Holy Shit!

A woman bought a painting during the SK Birthday sale, which of course was on September 13. She planned to get it framed and give it to her boyfriend for Christmas. I mailed the painting out to her in California (from Ohio) on September 20 Priority Mail Insured via the USPS. It should have arrived in two to three days.

In early December she emails me wondering where the package is as it hasn't arrived yet. Oh crap. By then it had been six weeks and I had the sinking feeling the package had been lost in the USPS black hole. But I went to the post office to enquire because I just couldn't imagine even they could lose a box that size. It wasn't huge, but it wasn't something which was going to be easily misplaced either. The post office couldn't even pull up a record that it had ever entered their system, let alone tell me anything about where it was. The guy at the counter did tell me to have the recipient check at her post office too, just to make sure. She did, but no luck there either. :-(

The painting was insured so I could file a claim for the cost of the item, but that still didn't do much for the poor woman whose great Christmas gift for her boyfriend was nowhere to be found. So I emailed Steve, told him the painting had been lost in transit, and asked if he would be willing to do another painting of the same subject (Zeus). I knew it wouldn't be able to be finished by Christmas, but I wanted to be able to offer the customer something other than a refund. He agreed to do that if she wanted it, so that was good, but by then Christmas had arrived. The customer told her boyfriend the whole sorry saga and they looked over the rest of the paintings on the art site to see if there were any which caught their eye (as getting another from the site was another option I gave them). They didn't find anything they loved there, but asked about the possibility of having a commission done which was also doable. Still the loss of a painting they wanted was discouraging.

Anyway, over the weekend I started gathering the documentation required to file an insurance claim with the post office for the loss of the package. Tuesday night I emailed the customer and asked her to send me some of the documentation I needed and she emailed right back saying she would. I had planned to start filling out the paperwork yesterday, but other things came up so I never got around to it.

So late last night I get another email from the customer and guess what? The painting was delivered yesterday!!! 15 weeks to go from Ohio to California. Priority Mail no less. Christ I wonder how long it would have taken if I sent it parcel post?

I am thrilled and relieved. I just wonder where the damned thing was all this time.