Hello Hinterland,
I'm sorry about hearing of this loss.
I have worked for UPS 9 years as a delivery driver and the past 11 years as a tractor trailer driver for them.
I can give you a couple possible senerios of what could have when wrong..What stood out to me was the fact you said it "wasn't" scanned at the original pick up point........This is almost imposible to NOT SCAN...as the shipper ( a Business ) must do a shipping accountablity at end of day/ie. at time of pick up and the UPS driver has to sign the "print out/pick up record " .This is a " required daily must do" for the shipper...If it was by a single or private single pick up shipment, the driver scans it at pick up time. FYI - IF IT WAS NOT SCANNED I would think it didn't even get to the driver to pick up....???Dishonest employee of the shipper -Kept it/ didn't give to driver ..???? OR the driver didn't scan it...in any case the UPS building he works from would scan it as it was placed into the tractor trailer going out that same night ( all pkgs get moved into their destination tractor trailers each night unless its a delivery within the building's delivery area.)
From this point of my info for you . I suggest you hound the shipper to prove they did ship it ?/on what day?/what tracking number is?/who was responsible in the packing/shipping of it? and who was the UPS driver that signed for the pick up( if you know that driver's name you need to contact the UPS building he works from and ask to talk to his supervisor to get more info about that pick up) ?Or is it still sitting in their shipping /mail room office....Which brings up the possiblity it went out with a post office/Fed-Ex employee instead of UPS..ussually there are honest people working at those companies who would return it, but in this day n age ?????. I had to deliver pkgs from both those companys at times....At the other end of some senerios are ....Since it was suppose to ship from Colo....??? was there snow storm related issues at work...delay of P/U? ---truck crashed and damaged pks? ( sorry it happens ) ----Another possible is IF IT DID GET INTO teh UPS SYSTEM ....PKGS sometimes get broken open and then .....what happens those items collected if sepperated from address label go to the buildings dept "lost /damaged" to a clerk who makes an attemp to find out info to identify where it came from or belongs.....If no clues are on the item/ or a label - invoice It will get sent to Louisville, KY to be placed on hold till it gets claimed or ( here's the bad news ) I understand they have a yearly public auction to liquidate UFO's.... I suggest you enlist the help of a caring person here from this site who LIVES near the pick up site to#1 question them.....#2 if close enough and kind enough to go directly to the UPS building where it was to leave from and ask to go through their lost/damaged pkgs items with a supervisor - Have that picture in hand and if located tell them to contact both you and the shipper to fully claim as rightful owner...If any of this is unclear PM me and I'll send my phone # to talk to you... I sincerly hope it turns up at some point !!!
Pam