Thumbs down to Phil @ BullGoose

Simply put, I purchased and paid for an order.
It did not arrive.
I was not compensated for this loss, either in replacement or returned funds.
Despite Universal Postal Union rules stating the ownership of the parcel remains with the sender until successfully delivered and a government department validating this from an independent review, he refused to accept liability or reasonably pursue compensation from his end, upon behalf of his customer.

I am bitterly disappointed with this experience, as I've only read positive reviews of his service online and why I took an order to him, rather than his competition.

While this is not a favourable review, it still affords Phil the chance to amend his business practices to improve his service to others, to which, I hope he does take note and ensures this issue does not occur for other international customers in the future.
I do hope that he takes ownership of this finally and does so, as we all can only benefit from such positive actions.

Without details, your complaint doesn't carry much weight. There's always two sides every story, and you haven't presented yours yet.

What details, without being unnecessarily slanderous ( I do desire for Phil to learn from amd try to rectify this, not destroy his business ) would be requested ?

Was there a tracking number? If so what does it say? Was there buyers protection on your payment? If so did try to you use it? Did you inform the seller? Etc.
Too many questions.

So,you have called him and talked to him in person?..You have exchanged emails,of course ?...Phil has been one of wet shaving most honest vendors for a long time,and has strived to keep a good selection and good prices.Many packages,if sent UPS or FedEx ,in my area are stolen off porches,and they must replace the items for you,not the vendor who has a record of the shipment.With USPS a tracking # may be issued ,to further insure safe delivery.I think you can work this out to your benefit,use the proper methods,you'll be alright.

tonich said:

Was there a tracking number? If so what does it say? Was there buyers protection on your payment? If so did try to you use it? Did you inform the seller? Etc.
Too many questions.

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Yes there was a trqcking number.
It states the parcel has been delivered.
It was supposed to include buyer protection from my understanding and I did try to use it.
I indeed did inform Phil.

malocchio said:

So,you have called him and talked to him in person?..You have exchanged emails,of course ?...Phil has been one of wet shaving most honest vendors for a long time,and has strived to keep a good selection and good prices.Many packages,if sent UPS or FedEx ,in my area are stolen off porches,and they must replace the items for you,not the vendor who has a record of the shipment.With USPS a tracking # may be issued ,to further insure safe delivery.I think you can work this out to your benefit,use the proper methods,you'll be alright.

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I've contacted Phil multiple times about it, including cc'ing him in communications with third parties over this issue, to ensure he was kept in the loop and things my end remained transparent.
I have not been afforded correspondence from him demonstrating he indeed has chased it up with USPS.
My understanding from his communications, is he refuses to accept any responsibility/liability over the issue and indeed has removed it as an issue that required his attention.
What you have expressed about him is why I initially chose to order from him.

I sincerely do wish that would be the case, yet am left with a feeling of disgruntled resignation over this, as the only person that can do anything about this ( as demonstrated via the cc'ed correspondence ), refuses to do so.

Ymmv

Well if it says delivered and it was stolen of your porch or something that is not his fault, it is actually usps or fed ex or whatever, have you called the postal service?

zed117 said:

Well if it says delivered and it was stolen of your porch or something that is not his fault, it is actually usps or fed ex or whatever, have you called the postal service?

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Yes and repeatedly been told that the sender is responsible for the package until it has successfully been delivered.
As it is not in my possession, it's not successful in delivery, so their attitude is they're unable to do anything about it and only the sender can, who has chosen not to.

It not arriving is not his fault, yet follow up is his responsibility and not doing so is his fault.
That is where the issue has been for several weeks now and why I've posted this thread out of disgruntled resignation.

I don't expect a resolution at this late stage, yet if it happened, it would be wonderful.

Just contest the charge with your credit card company if you actually never received it. You'll get a credit back from them and Phil will have to work it out with the post office to collect the insurance. Maybe your neighbor or your mailman are getting some great shaves.

I do get Phil's side as you could have kept it and claimed it was stolen. However if you didn't then it needs to be resolved.

I wouldn't bash the guy on a public forum myself. There are steps you can take to get this resolved that don't involve social media.

Good luck.

I know I had a USPS packaged claim "delivered" but I did not have it. I worked with my Post Office and two weeks later they 'found' the package. It had been delivered to another person in error. Everyone was happy luckily. In my experience Phil is a guy you can work with and has always been a gentlemen. I understand your angry but take a deep breath. In my neighborhood in Nor Cal people do steal packages off the porch, luckily I have a courtyard that hides them but my next door neighbor lost his. Good luck.

Where are you located? Where is the package being sent from? What sort of time frame are we talking about here?

If the package status says "delivered", I do not really see what Phil should do about it.

dfoulk said:

Just contest the charge with your credit card company if you actually never received it. You'll get a credit back from them and Phil will have to work it out with the post office to collect the insurance. Maybe your neighbor or your mailman are getting some great shaves.

I do get Phil's side as you could have kept it and claimed it was stolen. However if you didn't then it needs to be resolved.

I wouldn't bash the guy on a public forum myself. There are steps you can take to get this resolved that don't involve social media.

Good luck.

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Well, if my neighbour/mailman are getting some great shaves, at least the positive is, it's converted/encouraged someone else into traditional grooming, even if only part there of.
I am in communication with my credit card company about protection afforded to me.
I do appreciate what you're sharing as well, yet if that's the case, why would I continue to pursue the matter, let alone months later ?
If my post came across as bashing, I withdraw that context, as that's not the intent.
It was to express my frustration over this situation and afford others a different side to what lead me to trust him with my first significant purchase of grooming gear.

jovan said:

I know I had a USPS packaged claim "delivered" but I did not have it. I worked with my Post Office and two weeks later they 'found' the package. It had been delivered to another person in error. Everyone was happy luckily. In my experience Phil is a guy you can work with and has always been a gentlemen. I understand your angry but take a deep breath. In my neighborhood in Nor Cal people do steal packages off the porch, luckily I have a courtyard that hides them but my next door neighbor lost his. Good luck.

