a painful lesson relearned *update*

[ZrowsN1s]

As many of you may remember I have told any who will listen to not ship through USPS. Even if it's free it's not worth it I said. Packages marked as delivered and not delivered I said....

So I recently bought a Chief (I paid to send it UPS) arrived with out incident. Then I ordered a Urban LW and Waved Dfly..... and I made a terrible mistake.

My budget was pretty thin so I decided to go with the free shipping from bhq through the USPS. I should have know better, it's really my fault at this point.

In an effort to save $17 I shipped through the USPS. I got my package delivered notification yesterday at around 10am I was home, heard no knock, no bell, open my front door to get my package of knives and find.... a package of coffee filters.

Had to fill out a missing package claim on their website, still waiting to hear back from them. The package didn't show up today.

BladeHQ being the class act that they are will take care of me if it doesn't show up in 7 days, they even set aside an urban for me just in case.

Buy yea, lesson relearned NEVER ship USPS. I'd have gladly paid $17 to not have to deal with this hassle. :mad:


............
*Update*

I talked to BladeHQ this morning. And their customer service is amazing. They didn't make this my problem they made it their problem. They said they will deal with USPS, send me a replacement for my Urban, refund my Dragonfly (which they have sold out of! Dang that things popular), and the icing on the cake, they won't charge me for reshipping UPS :D

Well done BHQ well done.

[Pelagic]

I'm sorry to hear that. USPS problems are regional. I've had problems in some places and others seem perfect. Sadly if you're in a bad area (incompetent USPS workers) you have to do what you can to ensure reliable delivery. Good luck

[jpm2]

So far I've only had one issue with usps where a package was marked delivered and it was not. It showed up a few days later.
There was also once where it seemed lost, but eventually showed up.

UPS has delivered my package to the neighbor once, and completely lost a package once.

Not really a bad record for me considering the number of packages.

[ZrowsN1s]

Ever since the last problem I had with them I ship UPS and have them hold my packages at a UPS store for me to pick up. The Chief I had delivered to the house because I was going to be home. Never had an issue with UPS, and their carriers knock or ring the bell when they drop off a package.

The odd coincidence (or maybe not) is this is the second time a package from BHQ has gone missing with the USPS. I got 2 non knife packages from them last month without an issue. I'm beginning to wonder if my local carrier collects knives.

[steelcity16]

That is super frustrating!! :mad: I usually have great luck with USPS and I buy and sell tons of stuff on eBay. I did have one DLT Red M390 PM2 that I bought on the BF exchange that never showed up. It didn't ever make it to delivery status though. It just stayed 'in transit" forever.


I believe you can track at the USPS website and then request them to hold for pickup at the post office? Or place orders by phone and request them to use signature confirmation when they ship

[DukeNiemand]

100% agree. In the last few months USPS has lost over $1000 with of my packages and mail. They almost lost a Rex45 Military a last month. It was one of the last in-stock at national knives, and had they actually lost it, no replacement would have been available.

I am never making that mistake again. I'll pay anything to get UPS shipping. The piece of mind is totally worth the $10-20.

[murphjd25]

Dang man, I’m super sorry to hear this happened again! Wow... I hope they find the package and you get made while again. I have been very fortunate to not lose any knife packages but if it ever did happen I would probably freak out. I gotta have my Knives man!

[The Mastiff]

That sounds like the USPS here. I've had several different kinds of issues but they usually show up eventually. Once a package said delivered and went up to Minnesota then back again in about 4 days. Strange stuff.

[vivi]

Been trading buying and selling knives via USPS for 20 years without issue. Even mailed and received cash for low value sales, no issues.

Sorry to hear you've run into problems. Sounds frustrating.

[MacLaren]

Wow. I truly hate hearing that.
That said, I've never had a problem with USPS.
It must be regional, as mentioned earlier.

[SF Native]

That certainly puts a damper on the excitement of some new arrivals. Glad bhq is taking care of you. Hopefully they show up in a day or two.

[JonLeBlanc]

Yep, in fact I made a thread about that issue not too long ago, but that particular instance was regarding the brown carrier (I can't even say their name, ugh). Over the years I've had so many packages go missing, be delayed an inordinate amount of time etc, and you'll never, repeat NEVER get any sort of remorse from the carriers because it's always someone else's fault. I understand maybe these sorts of things happen in a logistics industry, and sure mistakes happen too, but I've seen some egregious stuff happen and it's always "oh well." For what it's worth, Fedex has been the least problematic for me.

[ZrowsN1s]

Thanks for the support guys :)

Im sure it's just regional. If they were this bad at their jobs everywhere they'd be out of business :D

I know I'll get my knives eventually, they'll either turn up or BHQ awesome people that they are will replace them.

The time is what sucks the most. I'm not buying either of these knives because I need them. Got more knives than I know what to do with. I want to get my hands on the new models, want to be able to share my experience with them with the community. New Knife day is my favorite holiday. Maybe they show up tomorrow, maybe I have to wait 10 days. And what about the poor soul waiting for their coffee filters? Anyways yeah, it turned what should have been a happy day yesterday into a headache.

[Sumdumguy]

That's funny, my USPS is like a well oiled machine. I've known my mail lady for YEARS and never had a single issue.

The only issue I ever had was from DHL. Both packages from them, delivered to a guy up the hill. The gentleman had apparently passed away and nobody knew, until his nephew came to visit.

His uncle was in his late 80s, the last of that side of the family.

[ABX2011]

USPS has been very reliable in my experience. I've done a lot of knife buying and selling as a hobbyist. I've had a couple packages that were delivered to neighbors by mistake. The neighbors brought them over. Only one was never delivered out of hundreds.

[blues]

I've had a couple of mishaps with USPS but by and large pretty good experience. (Any negative experience is frustrating, of course.)

Still, just to give an example of a great experience: I was awaiting a custom knife by friend and custom knife maker Ken Erickson.

Didn't look like it would arrive for Xmas as planned. I had called the local office and they said it hadn't yet arrived on Xmas eve.

Late in the afternoon I got a call from one of the workers who said the package had come in and he would hold it and wait for me to come and pick it up. It was already after closing on Christmas Eve!

I couldn't thank him enough. (He was known to be a good guy but that is above and beyond.)

So yeah, while I've had bad, I've also had exceptional. It balances out to some extent in my experience.

[Pelagic]

The private sector almost always puts the government to shame.

[The Meat man]

Sorry Matt! I hope you get it figured out soon.

I haven't had too much trouble with USPS, thankfully. If anything happens it's usually just a day or so late.

[The Deacon]

Sorry to hear of your experiences, but I have to say that mine have been totally different. Maybe I've just been lucky, but everywhere I've lived in the past 35 years I've had a great local Post Office. So, given the choice, I will always have things shipped by USPS. UPS would be my second choice, but a distant second. FEDEX would be an even more distant third, and if DHL was the only way something could be shipped to me, I wouldn't waste my time buying it.

[ZrowsN1s]

I'm jealous of you guys with good USPS shipping. Paying for UPS adds up.