It was my first year participating in any Secret Santa and I had full confidence in the SWFUK SS and in the end...all worked out. My 'adopted' Secret Santa or Santa's in this case made a commitment to Honor, Honour for my UK chaps, the SWFUK SS and I want to publicly Thank them and bring the attention to the SWFUK member that chose to not Honor a trading commitment that was made.
Wanting to be a participate in a Star Wars Secret Santa gift exchange program was a good idea to me and wanted to be part of it. I figured that contributing in such a way to the community adds to being part of said community and a GREAT way of giving to a fellow collector. Make a list of SW related items that would be nice to receive as a Christmas gift and receive a list from another collector and give a Christmas gift to them...easy right? Apparently NOT!
Many folks had received their gifts in the days leading up to Christmas either in person (from being part of Farthest from) or in the mail. It began when I had to resubmit my addy to an administrator in early December so that the administrator could give my addy (once again) to my Secret Santa that had misplaced it? That would be the first sign of irresponsibility. Now I understand that not all people can send their parcels early ( due to other obligations such as money, family or maybe scoring an item on the receivers gift list) but I believe mine had been sent out to my recipient in the 2nd or 3rd week of November. Being that the intended receiver lived in the UK (which parcels typically take a week to get to) I wanted to be safe and give the package time to arrive. Of course I had viable tracking and could prove such in an instant, to anyone inquiring.
Being patient I had not inquired about my SS gift until around 23DEC. with an administrator. The administrator then played the "middle man" role as I like to refer to it. I received word back that the parcel was sent and there was tracking and that tracking would come soon. The tracking never came nor did the parcel.
I did not know who my SS was until late January. Now you have to keep in mind this fact! I was matched up with a SS who has been around the SWFUK for some time, well known collector to some, attends the meets and greets with other UK collectors etc etc. So Christmas came and went and the suspicion was apparent that maybe Me, Paul, got the big fat scrooge bone. Erring on the side of caution, due to my SS being who he was, benefit of the doubt would be taken by the administrator that an honest mistake was made. That is a respectable approach to a well known bloke to many of you. Since the time of Christmas the SS had expressed to the administrator that the parcel was sent multiple times (3 times in all) and there was tracking evidence.
I am not privy to each and every back and forth message between the administrator and the SS from late December to Last week; But the facts are these:
1- My SS entered into an agreement to fulfill (as much as desired) a gift list I provided.
2- No parcel was received by Christmas or at all (the intended purpose of the SS program).
3- No tracking number was received by anyone at anytime from Christmas until now. Be it whether 1 tracking number or 3.
4- The name of my ' Bad' Secret Santa was Nick Rayner.
4- I have now received a gift from the "3 wise men" and that gift was sent using the mail service. No North Star needed. See the pic attached.
Who am I? I am a collector with honor and integrity, I am a advocate for the fight against people who scheme and scam Star Wars collectors despite the excuses and despite who you are. We know the saying, excuses are like assholes and we all have one. I am someone who will call you out if it merits it. Now that we are in the month of March, enough due process has taken place and you Sir are hereby called out. Now maybe it's me but I would have exhausted efforts to contact me directly, gave me direct tracking numbers and found that dam parcel :roll:
A few lessons here so please do not get discouraged by my ordeal, SWFUK is not represented by one member alone.
I want to publicly thank Rich H., Frank M. and Todd O. for keeping the honor of SWFUK and the SWFUK SS program. Thank you again for the unexpected gifts, they will be displayed proudly!
See you at Celebration!
!!
