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UPS loses irreplacable original archival elements
Telegraph:
I am lost for words at how fucking stupid this individual was.
As some of you will know, I was the director of a regional, public moving image archive in the north of England from 2001 to '07. During that time, we frequently received offers of material for deposit from individuals and organizations located a significant distance away, and on a few occasions, even internationally. If the initial discussion revealed that the footage was, or stood a reasonable chance of being, original, irreplaceable, content not known to be preserved elsewhere, and/or within our collecting remit, I would go and get it myself, no matter how far away. There were only two exceptions to that. The first was a home movie that surfaced of the aftermath of WWII bombing in Sunderland in Alice Springs, Australia, which we had shipped using a horrendously expensive, tracked all the way service (it cost around GBP 300, if I remember correctly). The second was of local newsreels from 1912 and '13, that were discovered in Cornwall, some 350 miles away. The owner had relatives near us, and delivered the reels personally. She took them by plane - about 2,000 feet of nitrate, carried on as hand luggage!
Anyway, the idea that a professional TV program maker would think it an acceptable risk to ship footage like this - on which his or her show pretty much depended - only 400 miles or so (assuming that the lab was in London), using a cheap courier service that is known to lose a significant proportion of the items it handles, defies belief. Using Ryanair and a rental car, (s)he could have collected it in person in a day.
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Dear Katie,
I am a filmmaker directing a new documentary about the search for the Loch Ness Monster. It tells the story of the men and women who tried to find it in the “golden era” of Nessie hunting, between the 1960s and 1980s.
A key figure in all of this was a man called Tim Dinsdale. Tim was the man who first filmed a Nessie-like creature in the Loch and in 1960 he appeared on BBC Panorama, unveiling his footage to the world. It made him an overnight celebrity and he was the regular “go‑to” guy for any media monster malarkey.
Mr Dinsdale died in 1987. I got in touch with his son, who said his father had a whole box of unseen films stored in the attic. I said I wanted them for my documentary, but the family said they were precious and were understandably hesitant about releasing them.
However, they eventually agreed. I went up into their loft and selected six reels, all containing incredible footage.
We arranged processing at a really good film lab and through a company called Interparcel we booked a courier to take it from their home in Essex to the specialist film lab in London. Interparcel then subcontracted the job to UPS.
A UPS driver picked up the parcel as instructed, but it has not been seen since. I have been informed that the parcel is lost.
This has been absolutely devastating for everyone involved and I feel so awful.
– JM, Glasgow
Dear reader,
Knowing these films contained irreplaceable family memories, you paid £17 for them to be sent via UPS’s premium service, which meant they were signed for on delivery and insured for up to £100. You thought this would be the safest form of transport, yet to your horror they still went missing.
By the time you contacted me, the parcel containing the films had been missing for 45 days. The prospect of finding it was looking about as likely as a sighting of Nessie himself.
After being collected on August 12, which was confirmed by Interparcel, it was not delivered the next day as expected. You complained and were eventually emailed on August 29 to say the package had in fact been delivered. However, neither the film company nor UPS had any record of this.
You spent the next few weeks complaining and getting nowhere, so you decided to write to me as a last resort. Within days of my intervention, UPS miraculously found a parcel it believed to be yours.
It couriered it to the film lab where it was opened to check the contents. To everyone’s surprise and delight, Mr Dinsdale’s original footage emerged from the box unscathed.
This has come as a huge relief to you personally, as you’ve had sleepless nights over the apparent loss of this footage and the subsequent upset to the family.
You still haven’t had a proper explanation of this parcel’s disappearance and where it was for 45 days. Like so much surrounding the Loch Ness monster, it remains a mystery.
A UPS spokesman said: “Service is at the centre of all that we do and we take the delay of any package very seriously. We can confirm that the shipment has now been delivered and we regret any stress or inconvenience caused.”
Interparcel, the third-party reseller through which you booked the service, has offered you a cash goodwill gesture in light of your poor experience.
