Francisco Vaz —- Problem resolved

[Matthew Gregory]

Blues As of the kingwood i posted in the bladeforums, i mentioned by that time that customs COULD create delays, as sometimes they can create by basically anything, but this is unlike to happen as CITES allows packages of under 10kg as per finished products (such as knife scales) link https://www.bada.org/resources/business-briefing-cites-restrictions-lifted-certain-rosewoods
10kg is quite a lot of kingwood, probably no one would buy that much.

The knife you listed in THIS thread according to your own description is EXCLUDED from the exemptions you presented. Dahlbergia Nigra, or ‘Brazilian Rosewood’ (also known as Jacaranda, Bahia rosewood, jacarandá-da-Bahia, Brazilian rosewood, Rio rosewood, jacarandá-do-brasil, pianowood, caviúna, graúna, jacarandá-una or obuina) is a CITES Appendix 1 species. As per the Wood Database:

Brazilian rosewood is listed in CITES Appendix I, which is the most restrictive appendix, and also includes finished products made of the wood. It is the only species whose listing supersedes the already restrictive genus-wide restriction on all Dalbergia species listed in appendix II. It is also listed on the IUCN Red List as vulnerable due to a population reduction of over 20% in the past three generations, caused by a decline in its natural range, and exploitation.

 

[Matthew Gregory]

It’s obvious that you’re young, and really talented. My post is came off as being a hard-ass, and that’s true - I am. You’re in a tricky spot, as you’re from the area where this stuff literally grows on trees. Nonetheless, these are dangerous waters to tread.

I’m hoping that you’ll manage to get out from underneath the difficulties that you’re in as demonstrated in this thread, but I also hope you’ll do the right thing, in all regards.

Good luck in your ventures, and I hope you make all the parties involved in this thread, including yourself, right.

 

[Francisco Vaz]

It’s obvious that you’re young, and really talented. My post is came off as being a hard-ass, and that’s true - I am. You’re in a tricky spot, as you’re from the area where this stuff literally grows on trees. Nonetheless, these are dangerous waters to tread.

I’m hoping that you’ll manage to get out from underneath the difficulties that you’re in as demonstrated in this thread, but I also hope you’ll do the right thing, in all regards.

Good luck in your ventures, and I hope you make all the parties involved in this thread, including yourself, right.

Thank you.

I have created a really solid supply chain over the years and they are all legal, since here in Brazil owning such species ilegally is worse than killing someone (literally)


Out of curiosity, this knife is already in its forever home on California. No problems with customs, all docs ok.

 

[Matthew Gregory]

It’s not a matter of ownership. In point of fact, I own some Dahlbergia Nigra that was legally purchased in the US. The point is that I can’t send it anywhere outside of the US. That’s the point of the CITES ban. If in fact you sent a knife with a handle made of that species outside of your country, you’re in violation of International law.

As you’re holding to this conviction, I’ll sign off here, and let you contend with whatever outcome arises.

 

[Francisco Vaz]

It’s not a matter of ownership. In point of fact, I own some Dahlbergia Nigra that was legally purchased in the US. The point is that I can’t send it anywhere outside of the US. That’s the point of the CITES ban. If in fact you sent a knife with a handle made of that species outside of your country, you’re in violation of International law.

As you’re holding to this conviction, I’ll sign off here, and let you contend with whatever outcome arises.

How exactly do you think your Dalbergia Nigra reached you in US other than importing? There are legal ways to do it.

 

[Matthew Gregory]

It was purchased through a licensed dealer that had owned the wood PREVIOUS to the ban, and had all the requisite paperwork.

 

[Sharp & Fiery]

I got a CITIES permit to export a knife with banned materials. Just cause it’s on the CITIES list does not mean that it can’t still be legally harvested and exported.
Unsure if Brazillian Rosewood is a complete ban. Just an FYI.

 

[Matthew Gregory]

I’d say this topic is worth a call to Customs for clarification, no?

 

[Francisco Vaz]

I got a CITIES permit to export a knife with banned materials. Just cause it’s on the CITIES list does not mean that it can’t still be legally harvested and exported.
Unsure if Brazillian Rosewood is a complete ban. Just an FYI.

Yes, Miami customs opened the package and cleared same day, as it was on customs declaration the exotic material.

I will stick to the post purpose...

 

[Matthew Gregory]

Yes, Miami customs opened the package and cleared same day, as it was on customs declaration the exotic material.

I will stick to the post purpose...

If that is the truth, then you have my apology. Sorry for putting you on the spot about this, as you’re already contending with enough, here.

Best of luck in working through your issues.

 

[Francisco Vaz]

If that is the truth, then you have my apology. Sorry for putting you on the spot about this, as you’re already contending with enough, here.

Best of luck in working through your issues.

All good, i deal with many exotic materials - up to date the only material i had problems was mammoth fossil, that during one shipment was confused with elephant ivory and required a lot time to be cleared.

