Okay, you've all made some good points about the Macbook with some semi-legal arguments about who's responsible -
Foray:
"Your wife decided to assume the risk of mailing. It was her property. You say your wife and sister "agreed together," but the fact is, the decision was your wife's. Your wife, not your sister, made a poor decision to assume the risk of mailing."
Okay, the wife assumed the risk of mailing, but, equally, when the sister agreed to do them a favour, she assumed a certain level of responsibility. Just because you are doing someone a favour doesn't then automatically entitle you to do a half-assed job.
I'll give you an analogy : say you ask someone to hold a ladder for you. They start scratching their ass and the ladder slips and you break your back. Maybe you can't sue the 'friend' holding the ladder but he's not going to be in your best books is he ?
Or you ask someone to hold your camcorder for a moment while you take out your glass eye and he drops the camcorder in the river ? Hey, he was doing you a favour wasn't he ? Why is he to blame now your camcorder sleeps with the fishes ?
If you don't want to do someone a favour, don't take the responsibility, just say no. It doesn't take a genius to pack a parcel properly and if she doesn't cough up some money, she should at least admit that she's a total dork.
