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On the lookout for WWI and WWII documents (family heirlooms)

jjpf

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Hi everyone, I hope it's ok for me to post this here. I recently had a bad experience with a business owner in Cornwall, Ontario which has left me searching for lost family war heirlooms that are near and dear to our hearts. I'm hoping that someone out there happens to come across these irreplaceable documents and contacts me! I'm looking for Discharge Certificates from the RCAF for Charles George Peircey for WWI and WWII, as well as a Canadian National Telegram regarding Sgt. Arthur Charles Campbell Peircey and a coresponding newspaper article. For details on how these documents came to be missing, please read my story below.  Thanks!  Jen F.

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On December 1, 2012 I visited Mike Logan, owner of Logan’s Gallery in Cornwall, Onatrio. I brought a box containing family heirlooms; medals, photos and documentation of my husband’s grandfather, great uncle and great grandfather’s services in the air force in WWI and WWII. Mr. Logan told me that he could absolutely have my heirlooms cleaned up and framed by Christmas and he quoted me at "at least $500".

About a week later I went in to give him a deposit of $300 and to check up on the work he had done, at which point he had started to clean up the medals and Photoshop the old photos and documentation – the Photoshopped images would be used in the frame and the originals would be returned to me seperately. I asked Mr. Logan for a more accurate quote and he calculated everything out to be $1100! This gave me anxiety so he reconfigured everything to make the whole display smaller and cut the cost down to $900. I was still stressed out by the revised quote but I figured it didn't matter in the long run because it was going to end up being an amazing display that has been and will continue to be passed down for generations.

I called Mr. Logan about a week later to inform him that I would be picking it up on Dec. 21st and he was fine with that completion date. I called him on Dec. 20th to let him know that I was not going to be picking it up on the 21st as I live out of town and we were expected to have a snow storm, but that I would pick it up on the weekend. He asked me if I could come on the Sunday and I said I would. I asked him to call me on Friday (Dec. 21) to let me know how much the final bill would be which I assumed would be $900 plus tax, minus the $300 deposit – I needed to know in advance as he only accepts cash. I never heard from him, so I called him on Dec. 22nd. He told me his matte cutting machine broke and he was scrambling to try to get a part to fix it but "hell or high water it will be ready tomorrow". He still hadn’t had a chance to write up the final bill but he would call me later to give me an update and to let me know the total. He did not call me back so I called him on Dec. 23rd. He told me that his machine was not fixed but that he promised to have my project completed by Christmas. Since I was unable to drive to Cornwall on Christmas Eve, he said he would deliver it to my home. I never heard from Mr. Logan.

On December 27th, I went to his store and demanded that he return my belongings. I was fed up with the horrible customer service that I had been receiving, the project was not completed by Christmas, and I was not offered an apology or a discount. Mr. Logan informed me that he would not return my belongings as he had already spent too much of his time and energy on my project. I told him to keep my $300 deposit for cleaning the war medals, but I insisted on having everything returned to me. He refused. Finally, I conceded, as I had already spent money on the deposit. I demanded a discount, and after some bargaining, we agreed on a price of $800, including taxes, less the $300 deposit (in other words, I still owed him $500). This was to be completed by January 11, 2013. I had Mr. Logan type our agreement on his letterhead and he signed it.

Fast forward a few weeks – my project was not completed on January 11. I finally picked up the completed project on January 20. As I was paying Mr. Logan, he relayed some odd information – some items in his shop, unrelated to my project, had gone missing. He told me that he thought his drug addicted nephew was stealing from him, or a perhaps a disgruntled employee. I thought this was odd information to share with a customer. Mr. Logan handed me a sealed envelope which contained the original documents that were not used in the framed presentation. When I got to my car in Mr. Logan’s parking lot, I opened the envelope. I was missing 4 original documents: the telegram that my husband’s great grandmother received when her son’s plane went down in WWII, the corresponding newspaper article, and the great grandfather’s discharge papers from both WWI and WWII. I called Mr. Logan to let him know that I was going to go back inside his store to retrieve the missing documents. He told me that it would take him a while to find them, so I told him that I would return in 1 hour. When I returned, his door was locked and he would not answer my phone calls. I later sent him an e-mail letting him know that I was disappointed that he once again avoided me because he knew that I was upset. He e-mailed me a few times throughout the course of the week to let me know that he still had not located my documents. I told him that I was going to pick up my documents on Jan. 27; if he did not have them or avoided my calls again, I would file a complaint with the BBB, the Cornwall Chamber of Commerce and I would seek legal assistance. Mr. Logan chose to avoid me again. He sent me an e-mail on Jan. 28 to let me know that my original documents are lost in the abyss and, as a gesture of apology, he offered to make me a small framed presentation.

Needless to say, I did NOT take him up on his offer and I am disgusted with the treatment I got as a customer. I’m also devastated that these irreplaceable, invaluable family heirlooms have been lost. A lawyer and friend of mine sent him a letter in January asking him to rectify the situation or I would proceed with legal action. He ignored it, so he was served with small claims court papers in March. He then failed to respond with a defense, so a court date was issued without a submitted defense from him. Yesterday (May 2) was the big day. He didn't show up and I won my case against him. I'm happy that justice has been served, somewhat, but I'm still extremely disappointed that this whole ordeal took place and that these sentimental family heirlooms will never be returned.
 
Holy wall of text and no need to post this more than once......

MILNET.CA MENTOR
 
NFLD Sapper said:
Holy wall of text

Yep.  Not reading that.    :eek:

Also, maybe this should be in the Family Research forum?
 
Very sorry... that's why I put the important info first. There are many boards on this forum and I didn't see a Family Research board. I posted on the 2 boards that I saw fit. I just thought that maybe, in a long shot, a nice person who collects war memorabilia might come here and could help me out.
 
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