Anyway, fixing the damage to the wings took only an hour or so of work, so no big deal. I was more concerned about the fact that the 2nd parcel had not arrived, and the tracking still showed a "no such package" error.

In retrospect it would have been better if they lost a package altogether... instead, it transpired that the tracking # was incorrect (despite my request for it to be verified having yielded a "yes, that's correct" response) and the parcel was about to be received.

The next week, USPS left a "parcel too big to be delivered - pick up in person required" note on my door, so I rushed off to pick up the goodies. At the counter, the lady says "We need to verify that you are who you say you are, so sign here and show me your driver's licenese so that I can check the signature. I duly did so, and then waited for the parcel. 10 minutes later a guy comes out and throws this totally mangled cardboard box on the floor and says "it's all yours". My response of "I can't accept that - it's destroyed" was met with indifference ; when I asked for the supervisor, she said "Well, you can't leave it here - you already signed for it, so take it home. Just call this tel # and all will be fine". I tried to get something in writing from them admitting the damage, but they refused, and just brushed me off with "We deal with claims like this all the time - it won't be a problem". The best I could do was take some pics of the broken box next to the post-office signs to try to show that the damage existed already at that point.

The pics below show SOME of the damage: