I have been a fan of using Delta Air Cargo for trophy shipments from Africa and other locations for about 10 years, they have been the easiest to deal with if you self-clear your trophies (which I do), and I have requested various outfitters and expediters use Delta for that reason.
Well, I believe that is no longer the case...I had a shipment from SA this week and I follow the shipment progress online thru Delta's cargo portal. I knew when the container arrived at DFW on Monday, but no call from Delta. No call from Delta on Tuesday. No call from Delta on Wednesday morning. So, I call their air cargo office and inquire as to the whereabouts of my crate, supplied air waybill number and other info and after a few minutes was told "oh yeah, it just got here and we didn't know how to contact you", she didn't have an answer when I told her I knew it was logged into their warehouse at 9:40 am on Monday and that my number was on the waybill. Bright and early yesterday morning I go to the Delta Air Cargo location and lo and behold, all of the Delta employees have been replaced with contractors from ATS, whoever that might be. Talk about not giving a rat's ass, they couldn't care less if they helped me (or anybody else, as you will see). After a 15 minute staring contest, the lady behind the counter acknowledged me and I got my paperwork to go to USFWS and Customs.
By this time it is mid-morning and I figured the USFWS Inspectors would be out of the office and I was right. I called and spoke with the supervisor and was told he would come back into the office if I really needed him to do so, but I told him I would come back early today. He said he would meet me before business hours to make sure I could beat the rush at Customs (and he did so, 7:00 am this morning).

Back to the Delta office: when I signed for my paperwork I noticed the name below mine was Dave Fulson (Chifuti, Safari Classics, TAA, etc) so I sent him a text saying I had picked up my paperwork and noticed his name so figured he had a trophy shipment as well. He called a minute later and told me Delta had lost his rifle case and he hoped it was there, but no one had called him (big surprise), I told him I would be back to that office and would see if they would either tell me what it was or let me look at the package. They wouldn't tell me but did point it out and it was a rifle case, so I let Dave know.
Now to this morning, first thing at USFWS, the inspector was there as he said, paperwork approved and on my way to Customs in a matter of minutes. I had to wait for customs to open and signed in, one of the customs officers recognized me from earlier clearances and called me ahead of several on the list. He said clearing trophies is easy and there was no need to make me wait, you gotta like that. Five minutes and I'm on the way back to Delta to claim my crate and my phone rings, it's Dave Fulson, he is at Delta and they won't give him his gun case...they tell him he has to pay the freight charges from Joburg! He is pissed, to say the least and those of you that know Dave know he can get a bit testy. The contractors at Delta didn't care that he had a Delta lost baggage claim number, or that his name was all over the case. They wouldn't help him at all. In fact, when I walked back into the Delta office, Dave was sitting behind the United Air Cargo counter trying to get someone at Delta to help him.
After another 15 minute stare down, I was waited on and after numerous trips into the warehouse offices, the lady proclaimed I could take my crate but she couldn't give me a copy of my USFWS clearance or Cites permits because their copier/printer was broken. She went to United and they made her copies. Ten more minutes went by waiting for a forklift driver to move my crate 35 feet (it weighed 70 kg, I could put it in my truck)and when he finally did load the crate, I asked him to set it on the tailgate and I would arrange it like I wanted it, but nope, he set it all the way in and managed to scrape some of the Line-X off off my tailgate.
I'm not sure what I will do about my next shipment, but I'm damn sure contacting Delta about the piss poor performance of their contractors at DFW.
Oh...when I left Dave was no closer to getting his rifle than he was when he dropped it off in Joburg. They were sending him to Customs to see about a clearance. I'll ask him to post about his experience.

Wow...all I can say is that Wells World Wide is worth every penny! Got to love Cindy Rulon.

I wish I had the patience for all the back and forth, but honestly, I would rather just pay someone to handle all this, plus if there's an issue, like USFW seizing your stuff, I don't have to deal with it!

Karl
I had the same experience with SAA in 2009 when my rifle did not make it on the flight .Had to deal with some fly by night freight company who black mailed be out of $70 to get my rifle back in Sacramento. They bent the heck out of my rifle case with their fork lift and denied they did it. when they I got home they wanted more money I had my rifle so I told them to shove it

quote:

Originally posted by Oryxhunter1983:
Wow...all I can say is that Wells World Wide is worth every penny! Got to love Cindy Rulon.

I wish I had the patience for all the back and forth, but honestly, I would rather just pay someone to handle all this, plus if there's an issue, like USFW seizing your stuff, I don't have to deal with it!

For Lynette and Cindy at Wells

Howdy Karl, DO keep us posted! You too, Dave!

Perfect example why I took nothing home from my last four trips. Not worth the headaches.
Cal

Dave went to customs and the customs officer was able to retrieve his rifle case for him, and he didn't pay the freight charges from Joburg. I've got another shipment coming in a couple of weeks
and it is supposed to ship via Delta as well. I hope their service improves a great deal in the next few days.
I complained to a couple of people at Delta about the piss poor service; probably didn't do a bit of good but at least they know.