Regular full-sugar jams and jellies, essentially no risk. The benefit of water bath processing and a good vacuum seal is extended shelf life. But nothing much is going to happen to a preserve that isn't sealed, with the possible exception of mold. And mold is detectable through sight and smell. Any moldy preserve should definitely be discarded. Barring that, I'd just refrigerate the jars and consume without worry. Carol

Thank you for all the opinions and advice, I had no idea this topic would generate so much conversation. As I said earlier, I did send the seller a message requesting she research other shipping options. I received the following three messages. "I actually talked to my father in law who sells alot of stuff on ebay, He told me that the ups store is quite expensive, I thought they were all competitive, Let me go to a couple of extra places tomorrow and try to find a better price. Thanks for working with me, when I said 45 for shipping that is what my best guess was, I will check all the other places and see which is cheeper. I will let you know what I find tomorrow. Thanks" "I just wanted to clarify one more thing, I didnt buy the box for 34 or 35 dollars from the ups store thats just what they told me it would cost, There was a post office near buy that also sold boxes, I went there first but they closed down. I had never been to the ups store before. I did however get a box for free from my father in law so that will help, So dont send the 25 dollars you said you would, I might still be able to get to you for the 45 I said in the post. If it ends up being alittle more like 65 or close to that I can cover that, I just cant pay 135 to ship it. THanks again for being patient with me, I really do try to make everyone happy, And I will try to get this shipped out to you tomorrow. Thanks" "Hi, I just wanted to let you know, I went to the main ups office today and sent off your picture, The total cost including insurance was 45.41, I couldnt believe the differance from the ups store I went to, I was told the ups stores are induvidualy owned and can charge what they want. I will never use a ups store again. Sorry for all of the inconvienenc, Hope you love the painting." Hopefully the package will arrive in good shape and I will not have had to spend anymore money than I had originally planned. Thanks again!

