I'm curious about something.

Say that someone had encountered numerous stuff-ups trying to get raw (unmounted) trophies back from Zimbabwe. Say further that the crate containing some (not all) of those trophies arrived in the U.S.in the wrong city in a consolidated shipment sent freight collect, said shipment having never been authorized by the someone on the receiving end. And finally, say that after adding up the freight bill, customs brokerage fees estimate, and an estimate of the cost to transport the crate to the correct city, our hero was aghast at the total. Would there be anything preventing him from simply declining the shipment and walking away, admittedly without trophies but also without having spent a cent other than the safari and a minor dip/pack/crate fee?

Hi Jhrod:

How much are they trying to wack you for, don't beat around the bush.

They screwed up, and not all of your trophies are even there, don't play nicey nicey with them. I am probably going to be in the same boat.

Where the hell did they send your trophies, was your importer Fauna & Floral..???

Regards.. Jim P.

Jim,

I honestly don't know costs yet. I'm just pondering all possible outcomes. My crate was to be consolidated with that of my hunting partner on the trip, and shipped to San Francisco. Last I heard, my crate was in Atlanta, destined for Chicago.

PAHunter

Why are you going to be in the same boat?

jhrod,

You need to post alittle more info, maybe someone on this site can help

Somebody is going to have to pay for the shipping. Do you have an agreement with a clearing agent? If they pay for your shipping, they are going to expect payment (and probably have a legal right to collect it from you). If you are thinking about abandoning the shipment, I would talk to your clearing agent and get it worked out in advance, before they pay for the shipping.

Regards,

Terry

Thanks Terry, that's the type of info I am looking for.

The clearing agent will be Hecny. I told them last week when this first came up that I was considering "abandonment" if things got out of hand.

I have not yet signed over power of attorney to the broker to clear the shipment for me, nor have I signed any other agreement with them. We've simply chatted on the phone, and the way I left it with them was that I would notify them when I got more clarity on the situation.

Good that you have not signed the POA. Good that you have notified them of the problems in advance. Sounds like you are in a pretty good position.

Regards,

Terry

One more thing-just to be clear, its in my nature for whatever reason to consider the worst and a way to deal with it, such that anything in between becomes a snap to resolve. It could be that I'll find out tomorrow the cost will be entirely reasonable even with the blips, in which case I will be most pleased to part with some hard-earned money, have some taxidermy done, and get some beautiful melons on the wall.

Thanks for the input!

jhrod,I would agree with your cautious but determined attitude.The problem - way I see it = is that we usaully have no written "contract" about the shipping.We tell the PH or he tells us that iy will be shipped to our stated address at our cost,on arrival.The actual shipping cost to be stated at arrival.
Even if everything goes well, there is no documented written agreement,so what stops a person from not paying? Looks like somebody would have to keep the goodies,but the hunter is OK?
In cases of assumed "overcharging",wrong destination ,brokerage fees, storage fees etc,
again,it seems posession is 99% of the law.Simply not paying - and not taken receipt- seems a viable option.Legal action by whome?
is it worth the legal fees? considering the shipment being avbout 2000$ and the legal fees to enforce payment 3-10 000$ ?
Therefore a negotiated solution seems to be in the interest of all parties, trouble is ,if the parties are big corporations - nobody really gets hurt personally or has any interest.

Hi Jhrod:

I heard something from a PH or Outfitter when I was in Reno that Zimbabwe has to ship one crate per hunter now. No more doubleing up, I don't know how true it is.

I do know my crate and 10 trohies are still stiiting at Maple Freight. I did receive a copy of the Export Permit/Re-Export Certificate from Goverment of Zimbabwe from Maple Feight attached to an email. All my trophies are in the box and waiting to be shipped. I also had Keystone Fur Dressing my Importer contact Maple Freight to co-ordinate my shipment.

But still a million things can go wrong...

