Hi Dan,

Thanks very much :)
Very best

Home Again !
 

My three containers arrived safely today; all the pieces were fine even though the snoops at customs opened one of them . :rolleyes:

Good packing by the museum; kudos !

Great to hear that Rick,

Thank you. It is the staff that deserves the kuddos. They are fantastic.
I would appreciate if everyone would post or email me confirming their shipment being received.
Thanks :)

recieved the swords. my tenegre and visayan sundang became dhas. i didn't open the bubble wraps on those, but one has a jade like stone on the pommel. the barung scabbard was crushed. kris and kampilan are ok.

ron

Quite a mix up ...
 

I have some of Mark's dha and someone else's swords too. Still trying to work out what I have that's not mine.

BTW the jade hilted dha will be mine, Ron.

Ian.

Got my boxes. I'll open them up tonight.

All back
 

I received my swords back last week and all acounted for.

Many thanks for their safe return.

Checking in away from Macau
 

Hi all gentlemen,

I am ina field trip for another entirely different exhibition. Please check at my www.bladesignforum.com

At first when I received this link as I logged in, I thought you were all pulling each other's leg. But unfortunately it is not the case.

Prior to my departure I sent a group email to everyone about my field trip and I must say I am entirely puzzled with what I read here because all boxes received the sword numbers and everything was organized with photographs and so forth.

Miss Victoria has been handling exhibitions for seven years, since the Museum was inaugurated and I can testify of her full qualifications, competence and care. How it happened I cannot explain for she is also right now in a field trip.

I would like to say that due to my son 9 days hospitalization following his operation, I was unable to be at the packaging but it would have not changed anything because Victoria's method at arrival was extremely careful in identigying each tube and each sword to each tube.

I would also like to add that no one has slammed any sword in the scabbard or anything close to this. Care was absolute, but we cannot be responsible for tubes being thrown to the floor by the cargo people, if that happened, because we had requested special care instructions to fantastic Macau FedEx people.

Nonetheless is my duty to apologize for these events to everyone, and since I am away until the very end of the month and have suffered a punctured right foot, almost impalled, my movements are extremely limited as well as my access to the internet.

Again my humble apologies and hope everyone comes out saying what the've got so I can track the mistakes, but presently I cannot do nothing.
As in the beginning, my appreciation and admiration for all of you folks' generosity is the same. I am not the kind who uses people and then forget about them.

I wish to formally express my apologies for any mistakes, but I have no explanation.

Kindest regards to everyone,

Having seen the Museum operations first hand, and met the staff, the mix-up is a bit of a mystery. Mine all arrived safely, by the way, though one package went to someone who is taking good care of them until they can get home. ;)

In my case, what clearly happened was that the shipping invoices got switched between two packages. The package of Ian's swords I got was correctly labelled on the outside with the codes for the swords inside, and the shipping invoice in the plastic envelope stuck to it correctly listed the swords of mine that were mistakingly sent to Ian (in other words, the swords in the box that should have had the invoice). My suspicion, frankly, is that someone at Federal Express mixed up the invoices after accepting the packages from the Museum staff. They have to be taken in and out of the envelopes several times during transit, which is stupid because just this kind of thing can happen (I don't see why they can't put a bar-code sticker on the box itself).

I can't imagine that the Museum staff could have made such a mistake, and more than once, apparently. They even put my swords back in the exact same boxes in which I had shipped them (though most were identical in size and shape). Fed Ex, on the other hand .... :rolleyes: In the course of my work I often ship many boxes of documents at once to different parts of the country or the world, and more than once things went wrong. Once one box in a set of five or six ended up in a different country somehow, and another time a box of documents was delivered to the office split open, with footprints on the paper! The courier said he'd gotten it that way (yeah, right).

As many boxes as there were, who do you think is going to mix up and/or damage a box, the guys handling 20 or 30 who knew the contents were precious and fragile, or the guys handling 2,000,000 or 3,000,000 who didn't know and didn't care what the contents were? I just hate the see the Museum staff, who are so conscientious and careful, get the bad rap for how the shipment was handled after they sent it. :(

And I remember how someone of you here in Forum repremended me about writing on the weapon. It's not beautiful (however you can always wash it out in need) but thank's to inventory numbers on the piece you never get wrong with anything.

