Items missing from overseas shipment - HELP!

[Deleted User]

joAnn wrote: »

Thank you! That's the sort of advice I'm after.

But you have no idea where in the world your other items were sent. The chances of anyone who has your stuff actually seeing a plea for their return is utterly remote.

Good luck, though..

Manxman_in_exile

joAnn wrote: »

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.

Expensive wines? what did your insurer ask? I assume you declared valuable articles.

joAnn

Manxman_in_exile wrote: »

Expensive wines? what did your insurer ask? I assume you declared valuable articles.

Ok well expensive wines means a few good bottles of champagne given to us for special occasions....
Not vintage or particularly worth a lot

I guess I'm just devastated by the whole thing and am really mad that we paid a lot of money for a service that failed us.

photome

I see that you moved back to the UK before march last year. does that mean it is 18 months plus since your items were shipped?

Have the company traced the container your items were on

Have you involved your insurer

joAnn

photome wrote: »

I see that you moved back to the UK before march last year. does that mean it is 18 months plus since your items were shipped?

Have the company traced the container your items were on

Have you involved your insurer

We left Australia many months earlier but the shipping was only arranged for May last year, ship arrived in August 2016, only 56 of our items were off loaded. The forwarding freighter here did not tell us there were over 70 items missing. We only found out this week that our handler in Oz cut corners and put some of our stuff In a group container and we are trying to ascertain which one it was.
Insurance is no good for personal and sentimental items and that's all I care about!

lincroft1710

We have now established it has been over 12 months since your items arrived in UK, and possibly up to 15 months since the missing items were lost.

White goods and furniture are rather large items to go missing. Can you find out which ports the handler sent containers to in say May to September last year? Although even this may prove fruitless as you would then have to find out what happened to the "rogue" container after it was landed. Was it unloaded at the port and its contents sent on their separate ways or was it trailered somewhere else.

joAnn

Quizzical_Squirrel wrote: »

I can't help but I just wanted to send you a hug.

Our things have been in shipping containers on the high seas many times and I absolutely feel your pain. I was upset about damage and the loss of items to organized theft in customs but that's nothing compared to the loss of your sentimental items.

I'm so sorry this happened to you.

Thank you so much for your kind words. It really is devastating and I can't stop thinking of all the personal, irreplaceable items we have lost. Just today I thought about my three kids baby record keepsake books and how I carefully recorded each milestone and put photos to mark the occasions. I'm a bit sentimental:(

joAnn

lincroft1710 wrote: »

We have now established it has been over 12 months since your items arrived in UK, and possibly up to 15 months since the missing items were lost.

Not even sure the missing items were sent to the UK!

White goods and furniture are rather large items to go missing. Can you find out which ports the handler sent containers to in say May to September last year? Although even this may prove fruitless as you would then have to find out what happened to the "rogue" container after it was landed. Was it unloaded at the port and its contents sent on their separate ways or was it trailered somewhere else.

It could be that our missing things went onto the boat that our other belongings went on, but possibly anywhere else in the world. I contacted the shipping company who won't help and have reverted me back to the incompetent handler who lost it all In the first place. I have tried to find the history of ships that left port during the period and see if that leads anywhere.

lincroft1710

The trouble is the passage of time since the items went missing. The chances are that the items have long gone from the port at which they were landed. Even if you could find that port, you would be very, very lucky to find the items still in a container in a disused corner of the port.

photome

lincroft1710 wrote: »

The trouble is the passage of time since the items went missing. The chances are that the items have long gone from the port at which they were landed. Even if you could find that port, you would be very, very lucky to find the items still in a container in a disused corner of the port.

And who would look? there will be hundreds/thousands of containers at any given port.

OP I do feel for you,, but maybe for your own sanity it is worth letting it go