Greetings.
Hopefully I am posting in the right forum.
I am in a bit of a pickle with an "expedited passports courier service". Here are the details of the case:
- Our family took a vacation in Mexico April this year. One week before the vacation, I realized my daughter's (she is 6) passport was going to expire in May. Not wanting to take a chance, I decided to renew it and used an expedited service.
- I paid for a 24 hour service, and all of my signed, notarized and sealed documents were delivered to them the morning of Wednesday of the week before the travel (we were going to leave next Monday).
- The courier service did nothing on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Friday evening, they outright lied that the passport was processed and starting Friday evening, they never returned my calls.
- I decided to go ahead with my daughter's old passport. There was no problem after all and we went to Mexico.
- The courier service delivered my daughter's passport Tuesday of the following week while we were vacationing. In essence, they took 96 hours for a 24 hour service. That passport was also carelessly dropped outside of the door and I had a friend pick it up.
- Obviously, not being happy with the service, I went to my credit card company and explained the situation. They reversed the charges and did not pay the merchant.
- I reached out to the merchant and offered a partial amount for another service they have listed on their website (a week's processing time instead of 24 hours). The merchant simply did not respond back to my email.
- I have a documented proof of everything.
- My daughter and wife traveled to my native country in June. They are still there.
- On Friday, June 26th, I received a call from this guy. He first demanded I pay him, to which I first demanded explanations of the lies I was told and I demanded proof that he did intact used a 24 hour service for processing the passport. He kept on insisting that I had the passport and I have to pay, and I kept on insisting that the service level agreement was not met, and the full payment will not be considered.
Then he said that since I am not paying him, it means that the passport was lost and he will go ahead and cancel her passport. I was confused (on top of several other emotions). I called up the state department, and an old lady on the phone said he couldn't really do it. But I wasn't convinced.
When I went with the courier company, I signed an agreement stating that they were responsible for providing any missing documentation and picking up the processed passport. Can they use this signed document to go to the state department and claim that the passport was lost? After all, it is my daughter's passport and I am totally unsure if they have the power of attorney to claim if it is lost. I did not get a satisfactory answer from the state department.
Any advice would be extremely appreciated.

