I ordered the Andrew Jackson's Liberty bronze medal and a presentation case to put it in. Today the box arrived... medal's there, case isn't. So I called up the Mint... Apparently they have a policy that they can't replace missing items until at least 30 days have passed from the date of shipment. (It was shipped 9/25, so that would be 10/25). This policy is to allow for unexpected delays in the mail... give the item time to arrive before they replace an item that's already on its way. Which normally would make sense, except... I already received one of the two items. They confirmed that they were both sent in the exact same box, and not shipped separately. Which means the second item is NEVER going to arrive on its own accord. So I'll basically be waiting for an item I already know is not going to arrive. So I'm forced to wait a month to even request the missing item... because of a policy in place for a justification that clearly does not apply in this case. So I asked for a refund instead. Um, nope, same policy... can't request a refund until at least a month has passed... to give a chance for an item to arrive that they admit they know is not going to. Am i just cynical in believeing the real reason for the policy is that they hope a month later I just forget to ask them to do anything about it? If any private business did business this way, they'd be out of business. I told them as much. Nothing frustrates me more than when a business admits their policy makes no logical sense but still refuse to do anything about it.
THis has happened to me twice before.... same thing. I had some damaged packaging and asked for the mint to send a replacement. They told me the same thing above, really ticked me off.... so I just waited. Here is another thing... they won't replace any packing unless you bought the item directly from them. So lets say you bought the latest comm item from the mint from your local dealer and the box is ruined, the mint will not send you a replacement because you didn't buy it from them, nor can you purchase a packaging replacement. Oh well.
Damaged packaging applies even less than my case does... it wouldn't be a question of when it's going to arrive, it already did, and was damaged... why make you wait?! Reminds me of a parody of a motivational poster I saw once... picture was of a telephone covered in dust and cobwebs, with the caption "COMPLACENCY: Maybe if we ignore the customer long enough, they'll leave us alone." Never thought I'd encounter a business that took that seriously... though I guess the US Mint isn't at risk of going out of business... maybe that explains it. Spending 4 years in the Air Force, I can attest to the complacency a lot of government agencies seem to have when it comes to deal with people's problems... they have no competition, they get paid the same whether you help you or not... so why go out of their way to deal with your problem?
i am waiting for shipment no 3 from the mint the coins were damamged twice already this is fun and and a new personal record
The only thing I have ordered from the mint in the past several years was the SF commemorative back in 2006. Coin is nice, packaging bit the big one. Frankly I wouldn't let my enemies order from the US mint. They bite. I know the Royal Canadian Mint cranks out lots of cheesy commemoratives, but at least they are all well packaged and I have always been pleased with their service. If you paid for your item via your credit card, you have recourse by filing for a charge back if the mint cannot deliver the goods. I would call the Mint up and let them know if you have to wait the 30 days to even file for a claim to receive the box, you will just go ahead and file for a charge back on your credit card. Most vendors like to avoid charge backs like the plaque and will comply with your request if it is reasonable, charge backs are hard for vendors to fight back against once the charge card finds in your favour.
I doubt a chargeback will do any good if the recipient signed for the package. The credit card company will simply agree with the merchant (the Mint) if the merchant shows that signed receipt and claims it made proper shipment.
Actually the CC company will favour their cardholder, if he will sign a declaration that the product was not what it was purported to be, in this case the packaging was missing. I had an issue with a British banknote dealer charging my credit card for someone else's order a couple of years after I had placed an order. When the dealer hemmed and hawed over correcting his error, and I got nowhere with the IBNS, I contacted my credit card, they sent me a form to fill out and sign, and bingo, the charge was removed by my card. Credit card companies will weed out apparent attempts at fraud, but they tend to favour their customers in disputes.
Just a FYI, from past experiences concerning damaged shipments from the mint, the mint will refund your shipping charges, so save your receipts.
Troodon, these are the rules they're required to comply with: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/mailorder.shtm. If you want to get their attention, just find something they did wrong, here, and mention where you got it. That'll do it. But this is basically where these kinds of matters stand. FWIW...
I'm pretty sure their interpretation of the "30-day rule" is why they crafted their policy the way they do. However I think they may very well be in violation in this case since by their own admission, they know the presentation case will not arrive in 30 days. It was supposedly shipped in the same box as the medal... but the medal's here, the case is not, and they know it will not arrive separetely no matter how long they make me wait. BTW according to the rule it is 30 days from when I ordered, not when they shipped it... so they'd be in violation quite a bit earlier than Oct. 25. Chargeback may be a bit complicated since they sent me part of what I ordered, not all of it... can you chargeback just a portion of a transaction? In this case, the amount the case alone costs? At any rate dealing with it will take just as long as waiting anyway, probably. Though I will certaintly consider more drastic remedies if they try fighting me when Oct. 25 rolls around! Especially if they try the "well according to our records, we already sent it...". I've dealt with others before enough times to know the burden of proof is on them that they sent it, not on me that they didn't (for both legal and logical reasons). In the end I don't want to expend more time and effort than the $3 case is worth (why I'm willing to wait, for now...) but there's a principle that's worth fighting for here to some degree. I recently had to deal with an eBay seller pulling the same thing and have almost zero patience for people trying to drag their feet when it comes to giving me something I already paid for.
quite refreshing troodon i am proud of the way you are acting and thinking on this case more people like you and we would get the mint to open its eyes
Same here. My buying from the US Mint has stopped. No more will they get even a dime from me. I will go without the product or find it at a coin show if I really want it.
Ultimately if you buy any product of the US Mint the money goes to them, whether directly or indirectly... so if you hope to ultimately deprive them of income the only way you can do that is not to buy any products of the mint at all, not even indirectly. If you're not trying to boycott them because of a matter of principle, but instead just prefer not to deal with them directly, then I guess buying the products indirectly is good enough. Just realize that they don't much care whether the money comes from you directly or they get it from a dealer who then gets it from you (plus their profit margin). To be honest, if the latter, I'm pretty much with you... any product I can reasonably get indirectly for a reasonable price, I'd rather go that route. The convenience of not having to deal with the Mint's so-called customer service is worth a little markup for the dealer to make a profit and let the dealer deal with the Mint! Unfortunately some products are either not carried by many third part dealers or are unreasonably marked up when available, so sometimes my only practical choices are deal with the Mint or go without. I really want to keep the collection going of the First Lady medals, and so far haven't found many dealers willing to bother carrying them (most don't preceive there's enough collector interest to bother it seems). Which brings me back to the point that sometimes the Mint is the only game in town, and they know it... which is why they get complacent about their customer service sometimes. I'm not even talking about missing say, a gold coin or anything, just a $3 presentation case... if they were in a competitive envrionment they would just send me another one without making me jump through rediculous hoops. Anywho, thanks for your responses all... will update this later to let you know how it all ultimately turns out.
Exactly, that's one of the things I was trying to point out...glad you caught it. That's when "the clock" starts running (once they're in receipt of that completed order). As you can see, they have some "rope," but there are parameters on that. Good luck, and I hope everything works out in the end...
