The package that FedEx Charged me $151.00 to ship

Well, today is certainly a mixture of emotions. I received lots of mail, since I hadn’t really checked it in about a week. Renewals for both of our license plates, Bill for Car Insurance, Bill for Water, Bill for payment on my laptop.

Then a bill from Fed-Ex. While we were in Canada getting married and honeymooning, we did shopping; we bought gifts to bring back to the US for family members, souvenirs, etc. We knew that if we tried to put them on the plane, the box they were in would probably be destroyed (they ripped a wheel off my brand new luggage), we didn’t have extra luggage, and we would have to pay extra to get it on the plane to get it back, so we got the brilliant idea to use my fed ex account number and ship it back.

We shipped it International Priority. I filled out all the customs forms; I listed each item in the box separately and claimed how much it cost. The box weighed 10 pounds. We thought it would arrive in 3 business days, according to Fed Ex international Priority standards as listed on the bill of lading that I filled out, and as listed on their website. That would mean that it would arrive before our reception on the 20th, and also in time to give the gifts to Evan’s brother Kyle, and Angie and Carrie, since Carrie is in Utah and Angela near Chicago, and Kyle in Macomb.

Well, of course, the package got held up in Customs and they thought I was importing goods for RESALE, because there was over $700.00 CAD of products inside. Then I ended up playing phone tag with Customs agents for 5 days, every time I talked to them there was a new “form” I had to fill out and fax to them that basically told the exact same thing as I already had filled out, except declaring the goods as “personal use” and not for resale. I had to relist each good AGAIN on another form. Ugh. And I had to list what each item was MADE of. Fabric/Leather/Metal, etc. Although most of that was already listed. Who would have thought that a sweatshirt could be made out of anything besides FABRIC? A leather sweatshirt? Not. They could have easily opened the box and saw what was inside for themselves instead of making me fill out 100 forms to tell them what the clothing was made of.

So anyway, finally got through all of that, and were told that it was being released from customs and should arrive AT OUR HOUSE most likely by 1pm on the 20th, THE DAY OF OUR RECEPTION. So while I am at the reception site, Evan is at home waiting for the FedEx box that really doesn’t arrive until 10:38am on Monday, the 23rd of August, exactly 3 days after the reception, 1 day after Carrie flew back to Utah and Kyle and Angela drove home. AND 6 days after the package left Vancouver. SO I called FedEx, because in my mind, it was not delivered in a timely manner according to the International Priority (3 days) and instead was delivered in accordance with regular fedex ground times. So I tried to see if they would just be charging us for FedEx International Ground and Not FedEx International Priority. No chance. You see, according to FedEx’s fine print, which I can only find while searching their website for 30 minutes, Delays in Customs are not their responsibility. And therefore they can charge me whatever they want. They can in fact even charge me more surcharges because of it.

So my bill arrived today. It cost $151.17 USD to ship a 10 pound box from Canada to Illinois, in 6 business days and with LOADS of haggle, hassle, and paperwork. Thank You FedEx.

I am still requesting a price change, but I highly doubt FedEx will do anything for me, the average customer, now looking at a shocking $151.00 bill. Instead I am sure they will site all their “policies” and the fine print available on their website.

In other FedEx news:

• Jose Avila pisses off FedEx by making furniture for his apartment out of FedEx boxes and posting the photos on his website. See photos and the full story (wired magazine) here.
• FedEx discrimination suit moves ahead (Sept 29th, 2005) Did FedEx Discriminate against Minority workers?
• Other FedEx "International" Disasters. Check the Consumer Complaints website.
• August 2005- Kittens Survive Accidental FedEx Shipment
• FedEx Sells Customer's Information- "Did you know that when you pay FedEx (or any of the spy- happy FedEx family of companies including Kinko’s) for shipping or printing or copying, you get the value-added bonus of having your activities monitored and reported to the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security or U.S. Customs?
  Did you also know that FedEx has its own police department and a database that’s regularly shared with the Federal government? "