For Carlsbad2: I come from serving nearly 41 years in a culture, the US Army, in which when you say you will do something, you do it. Plain and simple. I was not upset when the package did not get here in the advertised one to three days; I was not even upset when over a week had passed and still no package.
I became concerned when the USPS, after acknowledging it had received the package, said it did NOT have the package. My concern was further heightened when I read the article on the serious problem with employee theft in the USPS system. I also had had a previous experience when a sensitive package disappeared from the system, the vendor saying they had turned it over to the USPS and the USPS denying they had received it. Several calls to the USPS resulted in my being told to have the vendor send another package; due to the sensitive nature of the contents, in my final call to the USPS--after about ten days-- I stated that I wanted to initiate a Postal Inspection Service investigation. The reactions was "Oh, you don't want to do that, do you?" I stated that I did want to and that I surely would if the package did not show up in 48 hours. The package showed up the next day.
One thing of which I was not aware was the frequency of problems with the USPS shipping packages, even tracked and insured packages. That would explain to me the vendor's "wait and see" attitude--they've had plenty of experience with these problems, while I had only a single incident upon which to base my judgment.
As I stated previously, from now on it will be either UPS or FEDEX.
Finally and again, thanks to all for your comments and recommendations.