Gold & Silver Forum - UHR EAGLE update from website...

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UHR Shipping to Resume This Week!
Tuesday February 24, 2009
The United States Mint has finally posted a brief statement to the eCommerce section of its Web site, claiming that Ultra-High Relief (UHR) Double Eagles will resume shipping during the week of Feb. 22. Here is the statement in its entirety:

The United States Mint is pleased to announce that we will resume shipping the 2009 Ultra High Relief Double Eagle Gold Coin during the week of February 22, 2009. However, because of production problems with the 2009 Ultra High Relief Double Eagle Gold Coin Companion Book, you may receive only the COIN and presentation box at this time. If you are a customer who receives the COIN without the Companion Book, we will ship the Companion Book to you, at no extra charge, when it becomes available. For information on how this may affect the return of the product if you are not satisfied, please see FAQ #210.

FAQ #210 explains that the coin can be returned without the companion book if the book hasn't been received yet. (The Mint usually requires items in a set to be returned in their entirety if a refund or exchange is desired.) The FAQ also explains that folks who ordered their UHR before Feb. 10 fall under the 30-day return privilege; those who ordered on or after this date have only 7 days to return it.

The fact that the Mint has decided to ship the UHRs out without the books means that the Mint is really trying to satisfy the customer demand, even if it costs them money to do so. I think this is a good step in the right direction, but we still don't have an explanation for the chaos that surrounded the initial sales of this coin, including the multiple shipping dates that buyers received, and why the UHRs are not being sent out in the order in which people purchased them.

When I spoke to a Mint representative today about the shipping date confusion issue, I warned him straight out that this issue is not going to go away. In the past, the Mint has been seen to procrastinate giving answers long enough that interest in the matter eventually fades, but that is not going to happen with this high-profile UHR coin! People are understandably incensed that they went to the time and trouble to fight with the Mint's poorly-performing Web site to get their order placed very early on, only to see others who ordered later get their coins ahead of their own. They want to know why this is happening.

A couple of collectors have written privately to express concerns that they will not be able to get the PCGS First Strikes designation if the Mint waits until April 24 to send the coins out. (April 24 is a date that many collectors who called the Mint's Customer Service Center's 800 number were given.) The last date I have heard regarding my own UHR (which was ordered at 1:15 pm ET on Jan. 22, only because I couldn't get through to the Web site any sooner) was Feb. 18, which has come and gone without any further notice from the Mint nor any charge to my credit card.

It is worth noting that people shouldn't put too much stock in whether the Mint has charged their card or not for a coin. Several readers reported that their card had been charged for the UHR, and then the charge was later removed. The Mint actually uses a two-step charging process, where the first entry you see on your online credit card report is actually a pre-authorization charge, to make sure the money exists on the card. It is sometimes called a "temporary authorization" or "temporary hold". When the coin actually ships, the Mint enacts a second credit card transaction that actually removes the money from your account.

What seems to have happened with the UHR credit card charges appearing and disappearing was that the Mint pre-authorized a batch of collectors' orders, and then found they couldn't ship them out, so the pre-authorization either expired or was rescinded.

As for why the Mint couldn't ship these orders, we must delve into the realm of speculation here, since the Mint has so far refused to confirm the information that their Customer Service Center has been giving out - that most of the UHR companion books were found to be damaged when they opened the cases of them for shipment. A few orders went out because not all of the books were damaged, just most of them were damaged.

Again, this is only speculation, but it seems that the reason why the coins might have gotten shipped out of sequence is because the fulfillment workers did them in batches. A sort of last-in/first-out kind of thing might have happened, where a bunch of orders that all should have gone out on Feb. 6th got grouped into smaller batches. One or two of the batches got good companion books paired up with them. The rest didn't. Rather than go through the laborious process of figuring out which orders really should go out first, the fulfillment folks just sent the ones out that had good books, probably without even thinking about the ramifications of it.

As for what the damage to the books might have been, I've heard them described as "warped" (first posted as a comment here on my site on Feb. 20th by "Disgruntled Mint Customer.") About two dozen calls at various times to the Mint's 800 number got 3 customer service reps to confirm this rumor. 5 others described the damage to the books as "water damage" (although I may have had the same rep more than once during this research, which was conducted over several days.) One rep actually went so far as to speculate that the books were made in China and they "got wet coming across the ocean on the ship." For what it's worth, I doubt the books were made in China; I think this rep was trying to be helpful by expanding on what she had overheard in the lunchroom.

And "overheard in the lunchroom" is not at all a stretch for these reps! When I spoke to a rep last week about why the order tracking system was down, she flat-out stated that she had "overheard the reason on her lunch break" but couldn't tell me what that reason was because it was confidential!

As I've stated in the past, it really irks me to have to publish speculation, even in a blog post, but I know everyone wants answers and if I am fairly certain that the speculation is well-founded, why not share it? The real question is why the Mint is so tight-lipped that such speculation even becomes necessary! (U.S. Mint Director) Ed Moy himself told me that Mint officials, himself included, follow the comments on my site and the Letters to the Editor of the coin-related magazines as a good source for how people are feeling about the Mint, and yet they read and read but never respond. That BUGS me!

Special thanks to a reader named "Mark" who was the first to post a comment regarding the latest Mint statement, and to Tom DeLorey who took the time to email me about it to make sure everyone knew. I would also like to thank all of the readers who have taken the time and trouble to share their experiences and frustrations during this annoying fiasco. I am making a special effort to ensure that the People Who Matter at the Mint are made aware of all of your comments and feedback. You guys

HS note: go to BLOG site for more info: http://coins.about.com

the gal running the site was a systems analyst for govt. she doesn't take any Bull***T from the mint having warned them prior.

HS for my friends who always posted things for me. :yes:

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