They're here!

And it is done. There are four 55-gallon drums of African rocks sitting in my driveway. Photos to follow. Right now I have rocks to sort.

On the way

Sometimes walking the dogs works wonders. I made some phone calls this morning, nudged some people along (again), and took the dogs for a walk.

When I got back, the paperwork had been completed and faxed, and now the shipper is just waiting for me to show up with dead presidents.

More later.......

Almost doesn't count

Did I say I expected another delay? Uh-huh. Hung up in Customs for the third time.

Now I have to reschedule the trailer, the help, the the the........and I changed a doctor's appointment for this.

What is up with this shipment? And I'm not even smuggling anything!

Almost here........

The African rocks finally are here in Tampa. They're not in my driveway yet--that would be too easy--but they're at the EcuAmerica warehouse awaiting Customs inspection tomorrow.

The plan is to pick them up on Friday morning. Whether that's really going to happen remains to be seen. I've had so many delays with this whole thing since the beginning that another one wouldn't surprise me. But it sure would be nice if it would happen Friday as planned!

This past weekend, the 50th Annual Tampa Gem & Mineral Show went off without any serious problems. I don't know what the attendance was, but I was pleased with the number of people who stopped by my table.

I was frankly astonished by the number of people who asked me about the African rocks. I knew that members of the Tampa Bay Mineral and Science Club are eagerly awaiting the new material, but I had no idea they were spreading the word to other clubs in the area. Members of three other clubs all stopped to ask me when I will have African stuff to sell.

All I can say is "Soon......"

I did find out why malachite is so unavailable. According to the owner of the mining company, the mines are holding onto it and crushing it for use in copper smelting.

Malachite can be so beautiful, and grinding it up for use in an industrial process is a total waste.

Stand by for more information on the African material......it's almost here...........

Moving in the right direction

After much pushing and shoving (on e-mail, that is), my African rocks are finally moving in the right direction, which is toward Tampa.

Customs released them yesterday, with no explanation other than that they wanted to go over all the paperwork for every shipment in the container.

However, because Customs had them in storage from October 3 through the 19, Vanguard had to pay a storage fee, which of course they pro-rated among all their customers who had shipments in that container.

I can't quite figure out the logic here. Customs detained the shipment so the receiving shipper has to pay a storage fee? I don't like having them pass it on to me, but I understand why they did it.

The bottom line, though, is that there's been way too much government interference in this process on both sides of the pond!

I sent the check for the destination fees Express Mail today, which means they should release the shipment on Wednesday. It should depart the New Jersey warehouse where it's sitting now either Thursday or Friday. Note that I said "should," not "will." I don't trust anything at this point.

Meanwhile, I continue to be glad I found some western material and all that Wyoming jade--I would be in a world of hurt for the Tampa Gem & Mineral Show this weekend if I didn't have it.

But I do wish the last two boxes from Wyoming would get here.....there's some Shirley Basin blue agate in one of them that I really want for this weekend!

Movement, maybe?

I called Vanguard again and asked for a customer service supervisor. This time I got someone with some sense.

She went over the invoice with me point by point, explained everything, and said the shipper in South Africa should have told the mine about these charges so they could tell me. So it sounds like that's who dropped the ball.

I have so say, I do like the mine staff. They have been very helpful throughout this process.

In any case, the shipment was released today. The container has been picked up and will be stripped (unpacked) tomorrow.

And the rocks should be on the way by Friday.

African time, imported

Now this is getting ridiculous. My African shipment arrived in New York on October 3.......and there it sits.

Vanguard tells me that since it's an LCL--Less than Container Load--and that there is something else in the container that Customs isn't happy with, there's no telling when it will be released. Of course, Customs can't release the stuff they aren't examining, so they let us all sit and wonder what's going on. Meanwhile, my first gem and mineral show is this weekend.

On top of that, Vanguard now is saying I have a bunch of fees due that they didn't quote me on the original invoice. Anyone who knows me personally already knows that that kind of thing irritates the you-know-what out of me.

I spent all day Friday questioning customer service at Vanguard and getting nowhere. The women there finally blamed it on my shipper, which is ridiculous. The shipper has been very clear that they told me about every single bit of information that Vangard provided them, and that the shipping straight into Tampa is already paid.

I'm on hard deadline with a story right now, but when I finish it I'm going back and get my teeth into someone farther up the food chain at Vanguard (or Brennan, the parent company).

At least I know about it now, and can deal with it before it causes any further delays in the shipment. Stand by for more details.......