Originally Posted by
GaryO3
So, travelling for 10 days and decided to check luggage which I normally do not do. Put the approved TSA lock on the bag and dropped it off. When I picked my bag up, the lock was gone... of course when I complain to TSA about that they swear it had to be caused by the airlines conveyor belt system and so sorry but guess I'll have to take it up with them. Never mind that my bag has a little indentation that the lock rests in so it is flush with the bag, and under the carry handle. Mrs. GaryO3 has lost 2 locks in the past year so this is a total of 3, for about $50 down the drain.
What really infuriates me though is when I get to the hotel and discover that all of my carefully packed suits and shirts look like they were dumped out and just crammed back into the bag. I had to send everything out to be pressed at a cost of about $60.
Fortunatley I have never had any real issues with the TSA but this just burns me up. Any chance of getting any kind of satisfaction (ha!) from them or do I just have to suck it up?
Call the airport in which you traveled through ask for the inspection tapes to be held for review. "IF" your bag was inspected by the TSA then it should be on tape. A management person can pull these tapes and they are saved for several days. I had a bag "inspected" on a Thursday morning. On Monday I called and my TSA contact and they got the tapes. They found my bag being inspected. We had a laugh and then I filed a claim which was accepted.
Given that the lock was missing and no TSA notice and the disarray of the contents to be honest it sounds as though your bag was tossed by a thief and NOT mucked about with TSA. As such, I would be more inclined to follow up with the airline.
BTW on your return pack your bag the exact same way with the same contents and see if gets a secondary TSA inspection. Might help give some idea if TSA might have had any reason to open it.