[meteorite-list] (Vaguely OT) Letter of Commendation

[David Freeman]

Dear Kathy, All;
Through out over 900 auctions in the past year and a half, and nearly 
90% mailed USPS, I will tell you that as a buyer, if you do not require 
your seller to offer  insurance and delivery confirmation, YOU are 
asking for trouble.
If you are a seller and do not require your buyers to buy insurance, YOU 
are asking for troubles too.
I can not see why anyone would transact good money and then pay good 
money to ship, and not get all the insurance and delivery confirmation 
that they can get.  One would not purchase an automobile and not carry 
insurance on it to provide for a loss or damage.
I see those that are shall we say "tight with their money" but insurance 
and delivery confirmation are not the place to skimp or cut corners.  I 
have also found that there is a percentage of dishonest individuals that 
seem to relish the lost article thing, or have no control over their 
deliveries so, they scream "my item didn't arrive" and low and behold, 
the delivery confirmation number provides the exact time and date of 
delivery to the whiner.  The delivery confirmation costs 45 or 55 cents, 
if the buyer cannot afford that then I just do not sell to them.  Same 
with insurance, if one wants something bad enough to pay good hard 
earned money for the item, then it is worth the $1.30 or $2.20 or $3.20 
to insure against loss.  If you have a meteorite that is worth more than 
$100, I recommend that it be sent REGISTERED MAIL so there is a 
signature track each time a postal employee passes it along, and it also 
is under lock and key the entire journey.
Those that are too cheap to protect themselves deserve to get ripped off 
in my not so humble opinion.
Sorry  for the soap box....just the facts jack. One in fifty of my 
transactions requires that I go look up a tracking number when someting 
is late, or lost, or distroyed by the postal system.
Dave F.
mjwy
 From a sunny, calm, 43 degrees in SW Wy.

Kathy Wallace wrote:

> Hi List,
>
> I am new to meteorite collecting and would like to relate the following:
>
> I would like to commend two of the members of the meteorite list.
>
> As you know awhile back, the list was rampant with talk of "lost in 
> the mail" meteorites.
> Although I didn't write, I had a really bad Christmastime problem of 
> not receiving 2 shipments.
>
> The first was from Michael Cottingham.  I purchased a number of 
> meteorites thru his 1/2 price
> sale of 12/6/04. Well, close to Christmas, I had not received the 
> meteorites but thought it could
> just be slow mail what with the Christmas mail rush, so I finally 
> emailed Michael asking when he
> had mailed my package. Michael emailed me the shipment date and that 
> it was sent priority mail.
> I checked with the Post Office regarding lost/possibly stolen mail. 
> They said that since there was
> no delivery confirmation, certification or insurance, there was 
> nothing they could do and sent
> me to the local Police. The Police laughed and said they could do 
> nothing, it was a Federal problem.
> Back to the Post Office for more runaround.  NOTE:  Be sure to at 
> least get a delivery confirmation
> since this will let the Post Office track your item.  If your item is 
> over a certain amount (whatever you
> consider high enough) you should either insure, certify, or register 
> (the safest way).
>
> To make a long story short... I never received this package, but like 
> the true gentleman he is,
> Michael gave me the option of my money back or credit for the meteorites
> (which he definitely did not have to do) and last week I purchased new 
> meteorites
> using the credit from the lost ones.  These arrived yesterday. They 
> are all wonderful.
>
> The second item was purchased at about the same time from Mark 
> Bostick. After several emails, and still no book, Mark, without my 
> asking, sent me
> a replacement (again, something he did not have to do).
> It arrived within a few days.  Great book.
>
> My sincere thanks and know that I will continue to buy from you, 
> Michael, and you, Mark.
>
> Kathy Wallace
>
> P.S.
>
> Since I am giving praise, I want to express my thanks to Rob Elliot of 
> Fernlea Meteorites, who
> (at his own expense) sent me my order by Federal Express so it would 
> arrive by Christmas and Impactika - Anne Black who was so very helpful 
> with  TX meteorites for my husband's Christmas present.
> THANKS to all of you.
>
>
>
>
>
>
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