[NTLK] Bad UPS stories...

From: Frank Gruendel (Frank_Gruendel_at_t-online.de)
Date: Sun Dec 30 2001 - 11:52:49 EST


>Yours is the first bad UPS story. If that's your norm, then your UPS
>delivery guy needs to be re-educated, or fired.

Well, here's another one. If I was able to decide, re-education
would not be an option...

1) 11 MP2K battery packs (sent from the USA to Germany)
   I'm supposed to refurbish plus some other stuff I'm supposed
   to keep for spare parts are sent to me via UPS.

2) A lady from UPS calls me and inquires what is in the package
   because they need that for customs.

3) I tell the lady three times per minute or about two dozen
   times during that call that most of the stuff will be sent back
   and thus shouldn't go through customs.

4) One day later I have a notification in my mailbox that UPS had
   tried to deliver a "Nachnahme" (that's the german type of "cash
   on delivery"). As I hadn't been home, they wanted to know when
   to try next.

5) I call UPS to inquire about that shipment as I'm currently not
   expecting a "Nachnahme". They inform me that the package in
   question is the one with the packs.

6) I tell them that this is not a "Nachnahme" because, as I
   tried to get across the day before about two dozen times, this
   package will be sent back once the content is refurbished.

7) After being put through to about 5 people at UPS, the last one
   tells me that when they write "Nachnahme" they might actually mean
   "customs fee". I try to get across that for this particular
   package there's no need for a customs fee because this package
   will be... (see #6).

8) Out of ideas, the guy puts me through to UPS'es customer
   support, me starting to wonder who on earth I've been talking
   to so far.

9) UPS'es Customer support puts me through to a couple of people
   who put me through to a couple of people who put me through to
   a couple of people of who the last one puts me through to UPS'es
   customer support.
   Fortunately this time I talk to the lady next to the lady who
   started this chain, and next-to-lady is competent for a
   change.

10) Next-to-lady finds out that "Nachnahme" isn't "Nachnahme", but
    the customs fee. Which was not based on the declared value for
    the package, but on the insurance sum. Which is US$850 due
    to the fact that a UPS employee has told the sender that up to
    this sum there would be no customs fee charged in Germany. Which
    is utter nonsense. Currently 16 percent of the declared value
    are charged for everything except gifts with a declared value of
    less than $10 or so. The fee is never based on the insurance sum.

11) I tell next-to lady that I have tried to get across the fact
    that the contents of this package will... (see #6) when talking
    to her colleague recently. Would they please correct their mistake.

12) I spend some minutes listening to painful music while next-to-lady
    gets back to said colleague.

13) I talk to next-to-lady again. Her colleague has said that
    the package had to go through customs that way because I have
    insisted on getting it the next day. It wouldn't have been
    necessary to pay any customs fee if I had been willing to wait some
    days longer.

14) I tell next-to-lady that this is sheer nonsense. I have never
    insisted on getting the package the next day, I haven't even been
    offered this, and in my humble experience the fact that I have told
    her colleague numerous times that the contents will... (see
    #6) and that I am not prepared to pay any customs fee should have
    been sufficient to let even the most dumb employee (I put that a bit
    more polite, though) realize that my main concern was not having to
    pay any customs fee for a package whose content will... (see #6).

15) Next-to-lady says that she is sorry (which I actually believe), but
    that she can't undo what has happened. Not surprising that UPS also
    feels unable to refund me for my time and the phone cost I had
    so far. She recommends accepting the package, paying the "Nachnahme"
    which is a customs fee in disguise and trying to get the customs
    fee back later.
    She points out that it would be a good idea to bring all the
    paperwork when trying this in my local customs office. She also
    recommends NOT to open the package, but have it opened there.
    She also recommends not to send the refurbished
    packs back just like that, but have the package checked and sealed
    at the local customs office before doing so.

16) As all this isn't the sender's fault and because I think he is entitled
    to getting his packs back while he's still alive, I grumblingly accept.
    In a rare stroke of intelligence I ask next-to-lady for her name and
    write it down.

17) On the fourth day I pay about $130 to get my hands on a package I am
    not allowed to open and whose content I am not going to keep. The
    paperwork accompanying said package consists of a 10 x 5 cm paper slip.

18) Doubting that said paperslip would be enough "paperwork" to base a
    customs fee refund on, the next day sees me at our local customs office.
    Me, the un-opened package and the paper slip, that is.

19) I am right. Said paperslip isn't enough "paperwork" to base a customs
    fee refund on. They will not open the package until I can provide
    some information consisting of frighteningly long names and numbers.

19) I call UPS again. This time I have to talk to only 3 people before I
    am put through to somebody who knows the word "customs". He strongly
    and repeatedly advises me to let UPS take care of everything, blissfully
    ignoring my mentioning that two people from UPS have told me this
wouldn't
    be possible just the day before. Finally, I insist on talking to
    next-to-lady again.

20) I talk to next-to-lady again. I very politely express the fact that,
    although she is admittedly doing her best and way more than what her
    colleages were able to do so far, I am quite close to getting
    just a little bit annoyed.

21) Next-to-lady informs me that UPS can't send the paperwork out to the
    customers earlier then about a week after the package has been
    delivered. She then gives me all required names and numbers. She also
    gives me a couple of equally frightening numbers which she thinks are
    unimportant for a refund, but won't hurt to know anyway. She
    also tells me some other data that might come in handy. Obediently, I
    write everything down.

22) The next day sees me at our local customs office again. All in all
    I have, thanks to next-to-lady's competence, all
    the information the customs people need.

23) Finally, the guy at the customs office opens the package, his main
    concern seeming to be that none of the styrofoam chips finds its way
    to the floor. After checking that it contains obsolete and currently
    unusable computer hardware, he prepares a refund application form
    for me which he even offers to send to the central customs office.
    And he even renounces of my having to have the package checked and
    sealed before sending it back.

24) After about twice as long as it took to get the package across the
    Atlantic, I can finally start refurbishing. And months later,
    shortly before Chrismas, I even get the refund.

All in all I have spend about $10 on the phone, $15 on driving across
my home town to the customs office, and a fair amount of time which is,
at least for me, priceless as I'd much rather spend it with my family
whose members currently see me rarely enough as it is.
Apart from next-to-lady calling every single UPS employee who was
involved in this transaction an imbecile would in fact be praise.
If I wrote my software or developed my hardware the way this
transaction took place, I would be out of work since 1985.

Frank

Newton software and hardware stuff at www.pda-soft.de

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