danefex
0
- Joined
- Aug 30, 2010
- Messages
- 1,595
- Points
- 63
Greetings folks. I just wanted to share with you a shocking moment I had when getting todays mail because long ago I had said 'one day this thing is going to show up & surprise me' - and today is that day! The subject tells it all, but if you're interested in an explanation then listen to this...
Early last summer, in June to be exact - I ordered a couple of flexdrives from Flaminpyro. This was a typical order I'd placed with him because we had regularly been doing business with laser parts, ect. His company, the Laser Den has some top notch, professional products available to our community and I only work with the best, so needless to say I am a regular customer of his.
Anyways after a few weeks had passed from when I placed this order, I asked about it & if he knew anything about why it hadn't made it to my doorstep by now.
Jeff explained to me that he shipped my package weeks ago & knew nothing more of where it was or why I hadn't gotten it. He'd also sent me a picture of the package he'd taken before shipping it out, I assume he uses these to keep some sort of pictorial record with his customers. After some discussion, between ourselves and with both our local post offices - the fact of the matter became clear that this package had been lost somewhere in the postal system. How could this happen!? Unthinkable, I know....
As this had eventually turned out to be the case, I asked him what we should do and if a refund or re-order was considerable. Jeff explained to me that because I didn't request insurance and/or delivery confirmation with my orders that he didn't apply them and therefore was not responsible for whatever happens to them after they are shipped. While I agree with his logic, I was disappointed for assuming everything was covered. This was a mistake of mine I've since learned from and to prevent from ever happening again. In this scenario though, the package I'd ordered & had paid for was missing after a month of questioning and waiting... so who should cover the loss?
Since I hadn't ever requested insurance with my any of my orders, Jeff didn't think he should cover it & since I was a paying customer of his & assumed he had some sort of 'free replacement if lost or damaged' policy that most typical commercial businesses generally have - that I should get my order replaced.
I was wrong for assuming this, Jeff isn't some shop in the local stripmall with a neon sign in the window & hours posted on the door. He doesn't have a certificate of business entrepreneurship hanging on the wall in some building sitting between a starbucks, a pizza place and in & out burger with a '30-day money back guarantee no matter what!' policy. No sir, Jeff is just some talented dude out near the mountainside in the pacific northwest with a lathe surrounded by guns & explosives. He's not the commercial business storefront I hadn't thought twice about before this happened, but he did work with me on fixing the problem.
After more discussion Jeff agreed to split the losses from this mystery mishap, something I feel privileged and lucky to have had him agree with AND something that has strengthened my customer relationship with him ever since. It could've been easy for either of us to walk away from this pissed off at the other, but I believe both he and I are better than that & our outcome has proven it.
After thanking him for his kind gesture, we both agreed it's necessary for sellers and buyers to insure their transactions which not only covers both parties' asses if something goes wrong - but also to prevent any possibility of damaging social or business relationships from 3rd party errors like this.
In short, my experience with Flaminpryo was a learning lesson and I remember concluding the whole thing with saying 'some day those flexdrives are going to show up & land in one of our mailboxes' - - and today was that day!
As you can see circled on the package of the 1st picture is a notice that reads 'postage due: 83 cents'. Clearly the value of the stamps on the envelope didn't match with the cost of the package weight that was calculated and paid for at the post office. What surprises me is that neither Jeff nor myself were contacted or made aware of this. The post office apparently decided to set it aside in some misfit package holding bin in the back of the warehouse with a possible delivery date TBA!? In my case, today was that day. 7 months after disappearing my flexdrives finally showed up.
The first thing I did was contact Jeff & paypal'd him back the $ he had helped me cover last year. That's it. There's no climatic ending on this long story, sorry about that. Damn it's taken me 45 minutes to write this too, I apologize again it was so damn long! I'm as tired now of writing this as you are reading it, so let me wrap this up buy saying this:
BUYERS and SELLERS: Please insure or request insuring your orders with other members on this forum when buying, selling or trading. It costs a fraction of what you're already paying for shipping and is definitely worth insuring it! Especially when your order exceeds $20. This is my advice, it saves a TON OF HEADACHES for you and who you're dealing with - in the unlikely and unfortunate event that something is damaged or lost. That's my story, thanks for reading and I'm sorry again it was so damn long. Live & learn folks.....! :beer: -Dan Efex
Early last summer, in June to be exact - I ordered a couple of flexdrives from Flaminpyro. This was a typical order I'd placed with him because we had regularly been doing business with laser parts, ect. His company, the Laser Den has some top notch, professional products available to our community and I only work with the best, so needless to say I am a regular customer of his.
