sonsy, do you not have any friends that can speak spanish and be there with you if he calls again? Have you asked for copies of his ID and perhaps a telephone number so you can actually check him out.

I feel very sorry for you, cos this would freak me out too

Yikes--have you called UPS in the US? I'm sure that they can sort it out.

problem is: my husband (who is fluent) is never here when crazy guy is stalking the building (he somehow gets past the doorman)and even when he has seen and spoken to the guy he has nothing but the piece of paper on him for ID!
...I called the US UPS and they were noooo help. The operator basically said "nothing we can do."
At this point I am too freaked to open the door to ask for ID!!!!
thanks for everyones concern though! I appreciate the feedback.

well, well, well.

i thought of this thread today when i got a phone call this morning from someone claiming to be from ups.

they said that they owed me money since i had paid them the tax twice on a package i sent to hong kong last april.

the lady on the phone said i had paid them in cash and then also via transfer for the taxes.

firstly, i told the lady on the phone that while i do remember sending something to hong kong, i never paid tax on it neither in cash nor via transfer.

she promptly replied that she would have to look into it and get back to me if it were necessary.

so, this may be a scam where if you bite, they then ask for your financial info, supposedly to pay you the money they claim they owe you and then they defraud you.

saludos,
jer...

quote:

the guy is back again (about the 5th time) and now he is banging heavily on the door and shouting my name angrily

It seems to me that if this 'Jerk' from Ups Spain is acting in this way, he really needs to be reported to the Police, for one, harassment, two, a possibility of a stalking charge (which is illegal, even in Spain) and three, demanding money with menaces, with or without threats or any other type of action. It just seems crazy to me that Ups Spain is allowing (or encouraging) any of their employees to go out and do things this way, behaving more like a loan sharks debt collector than a representative of a multi national company like UPS.

I still feel that if Ups had/has an outstanding payment, that they have the legal right to pass on to you (the recipient of the package) then surely they must have a system of recovery, by which they can legally bill somebody, preferably via the post office here (Correos) and then if they don;t get the required payment they can go through legal channels to recover the money, but to just sit back and let their thugs go round and bang on peoples door, demanding money/payments in an aggravated or angry manner, to me is just not Kosher, and is clearly not good enough or acceptable, and if I were you, I would seriously consider making a complaint about it, telling them that you would gladly have paid the difference if they could have billed you for it properly in the first place, and not sent round one of their gorillas to force it out of you.

I really feel that it is a disgrace on the part of Ups Spain division, and they should apologize to you, and waver the charges on the package, and also to get that Gorilla to write you an apology as well.

I know this is Spain & all that, and things run a little differently here, but even so, the customer service should not be delivered in a threatening or aggressive manner by anyone, after all, it's not entirely your fault (if at all) that there is an additional payment to be made, you are the recipient, not the sender, perhaps their gripe is or should be with the sender??

Well. anyway, don't allow yourself to be intimidated or bullied anymore, make you complaint, offer to pay the bill, if they can bill you in a civil manner, and promise not to send round any more henchmen or bullies, otherwise you will get the Police involved.

Perhaps the Police should be made aware of this practice of theirs anyway. I don't like to see or hear of anybody being intimidated and harassed like this, particularly if their action(s) are not entirely legal (which I have serious doubts about in this case) and I don't see why Ups Spain division cannot just write to you (the recipient) explaining the situation with the extra charges etc, and request payment in the normal way.
What is their problem anyway?

I'm not sure if I'm being much help here, but I hope you will be able to contact his employer directly and read him the riot act, or get somebody who is fluent in Spanish to do it for you, and offer to pay, but only if they can do things properly, and register a proper complaint about that guy, as it is clear that his customer service is much more on the appalling side, and they need to get their customer service act together and stop harassing people like that.


Cheers & good luck, keep us updated.......

Angelino
.

I´ve paid duty taxes a couple of times on merchandise coming from outside the EU, but no one´s ever asked for money except on delivery.

I think your fluent husband needs to have a talk with your "door man." These sorts of things are supposed to be why you have one.

Reb.

Talk about irony! I am sitting here reading everyones kind and helpful comments and the blo**dy buzzer starts buzzing, insistently, and then I hear the guy yelling again in the hallway and banging on the door (again-how does he even get in...I think the doorman dislikes us anyway) and I think "right, this is it". With the help of Google translate I write him a note telling him that I have contacted UPS and will not be remitting any money to him and do not come here again. I was furious too. My hands were shaking too much to try to translate the whole police/threat/stalking thing, but I think he got the message. I wrote and underlined "Thats final" at the end!!!! Sheeesh. I agree, even if a country has idiosyncratic ways of dealing with things like package deliveries, "stalking" should not be allowed to be one of them. Hopefully, with the courage I gleaned from everyone's remarks, I made my point.

