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Back in the 90's when Alice & I were selling off, giving away, our inventories at fire sale prices prior to retirement we were contacted by several collectors from the UK's RGVAC equivalent requesting we ship overseas. After a few months we got a forwarded email from many of the members at that time asking us to please consider shipping overseas as it was hard to get any supplier to ship to them, so we talked it over and decided to do so as long as it was not at our risk.... buyer assumes all risks as laid out in the ordering FAQ. It seems today everyone ships overseas, so it shouldn't be a problem for anyone needing parts. Fast foward to today with August 2010 upon us, in our 15th year of helping hobbyist smoothly & we've hit our first dissatisfied buyer. At this point his package is only late in arriving, but he raises so many points to his dissatisfaction that I thought I should make replies here, so as to prevent any other hobbyist from erring in ordering from us. Most of the things are way beyond our control, anyway, but I'll relay the USPS views & rules as told to me over their 800 number by a supervisor within the past hour. The Order!
1 Midway OEM PS (90400) Cap Kit - $15.00 Rates & Methods Available
 Options Available
This doesn't help the buyer at all... it just proves we sent it & we can already do that with the receipt.
This is the only way you can insure a package of this type & we have never offered it, for obvious reasons, until this buyer requested it on a subsequent order. It will not be offered again... first & last time! When they said tight security they meant just that! Our package had to be opened at the USPS window, transferred to a new box of the same type in plain view, hand labeled & more forms filled out by our postal gal who said she'd never do it again because of the jeering by other waiting customers. They supplied her with a special brown tape to seal all edges & then it was on it's way... costing us another half hour wage for the postal gal who won't do it again, anyway. Although this sounds good on the surface, the buyer is paying $11.50 to insure a $15 item & the terms of this... far to long to list here... is that the package must be over 60 days past due before a claim for the $15 can be submitted by the addressee along with one or two other filled out forms for investigation. I assume the only way a person overseas could get the forms would be online at the USPS site & they'd have to be downloaded, if available, because the maximum time for the claim is 180 days... a short window, for sure. The supervisor told me that there is no tracking available for the registered mail & that tracking was only available for the Express Mail at $33.50. A bit extreme for what you can actually track & at more than double the cost of the item! I asked about insuring packages another way & you can buy insurance on an any Priority shipping, but it seems that there are just as many hoops to jump through when trying to submit an out of country claim & the wait can be even longer! Keeping in mind that there have been no lost packages in 15 years, in or out of country, if it's still worth it to you we'll buy insurance on your behalf, such as it is, for Priority packages. Another rule to this is stated insurance or registered value must be listed on your customs declaration exactly as on those forms, as well. Any deviation can render the insurance null & void. Buyer's Concerns Buyer: why is it not your responsiblitly?you sold the item. Reply: First-Class Mail® International Uninsurable At Your Risk From ordering FAQ: Yes... I will ship uninsured on a per order basis at your risk. Be advised that you are risking the amount of the total order in case of loss or damage. This is applicable to cross shipped orders, as well. It is one thing to say ship it uninsured and I will be responsible if anything happens, and quite another if you receive a $150 package that was thrown under a moving mail van's tire to stop it from rolling down the hill. Remember, no one wants to pay for a dead horse except the mucilage manufacturer :( Buyer: its your responsibilty to ensure the package is recieved by the buyer,or dont you give a flying one?you send a package to bradford uk,you address it to some other customer in france by accident and then you dont give a s**t?you got no proof you sent it,you got no proof you even sent it to me and now you are trying to say its not your responsibilty? Reply: If we screw up for the first time & send your package to some guy in France, our receipt would show that & we would certainly dig into our pockets to make it right, even though the item was sold at a loss to begin with, because it would have been our fault & not independent mail handlers! We have all your records here & here's a simple copy of the receipt that shows your item was sent when we said... your named files protected the receipt surely does not say France.
