I recently ordered two expensive and heavy packages from the U.S. One vendor was willing to ship internationally and I elected to have it sent FedEx International Economy Freight. The other company said it would only ship domestically so I had it shipped to my QuickBoxUSA address in Miami. The two stories are quite different.

Once the one shipped directly in Guatemala arrived here FedEx did all the right things. We worked in email through what customs agent to use (they have a default and I was fine with that), what they needed to do for customs to determine the duties (it was one item I ordered but they considered it three things with different duties), and such. Once all was OK they sent me a form they had filled out (a DVA) to sign, directions on how to pay the duty and then to send them a copy of the signed DVA and of the SAT payment. All is done and, hopefully, the package will be delivered today. I call that a success.

The second item has been a bit more complicated. The vendor shipped to the QuickBoxUSA address via FedEx. It was shipped in three boxes and FedEx nicely identified the shipment by one tracking number identified as the master. Looking up the master gives you the status of all three boxes. I pre-alerted the master. Well, one of the three boxes (not the master) arrived first.

For the past three days I have been trying to explain that it is “one thing”. I am probably on the fifth round of this “discussion”. All three packages are there now and the fight continues. My most recent email suggested that if I bought a bicycle and the frame was shipped on one box, the wheels in a second and the seat in a third it was one item with one invoice. This is the same.

Hopefully we are getting close — for this part. The more complicated part will likely be dealing with customs in Guatemala. The moral of the story, if you need something done right, stick with FedEx.