What Would You Do?

So, I'm officially batting 0-2 when it comes to ordering from NARA.  After the whole pension debacle, I decided to order a compiled military service file from NARA for my John Berger.  Now, my John Berger/Barger served in Company K in the 29th Indiana Infantry.  I was VERY careful to include this fact when I ordered his military file because there was also a John A. Berger who served in Company A in the 29th Indiana Infantry.  Can you guess which one they sent me and charged me $25 for?  Go ahead, guess.  Yup, the wrong one.  The one for the John A. Berger who served in Co. A.  Thanks, NARA - you shouldn't have... really.

Now my problem is that I want to contact NARA and tell them of their mistake and request a new search (which I think I'm entitled to considering I SPECIFICALLY STATED the Company he was in and they, um, ignored that) BUT, I'm a little worried because my John Berger/Barger only shows up in the Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System (and in the pension index).  Since he doesn't seem to be listed in any other databases for Civil War soldiers, should I just swallow my RAGE disappointment and accept that they might not have his compiled military service file (though there isn't any reason why they shouldn't) or should I call them and rip them a new one explain their error in the hopes of getting a new search?  What would you do? 

Comments

  1. I would contact them and ask for the correct file. If they didn't have the one you wanted, I imagine they would have sent back a letter saying so. It sounds like they messed up and pulled the wrong file. Also, they probably keep these requests on file for a while, so they might be able to just look it up and see that they made a mistake.

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  2. Go ahead and ask! Of course they must have the correct file somewhere, and that's the one you paid for!

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