This web page contains and includes my opinions and is cleared by my First Amendment attorney in the US and is cleared by my Thai attorneys for public dissemination in Thailand.
The following letter of complaint has been sent and delivered to UPS in Singapore, Bangkok Thailand, the USA, and to Apple Inc. in Singapore and the USA.
We've forgotten how many complaints we made to various agencies, so let's start the numbering system anew, at #10
UPS Asia Pacific Region Office UPS House
22 Changi South Avenue 2
Singapore 486064
Tel.: (65) 6302 8000
Fax: (65) 6302 8008
31 ALPS Avenue
Singapore 498784
Singapore
CC: Apple Inc. Legal Dept.,
Singapore & USA
Re UPS Waybill # 2442xxxxxx (Apple order # W11xxxxxxxx) (and also order W12xxxxxxxx with UPS tracking # 1Z77xxxxxxxxxxxxxx)
Note that the UPS waybill and Apple order number W1183868757 refers to a xxxxxxxxxxxxx, while the Apple order W12----- with UPS tracking number 1Z771------ refers to a xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.
The Apple order number W11xxxxxxxx has not been delivered by the specified date because UPS/Thailand has listed it as "delayed by customs", and we ask that Apple either find a way to deliver it, or refund the purchase price which was charged to the Apple Card ending in xxxx and cardholder name xxxxxxxxxx. Promised deliver date was xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx for the xxxxxxxx and xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.
We have reason to believe neither order will be delivered by UPS to the shipping address provided as
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxx
The reason one or both items have not been delivered and will not be delivered is because, once again, the UPS office in the Thai customs complex at the Suvarnabhumi Airport | Bangkok International is attempting to obfuscate the process of delivery to the point of never allowing the delivery. This is akin to criminal theft.
We make this assertion because this exact scenario has been played out by UPS in Thailand, specifically this same office at the airport, countless times over the past few years, to us, and to nearly every business that was foolish enough or unlucky enough to try to bring legitimate goods into Thailand VIA UPS/Thailand. In our case, over dozens of incoming shipments, nearly 100% of them have been effectively stolen by this office at Suvarnabhumi Airport, Bangkok. We are happy to publicly ask for names of victims and post them to you, and publicly, if asked. They number in the thousands.
There is a particular Thai woman employed at this office who appears to be behind the vast majority of almost all such instances of apparent fraud. Her M.O. is to remove an item from the flow of goods coming through customs and to flag it as needing “special attention”. She then “claims” to have contacted the intended recipient, but seldom or never actually does (she didn't contact us in these cases either but still holds the shipments). She doesn't contact the vast majority of recipients because she doesn't want them, to know there is a problem until the fees have snowballed out of control. But she will swear she has contacted the victims. We have demanded in the past, in such cases, that she show us her email logs and/or emails with full headers to prove she actually sent them, but of course she refuses. She immediately begins tagging the item(s) for “storage fees” and all manner of other "administrative fees" which will generally exceed the value of the item within only a few days or a week.
Often, the recipient is never advised that their shipment has been “delayed” at UPS in Bangkok, and as they innocently wait for it to arrive, the storage and other nonsensical fees add up and up and when they finally do inquire to UPS about the item, UPS at the airport informs them of an outrageous sum of money that must be paid to release the item. As I said, this is nearly always far higher than the cost of the item. The item is then abandon by the customer/recipient, and we believe UPS agents and employees do one of two things: They simply keep the items and take them home, or they sell the items and split the proceeds with corrupt customs officials. Thailand customs is widely and copiously reported by Thailand's own legitimate news sources and authorities to be among the most corrupt department in Thailand, and that is saying a lot.
In our case, as we’ve indicated, this has happened to nearly 100% of all incoming shipments through UPS/Thailand over the last years. –Certainly 99%. Many websites now document this behavior, as do our own websites (plural), with this complaint being posted as yet another independent website.
In the cases where the customer successfully beats back the outrageous bogus fees (we’ve had lawyers do it in the past), the game played by UPS at the Suvarnabhumi Airport merely shifts gears to one of obfuscation. Again, our own websites, and many others, have detailed the steps UPS has used to attempt every dishonest ploy, every dirty trick in the book, to frustrate the customer to such an extent that they give up trying to get their shipment. Again, this is exactly what has happened to us in every single case of every single incoming UPS shipment over many years, with one exception. On that occasion, UPS at Suvarnabhumi Airport flagged a shipment of simple cotton cleaning wipes valued at about $6 or $10 USD, and steadfastly refused to release them no matter what hoops we jumped through. They released it only when we filed a formal complaint with the Singapore regional UPS headquarters, and posted that complaint online, publicly, as YET ANOTHER independent website. The wipes were delivered without incident within 48 hours. That is, I believe, the ONLY shipment we have ever received through UPS in years.
How does UPS/Thailand frustrate the clearance and subsequent delivery of any item?
