Don’t use Media Mail
I’m a vinyl newbie that was over the moon to inherit dozens of beloved LPs from my grandpa. I was told by my local record store that media mail is the best way to ship lots of records for cheap, and like an idiot, I believed them without doing my own research into this archaic, incompetent system.
Now, more than two months later, all of these sentimental records are lost in the ether with no tracking, no recourse, nothing.
I submitted mail search requests (no response), filed claims (denied immediately because of lack of proof of value - ofc I don’t have receipts, they were bought in the 60s…), called random post offices in Kansas and Michigan to try to get in contact with the distribution centers, inquired in-person at both the origin and destination post offices…. No one has any answers and keeps telling me to wait it out. One of the two packages hasn’t moved in two months; if it hasn’t moved by now, I doubt it ever will.
I am incredibly frustrated and defeated at this whole process. I wanted to post here as a last resort, in case anyone had any advice or reassuring words; at the very least, I’ll reiterate on this sub that if you want to ship something sentimental, don’t use USPS and definitely don’t use media mail.