I am posting this as I know there are outfitters as well as others that may need to ship something and I would hate for them to have to go through what we did.
On Sept 30 2016 our client harvested a bull elk of a life time with his bow. It was a moment that I am sure will live with him for ever. Due to the size of the antlers the bull could not travel back with him to the US.
We talked about him having it mounted up here but when he flew home he did take his cape and he really wanted to have the cape mounted with his antlers as opposed to buying a cape; and rightfully so.
It was decided that he would employ the services of a local taxidermist to prep the skull for shipping, build a crate, and deliver it to a shipper that would handle the paper work of getting it to our client. All of that was done in a very professional and timely matter.
Due to some scheduling circumstances the bull would not be shipped prior to the 60 day drying period and I was able to pick up the bull for a couple days and have it officially scored prior to shipping.
Up until this point everything was going as planned.
Some time in the second week of January I got a phone call from the taxidermist asking if I had spoke to my client lately. I had not spoken to him so the taxidermist informed me that the crate containing the elk skull and antlers had suffered significant damage at a shipping facility in the US. I immediately called my client and had a chat with him. At that point he had not been to the facility to see the damage. A couple days later he made it down and sent me the pictures that I will attach below. The one antler had been completely broken off from the skull plate and one tine had the tip of the tine broken off. Although it's not an ideal situation; it is far better than I imagined. When I first heard of the situation I thought the antlers and skull were in 87 pieces; luckily that was not the case. Immediately talks were initiated between the client, taxidermist, and the shipper Dale Warren of Talon Distribution.
It turns out that at one of the shipping facilities, someone set a 2000lb crate on top of our clients crate. The weight of the crate collapsed our clients crate thus damaging the crate and the antlers inside.
Please note that myself, my client, and my taxidermist all understand that sometime unfortunate events do happen. The problem lies in how the situation was handled and what was compensated.
The following is what I was told by my client and I did not hear it fist hand but I do have a few emails that back this up.
1) To my understanding Talon Distribution as paid to do the paper work to get the animal to the client in the US.
2) To my understanding he does not own freight trucks so he was responsible for securing 3rd party freight trucks. The taxidermist delivered him a sound and solid crate in perfect condition containing an intact set of elk antlers and skull plate.
3) Dale did advise my client that it would be cheaper if he split the skull plate but my client decided to pay the increased cost of shipping an intact skull plate and antlers.
4) Initially it is my understanding that Dale told my client that he would be reimbursed the cost of the shipping, the cost of the crate, and the cost to fix the elk antlers so they could be mounted. This sounded fair and all parties were happy.
5) As talks progressed Dale communicated to my client that Talon was paid to get the elk antlers from Alberta to the US; he did that so the cost of shipping was justified.
6) Also, crates get damaged during shipping so that is not Talon's fault.
7) The shipping companies insurance covers the cost of freight up to $2 per pound, the crate with antlers were 240 lbs, so their insurance would cover $480 US. Some how the check ended up totaling $434 US
8) If my client got an estimate to fix the antlers then Dale would cover the difference between the insurance cost and the total to fix.
9) Total to fix estimate came in at $760.86 so that means Talon was going to pay an additional $326.86 US for the repairs.
Now let me note that this is not about the money and my client isn't upset about that. He is upset about how Dale said one thing and then over the next few weeks changed his answer about what he was going to cover. Further more the statement made by Dale to the tune of, and I'm paraphrasing here, I was paid to get your antlers from Alberta to you in the US, you have your antlers, I did my job. Well that really didn't sit well with anyone.
My client has filed a complaint with the BBB and is working with them to get that complain on their record.
I just wanted to let fellow outdoorsmen the series of events that took place should they ever need to ship something that maybe they should choose someone other than Talon Distribution.
