One's a collection booking. The agent's reference has no arrival event. Our packing list includes the arm and the matching controller cable, but neither message links a received crate to it.

Send both references and your crate identifier to each party privately. Ask them to link the numbers and say who last physically received that crate.

One message to both, then? I'm tired of carrying vague answers from one inbox to another.

I used a shared conversation on a separate freight purchase. Once the contacts could see each other's references, I no longer had to relay and interpret their replies.

A joint message to the contacts you already use makes sense. Getting them to connect the references should establish the shipment's location.

The reference mapping might connect administrative records without establishing physical receipt. You would still need evidence of where the crate went.

True, I skipped a step. Mapping identifies the shipment; a receipt or custody confirmation establishes a handover. Ask for both.

Could collected and not at the warehouse both be true?

Yes, they could describe different stages. That's a possibility, though, not an explanation we can assume for your shipment.

That helps. I've been reading them as direct contradictions. I'll ask which physical step each message describes.

Neither party has confirmed physical receipt of our crate. I still can't turn these two references into a verified location.

Then the location is still open. Two reference numbers don't fill that gap.