At 11:55 PM 3/27/2003 -0500, you wrote:
>I did not (couldn't) lock my suitcases as the inspectors would just cut the
>locks. So my suitcases were unlocked for the whole journey and had LOTS of
>equipment in them. NOTHING was missing. SMILES!
>
>John V. Moore Nature Recordings
John:
I am delighted to hear your turn at the FAA roulette table came up a
winner, and that we may soon enjoy more of your prodigious South American
bird sounds! That's a good once. But our problems of theft during travel
from unlocked luggage remain essentially unsolved, as far as I am
concerned, one happy instance notwithstanding.
Nancy and I did receive the bag, BTW, (referred to under the subject line:
"Handling travel luggage and recording equipment? "
for those trying to follow a jumped thread line) after seven days and 20
hours. DHL finally relented and said: "No charge". Now I once again have
my original HHb, that locks up a random, forgets where it is whenever you
press STOP, never puts the date and time stamp correctly, but I love it.
A few related travel points that should be noted in closing:
1. Now, you MUST also leave shipped luggage UNLOCKED.
2. Skybrations which is run in part by a friend of mine, has now had
exactly TWO shipments in their 8 months of service, which did not arrive as
scheduled, with mine being one. The factors that seem to have contributed
to this delay:
A. The day it was shipped, Bush declared war on Iraq.
B. The week it was shipped, the latest threat was: biocontaminated
fruit from tropical islands to the mainland.
C. The package arrived in Honolulu Friday afternoon, marked by the FAA
for inspection; the FAA does not work weekends.
D. Being large and 55 lbs, the package was "not conveyable" (DHL's
term for allowed on conveyor belts) thus missed at least one connection.
E. The inspection was done under videotape surveillance, to ensure
security of the contents.
F. The items inside were in identical positions and conditions to when
packed.
3. Fed-ex and other domestic carriers apparently ignore FAA guidelines for
inspection, and when caught, just pay the Federal fines instead of delaying
their customer's freight.
4. The DHL is some percentage owned by German postal system, and there were
some GUESSES that perhaps German and French enterprises are currently
discriminated against by Federal types - tighter enforcements, etc. We do
hear in the news now of parallel cases, so this is not impossible. But,
guesses, here.
= = = = =
So, even though we had a long and inconvenient delay, the take home result
is - I would recommend this service again, and will likely use it, noting
the above contributing factors. The formulas that shippers must use to
tell them which packages must be inspected are apparently secret and change
a lot. I would never go on a recording trip simultaneous with war
declarations, generally as a rule. ;^0
my best regards,
Marty Michener
MIST Software Associates PO Box 269, Hollis, NH 03049
EnjoyBirds.com - Software that migrates with you. http://www.EnjoyBirds.com
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