[MotherBear]

Deb,

Did you have to prepare a list of your possessions and their cost for the shippers? We always have to do this when we shift countries. If you did and you still have a copy, you could use it to base your claim on. If things can't be repaired, then you would naturally have to look at the cost of replacing them. Same for lost items. I've got into the habit of keeping all our receipts for household stuff so we can refer to them if we want to sell something or if we need to claim on insurance.

It must be really miserable for you to have so much go wrong with your shipment. Apart from the huge cost of shipping, this kind of damage is one thing that tugs at you when folks are deciding whether to sell up in their home country and start afresh in NZ or take everything with them.