The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

On October 20th I packed and shipped this machine, returning it to the owner (outside USA) by USPS Global Express Guaranteed. Usually packages sent by GXG arrive in the destination country within 3 days or less. After the 2nd day, I noticed that the tracking number was showing no activity other than Package Acceptance, and that my package Departed the Post Office, and was on its way to a Sorting Facility. That was Oct 20th, and the box remains missing. I have taken this up with FedEx (who partners in delivery with USPS), and they have no record of receiving the box from USPS, which also complicates filing for the insurance claim! So, I took this issue up with the Postal Inspectors office, the federal investigation arm of the Post Office. I have been communicating with several postmasters, Offices of Consumer Affairs, and have hours of phone calls invested. Surprisingly, nearly everyone I contacted at the Postal Service was sympathetic to my situation, and did attempt to connect me with the correct parties.

In 30 years, I have NEVER lost a package with USPS.

My packages traveling to the opposite side of the globe usually go from my little post office to Albany, NY.....then to Memphis, Anchorage, then they depart on a jet to the destination country (or one or two legs from it). The best explanation from the Post Office is that my box accidentally got loaded onto a truck to NYC instead of a plane to Memphis. I was assured that WHEN the box was located, it would be put back into the GXG stream from NYC. >IF< it made it to NYC. I check the tracking number daily, and nothing has changed. It still has the acceptance scan and the departure scan.

One can only wonder where the box really is. All of my packages are impeccably packed, and well labeled. I even add additional adhesive to the label packet, to make sure it stays on the box if it rubs on another parcel.

SO. Where is it? I assume it is still labeled. If it got sent to a *missing parcel office*, then its description, box dimensions, and box weight are on file as being missing. Put 2 + 2 together.

In the case it has been stolen from the post office, I can only imagine that the perpetrator would try to sell it for a quick dollar on craigslist or ebay.....and I have been watching both websites like a hawk. I have also emailed collector friends in the NY-NJ area, giving them the heads up if this machine surfaces and is offered to them for sale.

YES, it was insured. But I don't care about the insurance check. A check does NOT replace a 100 year old machine that I poured my heart into repairing. I want the machine back. And yes, I will provide a reward.

If anybody is offered this machine, please forward the contact to me so I can forward the information to the Postal Inspector, who would then notify the authorities.

The machine is a Columbia Graphophone BK. The cabinet has been stripped and refinished (not by me), and a large bright "Graphophone" decal has been applied to the front of the cabinet (also, not by me). The box contained only the machine, no horn or crane. The decal and near-sterile restoration of the cabinet are the dead giveaway of this machine's identity.

Thank You for reading, and any help that comes. I will post the results of this story, if there are any. After 6 weeks, I will have to accept that this is lost. I lose sleep over things like this. My advice to anyone in a similar situation is to NEVER read blogs concerning the subject of lost packages.........might lead to drinking.

Wyatt,
So sorry to hear about the lost machine. I can well imagine your frustration. Hopefully, it will turn up. I'm sure if anybody here runs across it, we'll let you know.
Regards,
Martin

I don't know if this will help you, but I had the same thing happen with UPS. I shipped a Suitcase Home and it got lost. I kept going back and forth with them. I finally asked the right question, where does all the lost items go? They gave me the phone number and I called. A woman answered and asked me if it had Edison on the top. Ureaka! They knew where it was and I got it back. So if I were you, I would do the same. Good Luck.

Yes, tomorrow I will be inquiring to find out the who & where in regards to who manages the NYC receiver office, then the "lost packages" office. I'm not done fighting!!!

Hi Wyatt,

I had another thought about your package that I didn't think of when we talked about this before. The trucks that take mail from the post office leave at different times through out the day. On the Departed Post Office scan it will show the date and TIME. They should be able to determine which truck is was put on based on the time. Once they identify the truck you then know which facility it went to. It should have had a ARRIVED scan at that facility unless the package was damaged or the label was missing. If it was damaged it would go to the rewrap or deads section where they would repair the box or try to determine who sent it if the label was missing. I think this is the best place to start looking. I once had a reproducer that I mailed returned to me three months later. It was totally shocked when I opened the box. I hope this helps.

Rich Gordon
(retired Postmaster 42 yrs)

Thanks Rich!!! I'll be sure to ask

I'm not a retired postmaster but I've been doing a LOT of business with the post office for about 30 years, and know everyone in my local office well. One thing that is clear is that the USPS tracking technology lags far behind the competition. It is very, very common for things to not track anywhere along the way -- sometimes not even at origin -- and then suddenly show up at the destination.

That said, Global Express Guaranteed usually gets more attention so this particular situation is unusual.

My guess is that it got sidetracked somehow, and that it will suddenly appear. I've had that happen more than once in recent years. I especially recall a shipment from France a few months ago that tracked out of CDG (Paris) and then disappeared from the system. It never tracked through NY, which is the usual pattern. I was sweating bullets. I was refreshing the tracking page every 10 minutes for 3 weeks (seriously). Then one morning it suddenly showed as "sorting complete" at my local PO. Where had it gone for all those weeks? No clue. At no point during its very slow transit within the US did anyone scan it. I had long since given up any hope, but there it was.

Hopefully you'll have a similar experience and the recipient will have it at his doorstep before you even see a tracking update.

Knock wood, in 30 years of shipping 300-500 packages a year through USPS, only one has ever gone missing. But that one was to China, and it disappeared after leaving the US, so I still think it was the fault of the Chinese post office, not USPS.

I had that happen with a package that I sent myself from Minneapolis about 6 years ago. It only had to go 120 miles and I insured it. They had no record of the thing at all. If you get someone on the phone from the post office that will show interest in your case, they can track it internally and see things you can't see on-line. UPS can do the same thing, but it often times won't help because the post office farms so much of their work out anymore. Anyway, in my case, it showed up about 8 months later. They also lost the insurance check in the mail as well and by the time that got sorted out the package arrived. HA! They kept telling me that I must have put the wrong address on the package (I know where I live). With UPS and probably any shipping outfit, you want to always make sure you have your name, address and phone number inside the box somewhere as well. I work at UPS and it's way less paperwork for them to fill out if they can open the box and see where it was supposed to go, and get it on its way, than it is for them to send it to the place where they send the undeliverable stuff.
It's too bad about your package, it's big enough that it should turn up, but that doesn't make you feel any better in the meantime. When mine finally showed up and I asked about it at the post office they just said it must have gotten into one of those big rolling laundry hamper things they have and got bags or something on top of it and it wasn't found until late in the year when the Christmas rush pressed everything back into service. I had a box take 14 years to get home from England and wow did it reek of fuel oil when it showed up. They must have found it when they scrapped the ship it was on!

I recently had a single Edison disc take over six weeks from NJ to Buffalo, via Western Pa, back to NJ, back to PA, to Missouri, to Memphis, back to NJ, back to Western PA, and finally to Buffalo - for no reason at all. The box was clearly addressed, never opened, and never damaged. Weird. Don't give up hope !

One time I was waiting and waiting for a Victor scroll label record by Jelly Roll Morton's Red Hot Peppers that I won in an auction.It got bounced around due to the fact the seller had one number in my zip code wrong.I contacted the seller and pointed it out.He was very gracious about it.I FINALLY got my record!! edisonplayer