Some of you might know of our interest in canning and preserving food.  We've always frozen things, but now we are starting to branch out.  We have a dehydrator, a water bath canner, and we recently purchased a pressure canner.

Now if you know my husband, you know that he thoroughly researches anything and reads every review he can find before purchasing, especially if it's a pricey purchase, which a canner can definitely be.  After reading all the reviews and checking the information, we decided to go with a Lehman's canner.  Every site that we checked had only the highest praise for them.  The All American pressure canner also had high reviews, but there were a few that mentioned the handle had broken, and as rough as we are on things, we thought we'd better go with the sturdier choice. 

Here are the two canners, Lehman's above, and the All American below.

 After definitively  deciding which canner to purchase, we ran to the Lehman's site to "get 'er done".  We chose the 30 quart canner, clicked on it, and filled out our information.  It only asked for a billing address, and since that has to match, we entered our P.O. Box.  It then offered two choices of shipping, USPS Parcel Post/Mail for $27.05, and USPS Priority, which did not have a price listed.  I love our post office, but with something that heavy, I probably would have chosen a "door-to-door" method, had I been offered the option.  I did incorrectly assume that with something that expensive they would offer the option of insurance, or at the very least, tracking. 

We entered the order on April 2.  We checked the site a week or two later, wondering when our product would arrive, but found that no tracking information was listed with the order.  We waited another week, and then contacted Lehman's, wondering when it was shipped and how soon it might get there.  We received a rather vague response stating that it had shipped on April 4th.  Another week went by, and we inquired again.  We received this reply on Monday, April 23, 2012:

Your order shipped on 4/5/2012 via United States Post Office - per your request online.

We do not have a tracking number available when it ships out by mail; however, you should be seeing it soon!
Unfortunately, I have seen it take this long in the mail and am forced to wait 30 days before we can declare it lost.
I would be glad to replace the order after that time, if you still have not received it yet! I would ask, however, that you would continue to wait a little longer in receiving the package. (Keep in mind it has only been 14 working days, and should be there soon!)

Notice the date on the message above.  On May 4, 2012, we contacted the company yet again, inquiring about the canner we had purchased, which had still not arrived. 

There seems to be a bit of confusion about your canner. It was returned to us on 4/18/12, not by

the post office, but by someone who mailed it back to us (I don't know who - I assumed it was you).

I refunded your credit card on 4/18/12 for the full amount of the item, minus the shipping charge.

Would you like me to set up a new order and send you another one (with no shipping charge)?

 

We checked our bank statement, and yes, they had indeed refunded the price of the canner, not including shipping.  We assured the representative that we absolutely did NOT send the canner back, and after contemplating it for several minutes, decided that we'd try this one more time.  It does have the best ratings, and we wanted the best quality item that we could find.  This morning we received an email stating that they'd sent it off via UPS Ground, but still neglected to provide any tracking information.  We emailed them back, inquiring about a tracking number, but at this point are still playing Russian Roulette, wondering whether it will ever arrive.

 

*Note:  As the company kept telling us they shipped it via USPS at our request, I kept going back to the site, to try to find where they had offered any other option or way to put in another address.  I did finally find a tiny box off in the side corner, where I could have added another address, which I can only imagine would have given me more shipping options. 

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