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Comment by AdmiralAsshat | Hacker News Reader

So from what I gather on the Twitter chain, a USPS employee likely stole the package and claimed it as "lost", then probably tried to sell it as a lot on eBay.

Since USPS is basically trying to blame byuu for this, I'm afraid the only option here to get any recourse is support-by-public-shaming. It would be a sizable blow to USPS's reputation to be framed as "A bunch of thieves who will deliver your stuff unless it's valuable, then we'll steal it, tell you we lost it, and sell it."

He could try to involve the police, but I imagine it will go nowhere. It's a pity.

EDIT: Corrected 'UPS' to 'USPS'.

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I don't see them blaming byuu. I see them giving practical advice for ways that might reduce the chances of this happening in the future. That's different from "this is your fault, not ours."

The eBay listing indicates this may be theft, not just plain loss. Have they told USPS about this? And I don't mean telling their no-doubt powerless social media team on Twitter, I mean reporting it to the postal inspectors:

https://postalinspectors.uspis.gov/investigations/MailFraud/...

I (thankfully) have no experience with them, but I have heard that they are not people you want to mess with.

Seems unfair to automatically assume malice.

I once had an international package go missing at some point after clearing customs despite a label declaring its value accurately at $1. I doubt that was due to theft.

Within the twitter chain was mention of an ebay listing suspiciously similar to the parcel contents being seen. Parent is likely referring to this.

Since it was delisted, if someone has the link maybe it was archived by Google Cache or Archive.org.

It says later it was a set of different games.

> It would be a sizable blow to USPS's reputation

Not really. Every business has thieves. It sucks that this happened but it's not going to be a sizable blow to the USPS.

After shipping hundreds of packages my personal anecdote is that USPS is far better and cheaper than UPS and FedEx. This one other anecdote won't change that.

Correct. This isn't the first time it's happened. This happens all the time. I've been a victim of this several times. Of course my items weren't nearly as expensive but it was still within $500-$1000. At the end of the day, you just claim an insurance and move on instead of wasting countless hours on the telephone and doing postal office visits.

This is why insurance exists. Usually you'll find the big complainers didn't buy it. Evidenced here by the request for more funds on patreon. It doesn't even seem like the loss is irreplaceable, unlike something handmade.

Time and effort cannot be replaced, but the monetary loss at least should be insured against.

Unfortunately byuu made a poor decision about risk. If anything this makes me question byuu's ability to assess risk which is a pretty important skill in someone looking to be an archivist. Throw in lack of accountability and this is someone I will definitely not be supporting.

Interesting to read this today. A couple weeks ago, I sent my nephew a new Rasp Pi, custom wood case, book, breadboard kit package for his birthday... and am just in the process of filing a claim on it.

Problem is, I was kind of coerced by the employee into using this specific shipping that gave me only $50 insurance on the package. I didn't realize I was so under-insured until after the package was confirmed as "lost".

I wonder if x-ray or something is making it easier for employees on the inside to target expensive electronics packages.

The eBay-listing apparently was for non-PAL carts, so no luck. :(

The USPS is basically a spam service as it's core business model, somehow that's acceptable, so having an employee steal isn't that surprising.

It seems unkind to conflate the current business model of the company and the employees. Many people serve lifelong careers in the postal service honorably.

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