Wouter van Ooijen wrote:

>> The only way I have found to reliably get a package to a 
>> person outside the USA is to send it via registered mail.
> 
> What are youre loss figures? I think I lose about 1:500, and I see no
> releation bwteen losses and destination. 

Not sure about other destinations, but my personal figure for
non-registered packages to Brazil is poor. (About 1:10, but not with any
statistical confidence to speak of :)

And I agree with James in that (in this case Brazilian) customs seems to be
the trouble spot.

One thing the USPS (and similar agencies in other countries) could start
doing is to provide the possibility to drop a package with a certain
printed barcode (from a web interface or so) that then gets tracked. Of
course you don't have a proof of mailing /before/ the first tracking point,
but if that first tracking point is when the package gets first seen by the
postal service, this may be acceptable. And after that first tracking
point, all is just as tracked and proven as if it was handed over
personally -- especially the problematic way through any customs agency.

Gerhard

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