Balance--Yesterday's Shipping Link

We received a lot of mail about yesterday's link to the shipping horror story, all of it criticizing us for posting the link without further details. Many asked for an explanation of why the person claimed they received no compensation for the damage. Understandably, the most vehement were employees of UPS, the courier in the story, who take great pride in their jobs and their company. We accept the criticism. Any disparagement of any particular company was completely unintended.

We have no idea why the person received no compensation for the damage. It seemed to us that shipping anything of significant value, fragile or otherwise, without adequate insurance is foolhardy. In addition, shipping anything fragile without adequate packaging seemed equally foolhardy. These are the two lessons that we intended to convey by linking to the article. We are sorry that we were not more explicit.

Finally, we have used UPS extensively and have never experienced any significant problem. Nothing has ever been lost and nothing has ever been broken. The people who work for UPS and deliver to our address have all been very friendly and diligent. We regret any implications to the contrary that might be drawn from our linking to the story.