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Author Topic: No film delivery Burleigh Ibbott Film Handler Posts: 46 From: Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, UK Registered: Jul 2006 posted 10-11-2009 09:14 PM                     I had a nasty episode where i was waiting for Time Travelers Wife to turn up from a crossover. It was suppose to be here Friday morning. I have a small single screen cinema where people can pay and pre book tickets. It was sold out on both shows on Friday. By 3pm i was told it was in Cambridge so be with me by the hour. to cut a long story short it never arrived. The evening was a nightmare and can not believe i had a no show for a film. The print handlers was given duff information from the couriers. Its now six weeks after i emailed the couriers which they have admitted it was there fault. I told them what my compensation is and heard nothing since. Entertainment Films are not happy this has happened too. What do you think i should do next? Shall I get my insurers to deal with it? Burleigh  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 10-11-2009 09:19 PM                        Since the courier has admitted fault (hopefully you got the name of the person who admitted it), I would total up your losses and send them a bill. Keep after them until they pay. Keep going up the managerial ladder until you get to somebody who can make a decision to pay you. You could threaten legal action if you think it might help, but I would strongly caution doing that because if they say, "Fine, go ahead and sue us!" then you're stuck with hiring a lawyer and there goes all your cash. A better solution would just be to keep bugging them, daily if necessary, until they pay up.  |  IP: Logged Bill Enos Film God Posts: 2081 From: Richmond, Virginia, USA Registered: Apr 2000 posted 10-11-2009 10:05 PM                     The distributor of the film is responsible for getting the film to you and are who hired the non performing courier. The courier is responsible to whoever hired them. The contract between the courier and anybody they deliver for probably limits liability in a case like this to refund of whatever the cost of the shipping was.  |  IP: Logged Martin McCaffery Film God Posts: 2481 From: Montgomery, AL Registered: Jun 99 posted 10-11-2009 10:58 PM                        My guess is Bill is right. I've had a few missouts over the years, all that ever happens is we don't get billed for the shipping. It's the distribs responsibility, maybe you can negotiate down the percentage for the week.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 10-12-2009 12:50 AM                        quote: Bill Enos The distributor of the film is responsible for getting the film to you and are who hired the non performing courier. This is true, but in most cases the courier won't say "it was our fault." They will just come up with stupid excuses to save their own butt. But in this case, since the courier SAID it was their fault, I'd think he'd have a good chance of collecting. Of course, it was probably some low level flunkie who admitted the fault, so it could be a waste of time trying to collect...but they might pay up just to make him go away.  |  IP: Logged Ron Curran Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 504 From: Springwood NSW Australia Registered: Feb 2006 posted 10-12-2009 01:53 AM                        Depends on the courier company. The big ones say "So sue us." We still have half a print of a film; the other half just never arrived. There was also a fairly valuable tape player that arrived smashed up. "What do you expect us to do about it?" was the carrier's response. (same carrier). All we can do is to never use this particular carrier again and recommend (privately of course) that no one else uses them. So far this would have cost that company much more than the cost of making things right in the first place.  |  IP: Logged Andy Frodsham Expert Film Handler Posts: 238 From: Stoke on Trent, Staffs, UK Registered: Nov 2006 posted 10-12-2009 03:12 AM                     Sadly, you cannot take anything for granted when dealing with print deliveries. Even though we book films weeks in advance, there are frequent situations where we have to chase-up prints. Get to know all the telephone numbers of those people involved in the delivery chain and be prepared to do some phoning around if you start to suspect a non-delivery. It is often possible to locate where the print is located and take some action to either personally recover it or speed-up its progress. You have to be very pro-active.  |  IP: Logged Martin McCaffery Film God Posts: 2481 From: Montgomery, AL Registered: Jun 99 posted 10-12-2009 08:15 AM                        quote: Andy Frodsham Get to know all the telephone numbers of those people involved in the delivery chain and be prepared to do some phoning around if you start to suspect a non-delivery. Good advice, though a nightmare to acquire. When UPS took over the Technicolor deliveries I had to spend days hacking my way up the corporate ladder. I finally got the local depots phone number, which they protect like it is gold. The bigger the company, the bigger the pain in the butt. I'm sure there's an MBA dissertation somewhere that divines the point where a company gets so big it is incapable of saying "Sorry, we screwed up, what can we do to fix it?" That sentence alone could save thousands of man-hours and frustration on all sides.  |  IP: Logged Jack Ondracek Film God Posts: 2348 From: Port Orchard, WA, USA Registered: Oct 2002 posted 10-12-2009 12:42 PM                        We must be lucky, in that we've had no problems with the Technicolor/UPS transition. As with DFS, any film that is not delivered by Thursday (or that we don't pick up from the depot ourselves) either arrives by private courier or we circuit ourselves. In these cases we know about the issue by Tuesday or Wednesday. Don't know why it should matter, but we had one past case, where a Technicolor/DHL print did not arrive by Friday night. Luckily, it was only a second feature and we were able to carry over the old one for that day.  |  IP: Logged Burleigh Ibbott Film Handler Posts: 46 From: Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, UK Registered: Jul 2006 posted 10-12-2009 12:45 PM                     Thanks for that. I do think Mike is the way to go and i will perserveir to get the right result. Thanks Andy for your true words and its been a learning curve since i opened in March this year. I will post pics of the place soon. I normally use DHL but Entertainment uses another company and this was there first delivery here. I will email the couriers again tonight.  |  IP: Logged John Hawkinson Film God Posts: 2273 From: Cambridge, MA, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 10-12-2009 06:28 PM                     Yes, having your UPS depot's phone number is definitely a goldmine. We've had ours for years, and the folks at the depots are always helpful when you call them about package problems--I think it must be because nobody else has their phone number We've never had any problems with UPS for TES film deliveries; I have occasional minor snafus with them on other packages, but that's par for the course, and doesn't rise to the level of complaint... Burleigh, I have to say, if you're emailing people about the problem, rather than calling, it would not surprise me if they did not take you seriously. --jhawk  |  IP: Logged Mark Hajducki Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 500 From: Edinburgh, UK Registered: May 2003 posted 10-15-2009 12:13 PM                     quote: Andy Frodsham Sadly, you cannot take anything for granted when dealing with print deliveries. Even though we book films weeks in advance, there are frequent situations where we have to chase-up prints. There seem to be an ever increasing number of couriers each doing a small part of the UK print (and digital drive) transport, sometimes subcontracting to other companies when overnight transport is needed. It is not uncommon to have four (or more) different companies collecting or delivering films. Often information does not reach the cinema in time, so a print is collected by the normal bulk return service instead of the overnight express carrier (who does not know what film they are due to collect, or where to deliver it).  |  IP: Logged Sean McKinnon Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1712 From: Peabody Massachusetts Registered: Sep 2000 posted 10-25-2009 02:01 PM                        I had a print of "Vampires Assistant" not arrive for a midnight showing on thursday. Technicolor finally called back at 7:45 to say the print was at the local UPS depot and they had no way to deliver it until the next morning. I asked if I could pick it up and they said we could but that the depot closed at 8:30 Luckily I made it in time.  |  IP: Logged Martin McCaffery Film God Posts: 2481 From: Montgomery, AL Registered: Jun 99 posted 10-25-2009 08:29 PM                        I'd have told technicolor to call a taxi service to go pick it up for you. I've had many prints delivered by taxi and it was Tech's responsibility to get it to you for a screening.  |  IP: Logged Mark Hajducki Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 500 From: Edinburgh, UK Registered: May 2003 posted 10-26-2009 08:18 PM                     Why do distributors arrange priority (before 9AM, 11AM or midday) deliveries of films without telling the cinema? These can be delivered from 8AM (depending on courier) when almost every cinema is closed.  |  IP: Logged

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