Freight Handling Services Ltd (FHSL) is very disappointed with the article carried in your Saturday Sun of November 18.
Your paper chose to place blame on FHSL for misplacing cargo for Variety Club, but this was furthest from the truth.
In October, Anthony Layne came to our warehouse to clear one box of personal effects consigned to him. He did the examination with Customs. After doing the examination, he said to our personnel that he had to do a Customs Entry. Customs told him the items were too many for him to claim personally if they were for charity.
It is at that point Mr Layne would have gone to Massy Trading, from which he got his paperwork, and alerted them to what had to be done. Massy Trading, knowing the cargo was being changed from Anthony Layne to Variety Club, the charity in question, would then have had to do all the necessary amendments to us and Customs to facilitate the change; but this was not done.
On November 9, a gentleman presented our warehouse with a delivery order consigned to Variety Club. It was at that time our personnel told the representative they could find no cargo for Variety Club, which was indeed true since we had no such cargo listed. This was the reason the box could not be found.
Made amendments
Massy Trading eventually made the amendments that were needed; these included changing the name of the recipient of the box from Anthony Layne to Variety Club on November 20. All is clear on our part for Variety Club to receive its box.
Based on the facts outlined above, FHSL is in no way responsible for the delay Variety Club experienced.
Your reporter should have been in contact with us regarding our side of the story – that is a basic principle of responsible journalism. The fallout from your article has been unfairly damaging to FHSL.
You claim someone from the paper tried to call our office prior to publication but got no response. All our lines have been working fine. We’re also just down the road from The Nation; a car trip by the reporter or editor could have been made if The Nation truly cared to get all the facts straight.
If this had been done prior to publication, FHSL would not have had to field calls from customers asking if their cargo was safe and if “things like this happen often”. (The answer to the first question is “definitely”, and “not at all” to the second one.)
Freight Handling Services Ltd has always worked hard to maintain the reputation it has earned. We would hope the same holds true for The Nation.
– Marc Sampson,
Managing director
