I don't have to wait for weeks or months for Leu to refund my payment. But as I've said, I'd rather have the coins. 

Edited August 16, 2023 by DonnaML

[Limes]

29 minutes ago, DonnaML said:

I am so disgusted and disappointed by the current situation that I feel completely uninterested in buying any more coins, at least until things are resolved. My initial inquiry was supposed to go straight to my local post office branch, but it went instead to general "customer service," which replied a couple of days later with a reference to the "trucking number" and the following brilliant suggestion: "Suggest you free time walk in to your local post office to look at your package." Gee, thanks!

My local post office branch is almost an hour's walk round trip for me, a difficult task for reasons I won't go into, and there's no way I'm going to do it unless I know they have it. I've  tried repeatedly to call them on the telephone, but even after going through the automatic menu, I've never succeeded in reaching a live human being -- the phone just rings endlessly. 

So I filled out and submitted a "missing mail" search form this afternoon -- complete with attached photos of the three missing coins -- and have written to Leu, with a copy to Ken McDevitt, their US representative.

I am not optimistic. I'm beginning to think that the package was stolen. I hope I don't have to wait for weeks or months for Leu to refund my payment. As I said, I'd rather have the coins. 

Thats terrible,.and the attitude of the postal service is not helpful at all. Of course Im hoping for you that they will show up, but it looks bad indeed. 

[Limes]

Additional thoughts, although they may have came up with you already. If some idiot stole the coins, he probably wouldnt have an idea what to do except for going to a local coin shop or cash for goods shop (dont know how to call these in English). Maybe contact a few of those? And what are the chances of the postal service knowing the postal car which had your package and the postal driver and contacting the driver of the postal car?

Edited August 16, 2023 by Limes

[sand]

1 hour ago, DonnaML said:

I am so disgusted and disappointed by the current situation that I feel completely uninterested in buying any more coins, at least until things are resolved. My initial inquiry was supposed to go straight to my local post office branch, but it went instead to general "customer service," which replied a couple of days later with a reference to the "trucking number" and the following brilliant suggestion: "Suggest you free time walk in to your local post office to look at your package." Gee, thanks!

My local post office branch is almost an hour's walk round trip for me, a difficult task for reasons I won't go into, and there's no way I'm going to do it unless I know they have it. I've  tried repeatedly to call them on the telephone, but even after going through the automatic menu, I've never succeeded in reaching a live human being -- the phone just rings endlessly. 

So I filled out and submitted a "missing mail" search form this afternoon -- complete with attached photos of the three missing coins -- and have written to Leu, with a copy to Ken McDevitt, their US representative.

I am not optimistic. I'm beginning to think that the package was stolen. I hope I don't have to wait for weeks or months for Leu to refund my payment. But as I've said, I'd rather have the coins. 

Do you have a PO box address, or are the coins supposed to be delivered to your residence? I have a PO box address, and I always have my coins delivered to my PO box address. On a few occasions, for a coin order, the tracking just stopped. When I went to the post office and opened my PO box, the coin was magically there.

I've also had a few occasions, when the tracking indicated, that the shipment was in my city, and then, the shipment went away from my city, to another state, and then went back to my city.

I've also had a few occasions, when the tracking stopped, and then, a few days later, the tracking started again.

[DonnaML]

11 minutes ago, sand said:

Do you have a PO box address, or are the coins supposed to be delivered to your residence? I have a PO box address, and I always have my coins delivered to my PO box address. On a few occasions, for a coin order, the tracking just stopped. When I went to the post office and opened my PO box, the coin was magically there.

I've also had a few occasions, when the tracking indicated, that the shipment was in my city, and then, the shipment went away from my city, to another state, and then went back to my city.

I've also had a few occasions, when the tracking stopped, and then, a few days later, the tracking started again.

