cantcollect from the post office on their insurance but would ship with tracking

I always use USPS and insure for what the quilt was sold for or would cost to replace ( including labor ). I always ship customer quilts this way. I never had a damaged or missing quilt in 8 years.

I've used both UPS and the post office - no problem; just pack in a box and send - that is all I've done - and it gets there (here in the U.S.) within 3 days unless you request sooner shipping, but I've found the extra you pay for to get it there sooner, the package usually does not get there sooner and you've spent a lot of extra cash for nothing!

If it is valuable, send it with signature required. I have little faith in the post office, and prefer to send items of value UPS, but they have developed a nasty habit of just dropping stuff off on the front porch.

I will hopefully be sending a quilt out before Christmas. I will require a signature, and will insure it for what I think it is worth. They try a little harder not to lose things they may have to pay for.

As a retired postal employee, ship USPS plus all of the above. I usually take a picture to help with proving insurance.

I definitely WOULD NOT use US postal service. They won't stand behind it..... and if they deliver to a different address, even if it is their fault (this happened to my friend) - the US postal service said too bad, we delivered it and got a signature. Wasn't their fault they delivered to the wrong neighborhood - which was an industrial area that didn't even have the same street name or address...

the last quilt I sent, I was sending to my niece who happens to live on the 2nd floor of this building. I said I want to insure it. They said they could not, unless I could prove how much was in there. I said how do you insure work you put into it?? They would only insure how much you spent to make it..meaning reciepts for fabric, batting, thread. I sent it and had my niece go to the post office and sign for it, to make sure she got it.

I've had trouble with both USPS & UPS. Got better service from the USPS. Had sent a baby quilt to my niece & when she came to visit 3 months later, I ask her if she liked the quilt. She said what quilt? This was 21 years ago before all this tec stuff of tracking & all. So we both went to the USPS & talked to them about it. Believe it or not, the lady remembered me mailing it. Any way, they did find the quilt a week later in the dead letter office in Seattle WA. It was addressed to Idaho. Anyway, she finally got it. With the UPS, we shipped a hope chest that my DH made for his DD. We were going to visit her & sent it ahead of us & was there when it arrived. Had it insured & all. Anyway, It had been dropped more than once & the lid was broken off plus the bottom was split. We turned it in & they sent a rep out to check it because of the insurance on it. All they did was to offer to send it back to where it had been shipped at no charged. They even took pictures of it. Have never used UPS since.

as everyone has said you really can't get the money back for more than materials and that is pushing it. I would definitely wrap in a plastic bag of some sort and then tape the box up so well that if it should get wet the box wont get damaged and definitely use a sig. to deliver. but that is depending on where the package is being sent. my neighborhood might not be a problem to have a package sit out for an afternoon but there are some that as soon as the mail person is gone so is the package.

When it comes to insurance, the Postal Service only pays for the parts not the labor. So be sure to keep all receipts. (I am retired postal clerk.)