Buyer: you keep on hoping,too right its your responsibilty to ensure the item you sold is with the customer,if theres a screw up with the postal service you go and you check with usps at your end first before you go blaming the postal service here in the uk and asking me to check.the buck starts with you so you get off your ass and you go check and then when you coonfirm you have i will wait.i already told you,your package could be in 10 parts in a bin at your local usps sorting office,your package is not insured or tracked so its an expendable item which means it can be thrown and noone will be any wiser bar the person it was supposed to go to. Reply: There is nothing to check with the USPS here. I could wheel my chair right up to the window, show them the receipt & they would ask if the addressee had purchased the $33.50 Express mail with tracking & I'd have to say that you didn't... don't blame you, either... I wouldn't! You confirmed shipping of the package via First-Class Mail® International Uninsurable, which at $10.xx is a bargain & has been successful by all those before you & I have no doubt that it will be successful for you, as well, albeit a little late. I don't blame your mail service, although many of your fellow countrymen do, I only suggest you check with your local PO & customs as 15 years has taught me that whenever a package is late it can usually be found on a shelf at the local PO or at customs. I can only reiterate that no packages have ever been lost and of those delayed, not a single one was found at one of my sending POs. Buyer: at least act like a decent seller,after all i hear nothing but good things about you but,i wanted the package info and you sent me email saying that was for your benefit,i dont pay $15 more for recorded delivery for your benefit mate,you should be charging this or offering it as an option.up to now i have not recieved the package after today its 17 days,thats to ensure it gets peoples attention,its not discardable now and if the same happens again you will see,would not suprise me at all if the same repeats itself and its 17 days for the next parcel and its not here. Reply: Alice & I have given up our retirement plans to stick around here helping hobbyists get the parts they need at cost for the most part, using our many years of contacts while in the coin-op business for 40 years & offering free to all advice & seeking only to break even at the end of each year. In my case, that is giving up 140 hours average per week that I could be spending on the beaches of Aruba or trying to actually make a fortune at this late stage in my life. For you, I call that a decent seller... for me...well... it keeps the rust off & saves me WD-40. Alice, although not able to keep to my rigid pace, has sacrificed far more than her time. Okay... you did not spend $15 for a registered package on the late one. I told you that the $1.15 signature was only something for my benifit as outlined by the USPS above. You asked for a copy of the registerd mail for the 2nd order & I supplied it even though they say it will do you no good at all as none of that info is communicated to your postal system... it cannot be tracked even by a bloodhound! Let's see... I guess you think that I have ripped you off somehow... on two packages now! I suppose you could ask the other 8,254 people who have ordered from us if they ever felt they were ripped off? 17 days! 17 days! What a sliver of time in the overall scheme of life... hopefully, one would have more patience than that. Buyer: the parcel might arrive today but,you can be sure if it does i will email you with the good news. Reply: I will be as delighted as you when your package finally arrives. Buyer: you aint the postal service,its not your job to deliver a parcel,as a seller its your job to ensure the item is dispatched and that the person its dispatched to gets it. Reply: Let's see... I should not only give you a helping hand, but I should insure that you get your cross shipped package in an exact amount of days even though you chose to have it shipped in an inexpensive way that is exact in time for a majority of buyers.... and let's not forget... of which not a single one has been lost! Buyer: when you sent that parcel was it great britain and n ireland i see stamped on it?it looks it to me.last time this happened the package went to ireland and it took a month to get to me.i live in england and i am sure i gave you my address for the midway kit and told you to put england on it,i just cant confirm it as i dont have the sent emails.as i had hassle with a coin door and didnt want to go through it again,if i didnt then my bad. Reply: I can write England all over the package, but I have no say in what the USPS does with the channeling.
Country Conditions for Mailing — Great Britain and Northern Ireland You never gave me your address at any point throughout your emails. Your address was gleaned from auctionchex.com. Buyer: i told you about the midway coin door?i can even tell you the sellers name and you can ask them yourself what happened.i had to buy a replacement from xxxxxx and it came after a week after i had the xxxxxx door,i still payed the guy as well as i bought it off him on ebay but,he refunded me and i aint one to take advantage even though he refunded me and said if it turned up just keep it as i know he realised it was not my fault and he sounded gutted from his email. Reply: Sounds like your seller was a for profit business on eBay & quite often the price the item sells for is double or more the investment in it, so giving you a second one at no charge is very easy since you paid the full amount in the first place the seller giving you another item is breaking even... where we start to begin with! Personally, when things have happened to me like the above, it has turned out to be a stall for time to find the item that was sold to me, but was not on hand & had to be found & shipped to the seller before it could ship to me. It explained away pic differences for the seller, as well as, buying the time. It's when they oversell & cannot cover themselves that you actually end up the loser! So to any future overseas buyers who happen to have missed our shipping policies I hope this better explains them & if you are not one willing to gamble, or are just impaient, please order elsewhere... we'll be glad to help you through a third party site if that's what it takes.
Follow-up:
it arrived today after 19 days.so put me down for the record. |