Lost Package: Filing a Postal Insurance Claim

Anyone who goes to the post office regularly to mail packages is familiar with the question drill. Is there anything hazardous in the package? Do you need delivery confirmation? Do you need postal insurance? And so on.

So what happens when you decide that a package is worth insuring, you buy the miniature policy, and (believe it or not) you actually need to file a claim because the package was indeed “lost in the mail”? Now that I’ve had personal experience with this scenario, I can tell you all about the process of filing a postal insurance claim for a lost package (which is different from riling a claim for a damaged package). Provided that you keep your paperwork in order and remain patient with the USPS red tape, it’s not overly complicated.

Here are the basics for filing a postal insurance claim for a lost package (aka a “complete loss”):

1. Before you get to file a claim, you need to “know” that said lost package was officially lost. You must wait three weeks (21 days) from the date of mailing and correspond definitively with the recipient to confirm that it was not received. Don’t even try to begin the process any sooner because the form will not be accepted by your friendly postal worker.

2. Once the 21 days have passed, you begin the paperwork. All of the following are necessary, assuming that your postal insurance claim is domestic:
· The PS Form 1000 (aka Domestic Claim or Registered Mail Inquiry)
· Proof of the postal insurance policy
· Statement of the lost package
· Proof of the lost package’s value

The PS Form 1000 is available for download on the USPS site, but you can also get it at any post office. Although a little tedious, it’s easy to complete. The proof of insurance should also be painless to provide, since presumably you kept the little insurance ticket after you mailed the package (or printed out the confirmation if you bought it online).