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Yellowhammer

Well-Known Member
Supporting Member
Joined
Feb 21, 2020
Messages
1,172
Location
Born In Alabama, reside: Louisiana (unfortunately)
My Fellow HBA Member,

I bought an engine from a gentleman in Arkansas. It is an HKS 700E. Both the seller and myself made a point to document every single step of the sale and transfer to include the chain of custody.

He took pictures of the crate that he made himself, also took pictures of the contents, made a manifest, and finally sent me a picture of the crate totally enclosed with shipping label attached. He also insured the contents for the price of what I paid for the engine. I was just as pleased as punch and waited excitedly as a kid for Santa Clause for my new engine to arrive.

The shipper and I both would comment on where it was in transit according to what location it was last scanned into by U.P.S. All was going well until it arrived at the Jackson, MS hub. The engine sat there for nearly a week as it was supposed to be on it's way to Louisiana where I reside. After three days, the shipper tries endlessly to get into contact with an actual human be3ing. He finally speaks with someone form their customer service department which is located in Cairo, Egypt. At first the engine was lost and then told, in the same conversation that it was stolen.

The next thing the tracking number showed that it had been damaged. So one could imagine the disgust I am experiencing. Before we discover the damaged report which was two days later after his Cairo, Egypt conversation, I began researching and discovered they are headquartered in Atlanta. I was able to find the personal contact information of the C.E.O. for U.P.S., Mrs. Carol Tome'.
Don't ask me how I acquired her contact information but I was able to.

On one of the longer shots I have taken in my life I sent her an email totally thinking she would never respond to a commoner like myself. I was wrong. I explained to her the value of the contents and went on to explain to her that I was not a wealthy man and could not afford to loose this cargo. I also explained it was for an aircraft I was building to fulfill a life long dream of building and flying my on airplane.

She felt sympathy for my situation and informed me that she would have her president of customer service, Mr. Roger Brown, contact me in short order. Mr. Brown did indeed contact me and informed me that he would be handling the recovery or recuperation of money lost on the engine. At this point my faith in humanity had been somewhat restored. I was never going to be happy until what I paid for was at my door step safe and sound and in the condition of which it was shipped. I also sent Mr. Brown every single bit of documentation that both the shipper and myself had accumulated. No stone was left unturned.

Mr. Brown then tells me that he will be contacting me back shortly with some information.

Waiting as patiently as I can, he then informs me that the package had indeed been damaged and that it had been sent to Kansas City. He said that the engine should be at my house no later than two business days. The engine arrived on the second day minus the nearly three thousand dollars worth of items needed to make the engine work. Items such as the oil cooler, oil tank, CDI boxes, ignition coils and others The crate that it was shipped inside of was not what my engine was delivered in. It was a shoddily put together cardboard box and when I opened the box the engine was beat all to hell.

I made sure to take pictures before I ever touche3d the box and than documented every detail for the record. I will post the entire evidence so everyone can see what I am trying to explain.

Long story short, the shipper gets a letter from Crawford & Company that respectfully denied our claim after a careful investigation on the package. Clearly the y did no such investigation because if they had they would be asking me where to send the check.

The shipper then responded by sending the documentation we had both collected and proceeded to inform them that if this was not handled the right way that Attorneys would be in touch. Their claims representative said that he would review the documentation and let us know something soon. This was yesterday that he told us this. So I we are waiting for a reply as I type this.

Has anyone experienced anything like this before? If so, how did you handle it?


Thanks to all for taking time to read and reply. You opinion is highly valued and appreciated.

-Yellowhammer
 
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