"It's the seller's responsibility to get the merchandise to you - if they want to start a dispute with the delivery service they chose to use, that's fine, but it's nothing to do with you. (sigh) Here we go again. Wrong. No, it's not the seller's responsibility to get the merchandise to you. There's a chain and apparently one of the links broke. It's the seller's responsibility to get the merchandise to the shipper chosen, which apparently they did. Then it's the shipping company's job to get it to the address specified, which they too seemed to have done by what's been said. There's no evidence of a dispute with the delivery service either since they show it delivered. That puts both of them essentially in the clear and removes them from the issue. This is a real can of worms. There's multiple problems here. You're kind of caught in the middle and it stinks. This reminds me of rebate checks that aren't received. The end person loses and it's not their fault. I don't see a claim against the CC company either. Disputing it with the CC company might not be allowed if the seller and/or shipper can show delivery proof. From your description, the skincare company is not liable. The post office is not liable. And you're not liable, though you're likely to get the shaft in the end. •Problem 1: You had it shipped to your work address. This is strange since most places I've dealt with don't like to ship to an address different than the billing address of the CC, at least on the first order. I kind of understand the theory that it'd come into work, then they'd get it to you and you take it home. I used to do that with one employer but don't anymore. •Problem 2: USPS. Need I say more? I've had a lot of lost and misdirected mail together with other problems. I don't trust them. Period. •Problem 3: It sounds like they have a tracking number and have "proof" that it was delivered. At that rate, the company (you bought from) and the shipper (USPS) are in the clear. Their job was to ship it, they did. Post office was to deliver which they apparently did. As I understand it's a termination offense (fraud) to scan in something as delivered before it leaves the postal employee's hands. It's also doubtful that they'd do it, since the scanner will scan in the time it is scanned as delivered. It's an easy matter to ask How did you deliver to 28 different places, miles apart, all at the same time? I see them all the time scanning then put it in the mailbox, or hand it to someone, or leave it in the drop box at a company. Also, many companies have scan points that the carrier must scan when they deliver something as a double check that they did, in fact, go into the place and deliver it. (Which is good.) •Problem 4: It's a very common scam to claim "I didn't receive this" to get companies to give people free stuff. This is why the post office started carrying scanners. To get back some parcel post deliveries from other carriers that had proof of delivery. Asking them to give you something for free when they can show they delivered it to the address you specified is not likely to happen. Doesn't hurt to ask, but I wouldn't hold my breath expecting it. •Problem 5: I don't agree that it's simply a matter of challenging the charge. It's not always that easy. CC companies will not referee disputes. There's a myth that you can simply challenge the charge and put the burden on the company to prove they did deliver it. Not so. The CC company needs reasonable evidence of non-delivery and once they see a proof of delivery I can't see them withholding payment. If they withhold a legitimate charge, they have to pay the vendor a penalty and the CC companies DO NOT like to do that! It's not a lot of money but they still don't like doing it. The claim of "I didn't receive it" is easily countered here by "proof of delivery" so the CC company cannot legitimately withhold payment without some other reason. Just because your workplace didn't deliver it to you doesn't make the sender, shipper or CC company liable. It wouldn't hurt to call them and see but I'm skeptical they'll let that claim fly and CC companies seldom give you a refund for goodwill purposes. •Problem 6: The way it appears from what you've said, your workplace is the responsible party. Whether they'll take responsibility for it or not remains to be seen and I doubt they will. They received it but haven't delivered it to you. I'm not sure what their obligation is to you either especially if it's an item sent to them unordered by them. MN has a law that if I receive something that I didn't order, I can do with it what I please without obligation to the company. This went in effect to counter companies that would ship items then bill you and harangue you until you gave in and paid for it. Your "claim" if any, seems to be against the workplace. And therein lies yet another problem. Your decision to have it delivered there puts the workplace in a bad position. If it's your company, it's a moot point. If you're an employee then you caused them problems by making them the "middle person" in something. Whether they could even be held liable, and whether you'd want to dispute it with an employer if you're not the owner and risk the potential ramifications arising therefrom, I won't speculate. So there's questions. Could it have been stolen? Possibly. Could it be on a shelf somewhere? Possibly. Could it be someone thought it valuable and locked it up? Doubtful, but could be. I think this should be one of your first steps. Search that place and track where it could be from the point where the post office drops off the stuff to your spot. Ask everyone if they saw a box matching the description. I'd even ask if they saw anyone carry a box matching that description out of the building. Seems pretty clear it came into the building so it's either misplaced or stolen. I don't see any other reasonable options besides possibly, spontaneous combustion. You could look for ashes I guess. What kind of checks & double checks does the workplace have for handling the receipt and distribution of packages and mail? Scanned in? Logged in anywhere? Anyone responsible for receiving? Where I used to work, when I would have things delivered, everything came in to a central location in the warehouse. They logged everything and carried a clipboard and you would sign for it when they gave it to you. That way if you said "I didn't receive a package/letter or whatever", they checked their delivery log book from when UPS, trucker or whatever company left (often they had their own books) then they'd see if it came in. If it came in, they'd check the clipboard to see if it was on there for delivery to the department or person. Then they could see who signed for it in the end. If you don't have some sort of security in the mail/package handling, it's probably going to be an expensive lesson learned to never go that route again unless you specify deliver to addressee only and require signature with ID. For $200 worth of items, I'd definitely try everything I could, but this doesn't look good. Your recourse is probably only against your workplace unless someone wants to do something for a goodwill purpose. Here's where I'd start: I'd try to ascertain the size and description of the package. Any identifying marks? Logos on the box that would stand out? Next step, do you know the postal carrier that delivers there? If not, find out who it is and who delivered on the day it was delivered. When you find out or if you already know them, ask him/her if they remember seeing the package in question and to whom they gave it. They might remember. Then ask the person given the package what they did with it. As I said before ask others around them if they saw it or saw it leave the building. I might even go so far as to ask whoever handles the trash if they saw a box that matched that description. You might luck out and someone could "find" it. Or you might find out someone is a thief. You could also go above the person if you want to make a big deal out of it. Maybe they can help find out if someone stole it, misplaced it or what happened. Don't discount the possibility of it sitting on a cart, shelf or having been put in a cabinet somewhere either. Could be an honest mistake or could be a dishonest intention. Good luck. I think you're gonna need it.

I would expect it to be delivered tomorrow. At Christmas time the USPS girl and I had a big laugh. The package was not delivered the previous day because there were no numbers on my house. None of the houses on my street have numbers on them because our numbers are on the mailbox which is normal in this area. In the case of my house you can not see more than the two corners of my house from the street.