A small Tragedy...

As with most of the cues traded here unfortunately not..
And you have to use it always prior to shipping, after that it is useless.
 
Lost ?

Really sorry to hear this,wish you the best of luck with recovery! I lost a Gilbert 2 years ago this Christmas to a Buyer in Japan (possible credit card scam).I sold it on the Fleabay befor I new any better,Once the item was shipped internationally, he waited 3 days an reversed the payment, at this point it was in the hands of overseas customs, I was told I could not stop delivery of said item, an could not retrieve it .That was a 1350.00 lesson to me an I no longer offer cues of this caliber for sale to overseas buyers,And paypall informed me a week after this happened that the reason for no seller protection was avalible was due toi a high insedence of fraud in that part of the world.We all live an learn,Petros I wish you good luck an have a good holiday season maybe something good will happen.:thumbup:
Bob
 
Thank you for your remarks.
Please don't loose faith to overseas buyers with a good reputation, I bought a lot of cues from USA, I always had complete trust on the persons I bought them from and they always had complete trust on me.
 
Terrible news. I have had two transactions that I thought were goners, only to have them show up weeks late. All is not lost, so hang in there!

I also will certainly remember this cue and will be on the lookout just in case.

Good luck,

Will Prout
 
Thank you for your remarks.
Please don't loose faith to overseas buyers with a good reputation, I bought a lot of cues from USA, I always had complete trust on the persons I bought them from and they always had complete trust on me.


I've got faith and trust in you Brother,
let's keep this thread up at the top so it's
fresh in everyone's mind, just in case it
shows up somewhere other than where
it should. I wish you the best and I hope
it's just delayed and not lost...
 
I don't know if they notify upon confiscated packages (they should I feel..)
Never had any problem like this for 15 years now..
Thanks everybody again for your support and efforts!
 
Yes that is a possibility it was stolen or lost here.
But what can I do to prove it?
In any case it was not insured..
Usps never replied to my reports (they could just state "this item never reached USA").
I've been using EMS here for 15 years and never had a cue stolen/lost. The other one (with an ivory content as well if this applies to laws I'm not familiar with) that I shipped on the end of November reached the same receiver normally in 6 days!
Thanks again for every effort you make even if nothing comes out. I really appreciate it.

Just got back and as of right now the package never left greece because there is no record of it arriving at jfk and going into customs. The reason usps has not responded is because until it arrives at jfk they have no info and are waiting for a scan. Either way this package is not in the hands of the usps until it clears customs so it could be a airport worker(usps has no planes and uses commerical carriers to transport package)customs agent(doubtful) or someone in greece who is familiar with your hobby and figured it out. Either way insurance is always a must and even if you didnt have a invoice for the cue a cuemaker like skip would write a replacement cost letter to anyone who needed it. Every major carrier has a certain percentage of loss and its not alway thievery but they all use automated machinery and sometimes these machines will jam up and what ever is in them will get so damaged they cant even figure out the address that was on them. The only hope is if it somehow got off loaded at jfk and went into customs without them scanning it (which is highly unlikely )it could still be ok but with all the ivory that was in that cue you could be in the process of being fined by fish and game for trying to import banned ivory and that is why they are holding it.
 
I don't understand..
Why would I be fined for laws out of my country that I'm not familiar with..
I'm not a cue buisnessman I just change cues from time to time as a hobby.
If someone would want to fine me they would have contacted me or the receiver already no?
If the cue never reached JFK why usps hasn't responded to my repeated reports "We have no record of this package arriving at JFK."?
In Greece it is higly unlikely (99.99%) that anyone would understand the value of the package.. In USA there might be someone but as I wrote I never had any problems with any package in 15 years here or there! And the second cue I shipped end of November reached the same receiver normally within 6 days! No one ever checked on me about cue contents or cue parts.
How can I go back to Greek EMS complaining if I don't have an official usps responce that the package never reached JFK?
 
I don't understand..
Why would I be fined for laws out of my country that I'm not familiar with..
I'm not a cue buisnessman I just change cues from time to time as a hobby.
If someone would want to fine me they would have contacted me or the receiver already no?
If the cue never reached JFK why usps hasn't responded to my repeated reports "We have no record of this package arriving at JFK."?
In Greece it is higly unlikely (99.99%) that anyone would understand the value of the package.. In USA there might be someone but as I wrote I never had any problems with any package in 15 years here or there! And the second cue I shipped end of November reached the same receiver normally within 6 days! No one ever checked on me about cue contents or cue parts.
How can I go back to Greek EMS complaining if I don't have an official usps responce that the package never reached JFK?


I understand your fustration but as the tracking info says it has not been sent other than a electronic message sent from greece. There is no way the cue could have gotten into this country without going thru customs and your claim is with the postal service in greece...they are the ones who you paid to ship this package and no claim can be started thru the usps. As far as the ivory being a problem when you filled out the customs slip(assuming they made you fill one out like they should have) there was probally a little section with fine print that asked if the package contained any items that are legally banned in the country you are sending it to and if you didnt asnswer it they assume you have read it anyway. I was a previous owner of this skip and i have always wanted it back but once I saw it was overseas I knew it would be a problem getting it back in to the usa.There have been many post about this problem....they are inforcing it very strictley now. As far a offical reponse from usps you should be able to print the tracking info from the usps site and show them it never came into this country...what more would they need,its there responsibility to prove they performed the service you paid them to do. But if there is no insurance purchased they arent going to do anything anyway.....It is the shippers responsibility to insure the item..sorry
Lets hope it turns up...stranger things have happened
 
Petros,
Very sorry to hear that your cue (my cue) is missing. I should have warned you about US Customs. There is a ban on importation of ivory to the US.

