Thank you very much!

Samooray! Your bass is in the UPS system and will be motoring on Monday. Enjoy. Hopefully Basstard's bass will turn up and you will both be picking yours up in Poland soon.

Me, I'm losing my hope. I'll be extatic if the Essence is recovered but now I just wish they'll pay a full refund immediately if it isn't.
 
12 years of dreaming.
 
Samooray - jak b?d? na Wybrze?u to chyba trzeba b?dzie zapobiec rozeschni?ciu si? drewna... ;-)

Samooray, package delivered and signed for in Chicago.
Delivery Date / Time: 24-September-2008 / 9:38 AM
Delivery Location: DOCK
Signed by: SUSEL
Shipment Detail
 
Ship To:  
MICHAEL KIMITA  
POLAMER CARGO #247  
5480 N NORTHWEST HWY  
CHICAGO  
IL  
60630  
US
UPS Service:   GROUND
Weight:   42.8 LBS
 
Tracking Number:   1Z4AR6510308293938
Reference Number 1:   0
 
Merchandise Description: BASS GUITAR IN CASE

I wish I had been so lucky too...

Yup Danno- now just 8 weeks of waiting. Thank you!
And Basstard's bass got stolen.. What a shame on the UPS :|

If I don't get a refund from UPS it may force me to quit playing as I'll have to sell my gear to pay my debts...

You need to be patient. If you had the bass you'd still have the bills unless you planned to sell it and make a profit. If it did get there you'd still be waiting for the ship to cross over to Poland. I lent a bass to a guy who sold it and took off. I was left without it, my investment and I had to buy a new bass. I helped a guy out by charging gear on my Sam Ash for his recording project. He defaulted, I had to pay the bill, he moved away and I haven't seen him in almost 10 years. He still owes me $2000. I have other experiences of being a nice guy and getting screwed. You were insured so as soon as the claim is settled I will wire you the money. Be upset with the thief and the driver who allowed his truck to be compromised.

Danno - it was to be my main bass for years to come. I was supposed to pay the debt by selling my current main bass (or 2)...
 
And yes, I'm angry at the thoughtlessness of the driver and I hope the thief eventually gets caught.
 
As for you - I trust you completely, please don't take personally what I'm saying here! I'm just upset with the situation... Very upset.
 
But as for UPS - I don't trust them at all and won't be calm until they pay the insurance. I've heard many horror stories about them finding reasons not to pay...

And one more thing: since UPS were more than happy to accept extra payment for insurance of the package thus accepting the responisibility for it it's their UNDISPUTABLE DUTY to refund the full insured value (plus the shipping costs, as the parcel was never delivered) immediately, no questions asked.

Having had UPS lose a VERY expensive bicycle, I can tell you that it will take quite some time for them to resolve this.
 
In my case, they finally found the bike intact in its case after almost a month! I was very happy to get it back.
 
It takes quite some time for them to get misplaced packages to a central lost-and-found. Then they have to go through them and try to figure out whose package it is. Unfortunately, it is NOT a fast process.
 
However, there is the very real possibility that in the end you will get your bass.

No info from UPS so far. They happily took extra charge for insurance and now they're doing NOTHING.
 
I consider it a theft on their side.

What a NIGHTMARE!!!  Did the package get left at your door and then stolen, or is it just missing?  If it's just missing it will probably show up at some point.  If it was stolen from your house, it will probably appear on Ebay.  A lot of us surf Ebay pretty regularly and can keep an eye out for it.  Does Danno have any other pics of the bass?  I've had some VERY expensive equipment left at my door over the years.  Thankfully I've not lost any of it, but some of it did sit there unnoticed for several days (who even uses their front door?).  It amazes me that they continue to do business that way... it's not delivered until I sign for it (in my opinion).  My condolences to all involved.  
 

Mike - the worst thing is I was't officialy involved in the shipment, i.e. it was picked up by UPS (United Pathethic S**teaters) from Danno in NJ and sent to Chicago, where it was supposed to be delivered to Polamer company which would then send the bass to me via ship (several weeks of waiting but so much cheaper - everyone in Poland seems to be importing gear from USA this way nowadays). UPS managed to get the bass to Chicago where it disappeared. I presume it was stolen from the truck.
 
If they don't pay the claim... well, I might as well call it a day as far as my attempts to go pro are concerned. I'll have to sell out most of my gear to pay the debts. I would have to do it anyway but I would have an Alembic as my main bass and that's more than enough...

They are working on it.