I've bought kits on the internet since the days before the bank issued me with a credit card and I had to send international bank drafts. From all over the world kits and books made their way to me, nothing ever went astray, everything was always in the box, nothing was ever broken and nobody ever tried to rip me off.

In the past month two figure sets arruived from two different online shops; one was missing a complete torso from the box and the other figure's head was badly miscast. When I contacted the shops they agreed to send replacements straight away. This morning the customs sent me a letter saying they are holding a kit from Hong Kong and need to see an invoice for before they decide how much I owe them
on top of that a book I'm waiting on from the U.S. is long overdue.

Has my luck finally run out?

Not really......
The last couple of sets of resin figures I bought from a large on line retailer in the US have had a few parts missing, and sometimes even entire kits missing from the invoice even though it was marked shipped and I'm charged for it. A phone call usually gets things set right, but it is getting annoying to have to open and inspect everything I order as soon as it arrives to get things straightened out over the phone. Not to mention the extra time needed to do it in different time zones.

Fortunately I don't have to deal with customs on hobby related things.

Pat,

I have bought from on-line shops, and from a number of people on here with never a problem I keep wondering when my luck will run out. But I am an optimist

Darryl