🚀 go-pugleaf

I guess I come to this discussion from a different perspective.  Last summer, I
had occasion to ship my wife's camera back to the manufacturer for repairs.  I
sent it through the good old US mail system, even though I had always had very
good luck receiving things via UPS.  Then the unthinkable happened.  The
package was lost.

I've heard people tell how difficult life was when they had to track down a
package sent through UPS.  You don't know how lucky you are.  The post office
won't even talk to you until the package has been lost for a month.  It is
assumed to still be in transit until then.

Then the procedure for locating the package is to fill out an insurance claim
form!  This goes into the mill for an unspecified amount of time, and assumes
that you have the receipts for whatever was sent, in order to establish its
value.  If not, you have to try and convince them by store price quotes, etc.,
providing the person handling your case feels like listening.  Notice that at
no time has anyone mentioned trying to track down the package!  There is more
pain and suffering you have to go through (including but not limited to getting
the signature of the intended recipient on a standard form swearing that they
didn't receive the package) but I think you get the drift.

The next time I sent a package, I went UPS and it arrived two days later,
intact.  But if it hadn't, at least there would have been someone to talk to
without having to wait a month.  And UPS does have a tracking system in place,
whatever you might think of its quality.  So it could be worse.

- Scott

PS: By the way, I eventually tracked the package to the manufacturer six weeks
after it was sent.  The US mail service has not followed up on the loss to this
day.
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Scott Hankin  (hankin@osf.org)
Open Software Foundation