General Bad Luck

[Liam]

I'm not having much luck at the moment in my collecting hobby.

I managed to buy a 2nd hand colossus lava lamp here in the UK but I've yet to get it flowing so it's just sat in the living room in it's useless state like a big white elephant. :(

Now my 2nd hand lava wave motion machine just arrived today but it doesn't seem to be working either. It keeps falling off it's titling mechanism. :(

On the positive side both my Crestworth Galaxy and Fantasia Sunburst 4000 fibre optic lamps are working great (touch wood).

[Autumn]

The wave is just off balance. The ends have reservoirs to help balance things. Make sure the opposite end of the wave that is falling down has some liquid and not air inside the reservoir.

[Liam]

Thanks very much Autumn. That seems to have done the trick. Now can you fix my colossus ;-)

[Liam]

More bad luck my end.

I bought one of Kris's fibre optics and on route to the UK it seems to have disappeared of the the face of the earth. Gutted :(

[Aladdin 2 Lava]

Sorry to hear that Liam, what rotten luck... how far did you manage to track it ?

[Marley's Ghost]

Liam, that is horribly rotten luck, so sorry!!    I would like to know how far you tracked it too.  Wonder if it's just sittng somewhere on a loading dock?

[Liam]

The last tracking info was from the 30th of May:

Priority Mail International Parcels

Processed Through Sort Facility

May 30, 2013, 5:50 am

ISC CHICAGO IL (USPS)

International Parcels

It has happened to me only once in the past in an instance where someone posted me a parcel from Germany and it went missing for 3 weeks. It finally arrived after I had just about given up hope so I still have some hope that the Fibre Optic will turn up. It will be suck a shame if it doesn't :(

[Marley's Ghost]

Liam, this happened to me once, but within the US.  I called and had a fair fit and they "happened" to find it still sitting on the dock "behind" a lot of packages.   I had it the next day, after it being lost for over 3 weeks, and only 35 miles away from me.  

If your package was last processed "through" the facility in Chicago, it could have been put on a plane there, or may still be there.  There is no way of knowing, but it would appear that the tracking would say that it had left the US, if it made it on an international flight.  Someone with all the info, needs to call the USPS and ask that they try to find it.     

[Liam]

Kris has contacted the postal service and they have started an 'inquiry' - what ever that means?

I rang Parcelforce, the UK company responsible for all items arriving from outside the UK and they knew as much as I did and said that as soon as it arrives/arrived in the UK then it would have been scanned and therefore the tracking updated? So I'm pretty helpless at the moment.

[Marley's Ghost]

An "inquiry" is supposed to mean they are looking for said package.  Not that they really are.  It sounds like both you and Kris are doing what you should, but the USPS needs to be aggravated sensless.  The more you call, the harder they try to find it to keep you from calling again.  Especially when you ask for their Supervisor.

They tried that inquiry business with me too, but I told them to get their backsides out on that dock and LOOK.   They found my package in less than 10 minutes and the Supervisor was still on the phone with me.  But our much smaller Knoxville terminal is not Chicago, there's a "huge" difference.  Wishing you luck that their investigation will turn up your package, Liam, or it will just show up on your doorstep!    

[Aladdin 2 Lava]

Sometimes customs will pull a whole container at random, take it to one of their warehouses and go through every item with a fine tooth comb at their leisure. It can take weeks and they never give out any information.

 

just a thought. :) 

[Marley's Ghost]

EGAD, Rocket Man..........That worries me......If I errrrr----"ever" have to mail a package to the UK, it'll get the full treatment for the speediest delivery possible.  At at least from my end of the pond...  :-)

[Metallica Man Trevor]

FedEx seems to be the best and fastest way to go in and out of the UK