StarPerú DESTROYED the bicycle

[W. Wesley Groleau]

StarPerú destroyed my Brompton. I am not exaggerating. The damage is
so severe it seems to have been intentional. They claim that by
identifying it as a bicycle, I released them from any responsibility. I
claim that identifying it as a bicycle constitutes a recommendation for
appropriate care, not a request for greater abuse! I told them my
insurance company's lawyers will likely have their own interpretation.

I am in Lima, Perú, and Brompton has no dealers in the country. I can
figure out other means of transportation until my return to Oklahoma,
but I am not sure a replacement—pretty close to the two thousand dollar
insurance limit—can be delivered there before I have to leave for Spain.

It may be that the frame and front wheel can be salvaged, reducing the
cost considerably, but I would have to show it to a Brompton dealer to
know. The loss may result in increased costs for transportation by
other means, not to mention that I might need to spend extra to route a
trip through London to visit the factory for repair or replacement.
Shipping times for parts and/or replacement makes any other location
(except maybe Madrid) impractical due to my travel commitments.

So, it's bus and foot for the next month at least.

--
Wes Groleau

[Frank Krygowski]

I'd be interested in photos of the bike.

--
- Frank Krygowski

[W. Wesley Groleau]

On 02-24-2016 14:25, Frank Krygowski wrote:
>> So, it's bus and foot for the next month at least.
>
> I'd be interested in photos of the bike.

Sorry, it's bundled up for more travel tomorrow. But I was unable to to
turn the rear wheel because the rather thick aluminum rack was twisted
so hard against it. And I may be 62, but I still have a little of my
farm boy strength left.

I stood on that rack, and my 85-90 kilograms could not affect it. By
jumping on it, I got it to move a little and could turn the wheel.
Which I then noticed was a visible angle off off being in line with the
rest of the frame. So they also bent the STEEL frame.

Either they drove over it with a heavy vehicle or someone else's luggage
is severely damaged from being pressed that hard into my Brompton.

--
Wes Groleau

[Joerg]

Or the "union toss".

You can't rent a bike there? Lima is a large city and should have rental
places. Or get a used beater bike for $50 that tides over the remaining
month. When I crunched the freehub on my road bike a month ago I used my
old mountain bike for the trips. Not very comfortable but it got me
everywhere until I had the part to repair my road bike. I had almost
donated that bike but now I am glad I didn't.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

[W. Wesley Groleau]

On 02-27-2016 17:11, Joerg wrote:
> On 2016-02-24 22:40, W. Wesley Groleau wrote:
>> On 02-24-2016 14:25, Frank Krygowski wrote:
>>>> So, it's bus and foot for the next month at least.
>>>
>>> I'd be interested in photos of the bike.
>>
>> Sorry, it's bundled up for more travel tomorrow. But I was unable to to
>> turn the rear wheel because the rather thick aluminum rack was twisted
>> so hard against it. And I may be 62, but I still have a little of my
>> farm boy strength left.
>>
>> I stood on that rack, and my 85-90 kilograms could not affect it. By
>> jumping on it, I got it to move a little and could turn the wheel. Which
>> I then noticed was a visible angle off off being in line with the rest
>> of the frame. So they also bent the STEEL frame.
>>
>> Either they drove over it with a heavy vehicle or someone else's luggage
>> is severely damaged from being pressed that hard into my Brompton.
>
> Or the "union toss".

I couldn't bend the steel frame by _jumping_ on it with my 85 kilos.
The fifteen kilo bike can't bend itself by being tossed.

> You can't rent a bike there? Lima is a large city and should have rental
> places. Or get a used beater bike for $50 that tides over the remaining
> month. When I crunched the freehub on my road bike a month ago I used my
> old mountain bike for the trips. Not very comfortable but it got me
> everywhere until I had the part to repair my road bike. I had almost
> donated that bike but now I am glad I didn't.

I probably could, if I were still in Lima. But that's not the point.
Besides, I'd have a hard time getting my bags out of Lima without the
mountings on the ruined Brompton. Not to mention I'd have to also carry
the Brompton.

--
Wes Groleau

[Frank Krygowski]

On 2/27/2016 5:11 PM, Joerg wrote:
> On 2016-02-24 22:40, W. Wesley Groleau wrote:
>>
>> Either they drove over it with a heavy vehicle or someone else's luggage
>> is severely damaged from being pressed that hard into my Brompton.
>>
>
> Or the "union toss".