All the other materials are often harvested after storms, and legally collected, these species are worth gold especially for musical instrument companies, there is a quite strong monitoring on it. The kingwood i have here is over 100 years old, mostly taken from VERY expensive, century old repurposed furniture - it has been months since i was able to purchase more, as it naturally gets more rare every day

Im thankful for you to share those sites, good information will never be enough.

 

[Steven65]

Apologies my post was accidental.

 

[jfk1110]

Hey Francisco....... So sorry you are having this mess!!!! I had a pain just reading these, knowing you are not in anyway malicious or deceitful........I've had my own shjt to deal with......40% vision loss........So I don't spend as much.time around here.........I would have mentioned the troubles you were having....You told me.via PM........when it was snowing here.....

Chin up my friend,. I'm pulling for you... What doesn't kill you makes you stronger!!!!
Stay safe and healthy!
Best,

James

 

[Steven65]

Good afternoon everyone,
Still quite mess here but just wanted to do a quick jump here.

First thing is that i will not fight over Brian's demands, he is the customer here is my policy is quite clear as it all has been: i will turn backwards if possible to meet customers expectations. Not only a customer, but a really great customer that even offered to pay me extra on a few knives he owns from me when back in 2023 i had to make some medical exams for a strange pain i was feeling in my guts.

I have reached the international market a couple years and since them i have delivered over 200 customers (probably more) and made over 400 knives, not only to US initially.

I left high school straight to knifemaking full time, back in that time knifemaking as a career was not even a thing, but i just wanted to follow up my passion... you can see by this thread my artistic skills may have created a gap between my logistic/business skills, i apologize for this, im more listening than talking here, but that is the conclusion i reached after thinking how one of my great customers reached this point of frustration after complimenting my work over months, i did really bad!

It somehow challenging to write such text in a different language on a smartphone, i dont want to express myself wrong, but:

Any member with on going orders with me, if you dont trust anymore my work, that is completely ok and i wont fight on it
I have created now this email fvaztroubleshooting@gmail.com - please contact here if you have order with me and would like to discuss any problems and asking for a refund. It will be honored and it will be fast.

Regarding shipments delay, there were in fact specific delays due DHL using 3th companies in my region. It is important to say i live in the southernmost city on Brazil, LITERALLY, and quite far from the big city which DHL has their gateway. They had used in the past really bad 3th companies that used to make a very long route to make it worth in terms of gas and logistics (very few people in Brazil uses DHL, most of them uses Correios which is an state company) - so to make it worth, they grab packages for many companies, and for such, they attend to multiple interests. Last year we got over 4 cyclones in my region, there are plenty media reports of it and i have shared some of them - there were a lot of queues created in the shipments since 3th uses trucks and honestly, it seems to me that a small business shipping low volume of about 1~2kg packages will be obviously put in low priority compared to bigger companies that bring much more income to DHL as customers. There are public reports of many other customers here in Brazil claiming problems with 3th - this is the reason why im leaving them and starting to use UPS which seems to have a much greater reputation and use also different routes, as well better 3th companies. UPS and fedex seems to be the best by now. A few delays became so bad i even personally visited their warehouse in feb, which i also reported to Brian, because i was not sure it they were lying to me as they are not very helpful via call. It is quite far from me but it was necessary.


It is also important to remember that, posts like this may create a bias that im a horrible person or maker, but in bulk of all the knives i did last year and delivered, more than 150, a very small portion faced problems, i would say with ease less than 10% of the customers - there are in fact a few exceptions as you can see in this post, but i'm only one and making high-end knives is a kid playground compared to dealing with people in a business - this requires tones of skills that you can only develop by trying, as someone with 24 im still a work in progress

Literally by every transaction i usually learn a thing or two - i got customers over all the states of america and sometimes a customer from NY is different from a customer in California, bringing different demands, communication and such. It is a true challenge to adapt to that, but i do my best, most of my customers have a very friendly relationship with me.

Last 2 months i have been very busy assisting my parents in law, which also forced me to slow down my production as they live far from me and sometimes i had to be in their home taking care for days, i didnt even posted any available knives in the forum - my communication become really bad with customers and i also reported that to orders.

If you're a customer and currently are concerned, please feel free to contact me, i can prove every single word I said here, i would love to share anything on my end that could make the transaction smoother or easier, including a refund if you simply dont want to be concerned.

Bladeforums is a great community, made customers and friends here, people taught me a lot, even a few customers reached me back in 24h offering to help and discussed how the situation is towards the customers perspective - this is super important, most of my customers here comes from different generations and more than double my age, is really difficult for me to see how you see but im blessed for the help.

Blues As of the kingwood i posted in the bladeforums, i mentioned by that time that customs COULD create delays, as sometimes they can create by basically anything, but this is unlike to happen as CITES allows packages of under 10kg as per finished products (such as knife scales) link https://www.bada.org/resources/business-briefing-cites-restrictions-lifted-certain-rosewoods
10kg is quite a lot of kingwood, probably no one would buy that much.

