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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jun 2015
    Posts
    4

    Default Passport Expediting Service is Threatening to Cancel Passport Over a Fee Dispute

    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.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Nov 2013
    Posts
    7,056

    Default Re: Courier Service Threatening to Cancel an Already Approved Passport

    A Courier Service only submits the completed documentation for you. They cannot report a passport lost or stolen unless you have filled out the application and given it to the Courier to submit. Your passport is still issued by the government.

    Read this.http://travel.state.gov/content/pass...companies.html

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jun 2015
    Posts
    4

    Default Re: Courier Service Threatening to Cancel an Already Approved Passport

    @budwad:

    I appreciate your quick response!

    Unfortunately, it is still not clear to me. This is what I did:

    - I filled the application, signed it, gathered all the paperwork and went to our county clerk. The county clerk notarized these documents, put them in the envelop and sealed the envelop.
    - I also separately signed a form for the courier company stating in effect that they will deliver and pick up the passport. I actually tried to find the form to see the exact language, but unfortunately, I no longer have it!

    I mailed everything to the courier company using overnight fedex. The courier company took it from there. They used fedex to deliver the passport back to my house.

    The statement "A Courier Service only submits the completed documentation for you. They cannot report a passport lost or stolen unless you have filled out the application and given it to the Courier to submit" is confusing to me in this context.

    Can you let me know if they can indeed report the passport as lost given this?

    Best,

    Edit: It is looking increasingly likely to me that the courier company will go to the state department and tell them that the passport was lost in transit. If they do this, what are my recourses? Does the state department cancel the passport based on that information? That passport was actually used to travel outside the country and in fact my daughter is still overseas.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
    Location
    Lake Chapala
    Posts
    3,043

    Default Re: Courier Service Threatening to Cancel an Already Approved Passport

    Courier services cannot cancel passports. You don't need someone at the state department to tell you this, it's simple logic.

    (Just curious, why did you bother saying the lady at the state department was old? How do you know she was old, and how is her age relevant to this issue? And why would you think an employee of the state department - no matter what age - would lie to you? Do you think that elderly people are more prone to telling lies than younger people? Please explain, I'm really having trouble wrapping my brain around this "old" thing.)

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jun 2015
    Posts
    4

    Default Re: Courier Service Threatening to Cancel an Already Approved Passport

    @eerelations

    I apologize for the "old" remark. It was careless and biased. How I came to that conclusion is not relevant - I made a mistake and am ready to eat my hat.

    However, I wasn't convinced by her answer because she put me on hold a couple of times to check with two different people, and she chose to not answer my specific questions. Yes, it is very likely that my questions are dumb and do not even merit an answer, but the fact is that I did receive that incredible call from the passport merchant, who refused to even negotiate a partial payment for a lesser service and just outright told me he was going to cancel the passport. It is my duty to check. Although it might appear to be common sense that this cannot be done, law allows stranger things and I want to be sure.

    Thanks,

    Edit: Just to clarify, I no way implied she was lying, but that she could be wrong. Maybe there is a loophole that allows the courier companies to tell the state department that the passport was lost in transit and the state department might just make it null and void. Maybe. It's not far fetched.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Nov 2013
    Posts
    7,056

    Default Re: Courier Service Threatening to Cancel an Already Approved Passport

    You or your wife are the only ones that can report the child's passport lost or stolen. And that would be sworn to before a governmental agent (like postal worker) when the application is filled out.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jun 2015
    Posts
    4

    Default Re: Courier Service Threatening to Cancel an Already Approved Passport

    Quote Quoting budwad
    View Post
    You or your wife are the only ones that can report the child's passport lost or stolen. And that would be sworn to before a governmental agent (like postal worker) when the application is filled out.
    Thank you very much for the response budwad.

    I confirmed independently myself this is the exact procedure to report a passport as lost/stolen. When applying for a new passport, there is a separate form to fill out to report a passport as lost.

    Honestly speaking, I am at a loss. I don't understand the merchant's stance. I have now reached out to him twice asking for a discount for his bungling the passport application and I am willing to pay him. He hasn't responded after making the threat on Friday and it's making me nervous.

    Thanks again for the responses everyone.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Posts
    16,474

    Default Re: Courier Service Threatening to Cancel an Already Approved Passport

    Quote Quoting sportsfan33
    View Post
    Thank you very much for the response budwad.

    I confirmed independently myself this is the exact procedure to report a passport as lost/stolen. When applying for a new passport, there is a separate form to fill out to report a passport as lost.

    Honestly speaking, I am at a loss. I don't understand the merchant's stance. I have now reached out to him twice asking for a discount for his bungling the passport application and I am willing to pay him. He hasn't responded after making the threat on Friday and it's making me nervous.

    Thanks again for the responses everyone.
    This is not something that should make you nervous.

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