Tank138 posted this several weeks ago: Do not use any shipper that comes in to the States Via Alaska !! They will get it.
They are looking for Ivory .Especially cues from the Philippines.
The receiver of the cue will get a good size fine also put on a Watch list & the cue will get confiscated/destroyed .
The inspector that is on the look out for Ivory Knows what he is looking for.He also knows how to tell the difference.

I don't blame you for feeling safe in shipping the cue since you've had no prior problems. Apparently Customs spot checks packages and although most items get through without incident, your package was nabbed. The next step may be a letter to the recipient and a fine ($500 and up!) As others have pointed out, there's still a possibility that the cue will eventually show up undamaged. Let's hope for the best! Thanks for posting this so others will know that it's always a gamble to ship ivory.

Regards,
Peter
 
Just got back and as of right now the package never left greece because there is no record of it arriving at jfk and going into customs. The reason usps has not responded is because until it arrives at jfk they have no info and are waiting for a scan. Either way this package is not in the hands of the usps until it clears customs so it could be a airport worker(usps has no planes and uses commerical carriers to transport package)customs agent(doubtful) or someone in greece who is familiar with your hobby and figured it out. Either way insurance is always a must and even if you didnt have a invoice for the cue a cuemaker like skip would write a replacement cost letter to anyone who needed it. Every major carrier has a certain percentage of loss and its not alway thievery but they all use automated machinery and sometimes these machines will jam up and what ever is in them will get so damaged they cant even figure out the address that was on them. The only hope is if it somehow got off loaded at jfk and went into customs without them scanning it (which is highly unlikely )it could still be ok but with all the ivory that was in that cue you could be in the process of being fined by fish and game for trying to import banned ivory and that is why they are holding it.

just cuz it hasnt shown up on usps tracking as having been accepted or cleared customs doesnt mean they have gotten it yet. this may not be a surprise to most but usps tracking sucks. they dont even update it and tell u a package is delivered until a day after. all i know is a lot of times when i send a cue with or without ivory to the states through canadapost and then usps, it hardly ever shows that usps received it. on the canadapost website it'll say it arrived in the destination country (us in this case) but when u check it out on usps it shows absolutely nothing.
 
Once, I sent a cue to the US ($15,000) and it took 2 months to get there.

In the meantime, I refunded the guy to show him I was serious about keeping it straight with him. Two weeks after the refund, cue shows up.....all is well. The tracking was useless.

I think its just in the ether, Petros. Have faith mate, it will arrive. I have been doing this 14 years now and nothing has ever gone missing. Thats not to say it wont, just nothing has happened yet!

Si
 
Wtf?

Wasn't this Weston just listed f/s on the forum? I swear I remember seeing that cue recently.....was this cue a 1 of 1?
 
Yes I listed this cue fs/ft last month.
Just a thought..
Ok usps does not provide info until a package has cleared customs..
But these two services are in contact no?
How do you explain tracking messages like " this item is being processed by customs" if they are not? We get all the time this status "in customs" either US or Greek ones! If it was in customs tracking should show it!
So either someone stole it/destroyed it/ lost it when it arrived there before entering customs or a similar thing happened here..
God knows..
 
Last edited:
Yes I listed this cue fs/ft last month.
Just a thought..
Ok usps does not provide info until a package has cleared customs..
But these two services are in contact no?
How do you explain tracking messages like " this item is being processed by customs" if they are not? We get all the time this status "in customs" either US or Greek ones! If it was in customs tracking should show it!
So either someone stole it/destroyed it/ lost it when it arrived there before entering customs or a similar thing happened here..
God knows..


even if it has cleared customs sometimes they take a long time to update it to show up on the system. i remember i had a cue sent to me, i checked the tracking daily and it always just said that it was accepted at the post office. the day before it arrived it updated to "the package has left origin facility" or something like that. i got it the next day and i checked the tracking number 2 weeks later and it still had the same message. didnt even show that it went into canadian customs yet. i only checked because i forgot what that tracking number was for and i thought it was for another shipment that was coming. i laughed when i saw that on screen tho.
 
I bought a cue extender from Benefica, and it never showed ..... Finally after maybe a month, he sent another one. End of story. No muss no fuss. Another three weeks went by and I walked into work and sitting on my desk was the original one sent.unbent, undamaged, were it not for the 6-7 weeks shipping date on the outside, you would not have known it wasn't shipped earlier in the week. That was between Californai and South Florida. I sure wish the same luck to you and that it shows up undamaged.

My sister works for the USPS and has told me...it DOES take your average postal carrier 6-7 weeks to walk from CA to FL! :rotflmao1:
 
Thank you for your remarks.
Please don't loose faith to overseas buyers with a good reputation, I bought a lot of cues from USA, I always had complete trust on the persons I bought them from and they always had complete trust on me.
I wont rule out overseas sales alltogether, I know that there are good buyers out there. I will just make sure that from now on I use the escrow service here at AZ, The guys here that I have dealt with are good guys, an the transactions that I have had where all quick and easy.I should have been a little more consise an said, I wont sell that way on ebay anymore,And I will take precautions in the future, so that way it wont happen again .;)
Bob
 
Thank you so much everybody for your support, your efforts and info provided on this matter! I really appreciate it!
Petros
 
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