complaint

My complaint is with regards to a company by the name of Lanbox/ Skybox.

URL: http://www.skybox.net or http://www.lanbox.net

Telephone: 7862654880

Fax: 3055930172

Address: 1900 NW 97th Avenue, Miami, FL, 33172

To Whom it may concern:

I am writing to complain about desperate circumstances that I face from a company that goes by either Skybox or Lanbox (skybox.net or lanbox.net. (My account with the company is 716-1784).

The nature of my complaint is as follows:

I am a US Citizen that has been residing outside of the United States for the past 5 years with my husband, whose business keeps him on the road. I still have bills and correspondence that need to be forwarded to me from the United States and as such, I have to make arrangements with a mail forwarding company where ever we move. We have been living in Barbados since February 2004 and I formed a mail forwarding relationship with a company by the name of Sky box shortly after my arrival in Barbados. My bills, subscriptions and any purchases that I make online go to my Sky box and up until a few months ago, have been coming directly to me in Barbados within a week of arriving in Miami and at a somewhat reasonable cost- that is, up to about three months ago.

About three months ago, the frequency with which mail started coming to me declined considerably. I was not getting my subscriptions and mail and receipt of orders started incurring a turn-around time of at least three weeks. I chalked it up to the issues surrounding Hurricane Katrina, as that is what I was told by the local delivery company, and did not give it too much thought. The final straw was when I placed a number of orders online during mid-November, which I expected to receive before Christmas and none of them arrived. These included Christmas tree ornaments, gifts and other items that I needed before the holidays. Surprisingly enough, Sky box, did not send out any communication with regards to a problem. This was odd to me, as Sky box uses email as the primary form of communication with its customers.

I decided to call the local delivery company to ask them if they had heard of anything that was going on and they advised me that one bag of merchandise that was intended for Barbados never arrived. Further, they said that they were just the messengers and I needed to speak with Sky Box in Miami to resolve any issues. They gave me a phone number and an email of someone in the Miami office that would deal with my matter and they also gave me the number for the cargo department for an airline by the name of BWIA that was responsible for transporting the merchandise. I called both companies and only managed to get through to BWIA. The manager at BWIA indicated that the 10th bag had been stolen en route and my merchandise, which is valued at several hundred dollars was lost for good, so I would have to file a complaint and a claim with Sky box in Miami with whom I insured the merchandise.

To date, I have called and emailed several individuals at Sky Box and no body has responded to my calls or emails. (Among them are Ms. Angelica Riggio and Mr. Nieves Ramirez). This issue has been in the air (no pun intended) for over a month and I have not received any sort of communication: verbal, hard copy, electronic or otherwise from Sky box. The local company keeps indicating that they just provide a delivery service for the Miami company and as such, they cannot assist beyond giving me contact information for the office in Miami, but what am I to do if no one in Miami responds to me!!!! Am I the victim of a scam here? That is what it feels like at this point?

In the meantime, I have had to buy new presents and purchase new ornaments and decorations, thus putting me out another several hundred dollars on top of what I have already lost. I feel so depressed and desperate and don’t know what to do at this point, short of jumping on a plane and heading directly to their offices to meet with someone, which I simply could not afford to do. Not only have I paid for the merchandise that has been stolen, but I have also been charged for its delivery when it never arrived!!!

To add insult to injury, some items that were in the 9 bags that did in fact make it to Barbados were priced at charges substantially higher than what I was previously accustomed to with this company. When visiting their website, it appears that sometime recently, they posted a new fee schedule to the site without even advising their customers who would continue ordering things with them, not knowing that the fees had changed. Because customers’ credit cards are linked to their sky box relationship, charges are imposed immediately without first being viewed by the customers.

I have printed off some examples below:

NATURAL SOUNDS TAPE AMAZON 5.397lbs

Which incurred a total charge of $71.50 for a $25 tape coming to $96.50 for a $25 tape

TISSUE BOX COVER

AMAZON

4.048lbs

Which incurred a total charge of $55.25 for a $19.99 tissue box cover, coming to $75.24 for a $19.99 tissue box cover

TOYS

AMAZON

8.095lbs

Which incurred a total charge of $111.72 for toys valued at $117, coming to $128.72 for toys that cost me $117

TOY

AMAZON

6.180

Which incurred $85 in charges for a toy valued at $50, coming to $135 for a $50 toy

I had the above merchandise sent back and am now out the shipping charges and the merchandise, as the merchandise has not been returned to Amazon and I have not been reimbursed for the shipping.

As horrible as it is, this issue is actually marginal compared to the issue of the lost/ stolen merchandise on which I have received absolutely no response to date (more than a month after the merchandise disappeared). I am desperate to have all of this rectified and I have no idea what to do at this point.

I appreciate any support or assistance that you can offer.

Best Regards,

Daphne Ewing-Chow