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$10K Package Of Super Nintendo Games Finally Found By Post Office (eurogamer.net)

A project to preserve (and validate) every Super Nintendo game ROM had been derailed when the post office lost a package containing 100 games from the PAL region. But now Byuu, the creator of the Higan SNES emulator, reports that the package has been found. An anonymous reader writes: Thursday Byuu finally posted photos of the unboxing for the package that was shipped to him January 5th. "I'd like to offer my sincerest apologies to the USPS for assuming the worst in that these games were stolen. I should not have been so hasty to assume malicious intent." At the same time, Byuu writes that "My package was sitting in Atlanta, GA for well over a month with my address clearly visible right on the box. Had this case not been escalated to the media, it likely would have gone up for auction in a bin with other electronics sometime in March."

Byuu is now refunding donations he'd received to replace the missing games, and says he can now also resume work on the SNES Preservation Project. And going forward, according to Eurogamer, "Byuu has said he will be more cautious with shipping games in the future -- only using smaller shipments, or buying individual games to scan and archive then selling them on to get some money back."

16 of 155 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Time for USPS to sue him for defamation by Notabadguy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    He needs to go to jail for a long time.

    Defamation for what? They *did* have his package. For a month. With no record of its location....leading to the not unreasonable assumption that it had been stolen - which is not as rare as we'd like to wish it would be.

    If you were to take to google, you'd find that carriers routinely open, inspect, and reseal packages - often at the request of law enforcement, and without a warrant being required. This is especially prevalent in Colorado and Washington, where LE assumes everyone is trying to ship marijuana out of state.

    Returning to the same google-fu, missing packages aren't a rarity - which is what insurance is for. He did have insurance on the package, but not nearly enough.

  2. Re:Time for USPS to sue him for defamation by amxcoder · · Score: 2

    USPS DID loose the package! How should they sue? He received a ripped/torn shipping label and a "we don't know where it is" from the USPS already. The summary states right there that the box was sitting in a Atlanta for over a month with USPS not attempting delivery or notification of the recipient who's address is on the box. If an address is visible and had USPS auctioned it off anyway, I would actually consider that theft by USPS as well. Even if the postage label was separated from the box, if the box still has a destination name/address on it, then the USPS should make a good faith effort to contact that person before auctioning it off. At the very least, let the person know, 'we have a box with your name on it, but no postage label, if you want it come in and pay the postage for it'.

  3. USPS Investigation? by mirability · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They lost his package and didn't care. They would have sold it and profited from it if it hadn't gotten media attention. The rest of us just lose our packages. I hope this will trigger a larger investigation of how the USPS handles these things.

    1. Re:USPS Investigation? by Xenographic · · Score: 5, Informative

      Well, the package got its address label ripped off, so there wasn't that much they could do. Yes, there was an old address label on the other boxes, but boxes get reused enough that they can't necessarily assume that's the sender or the recipient.

    2. Re:USPS Investigation? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative
    3. Re:USPS Investigation? by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 4, Informative

      I recently had USPS packages lost. You first have to sign up on their website, which is irritating enough. After a lengthy claims-reporting procedure, it was LITERALLY impossible for me to file a claim on their website, as the mechanism was completely broken, preventing me from submitting. When I called the tech support number listed on their web site to report this, I got an advertisement/marketing survey asking me my age (and if you're not in the correct age range, they just hang up on you). Beautiful. Then I called a general help number, selected the "claims / lost package" section, and still wasn't able to talk to a human being (apparently, you could only look up an existing claim by ID). All other options resulted in the same thing. No way to talk to a person that I could discover. I had already wasted several hours by this time, and the package wasn't valuable enough to pursue things further, so I just wrote it off as a bad experience.

      NEVER, EVER send anything you deem valuable or important via USPS unless you have no alternative, or are willing to write it off if it goes missing. Most of the time it gets their fine, but if not, you're probably screwed, and they apparently don't give a crap about fixing mistakes like these.

      Lost packages happen - I'm not asking for perfection. But I've dealt with other carriers and have gotten rare mistakes quickly resolved.

      --
      Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
  4. Re:Time for USPS to sue him for defamation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    He publicly shamed a company. This is treason in the united corporations of america state, especially if that company has invested in campaigns. The more places its active in, the more congress people it can whisper its wishes into the ear. Also, tolerating this horrible insult is a slippery slope. Today its insulting the post office, tomorrow he could start coming up with ideas that some oil company drills on holy land of some made up native american bullshit. Just right that Trump will get him drowned in a steel cage. That's what he deserves! Drowned in debt and sent to Foxconn to work for AAPL.

