Original thread title: “Please keep an eye out for a (stolen?) Copeland Low D…”
I recently re-purchased my old Copeland Low D from a trusted friend, but it’s gone missing in the post between California and Texas. It was posted on April 17th. It may still turn up (and is insured) but on the off chance that it’s been stolen, I’d appreciate it if people would keep an eye open for any being sold that matches the description.
Have you done a trace yet? If the result says delivered maybe your postman has given it to one of your neighbours if he had not met anyone in your place when he wanted to deliver first? Not to want to say anything bad about postal services but I found that from all the parcels shipped in the last eight years, the ones which went to England were the once with most problems. About 30% came back to us with the first try and to be send out again, many got delayed by quite a bit and some even got delivered to other houses… I am “knocking on wood” here for you that it arrives sound and safe with you, it is still possible. The longest shipment to England from Germany took 6 weeks (so far the longest) and we are a little bit closer to you than Texas. Also what might be an idea is to go to the local post office and see if it is lying there waiting to be picked up, you are not always notified if a parcel is waiting there for you.
Hi Brigitte, thanks for your thoughts. It wasn’t sent to England, it was sent within the US from California to Texas (my brother’s house), but it never showed. Unfortunately there was no tracking placed on it, so there’s no easy way to find out where it is. My brother has a copy of the insurance receipt but I don’t know if he’s been able to follow it up with his local post office.
I agree with you about parcels to England though, I’m still waiting for one that I sent to myself from America in February. I think someone has taken it and eaten the American baked beans that were in it!
I am so sorry Beth. I HOPE you can recover that beautiful whistle, isn’t it the one you used to record the tune you wrote a few years ago?
I had my Olwell keyless blackwood D flute delivered to my neighbor’s house (in our OLD neighborhood) when it came.
It was just a fluke that we discovered the mix-up!
Anything insured for more than $50 requires the recipient’s signature upon delivery, and you can file a claim after 30 days if it still hasn’t arrived.
I’ve had a few whistles take detours on their journey, but so far all have arrived at their intended destination.
The postal service is usually pretty careful with insured packages, because they know it will cost them if damage or loss occurs.
As Brigitte already mentioned, it could be sitting at the post office waiting for you to pick it up.
I’ve had instances where no attempted delivery notification was left, so it couldn’t hurt to check.
I’ve had a few inexplicably long delays in mailing too. Have faith, have patience. The thing I worry about most is a label falling off, so its always important to have addresses INSIDE the box too!
Thanks for the advice, guys. I’ve just written my brother and sister in law asking them to check at the post office. They are coming to visit me next week and we had hoped that it would arrive in time for them to bring it to me, but now I’ll settle for it arriving at all…!
I’ve usually had excellent luck with the USPS, except for items sent in those round tubes. For some reason they disappeared for awhile. One was a low whistle sold to a fellow C&F’er and one was a fife sold on E-bay. Both were sent Priority Mail but instead of 2 or 3 days they took almost 3 weeks. I was about ready to file a claim on one when I got the message that it had arrived. Wonder if there’s something about packages that roll around or don’t go through the machines easily that makes them get put aside for awhile? Never had a problem with the triangular tube boxes, but those might be overkill for low whistles.
The lady at the post office confirmed that anything insured for over $50 had to be signed for and that most packages show up in the end. That’s why they have you wait 30 days before filing a claim.
Anything domestic rarely takes longer than a week to arrive, but I’ve had some whistles take a few days longer than that.
International shipments are another thing, and I’ve learned that global express mail is the only reliable option.
Global express mail rarely gets delivered in the estimated 3 - 5 days, but I’ve never had anything take much longer than a week to arrive.
Stay away from parcel post for international shipments… they claim delivery in 4 - 10 days, but it usually takes a month or better.
You can file a claim on global express mail in just 3 days, but you’ve got to wait 30 days to file a claim on parcel post… and they know this, so they don’t get in any unnecessary hurry with parcel post.
You can pretty much base actual the delivery time of international shipments on when you can file an insurance claim if it gets lost in transit!
By the way, I just checked the USPS website, and the wait time for filing a claim on insured domestic mail is 21 days instead of 30… maybe they changed it recently, or maybe my memory is just failing!
I’ve used airmail letter post (not parcel post) for international shipments with good results (it’s actually cheaper than international parcel post). However, a consignment of 32 whistles has gone missing in the mail recently and I’m wondering if it might still get delivered. I’ve started the insurance claim process and am producing a replacement batch of whistles, in any case.
oh chud. they’ve got a lot of nerve losing one of those. Maybe it is accidentally sitting in a post office waiting to be collected? In Feb, the postman told me that often that’s where packages are “lost”. And in fact that happened to me once, no notice of delivery failure, just sitting in the post office for a week “unclaimed” till I went in and asked for it..
If you think it got lost forever at some point, perhaps it would be a good idea to list it at the registry of stolen flutes: http://www.flutenet.com/stolen.htm
Good news, my brother has possession of the Copeland! An email in my box today said:
“I have the whistle with me! You were right, they said they left a message (two even) in my mailbox and I never got anything. I checked in with them and they had it in the back.”
He’s on his way to see me in England as we speak, so by this time tomorrow I should have it in hand. Thanks, everyone, for your suggestions and stories - without them I doubt we would have located it in time for this visit.
I just love happy endings !! Have a wonderful visit with your brother. Also , take some time to welcome back and play a bit with an old “friend” !! Enjoy the Copeland !!
they’ve got a lot of nerve losing one of those. Maybe it is accidentally sitting in a post office waiting to be collected? In Feb, the postman told me that often that’s where packages are “lost”. And in fact that happened to me once, no notice of delivery failure, just sitting in the post office for a week “unclaimed” till I went in and asked for it..
Have a wonderful visit with your brother. Also , take some time to welcome back and play a bit with an old “friend” !! Enjoy the Copeland !! 
