STOLEN: my first bike from the transport company WTF die transpro (1 Nov 2009)

[Matt_TG]

Yep, all you need is some sort of 'interest' in it to insure it. He is still able to seek the $1500 limit of the Carriage of Goods Act, at least that's something I guess.

[Grasshopperus]

UPDATE - FOUND (for now)

So I get a call today from TransPro apparently the AKL police towed the trailer to the Onehunga impound lot but failed to do the paperwork. That's why no-one knew about it.

Now the bike is due to be delivered on Thursday morning. We'll see, heard that before

I was so happy, that after receiving the call at work this morning, I danced the waltz with my boss. Boss was talking to clients at the time and he looked pretty embarrased as I skipped like a little girl out of the building.

Will post again when, or if, I actually get the frickin' thing.

[mossy1200]

Just go lodge a small claim that they failed to take precautions which led to the loss of your vehicle that you had entrusted them with delivery.Pay the $50 for the claim.They will have liability insurance and you will get paid prior to going to small claims mediation.They are just waiting to see if you will role over and go away.You will get your cash when they see this isnt so.

[mossy1200]

UPDATE - FOUND (for now)

So I get a call today from TransPro apparently the AKL police towed the trailer to the Onehunga impound lot but failed to do the paperwork. That's why no-one knew about it.

Now the bike is due to be delivered on Thursday morning. We'll see, heard that before

I was so happy, that after receiving the call at work this morning, I danced the waltz with my boss. Boss was talking to clients at the time and he looked pretty embarrased as I skipped like a little girl out of the building.

Will post again when, or if, I actually get the frickin' thing.

Thats good news .Ignore above post as it was lodged at same time as yours.

[caseye]

Hey ya girly dancer you! That is great news, your bike, no problems with delivery and hopefully you'll be able to ride it on the weekend

[Hawkeye]

Thanks for all the kind comments guys.

Anyway, I've treated myself to some retail therapy and have committed to buying a year 2000 VTR250. Won't pay a cent until it's in my driveway, which after explaining the reasons, is fine with the current owner.

UPDATE - FOUND (for now)

So I get a call today from TransPro apparently the AKL police towed the trailer to the Onehunga impound lot but failed to do the paperwork. That's why no-one knew about it.

Now the bike is due to be delivered on Thursday morning. We'll see, heard that before

I was so happy, that after receiving the call at work this morning, I danced the waltz with my boss. Boss was talking to clients at the time and he looked pretty embarrased as I skipped like a little girl out of the building.

Will post again when, or if, I actually get the frickin' thing.

So! what have you done about the VTR250? I'm sure the current owner may not be happy as he had a sale but now appears that it has fallen through. Hope you have discussed it with him.

[nothingflash]

good one - hopefully all is well that ends well.

[Grasshopperus]

So! what have you done about the VTR250? I'm sure the current owner may not be happy as he had a sale but now appears that it has fallen through. Hope you have discussed it with him.

Hi Hawkeye,
yeah, I called him shortly after I found out. I had explained the supposed-theft when I saw the bike on the weekend so he understands. Sucks for him I know but he hasn't lost anything as it wasn't a trademe auction.

He's asking a good price and has a nice bike, there are other people interested in it so good luck to him.

[gammaguy]

UPDATE - FOUND (for now)

So I get a call today from TransPro apparently the AKL police towed the trailer to the Onehunga impound lot but failed to do the paperwork. That's why no-one knew about it.

Now the bike is due to be delivered on Thursday morning. We'll see, heard that before

I was so happy, that after receiving the call at work this morning, I danced the waltz with my boss. Boss was talking to clients at the time and he looked pretty embarrased as I skipped like a little girl out of the building.

Will post again when, or if, I actually get the frickin' thing.

the super intelligent NZ Police strike again.........

[transpro]

Hi Everyone,
I am Shahil Chand, owner and director of Transpro. I have been running this company for over 3 years during which my team has helped hundreds of riders through the safe handling and transportation of bikes - to date we do not have a single complaint by way of damage to bikes and have maintained a 100% track record. We have transported anything and everything from rolling-body wrecks to customized $250,000 imports and have had a rapid rise in reputation and market share against our competitors, many of whom have been doing this far longer than us.
On the 31st of October, one of our tandem axle transporter trailers (being towed behind an 8-tonne Isuzu) ran into problems while on the Southern Motorway between East Tamaki and Highbrooke Exit (which the police later on termed "Section 33"). Both tyres on the left hand were punctured on the trailer and our driver was forced to park his truck on the side of the road as the trailer was grounded due to the 2.5 tonne load (There was another Subaru Legacy in the trailer as well). The driver ensured the trailer was parked safely and contacted me to organize a tow while he carried on with other drop-offs - which I did with Fairfax towing (there aren't many towing companies in Auckland area which have trucks large enough to cater for a 8 metre 2.5 tonne covered trailer apparently). At around 1-2 PM, the owner of the towing company contacted me to advise that he hadn't located the trailer in the area advised. I contact the police on 111 and spoke with NorthComms and AucklandComms to see if any of their officers had authorised a tow. They had a note on their system saying that our trailer had been sighted in section 33 by an officer as stranded and it had been stickered for a tow after 24 hours if hadnt been removed. There were no tow authorities logged, hence the police hadnt organised anyone to tow it. The operator from NorthComms also rang around the authorised towing companies servicing that area and apparently none of them had towed it away. That only left the possibilty of it being stolen and after nearly 3 hours of searching, I personally went into Porirua police station and filed a theft report. I had also contacted "Grasshoporus" (who's identity I shall not reveal as I respect an individual's right to privacy) to inform him of these developments and provided him with a Case number within an hour after logging it.