  5. he should learn how to pack his stuff by known_coward_69 · · Score: 3, Informative

    you can clearly see in the photos it's not packed well. something like that you don't use paper to brace the outsides of the box. he should have bought some packing peanuts or those plastic air things that amazon and every other professional shipper uses to brace their packages

    if he would have sued he would have been laughed out of court with those photos

  6. Re:Time for USPS to sue him for defamation by gweilo8888 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    And you don't seem to understand sarcasm and hyperbole.

  7. High value items, use registered mail by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    for the USPS, always use registered mail if sending something valuable. Registered mail is kept in secured, locked containers from receipt until delivery and the USPS is required to maintain full chain of custody records (every time the container with your piece in it is handed to a new person, they must sign that they received it). If lost, registered mail is traceable down to the person who lost it. If a registered mail piece is lost, the discipline in the USPS is quite strict because you know exactly who messed up.

  8. And you should learn to read before replying. by gweilo8888 · · Score: 5, Informative

    I guess you missed where he clearly stated that it was the post office (specifically, Deutsche Post) which was responsible for the manner in which the packages were taped together, not the sendor *or* the recipient.

    FTFA: "When the donor went to send me the next batch of 100 games, he reused my boxes and took them to Deutsche Post for assistance in packaging them up. They ended up taping my two boxes together, and then wrapping the box in thick brown wrapping paper. This was not ideal, but please understand that this was done at the behest of Deutsche Post. The sender was not aware of the possibility that USPS' sorting machines could rip the label off. The postal workers, who ship mail for a living, really should have advised him better."

  9. USPS Escalation Works by sibsybcys · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I have had several high-value packages, which I paid extra shipping for in order to get better tracking and recoup some of the most money if lost.

    USPS does have a fairly good track record of finding packages when you continue to escalate. I've always done it in steps, up to and including contacting the highest levels available.

    One package that was sent Priority Overnight to me did not arrive for 10 weeks. After several calls and filling out their online tracking / trace / lost package form, I finally made a phone call.

    48 hours later I received a call that my package, as in this case, had just been sitting in a distribution center, unharmed with both the return address and my address on the box. Apology included.

    It really can be worth it to continue to escalate until they either find the package or if you have insurance, recoup your losses.

    Just my 2 cents. I've had this happen a few times and every time I followed the escalation process... eventually the item was found and delivered promptly. promptly.

    I'm glad he received his games. Also, package your items carefully. I print out the return address and destination address. I jam it full of bubble-wrap. Then I use tape to completely water-proof that paper.

    It seems all worked out in this case. It was kind of him to apologize.

    I don't think the USPS is "out to get" anyone. They're also, to my knowledge, the only delivery service that requires a warrant to inspect a package sent within the US. My understanding is that other carrier, such as FedEx and UPS have standing agreements to allow LEO's to inspect without warrant.

    73,
    -sibsybcys

    --

    73! -KB3MGR
  10. Re:wow that price keeps climbing by ScentCone · · Score: 2

    loose it for another couple weeks it will be worth 20!

    How much looser could it get?

    --
    Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
  11. Re:Time for USPS to sue him for defamation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    I don't understand sarcasm and hyperbole?! You should go in jail for that!

  12. Re:Never EVER us the USPS by serviscope_minor · · Score: 2

    They still have the government employee mentality of not giving a shit

    Yeah because random employees in large corporations give so many shits about you personally. They really don't, you know, I mean really not at all.

    When conducting business, one of these two carriers is always the way to go because they deliver consistently and on time.

    aaaahahahaha.

    The USPS was a great idea 240 years ago and they served their purpose for a long time, but it is high time that we fully privatize them and let them go bankrupt if they can't perform a competent service.

    As a private company, they'd likely do considerably better since they wouldn't have to obey inane regulations from politicians who are intent on hamstringing it as much as they can by law to "prove" that the government can't do a good job.

    Make no mistake, the USPS is phenomenally efficient and moves astonishingly vast quantities of mail for a really, really low cost.

    --
    SJW n. One who posts facts.
  13. My experience with the USPS by kamapuaa · · Score: 2

    A decade or two ago I was a hard core EBay re-seller, as a sort of side hobby I had Chinese movies (generally VCDs!) shipped in-mass and re-sold them in the normal mail, I used USPS and often the cheaper media mail rate. I sent hundreds (thousands?) of packages and not once, ever, did I have a problem with packages being sent in the post office getting lost or damaged. A couple times it took a week or two longer than it should.

    --
    Slashdot: providing anti-social weirdos a soapbox, since 1997.