My wife, daughter and I did a 3 week (plus) tour of Ireland back in the
1990s. I definitely wanted to take our bikes, so I procured bike boxes
and did the disassembly to get bikes and bags to fit. The boxes were
prominently marked "FRAGILE" and "THIS END UP."

We arrived jetlagged at Dublin's airport, and got to watch the luggage
truck bringing everyone's bags to the terminal. Our three bikes were
stacked flat, one on top of another, on the roof of the truck's cab. So
much for "THIS END UP."

Then we saw a worker open a door to the cab, stand on the door sill and
push the boxes off the roof. One after another, they landed on the
small end of the boxes. So much for "FRAGILE."

I don't think airline luggage handlers get any bonuses for being gentle.

Dublin Airport was nice enough to have bike assembly stations right
there, including some tools, although I used the ones I had brought.
But I was amazed to find that the bikes were not damaged.


--
- Frank Krygowski

[Joerg]

On 2016-02-27 15:01, Frank Krygowski wrote:
> On 2/27/2016 5:11 PM, Joerg wrote:
>> On 2016-02-24 22:40, W. Wesley Groleau wrote:
>>>
>>> Either they drove over it with a heavy vehicle or someone else's luggage
>>> is severely damaged from being pressed that hard into my Brompton.
>>>
>>
>> Or the "union toss".
>
> My wife, daughter and I did a 3 week (plus) tour of Ireland back in the
> 1990s. I definitely wanted to take our bikes, so I procured bike boxes
> and did the disassembly to get bikes and bags to fit. The boxes were
> prominently marked "FRAGILE" and "THIS END UP."
>
> We arrived jetlagged at Dublin's airport, and got to watch the luggage
> truck bringing everyone's bags to the terminal. Our three bikes were
> stacked flat, one on top of another, on the roof of the truck's cab. So
> much for "THIS END UP."
>
> Then we saw a worker open a door to the cab, stand on the door sill and
> push the boxes off the roof. One after another, they landed on the
> small end of the boxes. So much for "FRAGILE."
>

That's one type of union toss. I've once seen my stuff being chucked out
of an airliner right onto the tarmac ... THWACK.

> I don't think airline luggage handlers get any bonuses for being gentle.
>

They are unionized so can't be fired, and they know it. I've had the
same with UPS where a guy tossed shipments over the backyard gate onto
our concrete basketball court. One package was an expensive piece of
equipment. During a serious conversation with a manager it turned out
that disciplining those guys is not very easy because there is a union.
So I use Fedex for my shipments. Now that's not to diss UPS drivers in
general as there are definitely nice ones, including for our
neighborhood. But this union protection goes way too far, so I "voted
with my feet".

> Dublin Airport was nice enough to have bike assembly stations right
> there, including some tools, although I used the ones I had brought. But
> I was amazed to find that the bikes were not damaged.
>

Nice. I never saw such an assembly station.

[W. Wesley Groleau]

On 02-27-2016 19:51, Joerg wrote:
> That's one type of union toss. I've once seen my stuff being chucked out
> of an airliner right onto the tarmac ... THWACK.

On one flight, they demanded a gate check of my backpack. I removed my
computer first. Instead of sliding it onto the roller-ramp through the
hole designed for that purpose, he picked up over the rail and dropped
it four feet.

> They are unionized so can't be fired, and they know it. I've had the
> same with UPS where a guy tossed shipments over the backyard gate onto
> our concrete basketball court. One package was an expensive piece of
> equipment. During a serious conversation with a manager it turned out
> that disciplining those guys is not very easy because there is a union.
> So I use Fedex for my shipments. Now that's not to diss UPS drivers in
> general as there are definitely nice ones, including for our

Unfortunately, even the nice ones in both outfits follow the company
guidelines that leaving a huge box (with pictures of iMac on all sides)
on a porch is "delivery". Neither weather, nor the nearby eyeballs of
neighborhood delinquents makes a difference. I've even had them ignore
the "signature required" setting.

--
Wes Groleau

[W. Wesley Groleau]

On 02-24-2016 13:06, W. Wesley Groleau wrote:
> StarPerú destroyed my Brompton. I am not exaggerating. The damage is
> so severe it seems to have been intentional. They claim that by
> identifying it as a bicycle, I released them from any responsibility. I
> claim that identifying it as a bicycle constitutes a recommendation for
> appropriate care, not a request for greater abuse! I told them my
> insurance company's lawyers will likely have their own interpretation.

Considering just claiming the money instead of repairing. That would
require buying or renting cheap in different places.

Anyone know about rentals in Pamplona? Or price of a used one in
tolerable condition? Will be going from Pamplona to Zamora, mostly on
the Camino de Santiago, 25 to 40 kilometers per day. (Maybe more.)

