The Horror Story of the Postal System!

[DSJ™]

Before I begin, please read the Please note below.

Please note:
Beth was not in fault over this as this happen after it was mailed. This was done during the shipping process by the Postal System. I just want to make that clear as not to damage her reputation on the forums. Beth is a great person to deal with & I will continue to have more future transactions with her.  

On April 19, 2004, I received a parcel from the Canada Post delivery dude. The parcel was inside a clear plastic bag. Well guess what? The parcel was damaged & so were the contents!  

This was a parcel that was shipped from Beth with my carded figures or what was left of them. Somewhere along the line after Beth mailed the parcel it was damaged. It was sent letter Air Mail so this may have been run over or punched or push with force in the plane providing it came that route. Unsure at this time, it is also unclear if this happened state side or on home soil.

After a few minutes of my shock, I grabbed my camera & took the parcel outside to get some pics from the way I received it to opening it. Not much more I can say so the pictures will do the talking.

Postal Damage

This is the first time I have ever received a parcel in this condition & I have been dumbfounded over this since its arrival. The parcel was not insured which was over looked by both of us but the actual value was declared on the Customs Declaration & Dispatch Note. Looks like parcels going to & coming from will now be insured even if I & the receiving end do get hit with customs.

Now Canada Post did seal the parcel with a clear bag to protect any loss to my destination. This I believe is normal practice with the Postal System here. Printed on one side of the bag is a message from Canada Post:

We apologize.

Dear Customer,

The enclosed item of mail was either received in this condition or damaged during its processing. We sincerely regret this unfortunate incident & any inconvenience caused.

We are always concerned when mail entrusted to our care is damaged, & we have made considerable improvements to reduce such incidents in our operations.

Please be assured that we are continuing to make every effort to improve our service.”

Beth & I have been in constant contact with each other on this. She is as much stunned as I am. Looking at the parcel from the bottom, there was a lot of force that hit it. It looks like it was sitting label side up & hit from the bottom side angled slightly upward resulting in the other top end to burst open & the impact side to do the same. With this force, the parcel was lifted a bit & the bottom burst open widthwise. My opinion.    May vary to others.

If Canada Customs opens a package, it must clearly state they opened it & reseal the package. They use a yellow tape with “opened by customs” on it. Sometimes they don’t even open the parcel.

Out of the 5 Silver Clones, 4 are good for loose figures; the other one has a snapped gun. Gold Leader & Tanus are fine & are also good for loose figures. But I collect mine carded & 4 of the Silver Clones I was going to offer to some of my fellow Troopers here in Canada that have a hard time trying to get one.  

Not much can be done as for a claim. Beth called her Post Office & there is nothing that can be done on her end. I'm not holding my breath up here either.

This can happen anytime to anyone anywhere. We all do the best we can. It’s just unfortunate it happened this time.  

Well thats my rant.

So does anyone have any Postal Horror Stories they can share, small or large?  Thoughts on this Postl mess?

Lets here from ya!

Thanks Beth, your a sweetie!  

[jadesfire]

I just want to throw my two cents in here and state how respectful Dale was to me throughout all of this.  He has been a complete gentleman and was not going to post anything if I felt slighted at all (which I am not).

I am as shocked as he was and feel terrible for the lose...only because the silver clonetroopers and Tanus are so hard to get.  If it had been something easier (like the Yavin wave), we could have swapped carded for loose but of all the figures I opened lately, I picked those two.

I have had broken items (Garfield Christmas ornaments don't seem to arrive any other way) but I've been lucky and purchased insurance on the checkout option.  I have never had a package come THAT bad and trust me when I say; no one would want to be working at the postal desk if they even attempted to deliver a package to me with such a lame note.

Here's hoping others can help Dale out with extra silver clonetroopers and that blasted elusive Tanus.

[Morgbug]

I can help you out, to some extent.  I've got a bunch of clones coming, though not all are what would be considered mint.  Better than those hopefully and we can just swap one as I would have opened it anyway.  

Similarly I have a Tanus around somewhere I haven't opened.  I'm not certain how mint it is, but it  has to be better than that.  I open mine anyway, so yours is good for me.  Hell, send it loose.  

This sort of thing is scary.  I have probably 3-4 packages coming in every week and I always worry something like that will happen.  worse, I send about 7-10 a week from ebay sales.  

Sorry for the loss but it goes to show that feedback on this site is representative of the quality of people on board.  Mature handling of the situation.  Bravo.

[DSJ™]

Mighty fine of you Brent. A loose Tanus is yours & a Clone for a carded Clone is great too.    

Through all this I forgot Matt, you know the sweater guy    I think he has a carded Clone for me too or was trying to get me one.

Hey, I got 3 more loose Clones for carded & I'll even keep them carded!  

Maybe I should take the worst damaged carded Clone with the bubble still intact & send it to the AFA. Wonder what it would get?  

A great community this is.  

[JediMAC]

Holy crap, that's some serious damage there!    Too bad you're only a carded collector D, but hopefully you've got some local pals you can pass some of those along to.  Did you file a claim with them, or anything like that?  Did you still need a carded Silver Clone?  I've still got a MOMC one for ya'...

Please note:
Beth was not in fault over this as this happen after it was mailed. This was done during the shipping process by the Postal System. I just want to make that clear as not to damage her reputation on the forums. Beth is a great person to deal with & I will continue to have more future transactions with her.  

I definitely know the feeling...  I've been on both the sending and receiving end of postal demolition projects.    I've had a couple single figures sent to me that were VHTF variants, that both got smashed to pieces.  Granted, the shipper in both cases sent them in one of those tiny Priority boxes that fits exactly one figure, with no room for anything else.  One blunder by the P.O., and the figure's toast.  Those were my only two items sent to me that I've ever had ruined...

Unfortunately, I've twice had my packages completely SMASHED by the P.O., though not quite as bad as Dale's beautiful specimen above.  One, I sent to dustrho via Priority Mail last year, packed tight as a drum, marked "FRAGILE" in giant bold letters on every side, and even sent in a Crate and Barrell box to boot.  Got jacked real good on one side, but due to my stellar packaging job, only one figure got ruined...    Chris had some nice pix of the damage, but it looks like they're gone from his site now...

Same damned thing happened several months ago when I sent a 12" Leia on Speederbike to Membraneman up in Canada.  SQUASH.    Perhaps it was the same folks who ruined your Beth's package to you Dale!  Fortunately in both cases, Chris and Bob understood it wasn't my fault, and was just really crappy luck.

$h!t happens, I guess.  Stupid postal workers should be a little more careful with stuff though.  Usually when I hand them my packages marked "FRAGILE" all over, they just turn around and toss them about 10 feet into a cart, as if the "FRAGILE" words didn't mean a damned thing...    That's why I usually spend a good hour or so packing the hell out of all the packages I send out.  Gotta prepare for these stupid clowns!