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Please keep an eye out for my Missing Accordion

I had an accordion shipped to me and it never arrived. I am posting the details here in the event that it is now somewhere in circulation. Maybe someone will run across it.
Description: New, built by Larry Miller, 10-button, Black wood stain, black ribs on the bellows, bright yellow cloth with black stars inside the bellows, gold hardware, gold glitter sparkle flappers, engraved with my name: Saanen Kerson (of course someone could have covered that up). Key of C, semi-wet tuned, internal pickup, shipped with a shoulder strap and Peavey bag.
Sent via USPS Friday, February 2, 2007 from Iota, LA, headed for Napa, CA. Did not arrive. Mr. Miller and I have given all of the documentation to the Post Office and I’ve filed a claim for the insurance and the Postal Inspector is now involved. For the past three weeks, the Post Offices on both ends of this transaction have been looking for the package, but there’s no trace of it. At minimum the accordion is lost or damaged, but it’s unfortunately looking likely that it was stolen, as there is no evidence in the tracking system that it ever left Louisiana – it was never even scanned in to the tracking system. I’d rather have the accordion than my money back. Please keep an eye out for it at jam sessions, pawn shops, etc.. No questions asked, I’m just very sad that I don’t have my accordion and would like to find it. Any details, please call me: 707-799-2399, or e-mail me at the address above.
Mr. Miller has been extremely helpful in the search for the accordion and he feels responsible for this situation, although of course it’s not his fault. It’s such a sad story – the day he went to ship it, he took the package to UPS and their computers were down so they could not receive or ship any packages that day, knowing the he had told me he would ship it that day and wanting to keep his word, he took it down the street to the Post Office, shipped it, and… now it’s gone.
If it appears, of course I’ll post here again to let everyone know. Thanks everyone.

Re: Please keep an eye out for my Missing Accordion

Lawd i am shure sorry about your acoridian why yea some lyin thevin steelin cooyan stol it man caint have nothin no moor i will shore be lookin for it for you i asked raymond my boy if he knowed anything about it he said he diddent you ort to ask them drivers at the ups place about it one of them is probely the one who took it course they will lye to you probely sold it for dope money i shore am sorry for ya cuz i hope you find it if i do i will get ahold of ole larry and let him know----teebooger

Re: Please keep an eye out for my Missing Accordion

If this accordion was shipped insured there should be tracking numbers in the computer at the post office. Now that does not mean that the accordion could not have disappeared after that but there are numbers there and they can see at what point it went missing or if it was actually dropped off. Ask for those records.

Re: Re: Please keep an eye out for my Missing Accordion

I wasn't wanting to post too much detail because the internet's so wide-open and this is still being investigated, but here is what I do know:
Yes, the package was insured, there are tracking numbers, Mr. Miller has his receipt with those tracking numbers and the insurance, which we have given to USPS with the claim for insurance. The problem is - although the Post Office gave him the receipts with tracking numbers, they never actually scanned the package, so it's not in the tracking system. That's why the Postal Inspector is involved now. The only way the package will be "found" at this point is when and if it arrives at another Post Office somewhere and is scanned. So far it has never arrived anywhere. The way it was shipped, it also requires a signature/confirmation of delivery, this has never happened, so we know it wasn't misdelivered. There's no way to track it since the package was never scanned into the system. What I've been told by USPS is that with the amount of time that has passed since it was shipped, even if it had a bad zip code, the address label was damaged, the contents were damaged, or if it had arrived at any Post Office, at minimum it would have been scanned and could be found, and if it wasn't deliverable to this end for some reason, it would have been returned to Iota by now. They suspect that something "bad" happened, as in ruined or stolen.

Re: Re: Re: Please keep an eye out for my Missing Accordion

The P.O. where the first scan didn't take place is guilty .. this appears to be a P.O. hijack .. insider job.

I try to ship only via UPS or Fed Ex .. expedited ( or fastest way ) insured, with online tracking. I have several USPS nightmare stories ( undelivered, delivered after 6 months, damaged, non-traceable, no insurance collection etc ) I could recount. Never again with USPS.

Glenn

Re: Re: Re: Re: Please keep an eye out for my Missing Accordion

Wow, I guess I've been lucky. I have not had a bad expeience with USPS yet. But what I don't understand about this particular case is how the package was not scanned in Iota. EVERY time I have shipped an accordion by USPS, the first thing that happens, is the package is scanned. I actually see it done.
There's something "fishy" aboout this whole deal.
If the accordion was in fact "stolen" , it may be a while before it surfaces, for obvious reasons.
But , it will come up, sooner or later, and the name on front will not be easily hidden.
We will be on the look out for it.
Jude

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Please keep an eye out for my Missing Accordion

I agree .... there is something fishey about all that mess.

What gets me, is that many times on the delivery end of the line... postmen walk up to the door and leave things in boxes on the door step. If ya live in an area where that ya don't much get routine theft and what not (rural), fine and dandy... but there are some areas that folks will wind up missing a pink plastic flamingo off the lawn if it isn't chained up and more!

I always worried about theft at the Isleton festival.
Once had an inflateable allegator on top of my golf cart of all things (ya had to be there, I suppose )... somebody snatched that gad dang thing up for a got'cha just because they could!

Don't leave your accordion un-attended when out and about! Now and then we get posters announcing that the band gear got ripped off... those things grow legs and wind up in the hands of some crack head, if you're not careful.

sorry Saanen! bad break indeed!

I suggest that you plunk yourself at the nearest post office and raise holy hell until they honor the "insurance."

I am dealing with an accordian that was lost by the post office, and now after a year and a half, they are once again telling me that they can't find the paperwork... which I have had to resend at least 3 times.

The post office employee who "took me under his wing" to help get this resolved no longer remembers who I am or anything about it, and I guess I am just not supposed to collect on what I insured with them. Well, I won't be making that mistake again.

Last time they asked me if I wanted to insure a package, I very loudly stated that there was no point since they don't pay if they lose it.

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Please keep an eye out for my Missing Accordion

I agree with Jude. something IS fishy.
I always watch them "scan" my packages as well.

Guilt seems to point the way of the USPS counter person. Hmmm.

DP

It's not just USPS.

The horror stories I know were more with FedEx than with USPS.

The most outrageous example was when a friend had sold a guitar amp, and shipped it double boxed. The inner box was the original box from the manufacturer. When it got to the person he sent it to, there was a huge hole right through the boxes and the speaker itself. Someone at FedEx had obviously driven a forklift right through the amp! FedEx actually had the gall to suggest that they were not responsible because the item had not been packaged properly! I guess you are supposed to use a titanium container? He raised a big stink and they eventually paid up, but not without a lot of foot dragging and hassles.

-David

Correction, it was UPS not FedEx

My friend's incident occurred with UPS, not FedEx. Also, it turns out that they were sticking to their guns not to pay, even though a forklift had been run clear through the box. The reason he finally collected was not that the item was damaged. He had the guy who bought ship it back, and it got lost in the return trip. So, he got paid not because of their negligence in destroying the amp, but because of their negligence in losing it.

Amazing.

Do you ever wonder how these people with this "insurance adjuster" mentality live with themselves after finding every imaginable way of wriggling out of their responsibilities?

-David



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