Quote:
Originally Posted by bnorth
Most postages have the cost displayed. Just by knowing postal rates you can see if and how much insurance it has. Most cards and other small things of value I send in a small flat rate box with zero insurance. Have never lost one and I have sent 100s of them. The most valuable being around 30K with most of the value being one card(25K). I have used Registered once when sending a small handful of 100s to a fellow member but that could have been delivered faster in a covered wagon with old horses.
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Ben,
Trust me, I also completely realize that there are definitely many shipping situations which merit doing it the way you do, but another option to consider is using a courier instead (if the additional cost befits the value of your shipment). Insurance is up to you, of course, but I'm not talking about that aspect here.
I made the switch from the postal system over to (mostly) UPS some years ago and it's one of the best moves I've ever made. Using the numerous discount third party shipping services found online, you're not really paying that much more per package. At most, what, $10 more (uninsured)? For a valuable shipment, it's incredibly worth the extra few bucks.
Everything has gone wonderfully with UPS with the exception of two shipments, but even those wound up with positive outcomes! Each time, it was easy to get a rep on the phone and they were extremely helpful.
The first bad experience came when my package was inexplicably dropped on the doorstep of a similar-sounding address 60 miles away from its actual destination. The UPS rep gave me the exact (incorrect) address. Thankfully, this happened in the tiny state of Connecticut. I quickly called the recipient of the package. He just happened to be driving by the area where it was misdelivered and fetched it off the porch in short order!
The other one was for a package that was coming to me. It was being sent from the Houston area. Instead of coming northward, it wound up being destined far south to some UPS pickup point in a minuscule Texas border town. This place looked like the wild west. There were literally tumbleweeds on Googe Streetview photos when I looked the place up. The "town" seemed to consist of tumbleweeds and this business where my package was to be sent. How my shipment was misdirected here is anyone's guess, but again, the UPS rep figured it all out and got it back on track. When I spoke to the UPS lady, she could pinpoint via GPS exactly what road the driver with my package was on, and where. I checked out the coordinates on Streetview. Complete desolation, but UPS knew where it was. While USPS can likely utilize a lot of their own, similar technology, good luck finding someone there to pick up the phone, let alone care. By the time you hear anything back, if you even do, your package was already misdelivered a week ago and then it's tough luck for you.
I realize that others have had poor experiences with my chosen method, but just like you, I'll be sticking with this one until something unforgivable happens to me! That's just the way it goes for all of us.