Items missing from overseas shipment - HELP!

lincroft1710

As none of the agents/shippers seem to have a clue where in the world your items have gone, this is surely a lost cause!

If they were put in a shared container the recipient (whoever or wherever they are) has probably either disposed of the (to them) valueless items and kept or sold the more usable ones.

If there is no paper trail then this is like looking for a needle in an extremely large haystack

Manxman_in_exile

lincroft1710 wrote: »

As none of the agents/shippers seem to have a clue where in the world your items have gone, this is surely a lost cause.....
...If there is no paper trail then this is like looking for a needle in an extremely large haystack

I think this is true. You may have unlimited time to track this down...but it may not be possible to track it down at all. How much "time" do you really want to put into this and is it worth it to you?

joAnn

Yes I know this is pretty likely a lost cause but I just hoped someone on here might have some inside knowledge of how these situations work. I understand from one of the organisations in the trail that it takes months and you need to advertise in papers if items are unclaimed before they are sold, so until I have personally done everything possible, I am remaining hopeful and determined.
No mention of how much compensation as yet but at first point, we will need a refund on the failed service approx aud$10,000 and maybe a bit more. Frankly I would prefer they spend the money on investigations! The total monetary loss is enormous - for example, we have beds without mattresses, a dryer but no washer, half of an L shaped sofa, with the cushions and other half somewhere else in the world.....

comeandgo

But surely you had insurance for these items either through the Australian company or through something arranged yourself?
If the companies are so sure your items were put into someone else's container you could ask that all owners of containers shipping from the same warehouses are written to to ask if they have anything not theirs?

agrinnall

joAnn wrote: »

I understand from one of the organisations in the trail that it takes months and you need to advertise in papers if items are unclaimed before they are sold...

But that sounds like you are talking about UK law, and your possessions could be literally anywhere in the world, so it's far more likely that other laws will apply. And of course, you'd need to know where there are in order to enforce any laws that might assist you. I'm afraid you have to give up on ever seeing your items again and instead concentrate on getting a suitable level of compensation for your loss.

joAnn

Manxman_in_exile wrote: »

I think this is true. You may have unlimited time to track this down...but it may not be possible to track it down at all. How much "time" do you really want to put into this and is it worth it to you?

Yep I know, first world problems and all that but what it's really worth to me is stuff like my wedding dress, 50 year old family baptism gown, antique jewellery box given to me by my father when I was little and sentimental family jewellery, expensive wines, little things from when my kids were young, old photos dating back years.....
Furniture and white goods I don't care.

[Deleted User]

I suppose the lesson to be learnt here is not to have items with sentimental value shipped together with everyday household goods which are easily replaced. Probably should have posted the photographs or brought them back in your personal luggage (though I accept things can go missing from airlines and through the post).

By putting all your eggs in the proverbial basket (or shipping container) you stand to lose quite considerably here whatever the amount of "compensation" you eventually receive.

lincroft1710

I appreciate your desire to be reunited with sentimental items, but as we have all been saying, unless you have any idea where the items have gone, you can't even begin to start looking.

It is nearly 12 months since the items went missing. For argument's sake let us assume the items (or some of them) ended up in the Philippines. They've laid unclaimed for well over 6 months, what do you think will have happened to them? Even if they were auctioned off, would there be a paper trail?

Your only hope of getting a remote idea of where the items have gone is for the shippers' sub-contractors to tell you where the relevant container(s) has/have gone. Even with that information you have a massive uphill struggle.

I note you mentioned wines, hardly likely they won't have been drunk

PasturesNew

Do you have photos? One route could be for you to post photos of individual identifiable things and create a facebook page of "Where's My Stuff?" and post it to all sorts of places, Lost and Found boards etc, hoping somebody spots something they just found.

It could all be in one box somewhere and in 6 months a stocktake of the warehouse comes up with "And one random box.... " and they open it and realise it's the one they were contacted about .... or it could've been "split" across all sorts of containers/boxes.

Even an emotional heart-puller for "Find My Wedding Dress" as the header .... listing the other things a bit later on the page .... then stick it on Wedding Forums etc say "in case anybody sees this anywhere for sale" .... because it's a heart-puller and they'd share, share, share, share it.

You never know ....

joAnn

PasturesNew wrote: »

Do you have photos? One route could be for you to post photos of individual identifiable things and create a facebook page of "Where's My Stuff?" and post it to all sorts of places, Lost and Found boards etc, hoping somebody spots something they just found.

It could all be in one box somewhere and in 6 months a stocktake of the warehouse comes up with "And one random box.... " and they open it and realise it's the one they were contacted about .... or it could've been "split" across all sorts of containers/boxes.

Even an emotional heart-puller for "Find My Wedding Dress" as the header .... listing the other things a bit later on the page .... then stick it on Wedding Forums etc say "in case anybody sees this anywhere for sale" .... because it's a heart-puller and they'd share, share, share, share it.

You never know ....

Thank you! That's the sort of advice I'm after. Never thought of that idea. You never know! I do have photos of my wedding day and some of the furniture And of course an Inventory of the items missing. Also took a photo of one of the piles of boxes raady to go in the shipment. Appreciate your suggestions