Toronto woman devastated after UPS loses photo album of her late parents

A Toronto woman says she’s devastated after a photo album of her late parents was lost in transit from South Africa.

Korir Maphosa said the albums, which contained the only photos she had of her family, were in storage in her hometown and sent to Canada by a relative with UPS.

“I kept checking online everyday to see where the package was, and after a few days I noticed that it had stalled,” she told CTV News Toronto.

When Maphosa called the customer service line, she was told the package was “probably lost.”

“I’m just devastated,” she said. “I don’t know what to do.”

She tried to follow up with UPS but after a month had passed, the only thing UPS was able to offer was financial compensation to the relative who sent the package. Maphosa said she wanted as much tracking information as possible in hopes of finding the package for herself, but got nowhere with customer service.

“Customer service is important to us, and we take the delay or non-delivery of any package seriously,” a spokesperson for UPS said in a statement to CTV News Toronto. “We regret the stress and inconvenience this issue has caused and we are actively investigating this situation and working to resolve the issue for our customer.”

Maphosa said she has three grainy digital images of her father, but none of her mother.

“You have these memories, you have these mementos to help you along the way, and then someone just goes and wipes that away and it almost feels like a second death in a way.”

Maphosa said that looking at the photographs is now painful, adding that she feels UPS isn’t treating the issue with the care it deserves.