..oh, and Angelino, excellent idea to contact and complain to UPS about aggressive "henchmen."

That's good news to hear, and let's hope you don't see or hear from him again, but I think a complaint about his behavior should still be registered formally, to backup and justify your actions in so far as dispensing with him without payment, just to cover yourself legally, to show that you had grounds for refusing to pay, if Ups try to press you for the payment, you press them back for an official/formal apology and admission to being at fault, because of the actions of their Neanderthal Man.

Good luck/Suerte....

Angelino
.

Maybe can be importation taxes? I think "aduanas" in Barajas airport is trying to take adventage of the deliveries from the US since the dollar is devaluating... and people is buying there by internet

I got this thing in November when receiving a package from my girfriend... I think they are using the declared value to apply taxes over it

Sad! :-(

hey MadRider.

we are all pretty sure it is import tax but it is the way in which the person is trying to collect it that is the problem. impot taxes should be charged BEFORE handing over the package and not via harassment days later.

saludos,
jer...

everyone seems to be overlooking the fact that NO hourly Spanish employee would go out of his way to stalk you so completely! he'd try once, maybe twice and then just use the time to have coffee with his ups buddies. there is no way this guy is legit. you should make a denuncia at teh police station against UPS...that will get their attention. and then if he comes again, call the police immediately. just dial 112 and say "socorro!"
your next under the door note can read "estoy llamando la policia ahora misma!"

I wonder if in fact there are some unscrupulous characters in Madrid and other cities, who are going around & scamming or conning unsuspecting expats into paying bogus charges??
I have to say that it wouldn't surprise me at all, if that is in fact what has been going on here!

I hope sonsy does get the Police involved, and that they do in fact check-out the legitimacy of it, and find out exactly what is going on here, as this really does sound very suspiciously like a con trick to me.

It would be useful to get some video footage of the guy and have him checked out by the Police, because if this is not a con job, then ups really need their asses kicked over this!

I may yet write to somebody in Madrid, and bring this practice to their attention.

I had a matter dealt with last month, by writing directly to La Alcaldessa (the Mayoress) of Torrelavega, and a senior offcial of La Feve (railways company) in Cantabria, one place was closed for a short period while it was investigated, one person sacked, and probably still facing a hefty penalty. The point being, you have to act on these things, and act swiftly, note everything down in fine detail, as it happens, time, day, date, etc, then submit your report in writing, preferably typed-up properly, including as much detail(s) about each instance as you can, and involve more than one department, and then that's when you start to get some action, and a result, I was responded to in two days, by two senior people, and the matter was dealt with the same week, and it wasn't even a particularly serious thing, not like what's been happening with sonsy, that I feel needs a much more urgent intervention.

Keep us updated sonsy, we are concerned here on multimadrid, and want to help.

Salud y suerte

Angelino
.

The latest:
UPS actually mailed an INVOICE!! can you believe it? BUT it was mailed before my "don't come back here again" translation. Which is even more confusing really! He was still coming after they had mailed a proper invoice...
Under everyone's advisement, I will write a letter of complaint to UPS and perhaps a copy to the Police to document this incident. I CAN"T be the only person who this guy is hitting up for money, surely?
Now I am conflicted though: I accept that it is my responsibility to pay duties/taxes etc, but it's still their mistake for delivering without me paying them beforehand. And after all this debacle with the stalker, I feel like taking it up with them...(in the US you could scream harassment and threats etc etc, but I suspect not so much here!!)...and trying to get out of full payment. The hard part is the language barrier and I think at this point my husband just wants it paid and OVER with! (He's the fluent one who could be doing the negotiating).
I'll give UPS Spain a call and see how far I can get and then will post anymore updates.
At the end of the day too, this duty is the same price as the item, which again seems scandalous and somewhat arbitrary-what scale or percentage do they use?
Will keep you posted.

Hello,

The duty thing: (I suffer it too...) They take the value of the item (or the aprox value in the sending put it there if it is lost or broken for claimming purposes) add the sending value!!! and then apply 16% of IVA plus 2.7% of arancel rights... and plus another amount (maybe another 15 %) for going to your home to deliver the hole thing... Que robo!