ABC Express Inc out of Dulles Airport needs customer service training

to whom it may concern:

This is in reference to Confirmation # XXX

My friends arrived at my house on Sunday night, 13 December 2009 without one bag, ID number AH498878. They had filed a claim.

On Monday, around 10PM 14 December, we received a call that the bag would be delivered, and arranged a delivery window of 8AM - noon on 15 December. We gave them both my cell number and an alternate that would be with them.

At 11:48 am on 15 December, ABC Express Inc's driver phoned my cell twice and left a message, as I was in a meeting. I phoned him back at 12:31 pm when I saw the message, and the conversation was roughly the following:

I asked if he was delivering the bag, and he said no one had been home. I said they had been waiting at home since 8AM and asked if he had climbed any stairs to deliver the bag. He said yes.

I told him that he had tried to deliver the bag to the wrong apartment, and that we had specifically left instructions with the dispatcher the night before that the driver was not to climb any stairs, that the apartment was on the ground level of the building. I asked him to turn around and bring the bag back, as my friends have been sitting in the same clothes or borrowed ones since they got on their flight on Sunday. He said no, I'm already on my way back to Dulles. I reiterated that they were there, that he had gone to the wrong location, and my friends were waiting desperately for their clothes. At no time did I yell at this man, at no time did I curse at this man. When he refused to turn around, I hung up and called the 1-800221-6903 number and spoke to a representative who did all he could to get a message to the appropriate people, even going so far as to call ABC Express at 703-661-6000 -- and the company did not answer the phone. Nor did the driver answer the phone when the customer service representative from United tried to call him.

When I hung up with the first representative, I called my friends to let them know what had happened, and Mr. XXX had some questions, so he called your customer service number again. The rep he spoke to gave him the direct line to ABC Express. When Mr. XXX called them, they told him thad I had been rude to the driver, that I had lied, that they had not been home, that he had tried to deliver the bag to the correct apartment, and told him to deal with United again.

United is trying to get the bag to us, I understand that. But I have to say that ABC Express is the most unprofessional courier service I have ever had to deal with -- in a city that depends on good couriers!

They did not call the alternate number when I did not answer my cell phone.

They claim they delivered the bag to the right apartment, but the driver freely admitted he had to climb the stairs, which means he did not, in fact, ring at the right door.

My apartment is on the ground level to the left, as I explained. There are six other units accessed by the landing on the staircase. There are no buzzers for my apartment up there--my apartment, the gated entrance on the ground level, has its own bell. The apartment at the top of the stairs to the left is unit 3, and her door also carries the number of 1 Logan Circle, where we are located.

I am upset that this is my friends' experience of Washington, DC. Mr. XXX has been very kind and patient, and asked me, audibly upset, to talk to United because he just couldn't do it anymore.

What guarantee do I have that the rude, surly dispatcher and the dishonest driver will safely deliver Mr. XXX's luggage to him? My friends have two more days in Washington. This day has been ruined by waiting for a bag that will not arrive, and they are trapped in my apartment waiting until the courier service decides to deliver the bag -- another four hour window. They cannot visit the Smithsonian. They cannot go out for lunch. They must sit in my apartment, helpless, and wait.

Will someone PLEASE call me? TODAY? If I owned a car I would drive out to Dulles myself to pick up the bag. I have spent nearly every minute of the past hour and forty-five minutes trying to get someone to tell me when my friends can have their bag and resume the sightseeing they were so eager to continue today.

The ABC Express has cost my guests things that no one can ever compensate adequately: time. Time to visit Washington. Time to enjoy their stay here. Confidence that they will be treated well in my home town. A good impression of my city.

They are helpless. And I am so sad that this is how they get to experience Washington, DC.

Please help them. Please call me and tell me when his luggage will arrive? I am at the point where I will have to take off work to go sit in my home while they wander the city and worry about their bag.