Pets With Passports

I paid over $500 for an expedited passport service and still missed my international flight. My appointment was on January 17, and I was told I would have my passport by Saturday. I did not receive it until January 27, which was too late to travel and required me to pay $611 to rebook my flight. My passport was routed to a P.O. box inside a third-party UPS Store that was closed for multiple consecutive days. There was no voicemail, no online notice, and no response to repeated calls, making my passport completely inaccessible despite being a time-sensitive federal document. A paper sign on a locked door is not adequate notice when access to critical documents is at stake. The business avoids acknowledging that many secure third-party mailbox facilities provide after-hours key access, and that the specific location THEY chose does not. Routing a passport to a location without key access, no contingency plan, and no communication places all of the risk on the customer. After I posted the review, the owner began calling and texting me asking that I remove it rather than addressing the access failure or refunding the service. I chose this service instead of driving to Houston, and that decision is on me. Still, it is reasonable to warn others. If you truly need your passport by a specific date, go directly to a federal passport agency. I was told I'd get it Saturday and that's why I paid the $500 in fact when I had my appointment I hadn't even booked my flight and only bought it after I was reassured I'd have it Saturday.