When France demurred over missing invoice, rats feasted on Sitar

After a follow-up by both Mona Ambegaonkar and India Post, the former finally got an email from Chronopost on Sept 21 saying the Sitar was being sent back

A Sitar travelled over 7,005 km to Paris from Kharodi post office in Mumbai’s Malad, then sat at a Chronopost depot at Roissy (where Charles de Gaulle airport is located) for nearly 50 days without being sent to its intended addressee in Le Havre, 219 km away. After frantic follow-ups by the sender – Mumbai-resident actor Mona Ambegaonkar – and India Post with France’s Chronopost, it was back to India with the secure packaging broken and chewed by rodents.

When France demurred over missing invoice, rats feasted on Sitar

Ambegaonkar’s daughter Diva who left in August to pursue a Global Politics & International Relations course at the Le Havre campus of Sciences Po, has been training in Sitar since she was seven-and-half-years old.

Ambegaonkar booked the Sitar (Kharodi PO, EM161414940IN) to be sent across to her daughter a day before the duo left for France. “I bought a special fibre-glass case with padding to pack the Sitar and this was further bubble-wrapped and marked as ‘Fragile,’ ‘Musical Instrument’ to ensure safety,” remembers Ambegaonkar. She paid a ₹6,832.20 fee for parceling the consignment on which the CN22 (customs declaration) form was attached with both the sender and recipient’s details, details of the contents, the parcel’s dimensions, the Sitar’s cost and delivery fee. This was signed by the post master Pankaj Jhende affirming the parcel was sealed in front of him.

Ambegaonkar and her daughter took in Paris for a few days and reached the Le Havre campus for the student acclimatization and parents’ meet on August 26. On August 29, when Ambegaonkar did rounds of several post offices in Le Havre to find out if the Sitar had made it there, she discovered it was still at Roissy. Asking her daughter to follow-up, Ambegaonkar returned to Mumbai.

Tracking confirmed the parcel had been put on a plane on August 27 and was received by Chronopost at Roissy after custom formalities on August 29. Since Diva had still not got her Sitar till September 3, an alarmed Ambegaonkar began calling the post office at Le Havre. “As they spoke French, it took a lot of pleading to discover that the parcel was being held at Chronopost’s Roissy depot for “after sales service.”

Ambegaonkar then sought Diva’s principal Michael Hauchecorne’s intervention. Chronopost told him that they needed an invoice to establish cost of the parcel despite this being clearly mentioned on the CN 22 form pasted on the parcel. Hauchecorne admitted on mail: “French Customs can be complicated.”

Just how much Ambegaonkar was to soon find out. The Chronopost website only has a phone number and no email address. “They’re either unresponsive, vague or insist on speaking in French. They don’t allow WhatsApp calls and I spent a bomb just making multiple calls.”

After intensive follow-up by both Ambegaonkar and India Post authorities, the former finally got a ‘No Reply’ email from Chronopost on September 21 saying the Sitar was being sent back with a tracking link.

A day after it arrived after completing customs formalities, an attempt to return the Sitar didn’t work since Ambegaonkar was away in Bangalore. Finally, she got it on October 26.

“My heart sank when I saw the locks broken, the cover gnawed by rodents and the shabby rope securing it,” remembers Ambegaonkar who adds, “Thankfully the Sitar survived.”

She wonders whether this standard of service is the norm for Chronopost. “Would they do this to a white French person. Or was I meted out such treatment only because I’m Indian?”

This writer reached out to Chronopost helpline where a lady who refused to give her name insisted case is closed after confirming consignment details. The Press Counsellor’s office at the French Embassy in Delhi asked for an email to be sent. “We can’t be sure when you’ll get a reply since authorities are busy with a dignitary visit,” this writer was told.

Meanwhile Ambegaonkar laments: “No one, including Chronopost and India Post, have cited the reason why the parcel couldn’t be delivered. I have no emails, calls or messages to show why the delivery was not completed and I have no recourse to a refund for the charges paid either.”

The Post Master at Kharodi Pankaj Jhende said Chronopost never intimated why the Sitar was being sent back. “We tried to get our superiors to escalate this with their French counterparts. But this consistently drew a blank.”