Two shipping companies lose comic artist’s valuable originals

Comic artist Taneli Kemppi sent two packages containing original pages from his work nominated for Sarjakuva-Finlandia to an exhibition in Oulu, but both shipments went missing, Yle reports.

The works from Kerrosten välistä have significant emotional value for Kemppi and are practically irreplaceable.

The Matkahuolto package was in transit for less than a week before the company told Kemppi it had been delivered. However, it had not arrived at the Oulu Comic Centre, the exhibition venue. The centre had also been told that the package had been delivered.

After two days of uncertainty, Matkahuolto informed Kemppi that the package had been found at a terminal. It was delivered to the correct address on Friday.

“No one is really taking responsibility, even though I think this is quite a serious mistake,” Kemppi said.

The second shipment was sent through Posti as an ordinary letter. On Friday, it had been in transit for 15 working days.

Posti’s customer service has been unable to help because the shipment was not registered and has no tracking number.

“It is unfortunate that I have been disappointed by two delivery services in such a short time. I wonder whether anything would have happened if I had not had the energy to call so many places,” Kemppi said.

Kati Nevalainen, who leads Matkahuolto’s parcel services business, said by email that Matkahuolto is responsible for a package’s journey even when a partner handles part of the transport.

According to Nevalainen, packages going missing is very rare. She said 0.1 per mille of packages remain missing. Matkahuolto transports about 20 million packages a year, meaning the figure corresponds to roughly 2,000 packages.

“When a package goes missing, we pay compensation in accordance with the law. In this case, the situation ended happily. The package has been located and will be delivered to the recipient,” Nevalainen said.

The shipment sent through Posti was still in transit on Friday. The exhibition at the Oulu Comic Centre will continue until early October.