Pilfered Pancakes

Horsewright

Horsewright

Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Oct 4, 2011
Messages
13,483
Last year a knife maker in TN sent me four knives to make sheaths for. I've made numerous sheaths for him in the past and more since. I made the sheaths and mailed back the knives and sheaths to him. They were stolen from the Memphis Post Office by a postal employee. The package was slit open, product taken and the invoice and opened package returned to us. Dealing with the PO over this was an epic story in and of itself. We did receive the insurance money eventually after months. I have fence posts smarter than most of the burecrats we dealt with. Anyhoo, recently in April of this year one of these knives and sheaths sold on ebay. We just found the link a couple of days ago by accident. It was the red, white and blue handled one with basket stamped sheath. It was sold as one of my knives too which it is not. We advised the knifemaker and he's contacting the proper folks. Many of you know my work and all the sheaths are stamped with my makers mark. If, in your travels anyone sees any of these I'd appreciate a heads up. Thanks.

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These are the four that were stolen.
 
It's hard to get lower than a thief. Were they marked as knives, cutlery or otherwise on the packaging? I tend to label cutlery or tool as the description on the handful I've shipped.
I hope whomever did this gets the karma they deserve.
Chris
 
Dave, contact the U.S. Postal Service, Office of the Inspector General (OIG). Explain your situation and get a screen shot of the EBay page. They deal with employee misconduct. Good luck.
 
Chris I agree. Get a rope. Domestic packages don't have to have what the contents are just international. This wasn't marked. Just address and return address.

jdk some of the fenceposts I talked about were with them. They were absolutely a waste of space and good air.
 
That's a surprise and a shame. They used to be mostly a pretty sharp bunch. Unfortunately, after years of slashed budgets, that's the way it's going.
 
Unfortunatly wasn't our first rodeo. Years ago had a couple packages stolen from our local po. They even made arrests, front page stuff, pics and all. Never got our product back and talking to them was like talking to an empty beer can. On this deal we have a stack of paperwork probably an inch tall and at least 25 hours on the phone. Even with their own theft report attached they denied the insurance claim. Had to appeal it, more paper, more hoops, more phone calls. They paid the appeal some weeks later. Like I said epic.
 
Yep, been there done that and lost 600.00 worth of sheaths to a dealer. Claim denied, denied again, then they got nasty.

Loss. Worst part is the fellow that was on the receiving end of the package couldn't tell me if he received it or not. :confused: How the heck does that happen? That was the main reason my claim was denied. Didnt do work with him again.
 
Yep this one had tracking right to the Memphis sorting center then poof, gone. Like the Bates motel you check in but you never check out. Funny thing was that the original form we received said that your package came open during sorting and your items spilled out and have been separated. If you were to use our packaging and include your return address inside the package this might not have happened. Then someone stapled that form to the USPS package that the knives were in and to our invoice (which was in the package) with our contact info and his info, both of which were dang near pristine, (so much for the rough handling and the pacakge splitting open theory) and mailed them back to us. Kinda like the time I got a side of leather that still had hair on about a 1/3rd of it. What no one SAW that before I got it.
 
Thanks for the heads up I have been lucky so far. I think I better be taking photos of every thing I send out Thanks Dave
 
You know you really should. We try too and don't always and then usually wish we did. Even if this never happens to you its not a bad idea. Always need pics for this or that. Here for BF, website, instagram, FB etc. Also customers love it. Hey shipping your order out on Monday here's what it looks like.
 
What a dirtbag Post Office Employee. I hope you make headway nailing someone, but chances are the person fencing on Ebay is not the same thief.

I know what you mean when trying to get a claim out of the Post Office. At my office, we have about a 40% (or less) success rate collecting claims from UPS/Fedex, and probably less than 10% with the USPS. Just this week I had a UPS damage claim denial come in two separate forms for the same package. One denial form said the packaging damage (and subsequent product) was because packaging did not meet their guidelines, with no other info. It just happens that this product is double boxed with 3" of foam-in-place molded between boxes. You could drop this thing off a roof and probably survive. The second denial form said there was no package damage, so product must have been damaged prior to shipping. Which is it? :foot:
 
Yep we've shipped with all three, thousands of pacakages. UPS has had two claims which they'd paid within a week. They also had one major snafu on a Canadian shipment but it all worked out. No claims with Fedex. Thats why I didn't post a link to the ebay seller, he is a knife seller so I figured he'd bought it from somone else.
 
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