I had been starting to scout for couriers to send Balikbayan boxes full of presents to my family in the Philippines. Two of my primary sources are Filipino friends and the Filipino American Journal. So far, I called the UMAC and Forex East Valley Arizona agents and inquired. UMAC's deal sounded better than Forex when it comes to price and box size. UMAC offers $88 (on their ad in the journal it's $85, but when I called, the agent said they added $3/box) for a jumbo box that measures 24x18x20 with free bulilit (means small/tiny) box. On the other hand, Forex price for a 23x17x20 box is $85. But if you send two boxes, you will get a discount of $5/box. However, they charge a pick-up fee of $10.

After making the comparison, I obviously decided to go with UMAC. So, I called the agent again and expressed my desire to get 2 jumbo boxes with the 2 free bulilit boxes. It was in this call that he told me they increased $3 for each box because of the sky-rocketing price of gas and whatsoever—I don't care. The $3 additional charge was fine with me but unfortunately by the time I called he ran out of boxes, but asked me to text my address so he can drop off the boxes in our residence. Six days after the call, I never heard anything from him. No text. No call. No information when I will get the boxes. So, I decided to send a text asking if he already has the balikbayan box. Four hours after, I got a reply informing me that he already got what I needed. He asked me again to send my address, which I did. It's more than a day now and I never heard anything from him. This kind of customer service disappoints and frustrates me. I feel like he doesn't care about me as his new customer. If you're a person who sells a product to consumers, you should always see to it that your customer gets the best service. I would have appreciate it if he at least send a message in my phone or call to inform me whether I will get the boxes or not, or would he prefer me to pick it up from their place instead of making me wait and clueless of what was going on. I haven't tried the actual delivery service yet, but the way I was treated as a customer makes me think that the UMAC agent doesn't care at all. How I wish there is another UMAC agent in the East Valley that I can call. Maybe, he or she will treat me much better.

I made up my mind and cancel my balikbayan box order. This time, I am going to try Forex. Let's see how it goes. One positive point with the Forex agent is that he speaks my dialect—Bisaya. Crossing my fingers that this agent is way much better than UMAC's. Peace to UMAC. I am just venting and I have the right.