AT&T: our phone delivered

(Dana) As veteran travelers, we should know how to protect our gear. Unfortunately, I let down my guard. Knowing I didn’t need my brand-new iPhone at 17,000 feet in Peru, I left it in my bags at the hotel. Dumb. No surprise, it was gone.

After beating myself up for a while, we arranged to have a replacement sent to me in Buenos Aires care-of the Goulds. No problemo. No, BIG problemo.

Apparently, Argentina is one of THE worst countries to receive a personal package. So I should not have been surprised by a letter saying my package was stuck in customs. The question was how to get it out before we left for Chile. Let’s just say, running a small country would probably be easier.

First, Greg spends the better part of a day talking to FedEx in both Argentina and Uruguay to understand the process and to change the recipient to me, not our friends. The next day, I set out for the airport, armed with my high school Spanish, pesos to pay whatever fines are imposed and an electronic copy of the incredibly complex customs procedure that Greg has miraculously found on-line. This is where

it becomes humorous:

1. I must find the FedEx office which is “somewhere” at the airport.

2. After getting the official recipient change document at FedEx, I must find the customs office. Of course, they’re on lunch break.

3. Once lunch is over, the fun starts:

Office 2: I tell my story. Person 1 creates form, copies passport, staples airbill, stamps papers, opens computer record

Office 1: Person 2 stamps papers

Office 3: Person 3 takes me to warehouse . I tell story.

Warehouse: Person 4 actually finds the package. I see my phone! I tell story.

Office 3: Person 3 verifies/stamps paper

Office 2: Person 1 enters verification into system, stamps/ signs papers.

Office 1: Person 5 wants my story, stamps papers, creates invoice, charges me 136 Pesos ($45 for storage/handling), gives me receipt, stamps all of these papers, hands them all to Person 2 who enters that into system.

Office 3: Person 3 stamps receipt

Office 1: Person 6 tears off part of receipt

Warehouse: Person 4 officially hands me package

Exit: 100 meters away, I leave via official Exit where Person 7 approves my receipt. I have my phone!

Total?

7 people

3 forms

4 tellings of story in bad Spanish

Over a dozen stamps

1 computer record

Elapsed time at airport? 1.5 hours

Either customs makes a sport of stopping shipments at the border or it’s a great way to fund a huge bureaucratic organization.

Both.