Doggone it

Fanabla. The USPS damaged a package of mine. It arrived yesterday in a plastic bag and stamped with the following message: "Rewrapped by the Phila. BMC. Please accept our apology for damaging your mail. Phila BMC", and the ZIP code of the Bulk Mail Center.

I wouldn't even be posting about this, except for the fact that two of the three charging cables that should've been in the envelope are missing. So I called the Post Office to seek reimbursement.

It turns out that because the package was not insured, they are not only not liable to reimburse my loss, but "not authorized" to pay me any damages. The best I could get out of them was a case number, a promise to search their recovery center and see if my cables made their way there, and the promise of a callback. Whoop-de-do. I'm sure that the two stray Apple cables went home in the pocket of the first person who saw them and recognized them as something they could use. If any other result takes place, if they have strict enough control that they actually did prevent the cables from being stolen, I will happily eat my words. But I doubt that'll happen.

So I emailed the vendor, who sells their items via Amazon.com, to tell them that my package arrived damaged and only one cable actually arrived. Maybe they'll replace the cables out of sheer goodwill. Again, I have my doubts.

I'm not going to have a nervous breakdown either way, as this vendor charges an incredibly low price and I'm only out $5, but still, it's the principle of the matter. I can prove what I ordered, and as far as I'm concerned, I shouldn't HAVE to insure my freaking package to be reimbursed by the USPS when they were the ones that dropped the ball. Especially when I don't think I even *had* the option of insuring the package in this case.

Oh, well. We'll see what the vendor has to say. If they don't ship out two more cables, I might as well order two more and hope the Mail Gremlins find some other parcel to use for target practice.