Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Airborne antics

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Posted by Peter Schoell (Member # 919) on 01-01-2003, 08:48 PM:

Last week airborne stopped to pick up BFGW, sitting next to the Greek cans were the 8-mile (code name Mars Project) cans ready to ship. The driver said he'd take the 8-mile cans too. I asked if he was sure he could take them without a pick-up order. The driver said he would just let the print sit in tne office until the order came through.
Yesterday the manager finds a note on the door from Airborne saying they left our print of Mars Project at the alternet address and they needed to schedule a pick-up of 8-Mile.
I'm sure I'll spend the next month trying to straighten out the billing from Airborne for the extra trips.

Posted by Paul G. Thompson (Member # 655) on 01-01-2003, 10:23 PM:

Never release a print of anything to anybody without proper authorization. It is your butt that will "swing in the breeze" if you do.

Posted by Edward O'Shaughnessy (Member # 1434) on 01-02-2003, 06:16 PM:

Don't say Airbourne to me.

Last May they were mis-scheduled to pick up print of "The Time Machine" which we were still showing. I received the bill for missed pick-up. Contacted Airbourne and they could not cancel w/o Technicolor's permission. Contacted Technicolor they could not cancel w/o Dreamworks permission. Contacted Dreamworks, sorry our mistake to Tech okay and Airbourne taken care of.

Oops!! Letter from Airbourne that if I did not pay for missed pickup I would be on cash basis only. Called Technicolor--- Dreamworks---okay everything taken care of.

Oops!! Day before Thanksgiving and I'm on cash only basis. Start contacting Technicolor at 11am and quickly they go into action. 15 people and 6 hours later, I'm off cash only basis. It was the day before Thanksgiving and everyone in this entertainment business took off early. Everything taken care of.

Oops!!! Day before Christmas and I'm back on cash only basis and have a letter from a bill collector. Contact Technicolor and "I'm Sorry" everyone is gone early it is Christmas you know." says the nice lady. I paid the cash and got my movies, Technicolor will call me at noon on Dec 26th. At twenty after noon on the 26th of Dec the phone rings.

Airbourne!!!!! I wrote the check to Airbourne and it should have been to Technicolor and they were coming out so I redo the check. How nice, they didn't want me to come to their offices. Called Technicolor and they contacted Airbourne and got me released from the debt collector they had sent the bill to and also are refunding my money. Whew. Problem taken care of.

Airbourne!!! Two days later they show up to collect cash for a delivery that was made two days earlier and they forgot to collect. I told them "NO! You can have the film back, it's on that platter but you have to wait til it finishes playing." No core, no clamps and you may not use my equipment to put it back onto the reels. Called Technicolor and they contacted Airbourne and the problem is taken care of.

Airbourne!!!! They are downstairs with this weeks movies, I wonder if????? Gotta go.

Posted by Paul G. Thompson (Member # 655) on 01-02-2003, 06:50 PM:

Unbelievable!

Posted by Ian Price (Member # 14) on 01-02-2003, 07:35 PM:

After we played Bowling for Columbine for 4 weeks, Airborne came to pick up the print. We informed them that they couldn't have the print as we were still playing it. We called Technicolor and complained. They said that Warner Bros had just automatically generated a pick up order for Columbine after 4 weeks. The following week Airborne tried to pick up Bowling for Columbine again. Again we called Technicolor. Well, Airborne has tried to pick up Bowling for Columbine every two weeks since. [Roll Eyes]

I'll have to be sure to check those bills. [eyes]

I wouldn't want Airborne trying to [sex]

us.

Posted by Peter Schoell (Member # 919) on 01-02-2003, 10:15 PM:

Edward I had almost that same story a few times. I figure TES & Airborne have cost me $3500. in lost shows because of movies not delivered on time, screw-ups in billing and false "dry runs". I've got to admit TES is better now than they were a few years ago, nad I'm sure they will be greatly improved now that they don't have to deal with Sony's films.

PS I had a call from a guy at AB today who had recieved a copy of the first post... [eyes]

it's so 1984.

Posted by Mathew Molloy (Member # 666) on 01-02-2003, 11:14 PM:

Last week I was asked what time Airborne could pick up Personal Velocity. I said Midnight on Thursday. At 3 p.m. on Thursday they stop by to pick up the print. "Sorry it's still onscreen." "What time can we pick it up then?" "Midnight.".

I have the print ready at 11:40. Wait until 1:00 a.m. without anyone showing up. Finally they picked it up today at 3:00. Exactly one week later.

Actually I kinda feel sorry for some of the guys at Airborne as they seem really irritated that they keep getting these pick-up orders for the wrong day/time.

Posted by Edward O'Shaughnessy (Member # 1434) on 01-03-2003, 12:28 PM:

Mr. Malloy you are right about the drivers. Mine saved my behind on more than one occasion. Our scheduled delivery/pickup time is in the evening after office staff has gone home. She brought in the COB notices as soon as she got in the area so that I could work on them while everyone was open. She would return at her regular scheduled time with the films. Ah, the little people.

Posted by Nathan Guerriero (Member # 1214) on 01-04-2003, 12:26 AM:

Say what you want about Airborne Express, and there certainly are many criticisms, but I will take Airborne 7 days a week and twice on Thursday night over Consolidated Trucking in Chicago. Consolidated is the WORST print delivery service. I had a print of "The Bread, My Sweet" packed and ready to go for an entire week. Rather than pick it up, Consolidated brazenly lied to us and said they came for it and it was not ready. We were forced to move the print ourselves to the next theatre. Uhg.

Posted by Mathew Molloy (Member # 666) on 01-04-2003, 01:30 AM:

Well, Nathan, since you put it that way, I guess I'd take Airborn over our local delivery known as Brakewater (or Breakwater, I really don't know). They just do one pickup/dropoff Friday mornings. I love the fact that I know I'm going to have to arrive 2 hours early to build up a print which I could have been doing the previous night. I don't know how the multi's handle it.

At least Technicolor gives us a day...ahh I miss the good old days of ETS. Plenty of time to build and break down.

Posted by John Hawkinson (Member # 1135) on 01-04-2003, 03:21 PM:

Matthew, is "Brakewater" the only ETS delivery agent in the LA area? In Boston, there are at least two. Perhaps you should consider switching, or threatening to switch, and see if that improves things.

Definitely you should check with other theatres and/or your ETS depot manager.

Worst come to worst, if you're really getting to work 2 hours early on a Friday, maybe you should drive to the ETS depot and pick it up yourself. Most ETS depots allow that ("will call").

--jhawk

Posted by Mathew Molloy (Member # 666) on 01-04-2003, 05:23 PM:

Thanks for the advice John, I'll try to check into that. I'm told Brakewater is the only delivery of ETS prints in L.A. but those could be little white lies coming from corporate. Anyone else from L.A. here know anything different?