Fed Up with Fed Ex

So, as I mentioned in my last post, there was a sinister undercurrent going on beneath all the excitement of the graduation parties and baby showers of the past couple weeks, and its name was "Fed Ex" (we now consider this to be the new, more horrible F-word).

Jeffrey and I needed a co-signer on our loan for our house because we needed to close on June 1st but I didn't have a job when they were drawing up the papers.  My parents offered to co-sign on our loan so we could go ahead and proceed with buying the house and moving in.  This created a few extra steps in our loan process since we had to prove income/assets/liabilities for all four people involved, although this task was made easier by the simple fact that Jeffrey and I had no income or assets--only liabilities.  Ha!

The bank got all of our information and then sent a few final documents to my parents to complete and Fed Ex back before closing on June 1st.  My dad finished the papers and took them in person to the Fed Ex office in Abilene on May 24th.  Since it was late in the day, they told him it wouldn't ship until the 25th, but they guaranteed that his "overnight" fee would result in the package arriving either the 26th or the 28th.

Five days and seventy-six calls to Fed Ex tracking and customer service departments later, Fed Ex finally managed to locate the package (that one of their drivers had sloppily shoved between the seat of his truck for a few days and thus not delivered) and got it delivered--almost a week late.

Because of this delay in the papers, the bank couldn't send the closing documents to the IRS or to the underwriters.

Because they couldn't finish the closing documents by June 1st, the previous owners went on vacation to Hawaii and would have to sign the closing documents there, find a notary there, and then Fed Ex them back (creating a few more days of delay).

Because we couldn't close on the 1st (but had to be out of our rental in San Antonio on May 31st)--Fed Ex had caused us to become homeless.

The only real option was to move into the house on the 1st and pay a daily rent to the previous owners until we could officially close.  This cost us about $500 in rent.  Ouch.

I called Fed Ex 9 million times to see if they would compensate us for the money we lost due to their mistake and was given the same party line every time:

"It is not Fed Ex's policy to compensate for damages due to delay."

I tried every attempt at reason with every level of employee at Fed Ex to plead my case.  I told them it was a bad policy.  I asked them if they thought it was good business not to fix their mistakes.  I begged.  I argued.  I groveled.  All to no avail.  After I reached the highest level of employee at customer service and she told me very sweetly for the 300th time: "It is not Fed Ex's policy to compensate for damages due to delay,"  I pulled out the big guns...

"I just don't know how I'm going to pay,"  I cried, "And I'm pregnant and just graduated and we have so many loans and I just don't know what to do."

Never underestimate the power of a pregnant woman's tears--the Fed Ex lady broke from script and finally gave in.  Her exact words were, "As you know, it is not Fed Ex's policy to compensate for damages due to delay, but perhaps as a gesture of goodwill the company can compensate you for some of the money you lost."

Bingo!

(But seriously, don't ever use Fed Ex.  UPS only, folks.  That's the moral of the story.)