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!