Anyways after a few weeks had passed from when I placed this order, I asked about it & if he knew anything about why it hadn't made it to my doorstep by now.
Jeff explained to me that he shipped my package weeks ago & knew nothing more of where it was or why I hadn't gotten it. He'd also sent me a picture of the package he'd taken before shipping it out, I assume he uses these to keep some sort of pictorial record with his customers. After some discussion, between ourselves and with both our local post offices - the fact of the matter became clear that this package had been lost somewhere in the postal system. How could this happen!? Unthinkable, I know....
As this had eventually turned out to be the case, I asked him what we should do and if a refund or re-order was considerable. Jeff explained to me that because I didn't request insurance and/or delivery confirmation with my orders that he didn't apply them and therefore was not responsible for whatever happens to them after they are shipped. While I agree with his logic, I was disappointed for assuming everything was covered. This was a mistake of mine I've since learned from and to prevent from ever happening again. In this scenario though, the package I'd ordered & had paid for was missing after a month of questioning and waiting... so who should cover the loss?
Since I hadn't ever requested insurance with my any of my orders, Jeff didn't think he should cover it & since I was a paying customer of his & assumed he had some sort of 'free replacement if lost or damaged' policy that most typical commercial businesses generally have - that I should get my order replaced.
I was wrong for assuming this, Jeff isn't some shop in the local stripmall with a neon sign in the window & hours posted on the door. He doesn't have a certificate of business entrepreneurship hanging on the wall in some building sitting between a starbucks, a pizza place and in & out burger with a '30-day money back guarantee no matter what!' policy. No sir, Jeff is just some talented dude out near the mountainside in the pacific northwest with a lathe surrounded by guns & explosives. He's not the commercial business storefront I hadn't thought twice about before this happened, but he did work with me on fixing the problem.
After more discussion Jeff agreed to split the losses from this mystery mishap, something I feel privileged and lucky to have had him agree with AND something that has strengthened my customer relationship with him ever since. It could've been easy for either of us to walk away from this pissed off at the other, but I believe both he and I are better than that & our outcome has proven it.
After thanking him for his kind gesture, we both agreed it's necessary for sellers and buyers to insure their transactions which not only covers both parties' asses if something goes wrong - but also to prevent any possibility of damaging social or business relationships from 3rd party errors like this.
In short, my experience with Flaminpryo was a learning lesson and I remember concluding the whole thing with saying 'some day those flexdrives are going to show up & land in one of our mailboxes' - - and today was that day!
As you can see circled on the package of the 1st picture is a notice that reads 'postage due: 83 cents'. Clearly the value of the stamps on the envelope didn't match with the cost of the package weight that was calculated and paid for at the post office. What surprises me is that neither Jeff nor myself were contacted or made aware of this. The post office apparently decided to set it aside in some misfit package holding bin in the back of the warehouse with a possible delivery date TBA!? In my case, today was that day. 7 months after disappearing my flexdrives finally showed up.
The first thing I did was contact Jeff & paypal'd him back the $ he had helped me cover last year. That's it. There's no climatic ending on this long story, sorry about that. Damn it's taken me 45 minutes to write this too, I apologize again it was so damn long! I'm as tired now of writing this as you are reading it, so let me wrap this up buy saying this:
BUYERS and SELLERS: Please insure or request insuring your orders with other members on this forum when buying, selling or trading. It costs a fraction of what you're already paying for shipping and is definitely worth insuring it! Especially when your order exceeds $20. This is my advice, it saves a TON OF HEADACHES for you and who you're dealing with - in the unlikely and unfortunate event that something is damaged or lost. That's my story, thanks for reading and I'm sorry again it was so damn long. Live & learn folks.....! :beer: -Dan Efex
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