Shipping Courier ruined our happy day

[Jeff54321 0]

I was going to give the name of the courier, but I forgot the name which is probably best, so they can't accuse me of talking bad against the company. But I will say it's a sister company of DHL.

Some of this was our fault, going into the interview without a foreign police clearance that was taking way too long to process. However, once my girlfriend arrived in Manila, she was told that the remaining document for our interview just arrived in Cebu. "GREAT!" we both said, and thought we would be able to ship the document next dar air and was told by the shipping company that we would receive it by 12:00pm the next day. We were hoping that her cousin could pick up the document at the hotel and run it over to the embassy as soon as possible.

07:00am - Girlfriend starting the interview process, turning in papers, etc.

10:00am - Interview status: PASSED UPON RECEIVING POLICE CLEARANCE

10:30am - Where is the Police Clearance? Why is the tracking number invalid when it's showing up on the website? Can we talk to anyone who knows what they're doing?

11:00am - Girlfriend upset and griped out the DHL office at the mall. She's now going to the main DHL office.

11:15am - I talk to someone in shipping and they say the document is out for delivery already and I asked them to call my girlfriend to arrange for delivery. They said they will call immediately after I hang up.

11:16am - I told my girlfriend through text message to go back to hotel and that shipping will contact them.

12:10pm - Girlfriend says that nobody contacted her. I called shipping back and they said the package already out for delivery again and that they will call her at 1:00pm to arrange pickup because they are at lunch now.

2:00pm - Girlfriend says that nobody contacted her. She calls courier herself and they said they already attempted delivery twice and will be awhile for them to make it back (What? They said they tried not too long ago, which is false because the girlfriend was sitting in hotel lobby since 11:16am

3:00pm - Called the courier, they said someone will be there soon, that the driver is trying to deliver the document right now to her.

4:00pm - Girlfriend getting tired of waiting at hotel lobby for the package.

4:20pm - I plead one last time with Courier and ask them where the package is. They ask for me to hold for 30 minutes (yes, that's what they said "Can you hold for 30 minutes?" ummm....sure, it's only 60 cents a minute for long distance with Skype and I've already spent about $20 USA on phone calls today, so why not???)....i somehow get disconnected after 20 minute hold

4:45pm - Girlfriend receives document. However, the USA embassy only allows missing documents to be submitted between the times of 1:00pm to 2:30pm, Monday through Thursday. Called the embassy and they won't make any exceptions to the rule, even if the courier was slow. Tomorrow is Friday, so I'll have to fly her back on Monday to hand-deliver the documents to the embassy (no more mailing for us).

So even though we should have been happy that she will be coming to the USA and the visa is accepted, the frustrations with the courier service put a bad taste in our mouths due to the broken promises and lies that we were told. I know this could have been prevented by leaving the document in Cebu, but we were hoping our happy day had a different outcome with the courier.

[Sandrila 1]

i tell ya until it is all over and visa in hand....this process is totally taxing...having us on the edge of our seats

till the very end.

You have come a long way

congrats on the visa

[Kathryn41 3,205]

Moved from Off Topic

[Jasman0717 8]

4:45pm - Girlfriend receives document. However, the USA embassy only allows missing documents to be submitted between the times of 1:00pm to 2:30pm, Monday through Thursday. Called the embassy and they won't make any exceptions to the rule, even if the courier was slow. Tomorrow is Friday, so I'll have to fly her back on Monday to hand-deliver the documents to the embassy (no more mailing for us).

So even though we should have been happy that she will be coming to the USA and the visa is accepted, the frustrations with the courier service put a bad taste in our mouths due to the broken promises and lies that we were told. I know this could have been prevented by leaving the document in Cebu, but we were hoping our happy day had a different outcome with the courier.

This was a nightmare for us too. Claudeth forgot to get the clearance translated so after her interview she had to go to the German embassy to find a translator. They gave her the name of a place and she got the document translated. When she got back to the embassy the window that accepts these types of documents was closed for the weekend and she was do to fly back to Mindanao that afternoon so she gave it to a guy at another window. The guy promised to give it to the correct person but that clearance sat there in that other window for 3 weeks. I was calling every day and finally a woman at ext. (not sure if this is the number) 2184 went to the window and found the document. Claudeth got her visa 3 days after that.

[Carlawarla 1]

Congratulations on getting the visa! Sorry about the screw up with the delivery of the police clearance. I was re-reading the thread you made about whether to attend the interview or not and was wondering how this all panned out. Glad you went ahead and had her attend the interview though. Get that clearance in on Monday, and then start counting the days until you'll be together!

[SuperDuper! 230]

Itz always better to wait to interview and have ALL the vital Docs with you. Itz ez and not a problem to reschedule the interview (they give you 2 phone calls per PIN, so why not?).

So much stress and drama is avoided when you go in 100% prepared, and not 95%.

Peace.