I'll don't think I'll ever be able to fully trust The United States Postal Service with a kite again. After weeks of work and careful packaging, the post office accepted my Kite and promptly made it vanish the same day. It has not been scanned a single time outside the originating site. Foolishly, I did not think to insure it and reading the fine print, my maximum refund will be $50 and that doesn't include the $14 they charged me to lose my package. That is not refundable. SO, if I do pursue the claim when that time comes, I sold my kite to the United States Post Office for 1/10th of its value and 1/4th of its material cost.

Now, I"ll have to try and duplicate the most extensive build I've done, just to try and break even on materials cost. Labor is out the window. The intended recipient should not have to bear the costs since he did not receive anything. I don't expect extra due to a circumstance outside either of our control. I will only say that moving forward, my kite prices will increase by $25 to cover the extra expense of INSURANCE for twice the value of the kite every time or handling through a reputable company like FedEx or UPS. (with insurance of course.) If the post office ever loses another kite, they'll be paying for this one too.

I've done this out of joy for making kites and not as a profit thing. Every penny I've gotten so far went back into materials to make new ones. This was an unacceptable loss and a complete loss of trust for the United States Postal System.

Seems like maybe it never left the original Post Office. I wouldn't trust UPS either for your next go around. I had 3 packages (from 2 different senders) that made it all the way to "out for delivery" only to have it marked "no such address", and then shipped off to someplace 700 miles away. We made several calls and were assured they would fix it but never heard back. Since the shippers were the ones at risk we didn't lose any money, but it was annoying as hell and I had to spend a lot of time trying to get the sender to give me refunds. I will never use UPS and try avoid buying from anyone who does.

I think it comes down to who is working at your local Post Office. We have a really good one and I've shipped lots of things I sold on Ebay or PKF w/o problem, though I have started insuring everything. Fed Ex is good but expensive though they did lose a Powered Parachute I shipped once......a long time ago. I did get the reimbursed.

Well I went there today, stood in line for 30 minutes, then talked to a very nice supervisor who said, "you need to start an inquiry."

I responded, "That's what I'm trying to do. "

Bottom Line is I've always included postage with my pricing.. I still will but it will be insured forevermore.

Insurance can cover the cost, but not your labor and wasted time.....

In the future it will. Postal service will be paying full price + replacement cost + postage in the future for anything lost.

For the record, this is 100% shortsightedness on my part. The moment I make a claim, I'll be starting the replacement kite regardless.

It seems to have worked. I got the text last night that it had moved from the Denver location to the "next" location...hopefully my post office.

Lost for ten days though.

Again...for the record...Riffclown is the best. Not only did he make me an awesome kite but he also stands behind it more than any artist should have to. He made numerous offers to make this transaction completely bias toward me including making a new kite. This is the kind of guy that you want as a friend! Wow.

So...hopefully in the next few days the kite will arrive in the hands of its ecstatic new owner and Riff can move on to less exciting stuff.

Paul

I'm so glad it seems to have been located. And I'm so relieved that Paul didn't take this little Postal rant as geared towards him in any way.

Hopefully this was just a close call and an eye opener.

The lack of a scan was what had us both on edge. It didn't get scanned anywhere in the system so there was no inference of it actually having made it into the system after leaving the original post office.

3 Words.... OUT FOR DELIVERY!!!!!

Riff - easier to just use ups or fedex right now, until usps sorts itself out. Had same thing happen to me a few weeks ago. Package was almost at destination, scanned in Tennessee, then went back to Pittsburgh and sat there for 2 weeks before I could register a lost complaint. A couple days later it was moving again.

I had a kite I bought from a guy in Iceland, lost for 6 weeks that just showed up one day. What worried me was that even though it was insured, that money would've gone to reimburse me but the seller is out a kite still. I was so thrilled it worked out and it's one of my favorite kites I own. Kites almost need to be insured for enough to pay back the buyer, and to pay the seller for the kite that was lost.

First time I bought a kite online, same thing happened. Supposed to take 40 days or something, took over 3 months and when I enquired at the 2-month mark about my package, the postal company was like "yeah? so what". Still annoys me.

Then there's the thieves from FedEx and DHL who send you demand for "duties and taxes" AFTER I've paid customs duties to the actual post office.

Or the time I had to pay sales tax on my own not-new kite that I'd sent for specialist repair in Oz, then on to NZ where we were on holiday.

Weirdly, USPS has been the second best service. Behind Japan Post and EMS, which just rocks.
USPS 2-week service: we make sure it takes exactly two weeks you stingy bugger, by letting it sit in a corner for 9 days.
JP EMS 2-week service: we make sure it get there within two weeks by SENDING IT RIGHT AWAY. 3 days door to door, Japan to the US is the record.

That was before COVID, of course...