>Both times we came up with missing boxes.  Since
>the missing incidents were discovered prior to the pallets being loaded
>onto the new vendor's trucks the blame was laid squarely on the old
>vendor.  We refused to pay the final bill until the missing boxes were
>found or accounted for in their records.


This example of a proactive stance given by Ginny during the transfer of
records out of a facility is but one way to control this type of situation
from happening post completion of a move.

In Ian's situation, had the vendor been up-front and told the client the
boxes were missing at the time they were pulled for shipping, a similar
result could have happened... non-payment for the full shipment until the
boxes were located.

One of the things that should be incumbent upon ALL clients is to
periodically check the status of boxes in storage with commercial service
providers.  You should select a random number of boxes, provide a list to
the vendor, and ask to have them verified as being in storage.   Next time,
provide a different list, but include 2-3 of the boxes on the original
list... and ALWAYS include at least 2 boxes you KNOW are checked out or have
been destroyed. 

Speaking of destroyed boxes, a couple of respondents mentioned that these
missing boxes may have met their retention and been destroyed, but weren't
logged out as such.  Personally, I can't understand WHY anyone would allow a
service provider to pull records from storage and destroy them without a
client having to authorize that destruction first.  (think possible legal
actions and a need to hold the records, or changing retention periods after
boxes place din storage) And if that had happened, then the client's records
should also indicate the boxes were actually destroyed, so they shouldn't
show up on a list as "missing".

And as Fred mentioned, if you know the box numbers that are missing, your
inventory list and/or transmittal should be able to tell you what the
records were, or what they represented.  This should help determine the
potential value of the records, or the seriousness of their being lost.  If
the contents were near destruction or were of little value/impact to
operations, then you can determine how to proceed.  If these were critical
records... well, you know the drill.

Larry
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