Thanks for the suggestions. Yes, packages are delivered to my residence, and there normally isn't an issue. There are no local coin shops I know of around here. I will leave it to Leu's US representative to put out some sort of alert and/or notify the Postal Inspector of a possible crime (the price of my three coins was around $1,500 US); I'm sure he and/or his colleagues have had experience with this kind of thing, with Leu and/or in his previous position with CNG. I am not competent, inclined, or equipped to play private detective myself!

This package disappeared (supposedly) sometime between leaving my local post office branch last Thursday morning and the mail person's arrival at my apartment building that afternoon, about a mile away. One would hope that the mail person that day will be contacted, but the chances are that whether he or she is honest or dishonest, any memory of my specific package will be disclaimed. It seems to me, though, that if someone working for the Post Office were dishonest and planned to steal my package, they would have entered it into the system as delivered to my mailbox, and claimed that it disappeared after delivery. So maybe it just "fell off the truck"!

It's been six days, and this is not a situation in which a package is gradually wending its way to me across the ocean or the country or even the city. It arrived at the branch where it was supposed to end up, and was supposedly on its way from there to my building. Unless someone actually searches for it and somehow it was mistakenly left in the Post Office branch that morning or returned to it that evening, it's not going to magically show up now.

 

[DonnaML]

Perhaps I shouldn't continue to complain like this every time something new happens that isn't promising, but Numisforums is a good outlet for my frustrations.

After submitting my formal "missing mail" inquiry to the US Post Office -- to which I've received an acknowledgment but no other news yet -- I wrote to Leu, with a copy to their US representative Ken McDevitt, to explain the situation in detail, attaching all relevant emails, the tracking history, etc.

In response, I received this rather boilerplate -- and largely irrelevant -- email, stating in relevant part:

"Thank you for your email. We are sorry that you did not receive your parcel yet. Occasionally, custom’s clearance can take several days or even weeks. However, we sent an investigation request to SwissPost and will keep you updated as soon as we will have news."

My reply, trying to explain once again exactly what happened:

"Thank you, but this has nothing to do with Customs clearance: as I explained and as the tracking system shows, the package cleared Customs without a problem, made it to my local post office branch, and was "out for delivery" to me on the morning of 10 August. After which it disappeared, and was presumably either lost -- temporarily or permanently -- or stolen. Of course I will let you know if the missing mail search I initiated has any result, but I am not optimistic."

I felt like asking if the person at Leu had even read my original email, but decided to be more polite than that!

The US representative hasn't responded at all, and is presumably taking the position that this has nothing to do with him. 

Perhaps I should have suggested that Leu contact its insurance company -- I'm not sure what SwissPost can possibly do about a package that disappeared while in the custody of the US Post Office somewhere in Washington Heights in upper Manhattan! -- but presumably Leu will think of doing that on its own at some point.

How long do people think I should wait for a result of the missing mail inquiry before requesting a refund? I have never had a successful result to such an inquiry before, despite waiting weeks or months, and it seems rather unfair that I should bear the burden of the expenditure, and being out of pocket for more than $1,500 USD,  indefinitely. Of course if I received a refund and then the package magically arrived, I would repay Leu. 

I will buy no more coins until this is resolved. That was a lot of money for me to spend (at least at one time!), and the situation doesn't make me feel positive about this hobby. Besides, I still have two new Roman Republican coins to write up (one I have, and one on the way), plus the scarab I bought from HJB, plus no less than four original-strike Napoleonic medals (including a 141 mm. uniface lead-filled bronze cliche commemorating the marriage of Napoleon and Marie Louise, sold by Bertrand Andrieu at his Paris shop) that I never wrote up. So I have plenty to keep me busy.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 17, 2023 by DonnaML

[kirispupis]

Personally, I recently had a package via usps show up two months late. It’s weird that your Leu coins are via usps though as mine were FedEx.

I’ve had far more issues with usps than with any other shipper but they’ve only lost one coin, and that was sent without tracking.

There was one time usps tried to deliver a coin but they didn’t ring the doorbell. When I stopped by to pick it up the next day they couldn’t find it. It took two more visits to figure it out but I remained friendly but serious and they eventually found it on the wrong shelf.

