Help needed with UPS

Well, right after this I came down with Covid. Today I did call Rosie. She was very nice and wanted to be helpful but all she could do is give me a UPS number that I had already used.
It has now been two months since the package has been in Louisville KY.
I want to be fair to the seller, but I think there needs to be a time limit and we decide the package is not going to get to me and I should be given a re-fund.
 
Two months is far longer than I would wait. I would ask for a refund, and if there is hesitation, call your bank (assuming you paid by credit card). All of the delivery companies in America have lost their shine. 2/3's of their employees can't, or refuse to speak, comprehensible English. The CEO answers to the shareholders. You are just a cog in the profit machine - not a customer.
 
Only the one paying for the shipment are customers, that's why the sender should be doing all the calling and work to figure out where this is.
 
You are the knife merchant's customer. To UPS (and the others), you are nothing but a cog in the profit machine, and an annoyance when they lose your package.

Yep, I am cynical, but I have earned it.
 
This whole thing reminds me of a song the Kingston Trio sang. It was called "The MTA" . It was about a man named Charlie that got on the Boston subway and then could not get off. One verse said, "He may ride forever neath the streets of Boston, he's the man who never returned." I think after two months the same thing could be said for my package.
I have e-mailed the seller, I hope he answers soon.
I paid with Pay-pal and can go to them for a refund but I want to be fair to the seller.
 
Sorry to hear this is still happening, Tom. Totally sucks. I think that Mr Retired Spook has it nailed however, this is just the result of free market capitalism where the only thing that matters to the folks in charge is shareholder return, not customer satisfaction.
That and the fact that just like any big company, there are branches that have employees/managers who care, and then there are branches where folks don't. I've lived in the PNW for the past 30 years, and the rest of my family lives in various parts of the Midwest (Chicago, Minneapolis, Ann Arbor) and I can honestly say that 95+% of the time, we get letters and packages delivered within 2-3 days of sending, never longer than a week, so I have no complaints with the USPS.
Hope this clears up soon.
 
speaking as one whose primary clientele reside across the Canadian border in the US, it struck me early on that in this climate of trade warfare that I'm exactly the kind of guy who'd get totally fucked by all the shenanigans. This is a perfect case in point for my rationale. Everything is so bunged up in the US due to the complete and total changes to longstanding and dependable regulations that UPS in particular was so squeezed for storage space that they just ended up 'destroying' packages imported into the US.

I got my last shipments to the US delivered by the end of August, and have sent nothing since. I'm really lucky for the timing, and I'm seeing there are ways forward, so it's not like the sky is falling. Yet 🤣 😭

Specifically the de minimis exemption reversal. The guy who sold this item from the Netherlands got his shipment to the US in a reasonable timeframe, but the chaos it arrived into caused it to go MIA when it got there along with a whole lot of sub $800 items from all over the globe.

So is it the seller's responsibility to issue a refund for something that should have been reliably shipped, but for reasons outside his control, wasn't? Is he able to claim insurance? How does this kind of situation affect his bottom line, his reputation, his job satisfaction generally? Is it worth the trouble? I don't know the answers to these questions, but these are exactly the kind of questions that I have which caused me to pause any shipments into the US until there is some reliability in the process. I don't want to deal with disappointed clientele! I want them to be happy.

The Netherlandian is likely just like a lot of us, trying to build his business by working hard and being frugal. Issuing refunds can be a big hit, and especially painful when you did everything right.
 
When I called the UPS international phone number after being on hold almost 2 hours someone probably in India answered. He said the seller did not include the proper paper work. He kept saying it was not my fault and that he was sorry but there was nothing he could do.
 
yeah, that's the other thing: the paperwork is brutal. If you use the wrong code, your shipment could end up in the dumpster. There are a ton of HS codes, and each is 10 numbers- lots of room for error.

before the de minimis exemption reversal, all I needed was a simple description of the item. I used HS codes as extra insurance, but they weren't required. Now I have to include documentation proving the country(ies) of origin of the components of the item, even breaking down the percentages of each material. For example, a knife has X amount of steel, and that steel comes from X country. There are many different HS codes to describe knives, so it's important to pick the right one.

I imagine finding the right code for a carbide platen would be challenging, which is why having a customs broker is so handy. But using a broker incurs more cost, eating away at the already thin margins that most small makers operate within. It's tough no matter what angle you look at all this from.
 
I just sent tom a mail back for the possibility for a refund.
Darren from contendor works also sent the possibility for sending tom an 8” carbide.

I tried contacting service several times and it is a pain hahha.

So far this is longest it ever have taken and still not arrived. I sent loads of packages to the us without real major problems and i always use the same hs code.

Its hard to be honest to get a solution after a couple of weeks since us customs have a 30 days timespan for getting custom clearance done.

But will get sorted out now, and tom can choose wich way he would prefer.

Shipping can be a pain in the butt😬
 
And Tom, the carbide platen is WELL worth the wait!!! I love mine; I use it even for hogging and profiling usually!! I don't baby it and it's trucking along and giving me really nice, clean flat grinds! I go up to a 600 grit felt backed belt with it and the grinds are nice and flat to start handsanding!
 
RD knives has been very helpful in all of this. If Darren from contendor works will send me the carbide platen that would be very much appreciated.
Then, If the platen UPS now has ever does get to me I will gladly pay RD knives for it also.
 
I think this is going to have a happy ending. I can't say enough for RD knives. They are a ethical business. Even though UPS didn't do their part, RD knives has been very easy to work with. I highly recommend them.
 
Tom Lewis said:
When I called the UPS international phone number after being on hold almost 2 hours someone probably in India answered. He said the seller did not include the proper paper work. He kept saying it was not my fault and that he was sorry but there was nothing he could do.
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The indian support reps have been absolutely killing my blood pressure lately. I get so demoralized when I hear the accent :(

They have this weird cultural habit of talking over you mid-sentence... to the point of not listening.
 
Retired Spook said:
America is always the bad guy - even though we have been Welfare for ALL of our "allies" since the end of WWII...
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to be clear; I'm not being critical of the USA in this instance, just the implementation of these new policies. Hell, my dad was American and I could just as well have been, myself

As to the subject at hand; I bought one of Robin's carbide platens and that little hunk of material has fundamentally improved both the quality of my work and my enjoyment wrt grinding. Very glad this issue has been resolved, and I apologize if I got anyone's knickers in a twist.
 
Thanks guys. Luckily we can work some out and darren from contender works reached out to help out with this to make sure tom will get it soon💪🏻
 
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