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I have more than afforded benefit of doubt in trying to afford courtesies and amicably resolve this.
I have exercised considerable restraint not to post this for several weeks, let alone use language that's constructive, as I realise losing my cool achieves nothing.

Legion said:

Where are you located? Where is the package being sent from? What sort of time frame are we talking about here?

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Sydney.
Umm, where does Phil send his stuff from ?
Months.

Eeyore said:

If the package status says "delivered", I do not really see what Phil should do about it.

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The problem is legally, I am unable to lodge a claim with USPS as it has not been successfully delivered.
Only Phil can do that and either he has, yet has not followed up/forgotten about it or not bothered.
I don't have an answer as to which one it is and accordingly am not going to speculate.

The crux of the situation is, I've paid for goods from Phil, including compensating him to use a third party service to deliver them to me.
He paid for the service of delivery.
The delivery is unsuccessful.
I am legally unable to follow up upon it with the service provider, as I'm not the party that entered into a contract for their services.

Okay, I am probably misunderstanding things. But if the shipping company status is "delivered", but they did not deliver it to you, then aren't you a party in the contract? They state that they delivered the package to the recipient (you), but you did not receive anything. Sounds like they did not fulfill their obligation to you.

I'm not sure if the sender can still do anything once the shipping status is "delivered". The shipping company can state that they did what they promised to the sender; delivering the package to the recipient.

OP,
It's worth noting that the reason you're getting little sympathy and a LOT of questions about the details is that many of us, including me, have years of experience dealing with Phil and he has always been one of the very best vendors any of us have dealt with. I've personally experienced the lengths to which he'll go in order to correct a mistake and the reliably fast times in shipping and communication. It's probably inconceivable to most people reading this thread (certainly it is to me) that Phil would simply mistreat a customer or not accept responsibility if the responsibility were his. He hasn't behaved that way, as far as any of us know, for the last three years. Why would he suddenly start now?

Had a complaint like yours come from someone with a long history of posting on this board who had participated politely in many discussions and shown themselves to be a reliable member of the community, then the reaction would be different. I know that because it's happened before. In this case, however, someone with no history of posting makes their first thread about bashing one of the most reliable vendors to the community. In our shoes, I've little doubt you would express the same skepticism.

If your sole interest in posting is to vent your unhappiness and give a warning to the rest of us,then mission completed. You've done your job. If you want, however, to actively participate in many of the discussions here and become a valuable member of our weird virtual community, then I'd recommend moving on from this discussion. If others had similar experiences with Phil, then I absolutely guarantee they'll chime in and we'll reevaluate what we believe. Meanwhile, you can help us resolve much more important and less controversial issues like:

Is film better than natural stones?
Is MdC worth the price?
Is Creed worth the price?
Are Toggles and bottom dial Fatboys overpriced?
Is the Veg a great Aftershave or simply a handy way to recycle cat urine?
If you use pre-shave oil, are you more or less of a man?
Should Springs1 pay for lunch or split the tab?
Is stan really a man or visiting from another planet?
Is Ouch a real person or an AI masquerading as a wet shaver? Is he Linux or Windows based and is he dating Skynet?
What the heck is going on in the NIB??? They're just pens, for Pete's sake.
Are we mind or are we body?
Do numbers exist?
Why won't Sophia Vergara call me back?
Why won't my wife call me back?

Maybe it varies from country to country but I have had something similar selling on Ebay in the UK, the item was shown as delivered but the buyer stated they had not received it, I was the only person that could query the issue with the courier as I was the one that set up the delivery, they would not provide the buyer with any info other than it had been delivered and to contact the sender to for a resolution. I found that it had been left outside the property but no 'missed delivery' card was left and it was logged as 'delivered', I got a refund for the item value and postage and refunded the buyer.

The key word in the OP's first statement might be 'international'. Using USPS, UPS and FedEx Ground to ship items within the USA is pretty darn reliable. Plus, I have ordered shaving supplies from Vintage Scent in Portugal, G.B. Kent & Sons in the UK, and a couple of things over eBay (seller was based in the UK) and all have arrived, albeit slower, than about anything I've ordered from within the continental USA.

With that said, I don't know how secure some of the international systems are. Of course there are some customs barriers, but once a package arrives on a foreign shore (pick the country and the OP doesn't say where he resides) who knows what might become of it?

That is where I would lay the blame, not on Phil at Bullgoose.

That also may be a reason that Phil cannot do anything, even if he wants to. USPS did what they promised to do, and they need to rely on the shipping status provided by the Australian shipping party. I know that, when sending to Europe, American sellers often cannot "see" beyond the border, and that is also where their contract with USPS stops (and what the insurance covers). When I lost a package in the past, and enquired with USPS (and the seller doing the same), I was told to sort it out with the Dutch postal service, since the package was in their hands.

That's the risk of buying internationally, in my opinion. Most of the times it works out fine, but sometimes you have to take your loss.

I didn't realize it was international. Without very expensive tracking service (40 bucks last time I checked for a package to either New Zealand or Taiwan), it is a crapshoot. I ordered some stuff from Malaysia without tracking (even though it was encouraged) because I've never lost a thing on an international shipment. This one never arrived. The vendor replaced the goods for me, which he didn't have to do and I wouldn't have asked for, but I paid for the tracking this time. It increased my overall price by nearly 50%.

On a related note, it's incidences like this that cause so many private and public sellers to opt out of international sales. It's just too much of a hassle.