Apr 8, 2005
Tuiesday morning I arrived at the Buenos Aires airport, to finalize shipping arrangements for my bike and fly back home. I was happy. An hour before I left, all that had changed. The letter below explains why. Gotta love those Argentinians. This is the national airline
***************
Dear Rider,
Marcelo Kunis is holding my bike hostage in Buenos Aires for $2000 more than Aerolineas Argentinas agreed to ship it for. Below are excerpts of a letter I sent to him, trying to get it back, which I think clearly explains what happened. Please write him a letter encouraging him to ship it to me. Antonio Mata is the president of the airline. Feel free to forward this letter to all riders, groups, and friends who may be willing to send an email. The more emails he gets, the more likely it is they will ship my bike as agreed. If you can write in Spanish, al lthe better
Thank you,
George
*******************
"Re Guia 044-35308921
Dear Mr. Kunis,
Recently I completed a 5 month tour of South America, .... After consulting several people who had made similiar trips and shipped their bikes back to the United States, I decided to ship from Buenos Aires. I found that other people had paid in the range of 750-1200 for this service. I called Aerolineas Argenitinas and was told that your airline provides this service. On Thursday, the 31st of March, I went in and talked to Carlos, who gave me a price of $785 as an estimate, based on the weight of the bike.On Monday, I went in to the offices, and we prepared my motorcycle for shipping. I did as Carlos and the other employees had advised to ready my bike for shipping, and it was loaded onto a pallet and packaged to be shipped. The Aduana was consulted, and all the paperwork necessary to leave the country was prepared by Daniel for the Aduana. I was told the bike would be shipped that night and would arrive in Miami on Tuesday. At the office, I was then given a price of $987, which was higher than the original price, but I agreed to pay. At the time I signed the contract and paid $400 US and 1400 pesos Argentinos, leaving a balance of 314 pesos Argentinos. I told them at the time that I had a flight leaving on Tuesday in the evening and was assured that the bike would meet me on Wednesday in Miami if I paid the balance before noon on Tuesday, the 5th of April. At approximately 11:00 on Tuesday, I paid the balance in your offices, and was given a copy of the signed agreement between Aerolineas and myself. A few hours later, Carlos and Daniel found me in the airport and told me I had to pay an additional $40 US and sign 3 copies of a Dangerous Goods disclaimer. I followed them back to the offices of Aerolineas and was told that I had to sign the copies, but didn't have to pay the fee. I returned to the airport, checked my bags in for my international flight, and waited to leave, confident that Aerolineas would ship the bike as agreed. Approximately an hour before the flight, after checking in and receiving my boarding passes, I was yet again found by Carlos and Daniel and told that the fee was another $2000 more, because the rate was different than the one to which Aerolineas and I had agereed, even though we had a signed contract to ship the bike. I was told I could give them my signed copy of the copy and they would give me back my money, and the bike would just sit in the bodega until I could make some other arrangements, regardless of the fact that we had a signed contract. I was also informed by your employees that it was virtually impossible that I could get my motorcycle out of the bodega with permission from the Aduana to operate it in Argentina. I was further informed that I would have to have my luggage removed from the plane and would lose the value of my non-refundable ticket because I would miss my flight trying in vain to remove my motorcycle from the bodega. I was further informed that for the extra $2000 Aerolineas would do exactly what they were going to do in the first place, put the bike on an airplane and ship it to Miami. The additional funds were not for any special services to be provided. I am not sure if you are aware of the terms of the contract, but one of them is that Aerolineas perform "in a timely manner," At this point, Aerolineas is almost in default of the terms to which I and Aerolineas agreed.I have a signed contract between your airline and myself, for services for which I have prepaid. I demand that Aerolineas perform those services as per the contract or subcontract them out to someone who will, in a timely manner. "
No comments:
Post a Comment