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Do Not Ship Any Knives to Africa!

GPB

GPB

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Nov 9, 2000
Messages
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Anybody have a bad experience shipping a knife to Africa?

I just shipped a custom back to the maker and it has "disappeared"!

I sent it USPS because no other carrier would ship to the address. Now I find myself out the knife and $350.00. It has been VERY disappointing to say the least!

The USPS is trying to track the package for me but says it will take awhile. Whoopie:(

A good dealer friend of mine told me "after" I shipped the knife as we were talking casually, "don't ship expensive cutlery to Africa, you'll lose it in customs". I was concerned and now find those concerns were well founded!

It is TERRIBLE!
 
Wow, Frank, you've sure had a run of bad luck lately. FWIW, I've shipped several knives, including some customs, to South Africa and had no really bad incidents. One shipment was misdelivered to someone with the same name at a different address but the intended recipient was able to get it straightened out. Hopefully, your problem will be also be easily resolved.

I do, however, complete all Customs forms with the description "hand tool...", not "knife". I feel it's not a misrepresentation, but rather a more generic description that is less likely to attract pilferage. Good luck!
 
Frank,
You have had a run a bad luck lately. I would take a break from your mail orders for a while for your own piece of mind. I have done this before and the break was actually a good thing, it made me enjoy what I had more. Sometimes I get so caught up with the orders, the wait, the delivery......it gets old.

Sorry my friend, I hope it magically shows up.
 
george, there is a little more to the story than "no insurance" taken with the shipment.

My secretary shipped it for me and I had asked her to ship UPS or Fed Ex. Both said they did not deliver to that area. Therefore, she tried USPS who said the address we were provided was not valid, even though it had a province, country, and postal code.

So she contacted the maker and he provided a new address. In her haste to ship it she went straight to the post office and simply shipped it.

It was a mistake and insurance was intended to be purchased. In fact, she originally intended to ship it registered or certified, but with all the problems and "no" experience shipping to Africa she didn't realize it could have been shipped that way.

It was one of those miscommunications and blunders that happen sometimes. A series of events leading to frustration, and mistakes. She shipped it regular air postal and it still hasn't arrived after a month. Nobody's fault, just the way things go sometimes.

I think I have probably lost the knife. She feels badly and I told her to forget it, it happens and we will know better how to handle it the next time we ship one there.
 
It is good you have come to terms with this incident. We do not ship international much at all because of the difficulty in determining the status of a missing order. Domestic shipments are generally easy to track and closure on a missing order is usually rapid and courteous. A mistake is a cruel teacher, but the lesson is well learned and not easily forgotten. Still, I too hope this finds saga comes to a positive end. Regards, Mike
 
I recently had a parcel take 28 days to travel from Atlanta to Toronto. No reason given, no customs stickers to account for the delay. Postal systems are black holes from which many things never emerge.

I make it a policy to insure everything so I get my money back eventually.
 
Folk's if you had seen the report on the new's I seen the other night I guarentee you would never ship without More insurence than double the purchase price ,I seen Postal workers on hidden camera throwing packages away and digging them out of the Trash after there shift was over 1 account a woman would replace the address with her address and have them deliver them to her house after Postal dept. lost several computors they finaly caught her . These cameras documented over 60 violations in Dallas Texas alone in the last 3 months according to the Postal inspectors :p
 
I lost a knife going to S.A. once... It STILL pisses me off to think of some Customs puke sporting that blade around!!! I could not get it insured from the post office at the time for more than $100... My customer there now waits till he is in country to recieve his knives... I wont send anything there again, unless I can get it insured for 100% of the price...

Take Care
Trace Rinaldi
www.thrblades.com
 
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