They begin by demanding an astounding array of bizarre documents, all in Thai, which no one has access to and few people can understand -- not even Thais. They then will demand that the customer make physical trips across Thailand to this office or that warehouse, not to ever actually receive the item, but to attend “meetings” and to complete more forms and to submit even more bizarre documentation that is not required by any law. Often those trips require whole days to complete and at the end of the day, the customer is ALWAYS told he/she does not have the “correct” documents and to try again another day.
I took my Thai attorney to one such “meeting”, which consumed one whole day and a lot of travel time, and even with my attorney present, who hand delivered all their requested documents to the clerk at the Thai Customs counter, we were told the documents were not the “correct” documents. But of course they were EXACTLY the right documents, formally translated and certified.
This is a ploy.
This is a scam.
The name of the game is this:
Obfuscate the clearance and frustrate the customer to such an extent that he/she will give up trying to retrieve their own property, which they’ve already bought and paid for, and for which ALL legal taxes and import fees have ALREADY BEEN PAID WITH DOCUMENTATION TO PROVE IT, and the UPS staff then gets to keep the seized items to do with as they wish.
On one occasion, re the cleaning wipes, we were asked to submit a valid TM-6 document. We did so. A day later we were asked to submit a TM-6 document (the same one). We did so. A day later we were asked to do it again. We did so, and also sent copies of each email that had been sent to a particular woman in the UPS office at Suvarnabhumi Airport, in which she replied to us each time to demand this document and it was actually still attached and referenced in the email she sent us which demanded it again! She ignored that and on the fourth request for this same document we had our attorney send it to her and she was instructed to interact ONLY with him because we’d had enough and could no longer be civil to her. She refused to reply to our attorney and asked us to AGAIN (fifth time now) submit the same TM-6. We then sent her five emails, each containing a copy of the exact same TM-6, with the label on the TM-6 document circled in red marker which stated “TM-6”, plus a sixth copy for good measure.
She emailed AGAIN to ask for the TM-6. We replied that she had received it exactly six times, and that it was provable, and that it was clear she was lying about not receiving it because each time she asked for it again, the copy we and our attorney had sent her was still attached to the email she used to ask for it again.
It was then I finally understood Thais and Thailand. It had taken me a full decade to truly understand just how slippery and dishonest these people are. But finally I understood.
We then complained to the Singapore office and the cleaning wipes were, as we’ve said, finally delivered. We do not know if the Singapore office had effected this or if the woman at the Suvarnabhumi Airport simply finally figured out that the package only contains cleaning wipes and realized she couldn’t sell them, and so sent them onward. We had told her we had sent a copy of the website about her, to Prime Minister Prayuth. Maybe that jogged her into action.
In the case referenced above (the two Apple items), it is clear we would be in for the exact same kind of fight if we were to pursue the delivery of the product. It is impossible to receive any product that the Suvarnabhumi Airport UPS office does not want a customer to have. It is impossible. We have documented this a hundred different ways, fifty times over, and we are by far, by far, not the only victims of this rank insanity and theft.
Unfortunately, the UPS regional world headquarters of UPS in Thailand (meaning YOU, the Singapore regional headquarters), does NOT want to fix this problem. You've had years to do so. You won't do it. We understand now that Singapore is the same as Thailand. So now you have a new problem: US.
We are asking Apple for a refund on this product. We will never receive it no matter what we do. We do not believe Apple will ever get it back, either, as Amazon has lost every single item they have ever attempted to ship to us in Thailand via UPS. Every single one, including iPhones and a great deal of other equipment. It is never delivered to us, and never returned to the shipper. That means that UPS at Suvarnabhumi Airport has obfuscated/stolen every single item sent from UPS to us, except the lowly cleaning wipes. That’s 99.999%. Not one item has ever gotten through to us from Amazon using UPS as the carrier and none were ever returned to Amazon (the cleaning wipes didn't come from Amazon). Not one over many years. Fortunately, Amazon is painless for refunds. We are about to find out how Apple is.
We believe it is a fact that UPS at Suvarnabhumi Airport is a band of thieving scammers; we consider it a proven fact through copious documentation. We invite them to take us to court and try to disprove it. We have kept every single document from every single bizarre and dishonest interaction with UPS at Suvarnabhumi Airport. Most of those documents are posted online, publicly.
We do not believe that UPS Singapore is, really, any more honest, capable, honorable or professional than UPS Thailand. Why? Because we began documenting this problem to you by a wide variety of delivery methods YEARS ago, and yet the problem in UPS at Suvarnabhumi Airport persists exactly as it always has. You haven’t solved it. You won’t ever solve it. You and your office at Suvarnabhumi Airport are two peas in a pod. We don’t believe you WANT to solve it. Perhaps you are also receiving kickbacks from all these stolen items.
This will go up the chain to Apple corporate in Singapore and in the US, and also to their legal departments in both countries. Who knows if Apple will choose to become a professional entity and dump UPS, as so many other shippers are doing.
Time will tell.
We tired of UPS stealing.
You can stop it.
But you won’t.
So be it.
At least we’ll get our money back, even if we must file a chargeback to Mastercard.
In disgust and contempt,
Xxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxx
CC: Apple, UPS-USA, Public Internet Post
BCC: