by Larry Ludwig » Tue Mar 03, 2009 2:30 am
One way they lose them is when they handle large pieces such as that, they are usually done by one employee... and the standard method is to put it in the bin and slide it in... usually wedged between two other heavy pieces. The label is stripped off the crate when shoved up against another one, and then the box is unloaded and goes to sort. When it gets there with no label.. they have to *guess* which plane/truck it came in on, and then go back and look through the pile of labels that have been stripped off of boxes and are left in the back of the planes/trucks. We would find them on our airplane almost every leg.
The unlabled crate goes to the "dead pile" and awaits a customer complaint, and then they take the dimensions and description to the pile and try to pick a winner. If you have your home information and a disclaimer such as "IF LOST PLEASE RETURN TO:" that can save your crate. Also, digital pictures of your crate emailed to the Rep can help a great deal as well... and bright colors and memorable markings (I painted "kill markings" on my for each time someone lost it, NWA, FedEx, UPS, Delta.. the classic being when I loaded it myself on my own airplane and they lost it and we were EMPTY. They weren't suppose to take it off the airplane... it had a huge sign DO NOT REMOVE from A/C on it... and the monkey did it anyway... he thought it meant do not remove the sign.
"When you have time to spare, travel by air"
Good Luck Skip,
LL
I know... you as the customer should not have to deal with such things... but.... atleast you can help reduce the chance of them losing it permanently/