After about 3 days of no contact from the police, I rang up again and enquired. Apparently a note had appeared on their system relating to a tow done by Onehunga Towing Services (OTS) authorised by an officer from Henderson. This had occured 1.5 hours of the trailer being left behind (when in fact we technically had 24 hours to do so and there was no danger to traffic by any means). I was informed that the officer only logged this event on the system about 2 days later and the operator apologised that no one had bothered calling us to advise of this.

I called OTS and they assured me trailer was safe in their custody. I called "Grasshopperus" to advise him of the outcome and assured him delivery within a few days when my next truck was there. Prior to finding out that it hadnt been stolen, I had been in constant contact with Grasshopperus and even assured him that I would try my best to see if my insurance company would compensate over and above the $1500 carriers liability. The bike was handed over to Grasshopperus yesterday morning in the same exact condition in which it was received.

This whole experience has been quite stressful to all parties involved, including myself. It costs over $20 K to replace a trailer of this nature and especially with the modifications done to it. I had spent a significant amount of time and resources in search activity for nearly 3 days for this trailer and had despatched 5 teams of people in the Auckland area to find the trailer - all because of shortcomings on the part of the police.

However, alls well that ends well and I am glad that its over. I do find it extremely saddening that there exists 4 pages of posts regarding this incident and a lot has been said about myself, my company and a few posters have gone to the length of posting out my home address and suggesting they "make noise" outside my property .

I do note that Grasshoperus has posted some updates of the event - however, not as clearly as it perhaps should have been.

In this day and age when a company's repuation is pivotal and ever so easily tarnished, I had to take it upon myself to signup to this forum to defend myself and my company. I highly doubt that there would be any apologies coming my way from some of the posters - all I would like to emphasize is little knowledge can be a dangerous thing and jumping to conslusions and making judgement calls without fully knowing the situation is a very sad reflection on anyone's character.


Regards,
Shahil.

[The Pastor]

[MattRSK]

Hi Everyone,
I am Shahil Chand, ...
Regards,
Shahil.

[caseye]

...In this day and age when a company's repuation is pivotal and ever so easily tarnished, I had to take it upon myself to signup to this forum to defend myself and my company. I highly doubt that there would be any apologies coming my way from some of the posters - all I would like to emphasize is little knowledge can be a dangerous thing and jumping to conslusions and making judgement calls without fully knowing the situation is a very sad reflection on anyone's character.


Regards,
Shahil.

Yep a cool story indeed.

Reputation IS Everything in this day and age.



I don't doubt that you did all that you could once informed of events.
Our fellow KB'er has had a particularly nasty experience with regards to his bike.
He has received the run around from your staff, people who should have been able to give him precise information as to the date upon which his bike was going to be shipped, over the initial ten days it was in your yard/possession.
Ten days to get it on a truck, do you consider this normal or acceptable practice?
For the record, if I had engaged a transport firm and I wasn't able to get a confirmed date I'd be hopping bloody mad after ten days.
He came into the forums here and posted his story.
I told him what to do, as did others.
Action and plenty of it is what gets results, if there are any to be had.
You acquitted yourself well in regards to keeping your client informed of what was happening and following up on the Police comm's etc.
It is obvious that YOU have acted quickly and appropriately in this instance.
Coming here is a brave move and I hope it pays off for you.
My advice to Grasshopperus, was advice, based on what he knew to be the facts.It involved getting into peoples faces and not letting them sit still until something was done.
I stand by that advice and I'd suggest that to some degree it worked quite well.
Different dates each time he rang, ten days to get his bike on a truck, then it goes missing, These things need to be addressed before I'd be happy using your company,thats my opinion.

[vtec]

Big story and explanation, and it seems that you didn't do too much wrong. However, trust is short in NZ for many reasons, and I totally understood why he freaked when given the story about your trailer being stolen and you telling him that he's only covered for $1500. I think he acted totally appropriately, and just because a bit of publicity and pressure came on your company about it doesn't mean that he did anything wrong. The service he received appears to be less than exemplary, and I understand from your story that not all of that was under your control. But by the wording of your argument you make it sound like you are angry with this paying customer of yours for chasing up his "stolen" bike. Until you can empathise with your customers more I won't be using your service. I suggest you reword a couple of parts of your explanation to take the threat out of them, or you're doing yourself an injustice.

[Grasshopperus]

Different dates each time he rang, ten days to get his bike on a truck, then it goes missing, These things need to be addressed before I'd be happy using your company,thats my opinion.

Hi everyone, yep, got the bike yesterday it's absolutely fine and I love it

Shahil, I do owe you an apology for the title of this forum thread and also for suggesting that you guys were pulling a fast one on me. Sorry about that.

However, I'd like you to understand how stressful it was to get a different ETA every single time I called up. I know that shipping and transport is not the most precise art, things like road conditions and breakdowns affect schedules but I would have far preferred on the first phonecall if you had given me a better estimate. Also, if the item is not going to arrive when you say it will then call me to let me know. I quickly found that the only way to get updates was to call you everyday which is annoying for all involved.

Here's some suggestions you might like to implement
* collect email addresses of interested parties when you accept a job. Send out ETAs or other updates via email.
* keep an internal record of expected and actual delivery dates of everything you ship. Use it to monitor your own performance
* some sort of tracking system through your website (this can be expensive but customers love it).

About my identity, I already posted my real first name and phone number in an update. I'm not precious about that.

I'll give you a call on Monday and we can wrap this up. I don't have anything against you personally Shahil I just don't like how this whole situation played out.