Lots of bicycles are offered to me, through my website. Should this one crop up, I do what I can to assist. Sorry to hear about this situation.

Something, very similar, happened years ago when a fellow, in California, bought my Basso Gap. The box arrived, crushed on one end, resulting in damage to the stays, which needed to be repaired, then the bike needed a repaint...

http://www.mytenspeeds.com/My_TenSpe...ullTQFront.jpg

Not sure which company was involved, but they denied the claim I initiated, stating that the reason for damage was "damaged glue flaps". Glue flaps, my behind! The end of the box was crushed (the new owner had taken a whole set of "as arrived" pictures, even before he opened the box - and lucky he did), the suede saddle was soaked and there were no glue flaps. I had taped the box up myself and I am a good taper!-)

Anyway, I went after the shipper, as did the fellow who received the damaged bicycle. It took some doing, coupled with a compassionate lower level employee of the shipper's company. She helped us resolve the problem, to the bicycle owner's satisfaction. Had is not been for that honest employee, the Basso's new owner and I would have been out of luck.

Wonder if that fellow, Jim M something or other, is a member of this forum?

Pssh, typical northern attitude! Blame the southerners!

But seriously, this stinks. Hope it turns up.

Sent you a PM.

Pretty awful situation. Good luck.

Terrible...best of luck Aaron.

The companies involved have at least two motivations to assure that their package loss percentages are kept very low, their reputation and their responsibility for claims.
So for someone to embezzle their employer's customer's large package takes some originality on their part to avoid getting caught, fired and/or prosecuted.

So there is reason for hope, that the package got separated from it's labeling documents due to normal handling, and that some policy exists to ship the documents forward while perhaps waiting for company procedures to locate the package which generates a claim.
Perhaps by forwarding the documents only, time is bought during which most packages would surface and be identified by weight or other documented characteristics, so that a recipient would at least get a speedy response to their claim.

No doubt there is accountability to which the contracted shipper must answer to IT Post, or risk losing business.
For this to be a successful theft by corruption, someone would have had to identify this bike's real value in order to choose to sneak it out as one of the company's losses, less likely though because of the size of this box.

I shipped expensive pedals to Canada via USPS, which did not arrive. Two to three weeks later though, the packaged was delivered back to me, because I had written my return address on it with a Sharpie. There was no timely notification to me of any tracking anomaly.
I would not be surprised if, should the now-reported package turn up, or have turned up, that it will simply be sent on it's way in no particular hurry, and with no notification. The contracted shipper likely operates with an economical minimal staffing level that follows routine processes for getting re-labeled boxes back in transit to their destinations.
The next ten days or so should be telling, and I do hope you receive the bike, undamaged.

Thanks all...

toavii...really appreciate your PM.

dd - it can't be sent on through customs without the documents, but hopefully it gets returned to the seller. I have done nothing but think this through for a week, obsessively, and most of what you said had already occurred to us. They do have a vested interest in finding the package - it's insured and the police are involved. Honestly, we both thought it would turn up by now and have gradually become more pessimistic about our prospects.

I'm not sure what access the shippers have to information about weight and size of the package through the process, but I don't have access to anything that says it was 16kg at point b and 1 kg at specific point c. Part of the issue is that you have three potential players, but can only talk to one (at least officially). Thus far I have found our lack of ability to find out who delivered the envelope and filled out the UPS slip frustrating.

I agree that there's reason for hope and hopefully will have good news to share in the future.

Thanks for the advise , Aaron , are increasingly demoralized and the hopes of finding him in my opinion are reduced greatly .I contacted both items , and also reported to the police authorities ( police ) with a detailed description of the content and serial number as well as coloring .if you want to help me spread as much as possible the disappearance , thank you allstefano

Hoping for good news on this one.

I am too. Stefano is a very good person and he doesn't deserve this. Less altruistic, I want the rooster!

I am stunned by what's going on...after weeks of insisting they had no other information and that they shipped exactly what they were given, I just received a call from UPS, with a new tracking number. This sounds like it might just get a happy ending after all!

Awesome!!!

As near as I can tell, Italian Post found the box and pushed it through without informing anyone. Seems like it's scheduled for delivery in a few days.

:thumb:

Honestly, I am cautiously optimistic, but really not surprised.

I once went on excavation at Carthage in my misspent youth, and my suitcase disappeared en route. The Alitalia office in Tunis took my report but was never able to tell me anything. Months later a New Haven CT taxi driver called me and said I've got a package for you, meet me on Temple Street in two minutes. WTF? thought I. But I went. Taxi pulled up, handed me my suitcase, had me sign a copy of the report I'd filed with Alitalia, and drove off. My head was spinning for hours.

[MENTION=73614]rhm[/MENTION], that's really weird.

I really thought that if it was going to turn up, it would have before. The lack of information and weirdness really made me pretty pessimistic.

By the way - Rhm, come meet me in Philadelphia in 2 hours. I have a package for you. Bring $500 and come alone.

Possibly the Italian police had a hand in it being found.

We'll likely never know. I'm just very relieved! Now I'm just worried about its handling on this odd journey.

I hope it works out for you!

I have a hard time believing that nobody is looking at the weight and dimensions in each handoff. I was meticulous in documenting the contents of each box and bag of stuff I shipped to myself here in Sweden when I moved last year from California. The shipper who picked it all up had to make a very detailed list of the contents, which were the boxed onto a pallet, put in a container, and listed on the ship's manifest (a long voyage through the Panama Canal!).

It's not that I was worried a guy was going to steal 17 pairs of men's underpants, or one set of extremely stinky hockey equipment, but I was afraid that an extra hundred pounds of "corn starch" were going to enter my box and then disappear from it, and I wanted to be protected if something were to happen. I was also a little worried that they would think I was moving a "bicycle repair business" without paying the requisite tax. ;)

Thrilled that it was found! Fingers crossed it gets there in the shape it was sent!

Most excellent. Best of luck on successful receipt, hopefully unscathed. This would be gut wrenching with most any bike worth shipping, but a rooster like this...here's hoping.

You should be reminded of the American Tourister commercial, a upper division course for those in the package and baggage handling industry.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8C-e96m4730

Stefano does a pretty good job packing, so I'm cautiously optimistic.

I doubt it.

Hope this turns out well, Aaron. Would be a shame to lose such a nice machine.

Agreed.

Hope this works for the best.