Open letter to UPS (old) Home » Blogs » tomfriedel's blog

Decided to post this letter to UPS, mostly so I can remember the unfortunate incident as I get older ... Quick summary, I paid over $300 for a camera to arrive in 11 days, and UPS said it was normal and acceptable. Haven't used their service since.

On Friday August 15 I ordered a camera that weighed less than 5 pounds to be sent to Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, and was told it would arrive at most in one week. It was sent expedited and cost me over $300. Tracking number 1zx02w496771267807.

My trip to Venezuela was for nature photography outside of the city, and I could not afford to stay in the safe areas of the city, so each day waiting was quite scary (Caracas has one of the highest murder rates in the world), not to mention a great personal loss as this trip was very important to me.

On Friday the following week I was determined to pick up the package, whereever it was. I understood I had to pay customs. I called many times to UPS/Venezuela and could not get a clear answer on how to get my package (my wife speaks Spanish natively). I was repeatedly given a number where no one answered. I finally took a long walk/train/bus trip from Capitolio the UPS main office at Rio d Jainero. They told me that the package was in Maiquetía, not in Caracas as indicated on UPS.com, but that they would have it sent to that office on Monday. I asked them to put in writing that I had come to their office, but they would not.
For one day, I believe 8/22, UPS.com said "On time, execption" before it went back to "In Transit" and I did nothing to change this status, nor did anyone ever explain the Exception to me.

So I had to wait in Caracas over the weekend. A street person had taken notice of us (we look very different) and seemed to always be there when we left the hotel, making us very uncomfortable. On Monday morning I called repeatedly at opening time, and finally was told the package was ready for pickup. I again did the very long trip ot the UPS office, and when I arrived and gave the ticket number to the clerk, I had to wait about an hour before he told me the package was on the truck. Why did they tell us to come to the office? They blamed it on a power failure, but I suspect this is general excuse for screw-ups. So we had to track down the truck driver half way across town. This went well enough, but this mistake cost me another 1/2 day of the trip, and I did not have enough time to reach my next destination before dark (so could not leave Caracas again).

I would like for UPS to refund my money, or most of it. If UPS does not, I will conclude they consider this normal operation, and will never use the service again,

tom friedel
tom@birdphotos.com