[FWDLK] Life's Lessons/The Shipping News
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[FWDLK] Life's Lessons/The Shipping News



I apologize for this long message, and anyone bored or offended by it may delete it.

My story involves the following life-lessons, which we all should be generally aware of, but which never hurts to reiterate, in case we ever decide to do anyone else a financial favor:

1) Military:  Never volunteer

2) Civilian: No good deed goes un-punished

3) Gambler: Never wager/risk more than you can afford to lose

4) Investor: Never invest/risk more than you can afford to lose

5) Negotiator: Never bargain where your highest outcome is a no-win situation

6) Conservative: You get what you deserve ; blame the victim ; (almost) no one is trustworthy

7) Liberal: Forgive-and-forget ; stay on the high-ground ; (almost) no one is not trustworthy

8) Cynic: Never forget the price of everything, value does not matter ; what's-in-it-for-ME ?

9) Ebayer: Never ship anything out of the U.S.

10) Faux News:  We report, you decide

11) Me: Live and learn

I'm not going to name-names, here, but I'll be glad to provide them, on a PM basis.

Back in June, my friend Ron Mog, who made the pilgrimage to Tulsa, allowed a couple "tourists", who were going-on , to Tulsa, too, to use his home garage's hydraulic lift, to service their newly-bought 1961 Newport. Ron provided grease/lube and tools, but also an idler-arm rebuilding
kit (which service the car really needed).

It was agreed that the 2 men would send Ron another 'kit', after they returned home.

Never happened.

I PM'ed 'them' several times (Ron having no confuser), but never got any response ; the last time, Ron had asked me to try to
get a $20.00 bill out of them, in the mail.

Never happened.

Now, the reason that I'm writing all this, is merely this: on 11/13/07 I paid $422.12 for an actual UPS billing, that I voluntarily paid, and for which I expected full reimbursement, on a package of FWDLK parts which
was sent to a Foreign Country.

I had never shipped anything large, to another country, before, by UPS, or USPS (#9, above)

I have no financial profit in this transaction. ( #2, and #3/#5)

Before this occurrence, I had volunteered (#1; and I was in the Navy) to help the individual make an order thru Gary Goers, which, for me, has not been a problem. I even volunteered to PAY Gary (#1 & #3/#5) for the parts, and hope to receive reimbursement for that expense (#7) at a later date. I do not know if Gary has been paid, as the shipping matter hit-the-fan before I could write a check to Gary. I am prepared
to pay Gary, if necessary, as it was my order to him (#4 &#7).

The beneficiary of this matter is, of course, the parts recipient, who, today tried to make himself the victim (#6) by saying that I had failed to inspect the trunk panels(about which I had NO involvement), as well as saying that I "should have known that the USPS would be cheaper" to send the stuff, overseas, than
"good old(?)" UPS.

Now, probably no one here has had experience with shipping via UPS, but, they are an international
package shipping business.

Business competition being what it is, and (in part) because I HAVE routinely used UPS to ship packages, and Gary Goers' parts-stash was sent via UPS, and the trunk-stuff was sent Fed Ex Ground (iirc) to me (for incorporation with Gary's stuff, for a 1-package deal ; what-a-guy) , I put the stuff together & took it to UPS depot, waited in line, got to the counter, and the nice lady, there, said :
"Oooh, this is going to be expensive".

As I am not poor, but not rich, and as I knew of no other cheaper means to ship the package (weight:
37 lbs, total) , I gulped  and gave the lady my credit card.

Altho I have not done so, I do know of several persons who have shipped entire cars across the pond and I know that international shipping is not cheap. That knowledge, as much as anything (and the hope of getting reimbursed ; #7) persuaded me to finalize this dope-deal, which, again, I had no financial
profit, what-so-ever,  in contributing-to

So, per #10, and #6, above, I am NOT looking for any sympathy, or (much) commiseration (#6, after-all!), but I do want to state, for the possible benefit of anyone who might be interested in doing anyone else a good-faith good-samaritan , but possibly-flawed, (financial) favor, please see #8, and all the other Life Lessons,
before deciding what to do.

So, what have we learned, today?

Ron Mog graciously allows his personal property to be used, and gets stiffed, over $20.00 retail value of
a  idler-arm rebuilding kit.

And I, not knowing any better, rely on UPS to tell me what it wants to ship a 37 lb package overseas, and
I get stiffed, for $422.12 .

I have no recourse, except for the writing of this message, but, I am willing to abide by #11, above.


Neil Vedder

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