FedEx customs nightmare... Never again FedEx!

I feel sorry for Roger Federer for sharing the same nickname as this big bloated company with terrible customer service. They have lost me as a customer forever. UPS, here I come!

So I had to send some documents to India. Very important documents to me, but worthless to anyone else. To my unaccustomed-to-shipping-service mind, this was just the thing fedex existed for. Quick, safe and guaranteed delivery.

1. Shipped the envelope on 17th May (open on Saturdays! Go FedEx!)

2. Got delivery estimate of Wednesday 21st May (Quick! Go FedEx!)

3. Wednesday morning it showed that it reached Mumbai (Safe! Go FedEx!)

Then disaster struck.

4. Clearance Delay. An ominous red exclamation mark on the tracking page.

Customer has requested non-express clearance.

Recommended action:

No action required at this time.

Reason for delay:

Unknown status: Non-FedEx broker.

Recommended action:

Responsible party contact broker.  

Huh! What does this mean? Should I take action or not based on recommendation? Who is a broker? Is FedEx a broker? Why are they referring to themselves in 3rd person?

5. Called the 1800 number to make sense of it all. The very courteous, always apologizing customer service representative asked me to confirm what the package was. "Just documents" I said. "No obstacles?" she asked. "Obstacles? There is a file folder, is that an obstacle for some scanner?" I asked. She made the relevant notes on the case, also took down the recipient's contact information. OK. so that was all that was missing I thought. Somewhere down the line they lost the recipient's contact number and the description of the package.

6. Then I and the recipient get this email from the fedex India office

Please find attached above is the airway bill and invoice for your reference. The shipment has arrived in Mumbai under Cargo mode.

Kindly forward an authority letter along with demand draft in favor of “Federal Express Corporation” towards delivery order charges with your CHA.

Cargo? Envelopes go in cargo? Who knows, maybe its jargon for something I dont know. Looked at the invoice and found this. WTF!! Optical transmitters? Headed for Taiwan? And I have to pay import duty?? For this??? Where is my package then? On its way to Taiwan instead?? Oh shit! Oh shit! What do I do?

7. Once I recovered from the mini freakout, I reasoned with myself. This is a big company, mistakes happen. The airway bill was correct. Maybe just the wrong invoice was attached. I just have to call customer support and make them aware of it. They can surely deal with Indian customs, being big name shippers, they probably have their express channels.

8. Again called 1800. I think they are trained to constantly apologize and not solve anything. The first person I talked to said FedEx cant do anything, I have to talk to a broker in India to release the package from customs. Who the hell is a customs broker? I only know of stock brokers and property brokers. How do I find a broker in India? And why should I need a broker for a 1 pound envelope of documents?? And why should I pay??? Round and round it went, him insisting I must pay for the transmitters because thats whats on the invoice, me trying to tell him the invoice is wrong. Finally got shunted to the trace department supervisor Tessa. She went through the same grind, till I finally read out the commercial invoice to her (note to self: when customer support puts you on hold while they retrieve case files, they are not actually retrieving all the files). After I read it out to her, she finally pulled out the invoice on her end. I asked her to compare the tracking number on the invoice and the waybill. Both were different (obviously!). 

9. Finally she admitted fedex got it wrong. Thank the heavens! Asked me to email my copy of the receipt, waybill and invoice. Which I did promptly. I had no template for invoice, so used their template of commercial invoice, which they themselves provided.

10. I thought I was finally seeing light at the end of the tunnel. The fedex trace department will kick into action and clear this misunderstanding in a jiffy. Tessa even promised to follow up with me with updates on this. I thought, how nice. 

