A long long time... nah I'm kidding, this was only a couple weeks ago.
I had only received my first US (CG Dominix v3LE) and was already getting the itch to get it another one. Since I'm terribly indecisive sometimes (and also having to budget on a monthly salary means I was... not swimming in spare cash), I decided to go with a grab bag saber, since I had seen a few forum threads about recent grab bag trends and liked what I saw.
I placed my order for a grab bag with a midgrade on a Friday. Now since I only live about half an hour drive from US HQ (East Bay what up
), I figured I'd have it delivered to me at work and it would only take a day to get there via UPS. This may have been partially to blame for what happened next...
The Courier Strikes BackSince my saber shipment only needed to go about 20 miles but get delivered on Monday to my office, the package ended up sitting in a UPS terminal for two days. Come Monday just before lunch, UPS pulls up at my office with my package, but all was not what it appeared to be.
The box has been damaged! This could be disastrous! I quickly pop open the end of the box to see the hilt.
Aha! A blue anodized SI with vertical grooves, with a guardian blue LED.. and it does not appear to be damaged! This will do nicely, but further in...
Tragedy strikes! The blade has been crushed pretty thoroughly. My guess is that something heavy landed on the box and sat there for some time over the weekend. I took these pictures and immediately contacted US to report what happened. Emory was very helpful and quick to get a resolution rolling. A replacement blade was shipped out and the pictures forwarded to UPS for the damage claim.
Return of the MidgradeWithin a few hours, UPS had resolved the damage claim (likely because the pictures were pretty obvious). Two days later, UPS returns to my office with another long box. I held my breath for a moment while opening it, as this box too had been damaged in transit. Yet victory over the courier had been achieved! The replacement blade had arrived unscathed. and my SI was whole once again!
I really like how light the hilt is, and it's pretty nicely balanced compared to the bit heavier Dominix hilt. Now I'm considering requesting a second grab bag to match this one and turning it into a staff...
And one last shot side-by-side with my Dominix.
Let it be said that great customer service goes a long way.