--
Wes Groleau

[Joerg]

On 2016-02-28 10:37, W. Wesley Groleau wrote:
> On 02-27-2016 19:51, Joerg wrote:
>> That's one type of union toss. I've once seen my stuff being chucked out
>> of an airliner right onto the tarmac ... THWACK.
>
> On one flight, they demanded a gate check of my backpack. I removed my
> computer first. Instead of sliding it onto the roller-ramp through the
> hole designed for that purpose, he picked up over the rail and dropped
> it four feet.
>

I hope you reported that employee.

>> They are unionized so can't be fired, and they know it. I've had the
>> same with UPS where a guy tossed shipments over the backyard gate onto
>> our concrete basketball court. One package was an expensive piece of
>> equipment. During a serious conversation with a manager it turned out
>> that disciplining those guys is not very easy because there is a union.
>> So I use Fedex for my shipments. Now that's not to diss UPS drivers in
>> general as there are definitely nice ones, including for our
>
> Unfortunately, even the nice ones in both outfits follow the company
> guidelines that leaving a huge box (with pictures of iMac on all sides)
> on a porch is "delivery". Neither weather, nor the nearby eyeballs of
> neighborhood delinquents makes a difference. I've even had them ignore
> the "signature required" setting.
>

But then you can make them pay for the damage.

[Joerg]

On 2016-02-28 12:47, Phil W Lee wrote:
> Joerg <ne...@analogconsultants.com> considered Sat, 27 Feb 2016

> If you can see it, you can film it, and certainly here, most unions
> will not and cannot protect a worker from being fired following a
> criminal offence (criminal damage) especially if they work in a secure
> environment (as airside at any airport is supposed to be).
>

Here teachers can do very crazy stuff and all they have to fear is
something like a brief suspension. With pay!

Filming can't be done. One time we heard our dogs bark and then
thud-kawomp-crunch. Another time one of us saw a guy toss a package but
you cannot get the camera out of the nightstand down in the bedroom in
500 milliseconds. Front door cameras catch them though:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0Z1NljyA1w
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoGtwGl0eXA

Some don't seem to even care about that:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEzg-hlopIo

[W. Wesley Groleau]

On 03-05-2016 17:33, Joerg wrote:
> On 2016-02-28 10:37, W. Wesley Groleau wrote:
>> On 02-27-2016 19:51, Joerg wrote:
>>> That's one type of union toss. I've once seen my stuff being chucked out
>>> of an airliner right onto the tarmac ... THWACK.
>>
>> On one flight, they demanded a gate check of my backpack. I removed my
>> computer first. Instead of sliding it onto the roller-ramp through the
>> hole designed for that purpose, he picked up over the rail and dropped
>> it four feet.
>>
>
> I hope you reported that employee.

"Hey, I just saw someone drop a backpack more than a meter!"
"Who?"
"I don't know his name; the guy picking up the gate checks."
"Well, we can't do much without a name, but I'll pass it on."

And no doubt the result was a pep talk about as meaningful as the one
about camp rules in the movie Meatballs.

How many times has some TV show "exposed" this sort of behavior? Has it
stopped happening?

--
Wes Groleau

[Joerg]

When something similar happened at a hotel (they actually threw
something in the trash and it was gone) I did not give up and had that
escalated quite far. Later I received an international phone call and
upon inquiring whether they made sure that the guy won't do it again the
HR person said "He certainly can't since he now no longer works for us".

[W. Wesley Groleau]

On 03-04-2016 19:37, W. Wesley Groleau wrote:
> Anyone know about rentals in Pamplona? Or price of a used one in
> tolerable condition? Will be going from Pamplona to Zamora, mostly on
> the Camino de Santiago, 25 to 40 kilometers per day. (Maybe more.)

OR, in Barcelona? Plane to Barcelona, then have five hours before the
train to Pamplona.

Or anywhere else along the Camino de Santiago:
Estella, Los Arcos, Viana, Logroño, etc.

--
Wes Groleau

[W. Wesley Groleau]

NICE bike. But €325 for two weeks ... probably not going to do it.
Found an advert for a used MTB in Barcelona for €45. That's a go,
provided the condition is decent and it's still there when I get there.

--
Wes Groleau

[W. Wesley Groleau]

oops. I thought I had pasted the URI
<http://www.bicigrino.info/tienda_virtual/es/home/1082-alquiler-bicicleta-camino-santiago.html#/talla-15>


--
Wes Groleau