I love AiV packaging! I mentioned in my order that the order was for my wife's birthday. They personalized the contents! They're the greatest!
As for the USPS, they drive me absolutely insane. In order to keep my wife's stuff separate from mine, so that she could experience the joy of opening a AiV package for herself, I placed my order a few seconds before hers on the AiV site, separately from mine.
1. Ordered on the exact same day, minutes apart, 4 digits apart in the order numbers.
2. Shipped at the exact same time, from the exact same place.
3. Both packages were the exact same size, and almost exactly the same weight, with 2 bottles in each.
My wife's package shows up today.
The other package doesn't even show as being accepted by the USPS... sitting at "Electronic Shipping Info Received" still, and I KNOW that AiV shipped it! Grrrr...
It's one thing if both packages arrived, one just missing all scans. It's another thing that one arrives and the other, well, the USPS isn't even tracking it. I just don't understand how the USPS can operate like it does. How the heck can they be handed 2 packages, deliver one, and send one off to the Island of Lost Packages?
Well, I'm glad that my wife's showed up, but I hate being held hostage by the USPS. I'd gladly pay extra to have my stuff shipped any other way. It's totally worth it.
I've gotten packages where the package was almost totally destroyed, with broken pieces of glass coming out of the seams, with the USPS "WE CARE" sheet taped to it, explaining that sometimes stuff just happens, and things get destroyed, only, I couldn't read the "WE CARE" sheet, because it was almost totally destroyed as well. The only reason that I knew that it was the dreaded "WE CARE" sheet was because I've gotten a few of them.
My carrier is the sweetest, hardest working woman I know. Seriously. She will always go the extra mile. My local post office is always friendly and ready to help with anything. I know that If my local post office gets the package, I'm certain to get it. Upstream from them, it's dark, murky, shark-filled waters, filled with ravenous USPS hammerheads.
So off-track I am from where I started, which is to say that NOBODY puts more love into their packages than AiV...