Not even the glorious sunshine could lift the gloomy mood that enveloped a fitness instructor after he paid €165 for a watch online and received an empty box in return.
Nor did his frustrations end there; after running up a huge phone bill and wasting hours writing e-mails, reports and visiting the companies involved, no one would accept liability and consequently the phantom timepiece was not covered by insurance.
Stefan Sorin Ionescu, who lives in Madliena, feels part of summer has been ruined by the hassle and is warning others to always check the contents of a package before signing for it.
“If you don’t open your parcel in front of the delivery person you could be doomed from the moment you sign for it. I had not experienced such disappointment, frustration and disgust until now,” he said.
His troubles started after he ordered a diver’s watch online from Freestyle World, based in Germany, on July 5.
The package arrived in Malta on July 10 together with other packages inside three Aramex courier bags. It remained in Air Malta’s stores until July 12, when it was collected by courier service Aramex Malta, he explained.
Following a failed attempt to deliver the package to Mr Ionescu’s home that day, a phone arrangement was made for Aramex to deliver to his place of work the following day. But despite the arrangement, the deliveryman returned to Mr Ionescu’s home the next morning and his girlfriend signed for the package.
It wasn’t until Mr Ionescu returned home at lunchtime that he realised the package was empty and he set out on his ultimately fruitless task of trying to find out which of the companies that handled the package was responsible – Freestyle World, express parcel delivery service DPD Germany, Aramex Germany, Air Malta or Aramex Malta.
He learned from Aramex Malta that one of the three courier bags in Air Malta’s stores had been opened, but Air Malta and Aramex Malta confirmed no packages were missing from the bag.
Aramex Malta told The Sunday Times there was no visible damage to any of the packages, nor was there any evidence that any of the packages had been tampered with during collection from Air Malta or while in the custody of Aramex.
Yet, Mr Ionescu has photos of the box, which he said showed that the original brown packing tape had been covered with transparent packing tape, and Aramex Malta acknowledged this in e-mail exchanges with him.
“It’s obvious the theft was a two-minute job; someone just opened it up then taped over the original tape in a hurry,” he said.
He also claimed he retrieved the original packing list, which showed the value of the contents as €165, through an existingtear in the supposedly sealed plastic pouch on the outside of the box.
Nevertheless, signing for a package means agreeing it was received in good condition.
On the side of the package the value was listed as €1 and the description was given as ‘samples’.
Aramex Malta insist this low value listing and description – given by either Freestyle World or DPD Germany – means it would have been very difficult for someone to know what the package contained.
All companies involved maintain they followed their standard procedures.
Despite not being covered by insurance, Freestyle World took pity on Mr Ionescu and eventually agreed to send him another watch, but this time via a friend of his in Switzerland as they vowed never to ship to Malta again because the high shipping costs are not worth risks of theft or loss.
“Frankly, it’s embarrassing that they won’t ship here again,” said Mr Ionescu.