Yesterday we decided that we needed to get rid of some of our "stuff"that we have no room for since the Christmas gifts were received. The stuff we wanted to send back home were some old clothes and shoes, some books that we were finished with, some old toys and our Christmas decorations.
I went online to the Fedex website and received a quote for the packages to be sent home and also emailed their customer service to see if my airline discount of 75% off would apply. Yes, I was told that I could get my discount for international shipments! The quote online was $218 and I calculated 75% off would net me approx $60 or so...cheap!
We packaged up 3 boxes and drove 20 minutes to the Fedex (#1) depot in Crystal River. They wouldn't do an international shipment for us but told us of another Fedex office to go to. Fedex # 2 was another 20 minutes away and also couldn't do an international shipment and phoned ahead for us to another Fedex depot that would, 23 miles away.
After another 40 minutes drive, we arrived at Fedex #3 and I asked if I could ship to Canada and also receive my airline discount of 75% off...yes to both..bonus, we are in business!
Terry hauled all 3 boxes into the depot and I was handed 3 waybills by an agent to complete by hand, one for each box. After 30 minutes of DETAILED writing on 3 waybills and 3 detailed customs declaration forms and Terry re-packaging all the boxes we were ready...
The agent came back to the counter and took my airline ID and started the computer work. He then told me that the boxes would be in Terrace in 2 days and the cost for the 1st box of 3 was $66.00.
I asked him if that was the total for all 3 boxes and he said, "NO, just for this box" (he had the smallest box in his hands). I told him that there was NO rush on the boxes since we wouldn't be home for 5 months, the slowest method of shipping was fine. He then told me that I had filled out the WRONG forms, I had filled out "express" forms.
I explained that I was handed the forms by another agent and was never asked what type of service I wanted. He shrugged and said that I would have to fill out "ground" waybills instead. I did see the words "express" when I was painstakingly filling out every box on the waybill, but their name is Fedex, so assumed the "express" was exactly that..Federal EXPRESS. nope.
I asked him what the rate was going to be based on ground service vs. express He then told me $55, again for the 1 small box he had in his hands. The other 2 boxes were 5 times the size of box #1, so a quick calculation told me to run!
I mentioned the online quote I had received and he again shrugged. I thanked him and left, Terry already had the boxes in the trunk.
After we drove away we both laughed, we had used one roll of their packing tape and 2 boxes that they had for sale...we didn't end up paying for them...oh well, we are probably "wanted"now in Brooksville FL.
We spotted a US Post Office so I went in carrying the small box to get a quote. The slowest and cheapest method was going to cost $50 for the one small box. Nope.
We decided that since we were now only 45 minutes away from Tampa that we would continue on to the Tampa airport and see if we could ship back via Air Canada Cargo....I get a nice employee discount on them.
So we drove, around the terminal 3 times looking for a "cargo"sign. Finally I jumped out and asked a porter for directions. He said, "Cargo isn't at the airport, it is at (......blah....blah....blah.....insert wrong directions...blah...blah...blah)", I thought to myself, how stupid of us to assume that cargo would be at the airport!
We followed his directions to the street he told me to go to, and NO CARGO..a.n.y.w.h.e.r.e!
Now we were getting tired and hungry, we had been driving for 3 hours for what was supposed to be a 20 minute job!
We finally found the cargo area with the help of our nuvi and drove around looking for Air Canada Cargo...no luck.
I ran inside some other building to ask directions and ended up in the Customs Border Protection office. I asked where Air Canada Cargo was located and the girl said. "Oh, I used to love AC Cargo...but they moved offices to Orlando 4 years ago"! (Orlando is another 2 hours away in the opposite direction! ) I decided that we would just try to fit all the contents from the boxes BACK into the RV...a drive to Orlando was not in our future!
I chatted for a minute with her and she told me how much she enjoyed AC Cargo when they operated in to Tampa..she then told me to be careful driving back to Crystal River as a tornado was coming..WTF?. Back to the car I went to tell Terry the cargo news....
We turned on the radio and what do we hear, talk of a huge storm and possible tornados! Yikes!! So we turned around for the 2 hour drive back to the RV park, totally exhausted, when we then hit the black wall of rain....it was so dark out at 4 pm it felt like 6 pm...and then the rain started...and then the intense wind..then the lightening...and then the thunder...and more rain, I mean RAIN...the hardest we have ever seen it rain..it was like a car wash....we were still in Tampa and had 110 km's to drive. Traffic was slowed right down and our Kia rental car didn't have the greatest tires so we were worried about the excessive amount of water on the road...and we seemed to hit every major pool on the hwy.
We pulled off to gas up and I ran out to get my camera out of the trunk...I was UNDER the cover of the gas station and still managed to get soaked in the 10 seconds I was outside.
a day to remember!
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