In general i try for DHL or FedEx when available but in my experience usps will eventually deliver.

[DonnaML]

27 minutes ago, kirispupis said:

Personally, I recently had a package via usps show up two months late. It’s weird that your Leu coins are via usps though as mine were FedEx.

I’ve had far more issues with usps than with any other shipper but they’ve only lost one coin, and that was sent without tracking.

There was one time usps tried to deliver a coin but they didn’t ring the doorbell. When I stopped by to pick it up the next day they couldn’t find it. It took two more visits to figure it out but I remained friendly but serious and they eventually found it on the wrong shelf.

In general i try for DHL or FedEx when available but in my experience usps will eventually deliver.

Leu didn't offer me the option of shipping via Fedex -- was that something you specifically chose? 

[Qcumbor]

15 minutes ago, DonnaML said:

Leu didn't offer me the option of shipping via Fedex -- was that something you specifically chose? 

AFAIK, under 2000 CHF they ship via Swiss post, over 2000 CHF they ship via FedEx

Q

Edited August 17, 2023 by Qcumbor

[Prieure de Sion]

2 hours ago, DonnaML said:

Perhaps I shouldn't continue to complain like this every time something new happens that isn't promising, but Numisforums is a good outlet for my frustrations.

Donna - I really understand your frustration. And when I get frustrated, it has to come out. It's no use in my family - they wouldn't understand me - they don't know about the hobby.

So when something really annoys me, I also write it here in the forum - among like-minded people.

I think it's perfectly fine for you to write your frustration here. It is in exactly the right place. We can sympathise. We like to sympathise. And maybe sometimes we can even help.

[DonnaML]

1 hour ago, Prieure de Sion said:

Donna - I really understand your frustration. And when I get frustrated, it has to come out. It's no use in my family - they wouldn't understand me - they don't know about the hobby.

So when something really annoys me, I also write it here in the forum - among like-minded people.

I think it's perfectly fine for you to write your frustration here. It is in exactly the right place. We can sympathise. We like to sympathise. And maybe sometimes we can even help.

Thank you. So how long would you wait for the package to be found before requesting a refund: a couple of weeks? a month?  

[Romancollector]

3 hours ago, DonnaML said:

Leu didn't offer me the option of shipping via Fedex -- was that something you specifically chose? 

If you ask them to put FedEx shipping on your profile, they will do so. My last two invoices were well under 2,000 CHF. I won't purchase from any auction or coin vendor if they don't guarantee FedEx shipping prior to making the purchase. This request in on my profile at CNG, Kuenker, NAC etc.

Edited August 17, 2023 by Romancollector

[Curtisimo]

@DonnaML,

I once had a package that showed as “out for delivery” via tracking and then didn’t arrive. It kept showing as out for delivery for several days and then one day the tracking changed to being in a completely different state. The package then made its way back and was eventually delivered.

The best I can figure is that it made it to my local post office and was accidentally sorted incorrectly and sent to a different distribution facility instead of going out for delivery as intended. Either that or the original tracking was just flat wrong somehow. I don’t know.

I’m not saying that is what happened in your situation but it is possible that a logistics mistake was made and it can take time for them to figure out what happened.

I once had a package sent back to the dealer in Europe with the explanation that there was a problem locating the address. The dealer sent it again with the same address and it arrived… go figure.

Another time I wasn’t home to sign for a package so they kept it at the post office.  When I went up there to pick it up they couldn’t find it. The branch manager took my number and asked me to call after they looked for it. No luck. I went back up there again to see what to do next and the lady at the desk looked for it and found it in a weird place. I can’t remember where she said it was.

I’ve had some adventures with the post office but most have ended up okay.

Hope the coins make their way to you.

Edited August 18, 2023 by Curtisimo

[El Cazador]

1 hour ago, DonnaML said:

Thank you. So how long would you wait for the package to be found before requesting a refund: a couple of weeks? a month?  

2-4 weeks in my opinion