I had booked a consignment through a local courier company namely Galaxy courier Service at Kandivali(E) on 30th Jan 08 for Brunei Darussalam and I remember having told the man at the courier desk that this country lies in the neighbourhood of Malaysia. The courier charges was Rs 1500.He promised to send it through DHL as desired by me. Next day in the evening when I enquired them for the consignment note no., I was surprised to get a reply that DHL had refused to accept it at the current charges and if I insisted they would accept it, but the receiving party would have to shell out a hefty amount. I told him that’s a crime, because the party would simply refuse to accept my consignment. The courier company then advised me to send it through Fedex. Thinking about the reputation that Fedex enjoys, I immediately accepted his proposal.
Fedex booked the consignment on 1st Feb. On 2nd Feb I was given their tracking number by my local courier company.Immediately, I tried tracking my consignment and to my utter dismay, I found it had been booked to Darussalam, Tanzania. Since it was evening of 2nd, I tried to contact my local courier, their shop was open but the person who was, then told to me, was the only person accountable and responsible for all courier issues, could not be tracked and inspite of telling them to let him contact me over my phone no. I was not contacted on 2nd and 3rd Feb.
On 2nd Feb I tried to talk to Fedex office at Mumbai. They expressed their inability to divulge any details regarding the consignment to me as I was the third party for them. Then I came to know that the local courier company whom I had delivered my consignment for onward submission to Fedex was also not the second party as their was another company involved who had finally delivered the consignment to Fedex.
On 4th Feb, when I contacted the concerned man with my local courier company i.e. Galaxy Courier Service, first of all he tried to defend himself by saying that Darussalam was in Tanzania. When I told him Brunei Darussalam is a country and Daresalam is the capital of Tanzania and not Darussalam. And morevoer nowhere in the address the name Tanzania was mentioned. EArlier while tracking I was surprised to see my consginment landling and taking off from Paris and GB whereas it should have gone through either Singapore or Kualalumpur. Now this man is said to have got in touch with Fedex and arranged diversion of my consignment to Brunei. But till now the tracking details are limited to Paris FR and Poyle GB only. And there are no signs of any diversion of my consignment so far.
Questions that arise now are:
I am unable to deal with Fedex directly because of the intermediary courier agencies involved. Next time onwards I shall make it a point to have direct transactions with these courier companies, be it DHL or Fedex or Aramex without any middle agents.
How long can I wait for the delivery of my consignment which was promised to be delivered by the third day.
MS readers may take a learning from my experience and if they have any important documents to be couriered, make sure that you do it yourself and not through any intermediary courier agent to avoid risk of being called the Third Party in case any issue crops up at a later date.