indifference towards it customers after a Bermudian businessman alleged he wasted five months trying to get the company to help him claim a refund.

Photographer Bruno Zupp lost $476 because FedEx failed to provide him with the form he needed to claim back Customs duties.

Mr. Zupp, a partner in Spurling and Zupp, was so infuriated by FedEx's failure to respond to a stream of telephone calls and letters that he gave up after five months and closed down his account.

He told The Royal Gazette : "It was extremely frustrating. This kind of business practice is unethical. You think you are dealing with a reputable organisation. I don't know who trains the FedEx staff, but they don't know how to deal with the public. The fact that the manager does not even bother to follow this up is outrageous. We are in the service industry dealing with the public every day and if we didn't deal with them in a timely manner, we'd be out of business.

"Maybe FedEx has different standards, but they don't know the meaning of customer service.'' Mr. Zupp has transferred his company account to the rival couriers DHL. He said he was told by a DHL manager that 40 to 50 people had cancelled FedEx accounts in the past three months because of poor service.

Mr. Zupp's problems started in August 1998 when he paid FedEx to transport photographic equipment which he was hiring from New York.

According to Mr. Zupp, FedEx blundered by not making it clear on the bill of entry to Customs that the photographic equipment was for rent.

Because the equipment would not remain in Bermuda permanently, Mr. Zupp was able to reclaim from Customs the duty which FedEx had already pre-paid for him.

When Mr. Zupp paid his bill in March he asked FedEx for the machine frank bill of entry from FedEx to reclaim the money from Customs.

He said he made about a dozen telephone calls to the accounts department and turned up at the office in Hamilton, but was unable to get the piece of paper.

After four months of getting nowhere, he wrote to office manager Roger Moniz in July requesting the machine frank bill of entry.

A month later, he wrote again to Mr. Moniz stating: "Due to your lack of response to our request you may consider our account with FedEx closed effectively immediately.

"Your continued indifference to our request has left us with no choice but to seek the able services of DHL.'' Mr. Zupp said: "There has never been any contact with us... "The manager made a call once but we were out. We returned his call and he did not bother to follow it up. Every time we tried to work with the girl in accounts, she said their records were in Florida but they would call us at the end of the week.

"They never bothered returning our calls. Every time we called the manager, he was out or was busy. In the end, we just gave up and wrote off the money.'' His partner Ann Spurling said: "It's either incompetence or not caring, but it seems to be a bit of both.'' The Royal Gazette gave FedEx four days to comment on the allegations. Mr.

Moniz said the company's office in Florida would contact us by Wednesday, but by yesterday there was still no response from either him or the overseas office.

In October, The Royal Gazette reported another customer, John Whiting, claiming he was given the "runaround'' by FedEx when he tried to re-claim excess Customs duties he paid due to a mistake made by the couriers.

In that case, FedEx also failed to return our calls. Mr. Whiting is still waiting for his money and has not heard from FedEx.