O.M.G. UPS - FFS!!!!!
So, a friend in Australia ordered some ski gear in the UK to be sent to me here in France.
Simple, right? We expected to have to sort out some customs charges but still, fairly simple.
Nope.
Parcel arrived two weeks ago but with a customs charge or 110.10€ - I didn't have that much money (the week before payday) so the driver agreed to come back the following week. Also said I couldn't pay by card, had to be cash. Ok.
My friend actually transferred the money to me the next day, but no contact from UPS.
No contact from UPS since the first attempt at delivery.
So my aussie friend is saying "phone UPS in France" and getting stressed as he arrives in two weeks and at the mo won't have any ski gear!!
I've tried UPS a few times and can't get past the automated system, so last week I called the uk shipper (not the seller, but the shipper they used). She said she'd raised it with UPS but nothing has happened.
Then my mate created a UPS notification account thingy in my name so that so now I get notifications that they aren't delivering. I have to pay the customs charge first. BUT, there is no way to actually pay the customs charge. I don't have a piece of paper with the correct info on it that I need to be able to get to the place I have to pay on the website

FFS
My friend has sent me increasingly stressed messages. I REALLY want to reply with "bloody call them yourself" but hey ho. So I tried again this afternoon. After being on hold for 10 mins, the call centre person comes back and said she was in a queue for UPS so would call me back!
When she did, it was with "here's the number for UPS, you need to call them"
I very politely lost my cool and pointed out that if I could sodding well get through to UPS, I would not be calling Interparcel now, would I??
Luckily she'd called me this time as I was on hold for another 25 mins. This time she came back and agreed that it was almost impossible to get through to UPS and so she has raised the issue by email and would try and contact them again tomorrow.
FFS - I do not understand why the shipper does not have more ability to contact UPS as they are the ones who booked them.
Or why my friend isn't giving the seller a bit more stick on their choice of shipper - or at least why they didn't give him a heads up about just how much the customs charges would be (it's almost 50% of the cost of the items, which is way higher than expected!!)
Anyway - FFS UPS!!!
