My films have disappeared!

BradS · Aug 12, 2019

My son and I went on a road trip this summer. When we got back, I mailed his films and my films from the trip off to a reputable lab to be developed and printed. These were his first rolls of film ever!

Two weeks have passed and the lab has not cashed the check so I called them and they say that my film is not there....

I am kinda loosing my mind over this. You know, family memories and all that...

Sent via First class business reply mail....in a box with a pre-printed business reply mail label securely attached. Dropped the box in the big blue parcel bin in the lobby of the local US Post Office two weeks ago...and...pooof! its gone!

What can I do? Any suggestions?

laser · Aug 12, 2019

File a claim with USPS. It will be rejected. You have to appeal TWICE before they take you seriously. In order to get a real search you have to apply THREE times. That is how they work.

BrianShaw · Aug 12, 2019

Sorry to read about your woes. I always use USOS with tracking. Never had a package go astray. But I have had no tracking info for almost 2weeks... and then got all of the tracking messages from “accepted” to “delivered” in one fell swoop. I hope your package shows up soon!

removed account4 · Aug 12, 2019

Hi Brad
Was it your local PO ? If so talk to the manager, sometimes "stuff" gets stuck in the bin ( it happens at public libraries too ! but that's a different thread). I've had parcels go astray, eventually they show up. You usually have to wait a certain amount of time before filing a claim ( insurance claim via USPS ) I think it is 30 or 60 days. Back in the day I did work for a record company. I shipped merch I photographed together with a CD of images back to the record company " priority mail insured and tracked". It was a copier paper box you know the kind that hold like 20 reems of paper( the same box they shipped the merch to me in) ... MIA for 90 days... eventually it showed up.
I hope you and your son's film appear and the next thing you hear is an envelope with images in YOUR mail !
Fingers crossed !
John

Sirius Glass · Aug 12, 2019

I am terribly sorry to hear this. I had the same thing happen at Costco and I never got anything back. I hope you have better luck.

KN4SMF · Aug 12, 2019

Might have been a victim of the secret lottery the post office has. The letter carrier of the month gets to pick out any parcel of his choice and throw it into the package grinder, with the recipient placed on a do-not-respond list. I'm still waiting on the first piece of forwarded mail from moving 3 months ago. I've been round and round with them. They still can't get it in their skulls my old apartment was #4, not #1. May as well be talking to the wind.

Pioneer · Aug 12, 2019

I usually talk to the manager of our local post office in addition to filing the necessary form. I find that I get a bit more attention that way and I have never had to file on missing packages more then once. Right now I am running two for three on recovered packages so I feel pretty good about my averages. Overall I have either lost, or had damage goods delivered more frequently with the other "package services" with DHL being the worst by far.

I shudder and prepare for the worst every time I see that someone has chosen DHL to ship me something.

MattKing · Aug 12, 2019

One of the responsibilities that my Dad had when he ran the Customer Service department at the North Vancouver Kodak Canada processing labs was dealing with customer films that, for one reason or another, became separated from the customer's name.
It was a responsibility that vexed him and his staff for the entire extent of the almost quarter century he ran that department.
I'm not saying this applies to you, but one of the things that he considered the bane of his existence was those adhesive backed stick on return address labels, which were really effective at becoming detached from the film envelopes that customer films were sent in.
He and his staff had to rely on requests from customers which included descriptions of what was on the films to try to match the requests with films the lab had which lacked a return address.
Assuming the lab has a similar system, I would suggest sending a description of the missing films, including a description of the contents.
And to KN4SMF, considering how much the postal service does for us, and what they have to put up with, pffft! (insert Bill the Cat graphic here)

KN4SMF · Aug 12, 2019

Be patient. It'll turn up. I've had packages sit at the destination PO of Charlotte and the tracking has it in town for a week.so Every day I think it's delivery day, but not today. Then after a week or 2 it's in Florida. Then Nebraska. Some day it finally gets back to Charlotte and is out for delivery. I'm not joking. I've had it happen.

John Koehrer · Aug 12, 2019

RE:Mattking and Bill the Cat. I relate better to Opus just shaking my head, Not even a pfft anymore.

mgb74 · Aug 12, 2019

I would talk to the postmaster of the PO where you sent them from. Explain the sentimental value. After he/she looks, and assuming unsuccessful, ask him/her to talk to the postmaster of the recipient PO. Maybe they will, maybe they won't, but worth trying. Of course it could be lost anywhere in between, but those are the 2 places you can pinpoint. Of course, it may well have been delivered and lost at the lab, but that's less likely.

mshchem · Aug 12, 2019

I had a guy mail me Jobo magnets in a padded envelope. The package disappeared. He gave me my money back, he got paid by USPS. About a year later it showed up in my mailbox. I tossed the envelope against my refrigerator and it stuck. Those are potent magnets. Someone probably found it stuck to the bottom of a conveyor. Stuff gets sent all over the country, hopefully your film will show up.

AgX · Aug 13, 2019

First, you do not know where the films got lost, or if they even got lost at all. If they got lost the involved parties at best can search for them. You are at least in the benefitial position to have orderd the involved parties to handle your films, thus you got the right to approach them (in contrast to a addressee of a parcel). And as indicated other than that all you can do in practice is wait...

Otherwise, even in case they responsible party can be identified, what will you get? At best the cost of new films (legal situation over here).

