My sad story and some advice......

[Revlimiter Racing]

Chances are many of you will never do this but if you ever get into a situation where you might - think twice!! Here is the story.

So - I bought myself a new 05 CRF450 and gave the 04 to my kid. Since the suspension it totally wrong for both of us at this point and the 04's needed a major "freshen up" I decided to take all the suspension off and send it to my suspension guy down in Palo Alto CA (Aftershocks). Then I had had a brainstorm - I was travelling down there the following week and figured I could just take it with me and drop it off to get done while I was there for a few days, figured this woul dsave me some $$ in shipping etc.

After trying my hardest I figured there was no way I had any bags big enough to carry the forks so I packed them up and sent them in via mail, the shocks went into my baggage and with me on the plane.......only the bag never arrived??
So now I am trying to file a claim since the bag has been missing for over 2 weeks and I find out that they want receipts, uummmm, how the hell am I supposed to get them receipts when the parts came on a bike?? Not only are they telling me that it will take 6 to 8 weeks to get me $$ to re-imburse me IF I can provide receipts, but they are saying that if they find the bag within those 8 weeks they will not re-imburse me anything.

Now I am totally screwed cause I need to get my shocks on ASAP - I have races coming up. Basically I have to purchase 2 shocks and hope they dont find the luggage at this point so I can get my $$ back.

Lesson - DON'T put ANYTHING of value in your luggage when travelling by plane! Best part is they put tags on the luggage with bar codes so I figured they could trace it right?? NO!! They dont even use the barcodes is what I was told....what a load of crap! :bang:

Anyway - thats my sad story and if it even helps one person I will be happy!

-Shane

 

[dmast01]

us postal service stinks

man i feel your pain . I had a similar problem in 01 when i sent my suspension to factory connection with our great postal service . I insured it for the cost of replacement and then some, the only problem is i misplaced the recipt for the insurance. when the package did not show up i freaked out and called the post office they said they have no way to track packages. They could have cared less about my loss. To make a long story short. My parts were gone for a month and a half and i get a call from lost mail recovery in st paul minn. seems the label fell off and that is the only place that can open packages, luckely my name and address were inside also. Lesson to be learned never send anything of value through the postal service use ups or fed x they can track pacakages properly!

 

[biglou]

Did the bags make it through screening? A couple of metal, nitrogen-charged cylinders stuffed into checked baggage might have raised a couple of red flags!

 

[xsnrg]

That was my first thought. They were probably assumed to be some type of grenade launchers or some type of weapon. I'll bet the black helicopters are following you.

 

[Vic]

Duck!!!!

 

[Revlimiter Racing]

Damn!!! Maybe that is why I get the feeling I am being followed?? everywhere I go there are black crown victorias and helipcopters?? Heheheheh.

Anyway - I stood there as they went through the scan since I thought the same thing. They wanted to know what was in the bag and I tolf them it was motorcycle shocks, they still opened it and took a look at them etc and said it was fine.
-Shane

 

[dirt bike dave]

Shane,
This might be a long shot, but call your own insurance agent if you have a homeowner's or renter's policy. You MIGHT be covered.

My wife had a bag disappear inbetween back to back business trips. Our insurance agent (State Farm) was ready and willing to drive a check out so she could buy new clothes for her next trip less than a week later.

I was very impressed, especially because the airline was USELESS. Despite calling them every few hours, making one return trip to the airport, etc... they gave us no information and could never track the bag. We thought it was gone for good, then on the 3rd day a guy just showed up unnannounced at our place with the suitcase.

 

[acanz]

Shane,
This might be a long shot, but call your own insurance agent if you have a homeowner's or renter's policy. You MIGHT be covered.

My wife had a bag disappear inbetween back to back business trips. Our insurance agent (State Farm) was ready and willing to drive a check out so she could buy new clothes for her next trip less than a week later.

I was very impressed, especially because the airline was USELESS. Despite calling them every few hours, making one return trip to the airport, etc... they gave us no information and could never track the bag. We thought it was gone for good, then on the 3rd day a guy just showed up unnannounced at our place with the suitcase.

Good luck with that if you try that... my insurance company would say its not part of the house so your SOL. A word of adivce - with the way the country's airports are right now, I wouldnt take anything of value to me unless I could have it as carry-on. The airports are so ****ed up right now because of 9/11 that I could name a few people who lost a bag and never got their stuff back OR get re-imbursed.

 

[Revlimiter Racing]

Shane,
This might be a long shot, but call your own insurance agent if you have a homeowner's or renter's policy. You MIGHT be covered.

My wife had a bag disappear inbetween back to back business trips. Our insurance agent (State Farm) was ready and willing to drive a check out so she could buy new clothes for her next trip less than a week later.

I was very impressed, especially because the airline was USELESS. Despite calling them every few hours, making one return trip to the airport, etc... they gave us no information and could never track the bag. We thought it was gone for good, then on the 3rd day a guy just showed up unnannounced at our place with the suitcase.

Its worth a shot, I have nothing to lose at this point anyway! Thanks for the advice! I will call them tomorrow and see what they say.
-Shane