11. Who knew this was a start of a 2 week and still ongoing ordeal. FedEx India emailed me again, saying Mumbai customs will have to inspect the package and apply a fine for misdeclaration. WTF again! Why am I on the dock? Did I not spend an hour with customer support getting them to admit it was fedex's mistake? Did that memo not reach India? Why cant fedex usa and india sync up? Why do I have to act as a liaison? They later sent me 6 more forms to fill. Asked for recipients passport information. The recipient was now an "importer" and I was an "exporter". The recipient was given an import declaration form to fill. Knowing Indian bureaucracy and its affinity for paperwork, I was not surprised. But considering fedex was a big name company, I expected them to shoulder some of the responsibility. You cant dump random complicated import forms on customers and expect them to figure it out themselves. I am not a commercial exporter. Neither am I a customs broker. This was all just a mistake! On the part of FedEx! Why cant they solve it? Why wash hands off it and dump it all on us?

12. At the time of posting this, we filled out the forms to the best of our ability and emailed to fedEx. Their clearing agent now wants the paper copy of the forms signed and attested. FedEx India and their clearing agent are now arguing over what more paperwork is required. I feel the paperwork will never end.. it will soon rival the size of the package we are trying to get released from customs office. FedEx USA meanwhile decides to grace me with a 6:50am wake up call saying the recipient has refused to pay. Huh? What? Pay duty? Why? Did we not make it clear a week ago that this was not a commercial package? Is this groundhog day?

Never again FedEx.. never again.

Unexpected vacations and the silver lining in everything

The only thing better than a vacation is an unexpected vacation...

This week, thanks to the @%@$#%$# Indian Consulate in SF, which would not attest a document without it being "Apostilled" first, I had to plan an urgent trip to Sacramento. If ever there is an award for "being most bureaucratic" it should be given to them for keeping red tape well and truly alive. Mailing documents was not an option since I needed them immediately. I either had to drive up or take the train.

On a side note, I feel that Amtrak is a really under-appreciated means of travel in the US. I don't know why they are only now considering a high speed rail line between bay area and LA. I travelled from LA to bay area by the coast starlight 2 years ago. It was such a luxurious ride compared to being crammed like sardines in the economy class of a flight! But it was slowwwww. 10 hours! Thats unforgivable for a commuter train. Maybe they want to slow down our fast-paced lives and force us to open our eyes to the sights around,  if only for the duration of the journey.

This

vs This!

So there is was... cursing the Indian consulate, I booked my train ticket to Sacramento

Santa Clara station was not really a station... just a platform on one side of the tracks. Even google maps got it wrong! Telling me that I should jump the fence from Lafayette St to get to the station is really an Apple maps kind of goof up.

The train took off from Great America Station and headed straight north into the bay, cutting through the salt pans(?). The journey till Hayward was nothing worth noting about, I spent the time trying to find the cafe and the best seat. Past Hayward the scenery got interesting...

Oakland announced its arrival by the wall-to-wall graffiti on both sides of the track. It's there everywhere; abandoned buildings, junkyards, underneath bridges, even on the sides of freeways! First you see the Raiders stadium on your left. Then start the junkyards and scrapyards. Either the train goes through a bad neighbourhood, or Oakland is the scrapyard for the bay area. The contrast between San Francisco and Oakland was never more obvious than here. The SF financial district was looming in the background, like white collar looking down on blue collar. The station itself though was in a very nice beachfront area called Jack London Square.

Oakland Raiders stadium and the start of graffiti

Junkyards and graffiti.

As the train left the industrial neighbourhood of Oakland behind, the scenery improved dramatically, with good views of Oakland and Golden Gate bridge. Just past Emeryville, there was a very beautiful trail on the left. Location data tells me that was San Francisco Bay trail close to Vik's Chaat (Mental note made). After Richmond the train hugged the shore briefly, before veering inwards. The calm bay waters were replaced by flat plains and rolling hills.

By the sea

And the hills

An hour or so later, I was getting down at Sacramento. Took the light rail to the notary office. My work there was done in 15 mins. 3 hrs of travel for 15 mins of work. They really should open an office in Bay area.

