Abhijith N Kolpe
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru
Mangaluru, Jan 15: The German couple which was stranded in the city for the past three weeks after their van broke down and there was undue delay in the delivery of their van's spare part can now carry on with their world tour plan after their shipment of their order was delivered on January 14 and they got it fixed.
German couple Peter Pavlasek and Alona will now continue their world tour and will move from Mangaluru on January 15 towards Kerala, after which they will proceed to other countries like Myanmar, Thailand, Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand.
After waiting for long and with no hope of arrival of the shipment, Peter Pavlasek had ordered for spare parts parcel one more time directly to his hotel on January 2. The spare part was delivered on the morning of January 14. So on January 14, two shipments were delivered to Peter.
On January 12, Daijiworld had reported about the problems faced by the German couple. Later, Daijiworld coordinated with Mangaluru MLA Vedavyasa Kamath, to help to sort out the issue. After being briefed on the matter, Kamath spoke to an official in the customs department and also B Poornajith Rai, a civil construction businessman at Bengaluru and urged him to do the needful.
Within two days the shipment was delivered to Peter and he got it fixed to his Mercedes Benz car at the Benz showroom at Kannur and the couple can now happily carry on with their world tour.
Peter Pavlasek and Alona thanked Mangaluru south MLA Vedavyasa Kamath and Daijiworld for coming to their help at their time of need in getting the parcel of spare parts cleared from Bengaluru airport within no time.
The German couple however thanked the Samit and Suites hotel manager Jaya Prakash and other staff for helping them out in this difficult situation.
Meanwhile, the staffs of Benz showroom at Kannur and Samit and Suites hotel located at Falnir, felicitated the German couple.
It may be recalled that the German couple were on a world tour in their Mercedes Benz van, and had arrived in Mangaluru on December 19. Unfortunately, their van broke down shortly after they entered the city, and since then, they have been stuck here owing to undue delay in the delivery of the van's spare part. The showroom asked him to order the spare parts in his own name to make the delivery faster.
The shock absorber of their van had developed a snag, after which Peter Pavlasek approached Mercedes Benz showroom in s otherwise it would have taken a month for the showroom to order and get the product delivered.
Accordingly, Pavlasek ordered the spare parts on December 20 from Estonia for 300 Euros, and the order reached Bengaluru airport just two days later, on December 22.
However, what was expected to be a simple matter turned into a mess after the package reached Bengaluru airport. The courier service, DHL, instead of mentioning the customer's name as Peter Pavlasek, delivered the order in the name of an employee of Benz showroom in Mangaluru. The showroom then gave a no-objection letter to Pavlasek so that he could collect the package from Bengaluru airport. However, when he went to the Bengaluru airport, he was refused citing several reasons, and faced problems with the customs. Pavlasek had to return empty-handed.
On January 6, Pavlasek spoke to the deputy commissioner of customs and after inspecting all related documents, he gave Pavlasek a no-objection letter for the delivery of the spare parts. Pavlasek was assured that the package would be delivered to Mangaluru.
Despite producing several documents to the persons concerned, they repeatedly refused to hand over the package. Peter had also visited the airport twice on December 30 and January 6, where he was assured that the package would be delivered to Mangaluru,
Peter also alleged that a person named Vinod Prabhu from DHL was making him run from pillar to post and refusing to hand over the spare parts. Peter even spoke to the deputy commissioner of customs about the problem faced. "He checked all my documents and gave me no-objection letter to deliver the spare parts, but still, for no reason, the DHL staff is refusing to deliver the parts even after producing necessary documents," Peter had claimed. They had even paid Rs 2,000 as penalty through the Benz showroom on January 6.
The couple's world tour
The couple has been on a world tour since May 1, 2019 in their Benz van, and has successfully covered up 15 countries including Poland, Iceland, Russia, Mongolia, Lithuania, Iran, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, before reaching India on November 24.
In India they visited places like Delhi and Agra. They will proceed from Mangaluru to Kerala and then they move to Myanmar, Thailand, Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand.