FEDEX & Eurosender Portugal: The Story of a "Fraudulent" Service that became a Nightmare #FEDEX #Eurosender

Today I want to tell you a story of corporate mismanagement that caused FedEx and their partner in Portugal, called Eurosender, to drag us into a mess we haven't been able to get out of yet. No solution, poor management in pre-sales, poor handling of incidents, and poor decision-making. All of this because in the 21st century they don't have a system that prevents something completely fraudulent: issuing invoices for a service they cannot execute, collecting payments for a service they won't provide, and getting clients into trouble.

Figure 1: FEDEX & Eurosender Portugal: The Story

of a "Fraudulent" Service that became a Nightmare

If FedEx and Eurosender Portugal had an information system that blocked the issuance of invoices for services they cannot carry out, customers wouldn't end up in this mess. But above all, they wouldn't be issuing fraudulent invoices.

Summary

Let me explain it to you. Imagine you go to a parcel shipping company and tell them you want to send six bottles of wine. The company's agent tells you there is absolutely no problem and asks you to write down exactly what you want to send so they can generate the invoice. You write exactly what you said: that you want to send six bottles of wine. Then, after reading what you want to ship, the agent creates a proforma invoice providing the retail price for sending those six bottles of wine. You pay the invoice, they come and pack the bottles, you write on the box that it contains wine, and you walk away happy because your colleagues are going to love the Christmas gift you are sending them.

Well, as it turns out, the company later tells you that they cannot ship wine, that it is stated in their terms and conditions, and that you have to pick up your package. But of course, to take your package back home, you have to pay—on top of the shipping costs you already paid—the fees of a customs broker, plus €10 for every day the bottles you sent are kept in storage at customs. To top it all off, you don't even know, nor will they tell you, the exact date the package arrived.

This is the story that a friend and I are currently caught up in with FedEx and their partner Eurosender, and I am sharing it with you so you can avoid ever running into these kinds of problems, which are anything but fun.

I've just given you the summary, but now I'm going to walk you through it with dates, invoices, and conversations so you can see how these companies operate—and, of course, to see if I can get my package with my wine bottles back. While I'm at it, let's see if I can raise awareness among some executives at FedEx or the Portuguese regulator to prevent this from happening again.

Sending wine to colleagues  

It all started on Three Kings' Day (January 6th), when I asked my colleague to help me with this. I had previously shipped several individual bottles from Spain to Amsterdam, Belgium, and Germany without a single issue. However, to ship them from Portugal to the United Kingdom, we chose FedEx and their partner company, Eurosender.

First, we called them by phone, and they told us there was no problem, that they could handle the shipment, and that we just needed to fill out the details on the website and they would take care of everything—from pickup to delivery, backed by the FEDEX GUARANTEE. So, that's what we did. We filled out the details and accepted the terms, as you can see in this image of the Proforma Invoice from January 6th: "Yes, we certify that the information is correct." As you can clearly see, the description explicitly states it is wine.

Figure 2: Proforma Invoice.

Nobody is tricking anybody here. If there is an issue entering the UK or leaving Portugal, the company can easily flag it. Moreover, if they simply do not ship those types of products, they should detect it and cancel the order. It's that simple. But no, they reviewed the invoice, and happy as clam, they sent us the corresponding invoice for us to pay.

Figure 3: Payment invoice with reference code linked to the proforma invoice.

As you can see on the invoice, they are billing us to ship Reference Code: 734836-26, which, as shown, goes from Portugal to Great Britain. In other words, they are invoicing us to ship WINE from PT to GB. Everything seemed correct, which is exactly what we intended to do.

The nightmare began

Until they collected the money for the service, everything was smooth sailing. But on January 23rd, more than two weeks later, the worst customer service I have ever seen began with a message stating that the package was supposedly arriving back in Portugal and we needed to go through a customs clearance process for the goods.

 

Figure 4: Email received from FedEx—but which actually comes from Eurosender.

As you can see, my friend received a message stating that the goods are coming to Portugal, and that to get them out, we have to pay taxes for bringing alcohol into Portugal plus administrative costs (duties), and that’s it. In that same communication, they also provided us with the ruling from the United Kingdom, where, as you can see, it states it is WINE and must be returned to its origin.

Figure 5: UK Border Report from January 22nd.

In other words, it turns out you cannot ship wine without a special export process, even if it is a gift. Perfect. Nobody had told us anything, which is what we expected from FedEx, being a world leader in parcel delivery. After a week of not having the details entirely clear, I kindly asked them to explain the process to me step by step—something they should have done before shipping the package in the first place.

The Worst Customer Service Ever: FEDEX Portugal  

As a result of this, they told us we had to pay, but they wouldn't clarify how much. And, above all, they couldn't tell us when the goods would actually be back in Portugal. In fact, the conversation was so vague that we didn't know if paying meant they would send it to GB or not, nor did we know if it had already returned. Then they told us it wasn't there yet.

Figure 6: On January 23rd, the goods were not here.

When we stated that we wouldn't pay until they clarified the process—just to know whether they were going to ship it or not—they threatened to "return it." Return it where? We are supposed to be the destination it's being returned to, and all we want is for them to give us our package and forget about this mess.

Figure 7: Chaos in customer support. One week asking

questions about the process with poor clarity.

When I told her that I didn't understand, that what she was saying made absolutely no sense, and asked her to please explain what was going on, she replied very rudely, saying that "it seems I am very interested in knowing the whole process," and that only the declaration was missing to proceed with the clearance process, after which I would finally get my package back.

Figure 8: After a week, they threaten to return a package that hasn't even arrived in

Portugal yet, which is where we supposedly want to send it. Utterly senseless.

In the end, we filled out the declaration they asked for—which was just a signed Word document stating it contains wine—thinking that with this, we would either be able to ship it or get it back. But it wasn't going to be that simple, as you can imagine.

Figure 9: We submit the declaration requested on January 29th.

After that, on February 11th, we asked our FedEx "Broker," and she told us she had no idea when our package would arrive, even though we had sent the requested declaration back on January 29th.

Figure 10: No forecast from our FEDEX Clearance Broker-Associate

Suddenly, on February 19th, we received a message from FedEx UK stating that the deadline to return the goods they shipped from GB to PT was February 19th—meaning, the very day we received the message.

Figure 11: FedEx UK.

But the funniest part is that the next day, February 20th, we received a message from our FedEx Broker telling us that we needed to hire a broker.

Figure 12: You need to hire a broker.

To which, thoroughly surprised, I replied that we thought she was our broker, as indicated in the signature of every single communication we had with her from minute one.

Figure 13: I thought you were our broker.

But no, she told me that FedEx does not process those goods—the very goods they charged us for, and the sole reason we contacted them in the first place. To make matters more surprising, this person also works for the partner company and sometimes replied to us from Eurosender.

Figure 14: FEDEX PT & Eurosender PT

So, modern problems require modern solutions: instead of a broker, I have hired a lawyer. I am demanding the return of both the package and the money. To this, they replied on one hand that they would try to get it done, and on the other, that they have no intention of returning either the package or the money until we hire an external broker.

Figure 15: 28th of April after hiring a lawyer

So right now, the package must be waiting for UK clearance to see if it enters the country or gets sent back to its origin in Portugal. It might just be traveling for eternity between Lisbon and London, all due to an infinite lack of professionalism and a fraudulent invoicing system that allows them to charge for services they will never perform.

Figure 16: That´s the big issue of everything

I will keep you updated on this, because I am going to see this through to the very end. As you can imagine, the €200 that the bottles and shipping cost matter very little at this point in the chaos; what matters is knowing whether the law allows a company to have a system that bills and collects money for services it will not provide. I'll keep you posted.

Best Regards,

Autor: Chema Alonso (Contactar con Chema Alonso)