In the case of total loss, I can assure you are not the only one. At my one and only trip to the USA, and my first photographic journey back then, I exposed a great lot of films, I spent a fortune on it. On my return I send dozens of Kodachrome films to Kodak for processing added by Kodak processing vouchers sold to me by a professionals-only supplier. Finally a cash-on-delivery parcel from Kodak, worth another fortune, arrived. I refused to accept and instead contacted Kodak. They replied they got no idea on my films or even my case...

So I lost a great lot of money and all those photographs.

My resumee: do not sent important films out for processing. Process them yourself.

Arklatexian · Aug 13, 2019

BradS said:
My son and I went on a road trip this summer. When we got back, I mailed his films and my films from the trip off to a reputable lab to be developed and printed. These were his first rolls of film ever!

Two weeks have passed and the lab has not cashed the check so I called them and they say that my film is not there....

I am kinda loosing my mind over this. You know, family memories and all that...

Sent via First class business reply mail....in a box with a pre-printed business reply mail label securely attached. Dropped the box in the big blue parcel bin in the lobby of the local US Post Office two weeks ago...and...pooof! its gone!

What can I do? Any suggestions?

I had a similar thing happen years ago. Was in New Orleans, finished a roll of Kodachrome, put the film in a mailer to Kodak Processing and dropped it in a mailbox on Canal street. Waited several weeks, checked with Kodak, they had not received it. Wrote the New Orleans postmaster, telling where I mailed the film on Canal St. Got a letter from the postmaster that the film had been found in one corner of the mailbox, had been sent to Kodak. Shortly after received my slides from Kodak. These things do happen so check with your postmaster. He/she cares!.......Regards!

blockend · Aug 13, 2019

I stopped taking slides when labs changed from the 18 x 2 upright packaging to flat pack. This was to avoid UK postal charge changes, and the new style was identical to a music CD box. My last film went missing, permanently. Asking around this was not uncommon.

Dali · Aug 13, 2019

Maybe you should contract the US Postal Mail Recovery Center in Atlanta. This is where ends up undelivered mail and parcels.

StanMac · Aug 13, 2019

I read in many forums about how bad the USPS is. In my experience they are the most dependable of the carriers. Except when I send Priority Mail to Fort Worth area addresses. What should be delivered in 2-3 days usually ends up being 5-6 days - a couple of days slower than regular mail. Something is awry in the Fort Worth distribution center. That issue aside, I prefer using the USPS for dependability and convenience. The presence and locations of other carriers in my area make using them quite inconvenient.

Stan

Patrick Robert James · Aug 13, 2019

I'd talk to the manager or postmaster. Tell them you are not the type to complain but the photos are sentimental. People are human.

In the future if you want something to get somewhere absolutely for sure, send it registered mail. It costs a couple bucks on top of the regular charges, but it will absolutely get there. I'm guessing you wished you spent a couple extra bucks right about now....

Put me down for another person that trusts the USPS way more than the others.

donkee · Aug 13, 2019

I never had a problem with USPS except for one time a couple years back with a turntable belt I ordered from a seller on fleabay. It took a couple months to arrive, but it finally did. I'll be shooting my youngest sons wedding in a few weeks and will be sending the film off in two packages, registered mail. Since my old lab (burrell color) is gone it will be going to Dwaynes for processing. I only sent them a couple rolls of film before but they did a good job with them but since it will be the first wedding I am sending them I am nervous about that. Oh well, what can you do in the new electronic world when your old places have gone the way of the dodo.............

Alan Edward Klein · Aug 13, 2019

MattKing said:
One of the responsibilities that my Dad had when he ran the Customer Service department at the North Vancouver Kodak Canada processing labs was dealing with customer films that, for one reason or another, became separated from the customer's name.
It was a responsibility that vexed him and his staff for the entire extent of the almost quarter century he ran that department.
I'm not saying this applies to you, but one of the things that he considered the bane of his existence was those adhesive backed stick on return address labels, which were really effective at becoming detached from the film envelopes that customer films were sent in.
He and his staff had to rely on requests from customers which included descriptions of what was on the films to try to match the requests with films the lab had which lacked a return address.
Assuming the lab has a similar system, I would suggest sending a description of the missing films, including a description of the contents.
And to KN4SMF, considering how much the postal service does for us, and what they have to put up with, pffft! (insert Bill the Cat graphic here)

As I recall Kodak mailers, you kept a stub of the mailer that had a unique ID# that was imprinted on the mailer envelope. So if the mailer was received by Kodak processing without the return address tag, the original sender could call Kodak and use the number so Kadak could find your film.

Sirius Glass · Aug 13, 2019

It is worth filing a report with the US Postal Inspectors. One report can do wonders changing attitudes and getting mail or packages recovered.

MattKing · Aug 13, 2019

Alan Edward Klein said:
As I recall Kodak mailers, you kept a stub of the mailer that had a unique ID# that was imprinted on the mailer envelope. So if the mailer was received by Kodak processing without the return address tag, the original sender could call Kodak and use the number so Kadak could find your film.

In Canada, all Kodachrome was sold with processing included. As a result, the envelope that came in the box, which most people used to send the film in, was simply an envelope with the Kodak Lab's address pre-printed, but no other individual identifiers unless one added one's return address.

winger · Aug 13, 2019

I'm sorry to read this has happened to you and I hope you get them back.

jtk · Aug 14, 2019

Sending Kodachrome (or anything else) to Kodak? D'oh!

AgX · Aug 14, 2019

Kodak had a monopoly on Kodachrome processing in Europe.

My films have disappeared!

BradS

laser

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My films have disappeared!

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