anyone ever been in this position ...?

You mean the vet has lost them? Or perhaps the scoring panel? Either way that is so careless and means the dog will need be x-rayed again.

am enquiring for a friend... still early days but no - one seems to know where they are .. just wondered how often this can happen?

I see - no, I have not heard of anyone having them lost before scoring but I suppose it must have happened.

do vets who take them submit by post? if so i would be wanting to see proof of posting. If not I'd be wanting them to retake at no extra cost.

Would you vet not still have digital copies he can send?

Happened to me the vets kept teling me it would take 8-10 weeks and I shouldn't panic but I rang the BVA and they said they were processing plates that were only 2 weeks old and hadn't received anything from my vets in 14 months! (slightly annoyed as when I asked if they did them regularly they said the orthopedic vet did them there all the time - clearly not!)

I rang back my vets and explained to them - they assured me they were posted and said as they weren't digital plates (apparently not many vets use digital x rays yet) they would have to be repeated and we'd only have to pay for the GA!  After giving them my opinion on their idea of giving my poor girl another un-neccessary GA due to their incompetance they told me to hold out and see if they turned up.  Funnily enough 4 days later the BVA rang me and said they had just arrived with a post mark of 2 days previously so couldn't have been sent months ago. 

The vets must have had the plates tracked when posting so I would keep on at them and chase them up.  Sorry I really hope they re-surface as particularly if it involves a GA it can be very difficult to re-do them

Similiar thing here just over a year ago.  Months went by BVA still hadn't had them, vets checked everywhere.  They ended up a few months later back at the vets.  They hadn't paid the correct RM fee and Royal Mail had kept them for months and then sent them back to the vets.  Vets then sent them to the BVA and they were up on the KC website the day of being scored!!!

Think the lady's name is Sandra at the BVA and she was a star and soooo much help.

Yes, my friend's dog had her dog xrayed at Southampton. The plates reached the BVA and he was scored but nothing ever came back through the post. She was told the score.