I took a letter to the post office recently, and to make sure it got to its destination, I asked to send it by recorded delivery. To my surprise, the person behind the counter said, "You do realise, don't you, that recorded delivery isn't a guarantee of anything?" I told him that, surely, it would guarantee that it would be delivered, and he said it wouldn't: for a guarantee of delivery, I would have to use another type of post that would cost me over five pounds. I asked him just how a letter with the complete address on the envelope, including the postcode, and with the sender's address on the back, could possibly go astray, and he just shrugged and said, "This is just something we have to tell customers". So how can paying a fiver ensure a letter will get to its destination when recorded delivery can't? For the more expensive service, do they use a special breed of non-careless postman? Frankly, I felt I was being threatened - I think I was meant to hear this statement as, "Better pay us the extra, old son - you never know when things might 'go astray' - know what I mean?"