My Broken Platter and FedEx Chicanery
While we were in Sicily, I bought a beautiful ceramic platter. Gleaming white with sculpted brilliantly orange pumpkins and green leaves and tendrils. I fell in love with it the minute I laid eyes on it. We asked the shop owner if he shipped to the US, and he was happy to help us get this lovely platter across the pond and onto my Thanksgiving table.
The shipping wasn't cheap, but considering my already (by that time) full suitcase, there was no way I was going to try to pack it myself and lug it all over Greece and Spain.
Of course, the unthinkable (and at the same time, almost expected) happened...the platter arrived broken.
I was crushed. I immediately contacted the shop owner - who still has not responded - thinking he could shed some light on how I might get my hands on another platter. I then contacted FedEx.
Now, I like FedEx...I mean, I don't have any deep-seated hatred for them. During our move, they showed up several times a week with pictures, rugs, shoes, etc. (They always show up with shoes.) But I got a bit of the runaround. I'm sure they routinely deal with a crazy amount of claims about broken items: smashed ceramic clowns, mangled macrame wall hangings, cracked swinging-tailed cat clocks, and whatever else folks have entrusted to them. I was told to find the claim form on their website and follow the instructions.
Since my claim was on an international shipment, I couldn't complete the form online, and I had to download it, print it out, complete it and mail it to them. So I did.
Yesterday I got a letter from them acknowledging their receipt of my claim. However, they needed more information about the actual condition of the carton and pictures that would become evidence of the packaging and breakage. I prepared to write them back: I took pictures and dropped them into a document with captions describing each one, and I made a copy of their letter to include for their convenience. As I was getting ready to actually write the letter, I noticed that their address was NOWHERE in their letter. I'm not kidding. They purposefully left off their address to make me work just a little harder to make this claim! Good thing I keep copies of stuff. I found the original form I'd sent them...AHA! there's the address for the claims dept.
I really don't know whether they do it on purpose, and even if I hadn't had my original form the address would have been on their website somewhere...it's just the appearance of obstruction that's a little annoying.
I guess I'll have to go shoe shopping to get over it.
The shipping wasn't cheap, but considering my already (by that time) full suitcase, there was no way I was going to try to pack it myself and lug it all over Greece and Spain.
Of course, the unthinkable (and at the same time, almost expected) happened...the platter arrived broken.
I was crushed. I immediately contacted the shop owner - who still has not responded - thinking he could shed some light on how I might get my hands on another platter. I then contacted FedEx.
Now, I like FedEx...I mean, I don't have any deep-seated hatred for them. During our move, they showed up several times a week with pictures, rugs, shoes, etc. (They always show up with shoes.) But I got a bit of the runaround. I'm sure they routinely deal with a crazy amount of claims about broken items: smashed ceramic clowns, mangled macrame wall hangings, cracked swinging-tailed cat clocks, and whatever else folks have entrusted to them. I was told to find the claim form on their website and follow the instructions.
Since my claim was on an international shipment, I couldn't complete the form online, and I had to download it, print it out, complete it and mail it to them. So I did.
Yesterday I got a letter from them acknowledging their receipt of my claim. However, they needed more information about the actual condition of the carton and pictures that would become evidence of the packaging and breakage. I prepared to write them back: I took pictures and dropped them into a document with captions describing each one, and I made a copy of their letter to include for their convenience. As I was getting ready to actually write the letter, I noticed that their address was NOWHERE in their letter. I'm not kidding. They purposefully left off their address to make me work just a little harder to make this claim! Good thing I keep copies of stuff. I found the original form I'd sent them...AHA! there's the address for the claims dept.
I really don't know whether they do it on purpose, and even if I hadn't had my original form the address would have been on their website somewhere...it's just the appearance of obstruction that's a little annoying.
I guess I'll have to go shoe shopping to get over it.
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