Dear Hercules and Dimitri

Hercules and Dimitri,

I am sure you thought the Branzanti’s were long gone! Well, yes, we are long gone, but I thought you would like to know we still have not received our things. On Thursday it will be 9 weeks since the container left our driveway. This is really a last resort for us to contact you, but we are hoping you can help us as well.Our dealings with Crown have been far from satisfactory and I thought, since they are the company you deal with, you should know.

First our things arrived in Vera Cruz on January 7th. It took almost two weeks to get any sort of answer from Senor Diaz, our contact, as to the status of our stuff. This, obviously was not a big concern to us, or we would have contacted you back than. We know we are dealing with Mexico, and things work on a different time table here. Even though Senor Diaz never followed up when he said we would, we still accepted this unprofessional behavior, since we are in Mexico.

Our issues began, when two weeks ago, on January 20th, we were told that our personal household items have been cleared and they were waiting for clearance on the tools. Just so you know we had two separate lists for customs, both approved and stamped by the Mexican Counsul in Toronto. They said the tools should be cleared by Friday. Again, we have to follow-up, but we finally did receive an e-mail on Friday, the 22nd; CONGRATULATIONS for clearing customs. They asked when we would like our things delivered, as well as a specific address for delivery. Of course we answered we wanted our things as soon as possible and asked them when we could expect them. Just FYI we are paying rent in a place waiting for our things. We can not move into our own place until delivery.

The weekend goes by with no word from them about when our delivery is coming. Monday the 26th we call. They say they will e-mail us with the details but ask if they could delay delivery for a week since they are very busy. Tuesday no e-mail so we call again. Senor Diaz is in a meeting and will call us back. He does not. We finally talk to someone there on Thursday the 29th of January and they tell us that we have problems with customs. Our stuff has not cleared yet. I am sure you can imagine how upsetting this was to us. They say we have to pay a fee for clearing our things. How much we ask?? They say they will let us know. Friday we can not get in touch with them…all weekend, of course no answer on the phone and yesterday was a holiday here. This morning we finally get through to them and he repeats that yes, we will have to pay duty on the tools. O.K.!!!! HOW MUCH!!! He says he will let us know.

I am not sure of your relationship with this company but can you help us? At least you need to know what is happening here in case you have any other dealings planned with them. This is totally frustrating and unacceptable.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP!...Maurice and Shelby