Customer Service?

Anyone who has ever worked in retail service of any kind knows the phrase "the customer is always right". If you have read my 101 things about me, you will see that I have worked many different types of jobs. I try to be kind and understanding with employees at places when I need issues resolved. Most of the time, the problem isn't the persons fault and they don't need to be treated poorly because someone else didn't do what they were supposed to do. I also understand that larger companies have "steps" they have to follow to resolve issues. I'm ok with that too. That said, here is some correspondence I have been having with one of the major shipping companies which we use at my work. (I've left off any details; company info, names, tracking numbers).

The issue: Essentially, I had a customer who didn't get a shipment of live crickets we shipped a week ago. I tracked it and found it had scanned as being picked up, but never left the local hub to make its way to the destination. I promptly reshipped the shipment using a different carrier and sent the following email to the customer service for the MIA package so I could get a credit for the shipping we paid.

The 1st email: This was picked up on 10/24/06 at 3:44pm, however it has not been scanned since then. This was a live product which is dead by now so please credit our account for the shipping. If you have any questions, please contact our account rep: john.doe@CrappyShippingCompany.com

The response from "customer service":
Thank you for contacting CSC.
I apologize for your inconvenience. Unfortunately, this shipment has no positive disposition. Currently, an all station trace is being conducted. I strongly advise you to start the process of a loss claim and I can initiate it for you. Please provide the value of this shipment.
Thank you for using CSC.

A few things I'd like to point out:
1) What does "no positive disposition" mean? Can't she just say, we've lost your package.
2) I believe that I stated the shipment was dead, so why waste your manpower searching for a box of dead crickets. You'll smell it in a few days anyway, believe me!
3) By emailing your stupid customer service, I ALREADY was initiating a claim on the package. Duh, that is what the email was!

Finally, my email to our account rep:
Hi John (doe),
I am not trying to be a pain. That said... Am I not being clear in my requests to customer service? It seems like they read the first sentence (if that) and then ignore the entire rest of the request. Should I be requesting these in a different manner? I am becoming irritated with having to bicker with the customer service department.

I flat out said that the product was dead and all I needed was a credit for the shipping. I don't care if the package is ever found; I had to reship it already. I understand that we take a risk shipping a live product and I never request a credit on the actual product that is doa - only the shipping on a package that never arrived (or was not delivered within the published transit times).

Anyway, will you please have a credit issued to our account for the shipping on this MIA package? Thanks! Happy Halloween!

John Doe promptly replied, apologized and sent the issue(s, this was the 2nd one in 2 weeks) to a higher up service department. Sadly, I don't even care about getting the money back for the shipping. I am just being petty because we have at least a dozen of these service failures a week with this company. If I have to waste my time dealing with mad customers, tracking, and reshipping then THEY are going to have to waste time doing the same thing! Last week my coworker called John Doe and had him send our ENTIRE bill for a week back to the billing department to be reworked because they dimmed (used box dimensions rather than actual weight) all of our ground shipments, thus charging us several pounds extra on each shipment. I've heard other horror stories about this company from other farms. How do these places stay in business? It's just sad.