With 2.5hrs till the next train back, I decided I could squeeze in a visit to the State Capitol at least. After all it was only 3 blocks away. The building itself was majestic and pristine white. How much taxpayer money must they be spending to keep it that white? Why not have a dash of color? As it is white as a color has been tainted by its association with politicians.

California State Capitol with a dash of color

The Rotunda inside the building

State Senate with the antique look.

The corridors were covered with oil portraits of past Governors. Old boys club style. 

Ronald Reagen (1967-75)

Current Gov. Brown then (1975-83) 

Reagen decided to go for photo-realistic effect. Now I am not aware of California's political history, but I guess Gov. Brown wanted a clean break from his predecessor in all respects! I wonder if he gets to choose one more portrait when his finishes his current term.

The vast garden in front of the Capitol seemed unaffected by the current drought conditions. It was lush green, with oranges hanging from trees.

I must mention here, the old lady volunteering at the information desk was a big help. Very chatty! Gave me the tourist maps and the tour guide info, as well as "what to see in a rushed visit" pointers. She also told me all about her son who is an Engineer living in San Jose. I wonder why. Maybe she was just bored sitting there all day long. Hmm.

All in all, a good trip!

PS: This is my attempt at photo-blogging. This blog needs some life!

Stay tuned

In 5 more days

Marathi abhimaan geet

The best part of the day

On a typical weekday I get up, get ready, get to work, then follows the regular routine of work, coffee break, work more, lunch break, try to work, coffee break, pretend to work, finally get home, cook, eat, chat with friends, watch some netflix and sleep. On to the next day... Almost feels like Groundhog day (the film). One fine Saturday evening I sat thinking what part of this day do I most look forward to. The best part of my 24 hour run of the mill day. Ever wondered about it? I am not a morning person by any stretch of imagination, which rules out all mornings. Getting ready and to work is usually a dash against time, nothing to look forward to there. Work is well.. work; I'd be surprised if sitting in your cube whole day can be enjoyable. Lunch breaks are good, especially if I have something interesting, but its not the best part. I don't dislike cooking per se, but I do dislike what precedes and follows it - chopping and cleaning.

I'm not trying to reach my answer here through process of elimination but there is precious little time left to look forward to anything after all these activities. But one thing I do look forward to is the drive from office to home, not just for obvious reasons. The drive itself is only 15 minutes long. There is nothing special about the road as such, it cuts right through a mostly industrial area, speed limit is 45 at max and there are potholes on the road which make my car shiver and me cry. But the road is an east-west road and my office is to the east. So every evening I'm treated to the panoramic view of the sun setting in a blaze of gold. Its so beautiful its indescribable.

But let me take a detour here. I love sunsets. I can watch it every day of my life and not tire of it. It is one of the reasons I have held on to my current apartment - it almost faces west, giving me a nice view of the sun setting behind the Minneapolis downtown. I was told by a friend that the sunrise is even better to watch but I doubt I can get up early enough to catch it. Not that I'm regretting it. Sunset at Worli sea-face, Gateway, Sasawne, on I-94W, at the innumerable lakes in and around Minneapolis.. all of them memorable in their own way. While science can come up with the exact concentration and distribution of dust particles required to create the bright color palette in the sky, it cannot take the magic away from sunsets. Like the grand finale of a performance. If the rising sun brings hope for the new day, the evening skies say that you did your best. No matter what my state of mind is, those 15-20 minutes lift my mood like nothing else can.

So back to the topic. Happiness in indeed in small things in life. That 15 minute drive is when I forget everything (other than driving) and just enjoy the scene. I try whenever possible to leave for home when the sun is just setting. Since there are no tall buildings in Minneapolis other than in the downtown area, the view is unobstructed. At that angle of the sun, the clouds look like they are on fire. On some days there is a bird or two flying across. The skies are a bright mix of yellow and orange. One of these days, I'll take my cam and click a few pics on the way home to post here. My rapidly degrading writing skills cannot do justice to the view.

To those who read this post, you can write about the best part of your day