My 2 Euro-cents about parcel services.
Some years ago, I was among the very few people in the world lucky enough to own two Thanet SLs, but, being stuck in a time window of relative insecurity of income, I decided to sell off the one too small for me. This being in the good ol´ days before the internet had become so very popular, I made contact with a buyer in Japan via the News and Views of the V-CC.Chap says to send the frame air mail, which I do. So, after some weeks, nothing arrives, I claim insurance, receive it promptly after no hassle at all. Matter closed - so one might think.About a year after, the buyer and me have contact again over something completely different, and he decides to do another search. I tell him exactly what I wrote on the mailing label, and off he goes for a tour of his local post offices.Lo and behold, the parcel surfaces, undamaged, I have to hand the money back to the insurance, receive a check from Japan, and am happy to tell you the the Japanese Mail did not charge anything for storing the parcel for a year.What had happened? I had written the address in latin script, using lower case letters where I would normally use them. Could I have known that low-income Japanese posties are only expected to be able to read upper case? Many actually can read lower case, but some can´t.Morals: Let´s not complain about lost or damaged parcels as long as we ask for low shipping rates.Toni Theilmeier, Belm, Germany