I will be sharp on my email, but please tolerate longer times to reply back, we are about to be hit anytime from now - my city is in the sea level and all the rain up the states comes here to flows to the ocean, could be something bad or could be something BAD, we dont know yet.

Thank you all, sorry for typos of any kind.

You seem very willing to solve the problems and go forward and I applaud you for that. Please remember for the future that taking payments upfront is a big risk for your customers and for you.

When you take payment upfront you become indebted to the customer, like a bank does to you when you deposit money with them.

When you owe people money they expect a much higher level of transparency and service delivery and they will not be satisfied with constant excuses.

You can remove all the pressure from yourself by no longer taking payments upfront. Once you do that the customer can never accuse you of anything more than being late with you promised delivery date.
If the customer cancels the order, you can then sell the knife to someone else without any pressure on you.

I have been collecting custom knives for almost 40 years and I can tell you that nothing upsets customers and collectors more than when they have paid money and promises of delivery are not met.

All good, i deal with many exotic materials - up to date the only material i had problems was mammoth fossil, that during one shipment was confused with elephant ivory and required a lot time to be cleared.

All the other materials are often harvested after storms, and legally collected, these species are worth gold especially for musical instrument companies, there is a quite strong monitoring on it. The kingwood i have here is over 100 years old, mostly taken from VERY expensive, century old repurposed furniture - it has been months since i was able to purchase more, as it naturally gets more rare every day

Im thankful for you to share those sites, good information will never be enough.

I too live in a place where exotic CITES controlled materials are readily available and not regulated within our borders. However many of our knifemakers have had extremely unpleasant experiences with U.S. Fish and Wildlife inspectors over these materials.
It is now at a point where all the South African knifemakers simply refuse to export them out of our borders under any circumstances.

You are a young man and hopefully you will have a long and illustrious career as a custom knifemaker. However having a problem with U.S. Customs and being on their radar could be a huge problem for you if you inadvertently ship the wrong thing without the correct paperwork.

 

[fnordmorph]

I am sadly in the same position with Francisco Vaz. Paid for several knives well in advance. He sent me me pictures of knives in progress, and complete (gorgeous), then a a DHL tracking number. When last I heard from him, the knives were supposed to be delivered by May 10th (we're not quite there yet), but DHL has not acknowledged receipt of the package several weeks after I was sent the tracking info.

Timing is such that my knives may very well have been lost in the deluge. I may be in for a pleasant surprise and have them show up. Failing that, I am hoping he will make things right by replacing them, since I have no indication that they were ever actually shipped. I am, however, concerned.

For now I'm not asking for a refund, and waiting to see what happens. I will report the outcome.

 

[eneloop]

I'm in the same position as others (with several knives). Now he promised me that my orders would be shipped out by UPS and RECEIVED by early Q3 2024.

I really hope he will honor his promises without much excuses. If things are not going well by promised deadline, I'll bring up my full story.

 

[Francisco Vaz]

Absolutely honoring every demands as always have been, i reached home earlier yesterday and i will be promptly updating with the status of packages that got delayed recently.

 

[JJ_Colt45]

I have hope that everyone will come out of this whole and happy. It is at least nice to see a maker responding and seeming to be willing to be helpful instead of hiding from responsibilities as many have through the years.

Wishing the best for all customers and the maker moving forward.

 

[Francisco Vaz]

I have hope that everyone will come out of this whole and happy. It is at least nice to see a maker responding and seeming to be willing to be helpful instead of hiding from responsibilities as many have through the years.

Wishing the best for all customers and the maker moving forward.

Thank you, i was always very communicative, in fact my customer service got worse recently for some family situation which most customers were aware of, but running of my responsabilities was not something i ever did. Once again, obviously happy customers are not concerned and wont be here commenting, so it makes it looks like im a horrible maker. I have meet expectations, timings and schedules of dozens of orders recently and over the last year, but this is a post which serves the purpose of pointing out a few of my failures.

Nothing else to be said other than Honoring the support received by customers and again, that email i created solely for this crisis still open to refund requests, edit: some people may just dont want to deal with this frustrating situation and just quickly receive the $ back and thats totally ok. Thanks.

 

[Blues]

Thank you, i was always very communicative, in fact my customer service got worse recently for some family situation which most customers were aware of, but running of my responsabilities was not something i ever did. Once again, obviously happy customers are not concerned and wont be here commenting, so it makes it looks like im a horrible maker. I have meet expectations, timings and schedules of dozens of orders recently and over the last year, but this is a post which serves the purpose of pointing out a few of my failures.

Nothing else to be said other than Honoring the support received by customers and again, that email i created solely for this crisis still open to refund requests, some people may just dont want to give me the chance and just receive the $ back and thats totally ok. Thanks.

They certainly gave you a chance by paying you up front. That's not nothing. That's called trust. The fact that they waited as long as they have is further evidence of that trust.

One is not entitled to trust. One earns it via their character and how they handle both their business, and adversity.

This is a setback for you, but one that you can turn to your advantage in the future and use to illustrate both your professionalism, and responsibility toward your customers.