Trop, deepest sympathy for a good deal gone horribly wrong. Just a suggestion though, for the next time... (and we all know, for all of us, there WILL be a next time, unless for us personally it is a First time)....
Take. a. camera. with. you. Or your cellphone if it is equipped with one which most are these days. That isn't hard; you know the day the package is coming in, you can put the camera in the car the night before if necessary. And if at all possible, a bucket or other device holding enough good (dechlor at least) water to hold the fish in an emergency. What might have happened:
You are standing there as the PO person walks out with the trash bag. FLASH, a picture is taken of this event. They open the bag and you see the box and the condition it's in: FLASH again. At this point the PO staff is, I guarantee it, going to be petrified, seeing this up on YouTube within the hour and their careers in serious jeopardy. They are going to be way more interested in making you happy than they were 10 seconds earlier.
You on the other hand are prepared for the worst so have no problem holding your temper. You take the box, whatever its condition, to the container of water and open it, examining the contents and photographing repeatedly. It is just, however remotely, possible that despite all other indications the fish might still be alive. You are prepared with something to put them in. The bags might have leaked but not been all the way drained....who knows? Even if they are lamentably dead you still have it all documented.
Refusing the package was, sorry to say, a mistake. It leaves a mystery. It also gives the PO an out to say "well it's just problem between the shipper and the recipient, so sorry, youse guys sort this out, have a nice day." The problem being of course that you do not want to give them any sort of out at all as it was some action of one or more of their personnel that brought about the problem.
On the other hand I live in dread of the day that the USPS declares shipping of live creatures through the mails to be forbidden, along with fireworks, firearms, explosive liquds and the like. Then we are left with the larceny of the private shipping companies and all our happy trading comes to a screeching halt.
Take. a. camera. with. you. Or your cellphone if it is equipped with one which most are these days. That isn't hard; you know the day the package is coming in, you can put the camera in the car the night before if necessary. And if at all possible, a bucket or other device holding enough good (dechlor at least) water to hold the fish in an emergency. What might have happened:
You are standing there as the PO person walks out with the trash bag. FLASH, a picture is taken of this event. They open the bag and you see the box and the condition it's in: FLASH again. At this point the PO staff is, I guarantee it, going to be petrified, seeing this up on YouTube within the hour and their careers in serious jeopardy. They are going to be way more interested in making you happy than they were 10 seconds earlier.
You on the other hand are prepared for the worst so have no problem holding your temper. You take the box, whatever its condition, to the container of water and open it, examining the contents and photographing repeatedly. It is just, however remotely, possible that despite all other indications the fish might still be alive. You are prepared with something to put them in. The bags might have leaked but not been all the way drained....who knows? Even if they are lamentably dead you still have it all documented.
Refusing the package was, sorry to say, a mistake. It leaves a mystery. It also gives the PO an out to say "well it's just problem between the shipper and the recipient, so sorry, youse guys sort this out, have a nice day." The problem being of course that you do not want to give them any sort of out at all as it was some action of one or more of their personnel that brought about the problem.
On the other hand I live in dread of the day that the USPS declares shipping of live creatures through the mails to be forbidden, along with fireworks, firearms, explosive liquds and the like. Then we are left with the larceny of the private shipping companies and all our happy trading comes to a screeching halt.
