Dear Tony
Not to lessen your experience or loss here, ...Please let me speak from
experience, and from comments of other collectors and dealers....

It is not uncommon for the contents of international packages to come up
broken, missing some of the contents, or just plain empty.

Postal inspectors may pick your package to open and search (in either country),
and often it may be improperly re-sealed and things fall out later, they may
not put it all back in because you packed it nicely and they made a mess, or
they may like what they find and keep it.

I once had a package arrive full of rocks instead of shells.  When I weighed
the package it was heavier that the originating county had posted it as, thus
proving it was tampered with and not fraud on the part of the sender.

Although I have never had a package short on contents, I know people who have,
and I have had shells broken and poorly repacked by customs or postal
inspectors.

.. and this is why I always pay extra have packages shipped insured if it is
of any value. Otherwise, someone will have to bear the burden of the loss.

It is very plausible this is the actual situation with your customer Stany.

Leslie

----------------------------------------------------------

To ALL CONCH-LER,
Once again a shell collector turns dishonest.
Sorry but you should all know.

This is to warn all of you who deal with Stany Vanderhoydonck of Jan Van
Helmontlaan 9, 3500 Hasselt, Belguim so that he cannot repeat what he did to
me.  I have been sending landsnails to him since July 2003, on average every
two months.

I started sending him more or less $200.00 and later on getting bigger
amounts.  The last two parcel were quiet big, amounts worth more than $1,000.00
but he selected what he likes and returned almost half of the contents.  As a
trusted regular client and top quality collector I agreed Then he asked me
again (this last parcel) to send him a big lot, price no problem, but this time
he informed that he will select and
return what he don't need.  I did my best to send all top quality shells,
exemptional freak, etc, items worth $1,325.00.

Finally, he advice me that he received the parcel with the BAD NEWS the
box is EMPTY.  This had never happened before in all my shell trading
experience with Belguim.  He answered that it is common with air parcel in his
country.  As I had no choice, I asked for his consideration in this matter and
to share with me the loss of my capital of $650.00 on a 50-50 basis.  Hereunder
follows his answer which proves that he premeditated this theft wey
carefully.....

Dear Tony,
I can understand that this is a very unpleasant situation, but I think that I
have payed more then enough for the Amphidromus in the past and also for your
bankcharges too.  So, I DON'T PAY this time.

I am a collector for many years, but I am not the bank...Please, don't think
that I am a fool, because $650.00 is certainly not the amount that you had to
pay for the shells, not in the Philippines and absolutely not to your
suppliers. At the shellshow in Paris and Antwerp I did not pay half the price
for top quality landsnails from the same localities....!  Anyway, I don't want
to order any landshells in the future.

Best regards, Stany.

-----------

I never cheated on Stany.  He got top quality shells and we agreed on the
price.  He refers to the fact that I asked him to take care of the bank charges
but he forgets to mention that I paid for the postage.  It is clear to me that
he lied.  He got the shells I sent, the box was not empty, BUT he does not want
to pay for it.  If he were an honest man, he could have returned the shells...
as he did before.  BUT he has choosen to join the ranks of the SHELL CROOKS. BE
AWARE IF YOU DEAL WITH HIM.

Antonio S. dela Cruz
l4 Esperanza st., Tinajeros,
Malabon City, Philippines l470
TEL/FAX (632) 288 3993
Website: http://www.tonyshells.bravepages.com
http://www.tonyshells.web1000.com
http://www.amphidromus.bravepages.com
http://www.amphidromus.web1000.com

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