DUBAI : Hundreds of thousands of dirhams worth of personal items are feared lost with a cargo company failing to deliver the goods eight months after the expected date, said angry customers.
Bennette Cabacungan said she sent five boxes stuffed with bags, books and personal items worth around Dh100,000 through Links Horizon Cargo on January 3, 2010, to her kin in the Philippines.
"The Links staff promised to deliver the boxes within 45 days. But it's been eight months. When-ever I call the owner, she gives a lot excuses," said Cabacungan. When she went to the cargo firm's office in Ajman in June, Cabacungan said she came across 36 other people with the same complaint. "I am trying my best to get in touch with them to find out about the cargo, but the phone keeps ringing."
False promises
Janette Guireba, a sales representative for a trading firm, said she sent two boxes of kitchen items, bags, shoes and clothes worth Dh4,000 from Ajman to Aritao town in Nueva Viscaya province on March 13, 2010. Links promised to deliver them in 40 days, which was in time for an important family occasion. "I even extended my leave in the Philippines and paid a date-change fee for my airline ticket to wait for the cargo, which never came," Guireba said.
When Guireba returned to the UAE, she filed a complaint. "When I visited the company's office along with the police on June 6, the signage outside the firm [premises] had been changed," Guireba said.Cabacungan, Guireba and others lodged a complaint with Ajman Public prosecution. After repeated attempts to contact Links Horizon, owner Lilia Changcoco Ramos replied to a text message from XPRESS only to state that she would talk to her sponsor.
According to Cabacungan, she has been told that the cargo was stuck with Manila's Customs and cannot be released as the owner did not pay the required duties.
