After spending 11 hours trying to get a waybill, I changed my luck by writing to the head of FedEx in Malaysia.

I never spoke to him. He never wrote to me. Yet, his response behind the scenes opened a door to FedEx customer service at the executive level. Far from conversations from the night before when I flat-out said to a customer service representative, “If I wasn’t so tired, I would be angry,” I received a phone call from someone from FedEx executive customer service. The person on the phone with me was friendly, empathetic, and results oriented. I got the sense that when a dignitary descends from a private jet, these are the sort of people that greet them.

With this phone call, FedEx Malaysia rolled out, what seemed like, velvet ropes. And, standing at the start line, was our amazing friend Carl who accepted our avalanche of Amazon packages, and schoolbooks. From his ocean-view, high-rise condo in Miami, Carl escaped the heat of summer, consolidating 72 items into three boxes. As he waited for me to receive a FedEx airway bill, I asked him what he was doing. “I’m bringing my neighbor’s shit to storage,” he quipped.

I sensed our items would not be missed.

With Carl in our court in Miami, USA, and the customer service exec in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, I was on the path of international shipping.

Armed with ChatGPT, I interpreted customs forms written in Malay and filled them in. By the time the parcels were ready, each package was adorned with 23 pages of documentation.

I got my waybill number. Soon, Carl was snapping photos of the FedEx guy with one of our boxes in Miami.

With tracking numbers, Rick and I received email alerts, and watched our shipment visit a central depot in the US, and then north to Alaska and over to Japan. All the hands that must have touched the boxes. Rick said he wishes he had put a pinhole camera to capture the events as they unfolded.

Corporate customer service at FedEx followed my shipment every step of the way. My anticipation grew with every email, and every detail. On the day our shipment was to arrive in Langkawi, I envisioned my husband installing our new Whale Swim N’ Rinse shower that very afternoon.

Then, like a scene out of James Bond, I received a phone call. And, in short order, a motorbike arrived at my door with a preschooler on the front. He handed me some paperwork and tried to tell me the contents, but gestured to his passenger, revved the bike and put it into gear.

I was advised to go to the Langkawi Airport customs. Some of my items had been detained.

 Malaysian customs put a halt to the entire shipment because we had sent electronics.  To receive our shipment, I needed to get approval letters from two government agencies. This involved filling in forms and providing photos that amounted to a full day of effort. I focused on my end goal, which was receiving my belongings. Persistence and patience were key.

The letters of approval began to arrive. When they were all assembled (there were 4 in total), a local courier company took them to the customs office in Langkawi, and the delivery was made.

My experience with FedEx wasn’t because I was spending a lot of money. I was using “FedEx’s Last Minute Discounted Shipping Rates” which meant that I paid $250 CAD to ship 100 pounds of gear from Miami to Malaysia. But, I was a customer who spent 11 hours just to get my credit card registered with FedEx, and whether out of respect or pity, I was taken under the wing of the executive customer service.

Thanks very much to Carl and to the woman at FedEx who oversaw the entire process, and even to the top man at FedEx Malaysia who helped quietly. Leadership need not be loud. Here is a picture of the courier who finally made it all happen.