I done been forked! Need a recomendation for repair work.

[Rob]

Need some help.  I need a local taxidermist who can create an estimate to fix some damage that was done to my shipment of African taxidermy.  I need an estimate for the total amount of damage done that I can use to file a claim, and then I will ask the person to do some of the work in the estimate, while I do the rest.

Here is the story.  After 21 months, my African Taxidermy finally arrived on Monday.  I had the work done in Texas, and it is fantastic, however the crates were mishandled by the shipping company and damaged in shipping.  One of the crates had part of the bottom ripped out, and the other was forked.  Some damage was sustained to my Kudu and Zebra, and significant damage was made to a diorama habitat.   Good news is that it is all fixable, and the other 8 animals are fine.
Here are the details:

Crate #1:  Heads:

-The crate with the heads looks like it had been hit as the side and bottom were crushed and an internal strut was damaged.  The heads were mostly OK however damage was sustained to the Zebra and Kudu.

-It looks as though once struck, the zebra shifted and rose up into the roof of the crate.  This caused about one inch of one of the ears to bend backwards 90 degrees and broke the internal ear form.   The other ear had about 1/3 of an inch bent 90 degrees.

-The strut on the side of the box where the Kudu sat was cracked in the middle indicating a pretty hard hit.  The floor under the Kudu was mostly missing, and when the crate was lifted up, the bottom of the kudu was actually hanging outside of the crate!  The hit evidently caused the Kudu to shift and there was damage in two spots.  The back of one of the ears appears to have rubbed and some of the skin has worn through.  There is also about ½ of an inch gap in the back where the skin meets the material covering the back of the mount.
 

Crate #3:  Diorama

This crate sustained the most damage as it was forked.  It was punctured in two spots on one of the ends where a forklift evidently hit it.  The forklift tines went through the end wall and into the diorama base causing two large holes in the base.
Additionally there were major stress cracks in the base.  Large chunks of the sand and plaster on the base have popped off.  It seems to also have shifted a bit and the rock top rubbed against the side of the crate.
The left fork went in just under the guinea fowl knocking it sideways where it was forced to ride and bounce at a funny angle but it appears to be OK now that I have bent it back to its original position.

I called my taxidermist in Texas and he said it looked like about a day or two's worth of work and that nothing was complicated enough to go through the hassle or expense of shipping them back to Texas as a local taxidermist should be able to fix the problems. 

summary:
-Kudu damage:  rubbings on ears and separation of backing for pedestal mount.
-Zebra damage: .33 inches of one ear, and 1 inch of a second ear have been bent.  Need to bend back into place and fix a crease that now shows.
-Diorama base:  two large holes in base need to be patched.  stress cracks and sand that have popped off need to be repaired.

I will want an estimate for all the work, and then will want the taxidermist to repair the Kudu backing and zebra ears.  the rest I will take care of.

Some photos:

#1: crate bottom damage
#2: external view of crate forking
#3: internal vie of crate forking
#4: Kudu ears
#5: Kudu Backing gap
#6: Zebra ear #1
#7: Zebra ear #2

So does anyone have any suggestions? 

[Rob]

Oh yeah, here is some of the stress cracks and other damage done to the diorama base

[bucklucky]

Wow, that really sucks. Dang people that dont care about other peoples things. I hate having to ship stuff just because of that kind of miss handling.

[bucklucky]

Well at $50.00 an hour and 2 days worth of work ....$800.00 for everything.

[bow4elk]

Damn - sorry this happened.  Best of luck getting it resolved.  Sort of kills the anticipation of popping open the crates after the long wait 

[Caseyd]

So tell UPS $1000 just to be safe 

[bucklucky]

Rob, probably a day to fix the ears and backing, May have to rehydrate the ears to get the crease out but would have to see it. Could be less on that too, I would say 6-8 hours through me for the zebra and kudu fixes, just depends on what is involved. Those ear fixes are hard to get perfect again.

[bow4elk]

Well at $50.00 an hour and 2 days worth of work ....$800.00 for everything.

Throw in some padding there for claims purposes.

[whacker1]

cost of shipping to and from Skookumchuck area could be expensive?   

[bucklucky]

I guess shipping should be factored in.......Id say about $1200.00 with shipping  What about time off of work to get the stuff to the Taxi, loss of wadges, and for the time off Im sure you had to take for mourning your taxidermy loss 

[bucklucky]

Let me know if you need me to help you out. I can print out a real estimate if you need one to send to the claims company.

[Rob]

Thanks for the help Charlie.

I don't want to overstate the costs, but I want a fair assessment of the total damage. I'll probably add in some money for driving the mounts over for repair. That seems fair. Total shipping of the two crates (8 feet long, 4 feet wide, and 4 feet tall each) was just under 1200 dollars from Abilene to Auburn where I picked them up.

I actually feel pretty lucky. If the forks had been higher when they went in, and it came in from the other end, it would have gone right through the warthogs chest.


more photos to assist with the assessment:

#1 another picture of the kudu mount backing gap
#2 -4 Cracking in the base
#5 -6 rubbing of paint on the steenbok rock.