Best of luck with the documentary.
Dear Katie,
I am a filmmaker directing a new documentary about the search for the Loch Ness Monster. It tells the story of the men and women who tried to find it in the “golden era” of Nessie hunting, between the 1960s and 1980s.
A key figure in all of this was a man called Tim Dinsdale. Tim was the man who first filmed a Nessie-like creature in the Loch and in 1960 he appeared on BBC Panorama, unveiling his footage to the world. It made him an overnight celebrity and he was the regular “go‑to” guy for any media monster malarkey.
Mr Dinsdale died in 1987. I got in touch with his son, who said his father had a whole box of unseen films stored in the attic. I said I wanted them for my documentary, but the family said they were precious and were understandably hesitant about releasing them.
However, they eventually agreed. I went up into their loft and selected six reels, all containing incredible footage.
We arranged processing at a really good film lab and through a company called Interparcel we booked a courier to take it from their home in Essex to the specialist film lab in London. Interparcel then subcontracted the job to UPS.
A UPS driver picked up the parcel as instructed, but it has not been seen since. I have been informed that the parcel is lost.
This has been absolutely devastating for everyone involved and I feel so awful.
– JM, Glasgow
Dear reader,
Knowing these films contained irreplaceable family memories, you paid £17 for them to be sent via UPS’s premium service, which meant they were signed for on delivery and insured for up to £100. You thought this would be the safest form of transport, yet to your horror they still went missing.
By the time you contacted me, the parcel containing the films had been missing for 45 days. The prospect of finding it was looking about as likely as a sighting of Nessie himself.
After being collected on August 12, which was confirmed by Interparcel, it was not delivered the next day as expected. You complained and were eventually emailed on August 29 to say the package had in fact been delivered. However, neither the film company nor UPS had any record of this.
You spent the next few weeks complaining and getting nowhere, so you decided to write to me as a last resort. Within days of my intervention, UPS miraculously found a parcel it believed to be yours.
It couriered it to the film lab where it was opened to check the contents. To everyone’s surprise and delight, Mr Dinsdale’s original footage emerged from the box unscathed.
This has come as a huge relief to you personally, as you’ve had sleepless nights over the apparent loss of this footage and the subsequent upset to the family.
You still haven’t had a proper explanation of this parcel’s disappearance and where it was for 45 days. Like so much surrounding the Loch Ness monster, it remains a mystery.
A UPS spokesman said: “Service is at the centre of all that we do and we take the delay of any package very seriously. We can confirm that the shipment has now been delivered and we regret any stress or inconvenience caused.”
Interparcel, the third-party reseller through which you booked the service, has offered you a cash goodwill gesture in light of your poor experience.
Best of luck with the documentary.
As some of you will know, I was the director of a regional, public moving image archive in the north of England from 2001 to '07. During that time, we frequently received offers of material for deposit from individuals and organizations located a significant distance away, and on a few occasions, even internationally. If the initial discussion revealed that the footage was, or stood a reasonable chance of being, original, irreplaceable, content not known to be preserved elsewhere, and/or within our collecting remit, I would go and get it myself, no matter how far away. There were only two exceptions to that. The first was a home movie that surfaced of the aftermath of WWII bombing in Sunderland in Alice Springs, Australia, which we had shipped using a horrendously expensive, tracked all the way service (it cost around GBP 300, if I remember correctly). The second was of local newsreels from 1912 and '13, that were discovered in Cornwall, some 350 miles away. The owner had relatives near us, and delivered the reels personally. She took them by plane - about 2,000 feet of nitrate, carried on as hand luggage!
Anyway, the idea that a professional TV program maker would think it an acceptable risk to ship footage like this - on which his or her show pretty much depended - only 400 miles or so (assuming that the lab was in London), using a cheap courier service that is known to lose a significant proportion of the items it handles, defies belief. Using Ryanair and a rental car, (s)he could have collected it in person in a day.
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