Effective May 11, 2009, Mailing Standards of the United States Postal Service, Domestic Mail Manual (DMM®) 609 is revised to update the procedures for processing and adjudicating domestic mail insurance claims in order to streamline the claims process and to provide customers with more consistent service. Online claims processing service is now available to customers who purchase domestic insurance through any retail channel — i.e., USPS.com®, Automated Postal Center® kiosks, local Post Office™ facilities, or authorized PC Postage® providers. In addition, Express Mail® customers may file online claims, even if no additional insurance was purchased. Collect on Delivery (COD) and Registered Mail™ claims may be filed by mail or at a Post Office facility; however, they cannot be filed online.
A customer may also file a claim by downloading a form from USPS.com and mailing it directly to Postal Service™ Accounting Services in St. Louis, Missouri. Customers can continue to file claim forms at a local Post Office facility.
To ensure consistency and service quality, all claims are adjudicated by Accounting Services. Local Post Office facilities no longer adjudicate insurance claims.
The damaged goods inspection policy for domestic claims is also changed. Customers must retain the damaged article and container, including packaging, wrapping, and any other contents received, until the claim is fully resolved. Customers are no longer required to take these materials to the Post Office at the time a claim is filed. Rather, upon receiving a request from the Postal Service, they are required to turn the materials over to their local Post Office for inspection, retention, and disposition in accordance with the claims decision.
The Registered Mail section 503.2 is revised by updating the term “uninsured Registered Mail” to “Registered Mail with no declared value” to reflect current policy. We will incorporate these revisions into the next printed version of the DMM and into the May update of the online DMM, which is available via Postal Explorer® at http://pe.usps.com.
— Mailing Standards,
Pricing, 4-23-09