Widowmaker: Jhrod hunted the same camp I did a week ahead of me last year when we were in Africa.

Regards... Jim P.

Hi Jim,

Good to see you look to be in good shape at this point!

I believe my trophies were in separate crate from my buddy's. What I meant by consolidation is that they would then be shipped together in a common container which generally reduces the shipping cost over having them totally separate.

In retrospect, we definitely should have had New Method where our stuff was to go, contacting CargoAir directly and perhaps that could have eliminated the issue from the get-go. Note to self - do that next time. And like I said, it may not end up being a big deal at all.

The way I look at it is that it is all part of the adventure. Hell, I read the State Department warning on Zim and went anyway, and will always be happy that I did, regardless of how this part may turn out.

Sheephunter,

You bring up some great points. It makes me all the more curious as to why we as hunters haven't spent a little more time in getting definition of some line in the sand as to what constitutes shipping authorization. I mean, what is to stop some scam artist from getting hold of my name and address and shipping me a crate of chocolate pudding freight collect. Seems like there should be some point in the process, before the actual shipping occurs, where the receiver has the opportunity to review and sign off on the final logistics.

quote:

Say that someone had encountered numerous stuff-ups trying to get raw (unmounted) trophies back from Zimbabwe.

Say further that the crate containing some (not all) of those trophies arrived in the U.S.in the wrong city in a consolidated shipment sent freight collect, said shipment having never been authorized by the someone on the receiving end.

And finally, say that after adding up the freight bill, customs brokerage fees estimate, and an estimate of the cost to transport the crate to the correct city, our hero was aghast at the total.

Would there be anything preventing him from simply declining the shipment and walking away, admittedly without trophies but also without having spent a cent other than the safari and a minor dip/pack/crate fee?

My brief general thoughts as follows


A lot of common knowledge from the past months & on these AR forums has tended to indictae to me that there are or have been some export problems from Zimbabwe, to what extent it is hard to be specific

For a shipment sent ex: the taxidermist/agent in Africa, generally speaking the golden rule is that the hunter will have obtained all the relavent trophy tags prior to departure from home, they would have been provided by his USA based taxidermist, the hunter would deliver these tags to his hunter outfitter in Africa. Provided the tags were all labelled CORRECTLY with the necessary relavent delievry information, then provided the hunting outfiiter handed them to the contracted Africa taxidermist/agent, and providing the Africa taxidermist/agent used a bona fide freight company, and they liased as required direct with the USA taxidermist then there is an obligation for whomever may have cocked up to put the problem right.

If you were agahast at the cost then someone must explain as it is very simple really to get a (good cost estimate) in advance of shipment of all the main associated costs including the airfreight ...

If you have contracted professional taxidermist agents both in USA and Africa then there normally are no problems of which you mention.

Finally, I dont believe you can just walk away from a COLLECT FREIGHT payment obligation, you can query it and discuss obvious inaccuracies BUT it is not morally fair or legal I believe to (just walk away) and say someone else can pay and experience the pain ..

Peter

Balla Balla,

Nicely done sir in providing a tactful perspective from the shipping side of the equation. Thank you for the thoughts!

And now for the most excellent update.

After further phone calls to the freight receiving company in Chicago, and further e-mails from the freight forwarder in Zim, it appears as though there was a paperwork issue only. The precise reason I posted it as a hypothetical and wasn't prepared to get too detailed.

Our shipment was at one time physically in the container destined to be shipped to Chicago, but it was caught before departure. The paperwork on the outside of that container was not however, changed to reflect this. So when the container landed in Atlanta, I was notified. It went on to Chicago and upon reception there, when the actual contents and inside documentation could be and were reviewed, our portion was crossed off and our crate was not present. Almost simultaneously to getting this sorted out with the folks in Chicago, our freight forwarder in Zim e-mailed waybill and flight numbers, along with confirmation that our trophies were headed directly to San Francisco as intended. They are due to arrive there Friday. Too cool for school!