Fed-Ex can't either.
My son and I have been living through a 3-week nightmare trying to get a package here via Fed-Ex that he worked odd-jobs 3 years to save up money for--a Kenwood radio/scanner he ordered from a company in the UK.
Much of the problem is the result of Fed-Ex’s VERY convoluted system which makes it impossible for customers to speak to a knowledgeable agent about their case, and Fed-Ex apparently pressuring employees to spend as little time as possible working on each customer complaint.
An investigation has been launched and someone named “Collette” (supposedly an “Escalation Supervisor in International Shipping”) assigned—but it is IMPOSSIBLE FOR ME TO DIRECTLY REACH HER. Instead, I have to call the automated Fed-Ex #, identify that it is for an “investigation or case” to speak to a live person (who is usually a speaker of English as a Second Language – ESL) in the far east, who I then have to ask to transfer me to International Shipping, where I may or may not get an ESL person, who either will not or cannot transfer me to the actual person handling my case (Collette) but can only “take a message” for her to call me—which she may or may not do. Additionally, I can only send written information to Collette via
paperwork@fedex.com – where again apparently an ESL employee send the information to Collette—so again delay/confusion as the information has to be sent through several hands and then “interpreted” by them BEFORE Collette ever sees it.
Additionally, through my many calls I have learned FED-EX LIMITS THE AMOUNT OF TIME any employee may spend with any one customer call or issue—seems to be about 5 minutes. I have now been told, by separate employees with Fed-Ex while on the phone with them, that they are “nearing the end of their time allowed” to speak with me. If this is ALSO true of the amount of time any supervisor is allowed to take LOOKING at the DOCUMENTATION I have sent them, then NO WONDER this issue has not been resolved—the necessary time has not been devoted to looking into it!
A number of “excuses” have been given as to why my package is STILL being held. First, the package on the DOUBLE-BOXED radio was supposedly torn up so badly that all packaging was lost and all labels destroyed, so that they no longer knew whose radio this was. I sent (repeatedly) copies of the Invoice that had this information (Name of radio, series #, part #, SERIAL # WHICH IS SPECIFIC TO EACH RADIO AND WHICH SHOULD BE THEIR MAJOR / ONLY NECESSARY IDENTIFICATION CRITERIA). I also sent the actual website URL for the radio from the site where we ordered it. I also sent PICTURES of the previously-ordered radio we had already received (that one was sent through UPS).
Though I explained that the pictures were NOT of the radio Fed-Ex was holding at Memphis but of ANOTHER radio we already had at our home, Fed-Ex employees STILL got this confused and reported back to me that “the serial # of the radio in the picture does not MATCH the one we have”--! Well of COURSE it didn’t-that was ANOTHER radio! Common-sense, people---if I already HAD the missing radio, why would I be sending you a PICTURE of it?!?
Then after we got that straightened, out, I STILL got push-back that the people in Overgoods “needed more proof” that this was MY radio I ordered. They were “still investigating.” I RE-SENT the INVOICE, and they said, “No—we have to hear FROM THE SHIPPER that this is the correct serial #.” So I had the SHIPPER, Mark Henson, Director at Brabourne Ltd, DIRECTLY send Fed-Ex communication again containing the FULL INFORMATION to identify the radio, including the SERIAL NUMBER (the only # that matters), AND another copy FROM HIM of the invoice.
During this time, while making numerous calls to Fed-Ex in vain efforts to reach Collette, I spoke to many OTHER Fed-Ex agents in “International Shipping”—Maria, Evelyn, Lee, Pam, Jackie, and others. ALMOST EVERY TIME I CALLED I WAS GIVEN DIFFERENT INFORMATION. Some told me the package had NOT been found and they didn’t know where it was; others told me it ‘had’ been found but they couldn’t match it “exactly” to me; others told me it had “cleared” and I would receive it “in two days”; others said “We have SO MANY ITEMS in Overgoods it TAKES TIME to investigate if this is YOUR radio”---so the left hand doesn’t seem to know what the right hand is doing at Fed-Ex!
Then this past Friday AT my WORKPLACE, a Fed-Ex INVOICE was sent to the name of MY EMPLOYER (!) for this radio. This Invoice---which fortunately I happened to catch as I happened to be the first to open the mail that day—was a bill IN THE NAME OF MY BOSS for the customs and duty for the radio—the same one Fed-Ex is TELLING ME THEY CAN’T IDENTIFY AS BEING MINE AND AREN’T EVEN SURE THEY HAVE. This bill contained VERY DETAILED information about the radio—making it ABUNDANTLY CLEAR THAT FED-EX DOES STILL HAVE THE RADIO AND THEY KNOW EXACTLY WHAT RADIO BELONGS TO ME. The invoice was a Duty & Tax Invoice for $15.53 additional money—and it is odd that this was NEVER charged for the previous radio that came via UPS—but I paid their “ransom” immediately so that Fed-Ex couldn’t use THAT excuse to STILL keep my radio! I (again) tried to call Fed-Ex and read Collette—this time two Asian (by their accents) Fed-Ex employees REFUSED to transfer me to International Shipping, even though Collette had INSTRUCTED me that this was the department I was to ask for! Even after (as she told me to do) asking for their Employee/Badge #s or asking to be “escalated to ICE 2”, they refused to pass me on to the correct department! I was in a panic, since—HAD MY BOSS SEEN THIS INFO, WHERE THE BILL WAS BEING CHARGED TO HIS NAME AND ACCOUNT #, I COULD HAVE BEEN IN DEEP TROUBLE AT WORK OR EVEN FIRED! My employers had given me permission to have the radio sent CARE OF my workplace—but at NO TIME was my BOSS’S name even involved with this order! What was Fed-Ex THINKING by sending a bill to my BOSS?!??
So finally, today, I filed a BBB complaint.
I put the tracking # and case # AT THE TOP of the description pane telling about my problems.
BBB submits it to Fed-Ex.
What does Fed-Ex do?
Writes me a notice that "Fed-Ex requires the tracking # to process the complaint."
IT WAS THE FIRST LINE AT THE TOP OF MY SUBMITTED COMPLAINT, PEOPLE!
I have never seen such ignorance and stupidity in all my life.