American Philatelic Society Complaint Process

Using the Complaint Process

The APS complaint process gives the Society a means of enforcing its Code of Ethics by identifying and taking action against those members who clearly have violated it. While this is one member benefit we hope you'll never have to use, the APS is proud to provide this service to organized philately.

Common complaints include failure to:

pay for or return stamps ordered or requested on approval
pay for auction lots, as per the terms of sale
pay past due accounts
ship prepaid orders or issue refunds
accept the return of damaged or misdescribed material
pay for or return approvals or consigned stamps

Complaints should be lodged with consideration of the following:

Try to avoid complaints. Look upon filing a complaint as a last resort, and only if there is adequate documentation of your allegations. Every reasonable effort to resolve disagreements between the parties should have been made prior to the filing of a complaint. Those efforts must be documented with the complaint in order for the complaint process to proceed smoothly and expeditiously.
All complaints must be in writing, and accompanied by all relevant documents or other materials such as copies of agreements/terms of sale, requests for material on approval, catalogues or other description of material, original bid sheet, expertizing certifications, mailing and delivery receipts, canceled checks, correspondence, etc. Charges must be specific and a chronology of events must be supplied. A complaint report form may be obtained without charge from the APS Complaints Manager.
The complaint process cannot rectify a situation in which the complainant has failed to follow sound business practices. If there is no evidence (to establish that the subject of a complaint has received merchandise, for instance), the Society will not be able to accept the complaint.
The APS Board of Vice Presidents is not a small claims court. Standing Resolution 2.2.2 prohibits members from using the APS as a bill collection agency. Do not file a complaint with the APS if you are pursuing the matter with a bill collector, preparing to file a civil lawsuit, or pursuing criminal charges. APS postpones consideration until any or all of those actions are concluded.