PS. Of course I don't want to sound sapiently - no way - it's just practical thought ;) .

since i'm not getting any response on my email, i would like to know who recieved my visayan sundang and tenegre. as for the damaged scabbard, will fedex pay for it then?

Ron, it may be me. I've been preparing for trial and, now, for another hurricane. I'll open my boxes up tonight and let you know if I've got your stuff. :o

Ron:

Could be me too. I still have not opened mine -- too much work stuff and family business.

Ian.

Hi Ron,
Just arrived back in Macau 2 hours ago and allow me clarify one thing :)
I received your email just about the time I was leaving, so had no time to reply.
So later I made a general post above, apologizing.

Second, one of the most important practices is to immediately show a picture or a set of pictures of the damage caused.

I made sure I left after a period long enough for everyone to receive the pieces.

Pardon me, but we have at least two lawyers here and you all know that you cannot place a claim in a forum or by email by just stating it. You have to prove it, show the damage, the before and the after.
Then insurance prescribes. It does not last forever.

I am very sorry for what happened to you, and am thankful that Mark spoke from his first hand experience. Like what Mark describes, I am absolutely sure that the staff had everything under full control and the boxes and the references and all that.
No Museum staff wants to get problems, and here we do want to take pride in what we do :)

My suggestion is that Mark and Andrew as lawyers, will possibly confirm that without photographic evidence, formal information, there will be no FedEx or Insurance that will accept any claim, specially when the insurance prescribed.

You see, we do our very best, but the moment you receive the boxes and don't verify the contents, then technically it is impossible to place a claim, and the longer the time, the more impossible.

Far from trying to wash my/our hands I am trying to explain in here so everyone understands. I am most grateful and just because the exhibition has ended does not mean I wash my hands. Not the kind of thing I do.

What I want to say is please post detailed pictures of the damage and the only thing I can offer you, is an attempt of reconstruction from our restoration department after talking to the Museum Director.

Best,

Posting photos and such here isn't really going to do the job.

I think the best way to handle damage is, as Antonio has suggested, taking detailed photos of the damage. You have the "before" photos available, of course, in the form of the Museum catalogue photos.

Then, you should write a letter to the Museum explaining and describing the damage, and including the photographs, so that the Museum (which bought the insurance) can file a claim. They will also need an estimation of the damage value. Since the item was not completely destroyed or lost, this would be the loss of market value due to the damage. Often insurance companies require additional evidence or explanation, but those basics should get the ball rolling.

While this forum is a convenient place in which to communicate quickly, it really isn't the place to resolve this issue, so I urge everyone to shift to direct communication for these "business" matters.

that is why i emailed you directly, antonio. i even mention to you that pictures will be provided, but i did not get any response from you. i'm not a lawyer and i do not know what do do and steps to take. and you also said:



you see, i did not know that because i did not get any response from you. maybe if you could've given me an address right away, or who to talk to, or who to email to, i would have done that ASAP (as soon as possible), with the pictures provided.

so:

1) i have the pictures
2) who can i email to
3) what do i need to do, or is it too late

i understand that you have an impeccable crew, but somewhere down the line, the scabbard was saran wrapped tightly causing the sampil, or throat of the scabbard to crush, and the side of the scabbard to splinter. the bottom line is, the scabbard is SNAFU. i just wanna know what do i need to do, or do i just take this as a loss.
ron

Hi Ron,

As suggested by Mark I am replying to you in private.
Thank you :)

I finally had a chance to open up my boxes. Everything present and accounted for, and in perfect condition. :)


Ron, I didn't get any of your stuff.

thanks for looking, andrew..

Catalog
 

Hello,

I am just checking in to see when the catalogs will be ready. Is there any updates? :confused:

Thank you for checking. Rest assured I'll be the first one to let everyone know.
This delay never happened before in my life. But it is beyond my wish.
Thank you.

Antonio