Those are standard in Japan in 2017 as well.
My question is why did @Carla_Sinclair do this headline like UPS was the bad one?
It does seem the people who agreed to having the money as a check instead of a wire transfer have more trouble operating in the real world than even I do, as such I fear the inheritance will not be enough to keep them from a bad end.
2 Likes
It is not, and I didn’t mean to imply it was the same service. I just like the story and will share it given minimal excuse.
3 Likes
Not to be that guy, but people wonder why the public might be so enthusiastic about sticking it to banks by adopting cryptocurrencies. Yeah, I guess I’m that guy. #SorryNotSorry
Because some people in the public are dumb as shit and think changing from a fiat currency backed by the federal government to a fiat currency backed by Cookie Clicker software is a good idea. Those same people are the ones that conflate banks with currency as well.
2 Likes
It’s one them tempura’s in peepot. I would how the heritors aren’t lining-up a major investment in bitcoin, there could be legal ramifications for their ‘loss’.
Not sure what anyone thinks UPS should do. They were hired to ship something. That transaction has clearly laid out rules for what happens if something is lost. The fact it was a check for a large sum of money was not directly relevant and, I will wager, UPS has specific policies about such things and their liability.
One question I’ve not seen Did they declare the monetary instrument to UPS? If I am not mistaken, UPS prohibits shipping several forms of monetary instruments. They permit checks so I suppose it depends on the actual definition of a bank draft.
No idea if you can insure a monetary instrument but if so, well, they had their choice and made it
There are tried and true and not exactly secret methods for transferring large sums of money securely but the person was simply cheap or not overly bright.
The bank I use would pretty much do it right in front of you and then provide printed confirmation of the transaction in about the time it takes to have a fancy cup of overpriced coffee whomped up.
Canada Post has registered mail and if it works like the US version, stuff is kept under lock and key except when being handled and it is safe enough to send “Secret” level classified documents in the US.
Could have hired a bonded courier etc since the person didn’t feel like driving and, as has been pointed out, a wire transfer would have obviated all problems.
Tens of billions of dollars change hands daily, it’s not like this was the first time anyone has ever handled a large amount of money so to me, the onus was on the people who decided to manually ship a piece of paper.
As for the bank, what are their published policies on such situations? If requiring collateral before replacing something like this is how it is done, well, that’s how it is done and again the person who asked for the draft should have taken time to understand what they were doing.
Few people will willingly just hand over a second check for that kind of money without some sort of assurance they aren’t the ones being gamed.
This boils down to the usual "I had no idea what I was doing but everyone else should rush to make things right for me and take on the burden of this huge expense before I start crying…
2 Likes
I work for UPS now and the document envelopes probably used for this are literally printed with the warning that they’re not to be used for currencies or equivalent.
As some other people have mentioned, UPS is hardly the bad guy here (bar losing a package, but that’s a risk with ANY delivery company, and IMHO UPS is one of the better ones at least here in the UK). This story is 99.9% a case of a bank being a colossal arsehole.
4 Likes
That was the title when it was posted on Reddit, and that’s good enough for BoingBoing. #DisappointedInBoingBoing
We have had wire transfers for a least a decade or two. There is no reason to send a cheque by UPS in Canada.
1 Like
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
