The Magic Librarities

I use a ton of tape, that way there can be no accidental opening, or water damage or anything like that. It also stops the paper tearing or splitting along an edge.

If anything goes missing it can't be put down as an accidental loss, it was either stolen by the postal workers or the receiver is lying.

If people want to blatantly steal from you you can't stop them but if they want to pretent that it must have been an accident, then they no longer can.

Mark, I've been robbed during a year and a half, and it didn't matter if the shipments were useing duct tape or bubble envelope or whatever. That only works with shy thiefs, the ones that really steal a lot aren't afraid of that.

GlobalBoosterHunter wrote:I use a ton of tape, that way there can be no accidental opening, or water damage or anything like that. It also stops the paper tearing or splitting along an edge.

If anything goes missing it can't be put down as an accidental loss, it was either stolen by the postal workers or the receiver is lying.

If people want to blatantly steal from you you can't stop them but if they want to pretent that it must have been an accident, then they no longer can.

Let's assume that both the seller and the buyer are not lying. The buyer can still file a claim and get their money back.

Example 1: http://www.apathyhouse.com/random/usps/
This is a card in a top loader, torn in half by a machine. One half was delivered to the buyer, the other half was returned to me. Although fault is clearly on the post office, I sent the buyer a replacement. I did this because eBay would have ruled me at fault and refunded his money.

Example 2: http://www.apathyhouse.com/random/wecare/
These are some boxes that were shipped to me. This is how they arrived. I sent these pics to the seller just to let him know, in case the problem was on his end. Without even asking he offered me partial refund even though nothing was even missing, and it wasn't his fault!

I have several more examples of things arriving damaged, missing contents, or not arriving at all. I've been both the buyer and the seller in these situations, and I always feel that the post office should be the one at fault. They were paid for a service, and they failed at that service. For the post office to say they will only take responsibility for their own failure for an extra fee is tantamount to extortion. They should probably just stop offering the no liability options all together.

l0qii wrote:
Example 1: http://www.apathyhouse.com/random/usps/
This is a card in a top loader, torn in half by a machine. One half was delivered to the buyer, the other half was returned to me. Although fault is clearly on the post office, I sent the buyer a replacement. I did this because eBay would have ruled me at fault and refunded his money.

Well you had a 'Do Not Bend' stamp on it, but no mention of how you feel about shredding, they are not mind readers you know!

I am leaning more towards bubble wrap mailers, or something which has to be processed by hand.

As to people blatantly walking off with packages, what can you do about that?

We looked at insurance for sending over the Summer booster. If I declared the value they would charge me the full import duty and then tax and handling on top. But if it went missing the insurance people would not take my word on the value, even if I showed them the receipt.

We agreed on splitting the risk before we sent. Never been so happy to see the post man.