[lostcat]

Those are not even my mounts and I am all P/O looking at those pics. what ever you do stand your ground with the shipping company and dont let em low ball ya. good luck

[bucklucky]

I'll go by the book for the estimate and break it down timewise and material wise. I'll work on it tonight and tommorow.

[Rob]

Thanks!

[EastWaViking]

When you get them fixed I'd love to see pictures of all of those mounts! 

good luck.

[BLKBEARKLR]

GOOD LUCK getting reimbursed from UPS, they just destroyed a Northern Pike I shipped, put a claim in and said it was inadaquate packing even though it was in plywood boxes and screwed down they said there was nothing around it to cushion it.

[huntnphool]

That just sucks

[Rob]

I'll post photos for sure.  I am re-painting the room so it will be a couple of days.  Still need to do the trim.

These did not go UPS.  crates were too large.  8 feet long, 4 feet wide, 4 feet tall each.  I had the reciever write that the boxes were damaged and forked so I am hoping that will be all that is needed. 

It will be hard for them to say these were not packed well enough to survive a pair of forklift tines through the side wall!

I'll be filing the claim today if I can get time to do it.

[Tom Reichner]

I'll go by the book for the estimate and break it down timewise and material wise. I'll work on it tonight and tommorow.

I would think that making the habitat / bases exactly the way they were before the damage would add quite a large sum to the total estimate.  If there are stress cracks I would assume that you would have to do patching and reinforcement from the underside before any of the cosmetic work is done on the visible surface. 

Of course, this is probably not necessary, and probably will not be done, but it really needs to be included on the estimate because the shipper is responsible to pay whatever it would cost to completely restore the work the the exact condition it was in prior to the damage. 

To bring the estimate up to what it should be, you should also add transportation costs for you to go Rob's location in Bothell and pick up the pieces.  That might require the rental of a U-Haul, which can be expensive.  Add that to the estimate.  And then you need to add $ to cover the costs of bringing the pieces back to Bothell when they are finished.  This should be added even if Rob is bringing the pieces to you.  Again, the estimate is not about actual costs - it's about what it would cost if every single nit-pickin thing was being done to restore the pieces to exactly the way they were.

[Rob]

Agreed.  The base was 750 to create from scratch.  I think the patching estimate Charlie provided is good and covers what is needed to restore it back to original condition.

I did add in 40 cents a mile to cover driving, and 20 an hour for my time to drive them down.  I should probably add another 70 on to cover 2 days of UHAUL rental... 

I plan on getting the claim filed by end of week.  I think I have all the paperwork needed to file now.  After adding in the UHaul costs the claim will be for a little over 1,200.00

I'll post back from time to time with progress.  It will be interesting to see how Estes Freight handles this.  This is where customer loyalty is made or broken.  It's easy to keep a customer when things go well, but when they go haywire, that is when you see who you are really dealing with.  Accidents will happen, but when they do they need to be made right.  I am hoping Estes does the right thing.

[Rob]

Quick update.  They closed my claim stating that they would re-open it upon clarifying why it is that the invoice proving the value of the goods being shipped was dated 7/2/08 for a shipment that was not delivered until 6/1/09.  The graciously (sarcasm) offered to re-open my claim upon clarification...

Sigh.  Why would that matter anyway?  They ran a forklift through my shipment!!

I called and proviced the following timeline to them.  have not heard if they have re-opened it or not.  It has been a week so I emailed back in today.

Here is the explanation I provided to them:

Per our conversation, here is the reason the invoice date proving original value was dated 7/2/08 for the shipment I received in June of 2009.

The goods in this shipment that were damaged were taxidermy mounts from an African Safari I went on.  The moment I received the shipment indicated in this claim was the first time the finished product was in my possession.  The process to receive finished mounts from the field in Africa can take between 1 and 2 years.   Here is a timeline of the steps and events involved receiving the mounts in this shipment.  

9/07:  I went on a hunting safari in Namibia Africa
4/08:  After being treated and prepared for shipment, the mounts were shipped from Windhoek, Namibia to Houston, Tx.  
5/08:  Skins and horns arrived in Texas.  
6/08:  Skins were shipped to a tannery in Texas
6/08:  Last half of June, had detailed discussions with Huffaker Taxidermy on how mounts were to be done
7/08:  Huffaker Taxidermy prepared invoice for work that was to be done
1/09 to 3/09:   Sometime in early 2009 tanned hides were received by Huffaker Taxidermy
5/09:  Mounts were completed and Huffaker Taxidermy engaged Estes Freight to pick up completer mounts and send to me.  
6/09.  Shipment was received by me.  Damage was done to both crates by what appears to have been a forklift.  

Let me know if this explains the timeline.  

More to come as this saga continues.

[Rob]

Good news!  I received notice today that they are going to pay the full amount I requested for damages.  I'm quite pleased!  Check should be here in a couple weeks.

All in all the claims department was easy to work with (other than closing my claim while waiting for info from me - and they opened it again when requested.)

[dreamingbig]

Glad it worked out for you.