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Note in the following news article that the shipment was the responsibility of UPS itself. In the end, however, the franchisee of a UPS Store repaid Cassandra Cey for her shipping charges out of his own pocket.

Airdrie woman gets refund after dialysis dilemma

An Airdrie, Alberta, woman's long-fought battle with UPS is finally over.

Published by Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) 22 October 2010

Cassandra Cey has diabetes, and a misplaced parcel in September 2008 meant she was without her dialysis solution while away for a conference in Regina. After two years of trying to get a refund, Cey got one on Friday. The Airdrie manager of The UPS Store, Mike Watkins, told CBC News he's gone out of pocket to refund Cey the roughly $110 she paid for the delivery.

"In the end, I apologize for what occurred," Watkins said in a statement.

Cey has lived with diabetes for more than 20 years. In 2008, while going through full kidney failure — requiring eight hours of dialysis a night — she had to travel to Regina for work. She arranged with UPS to have her solutions sent to her hotel and paid for a two-day express.

"I had to do this for my life. It was toxins that were being removed from my body," said Cey.

The solutions never showed up. "It was horrible because I was at this conference [and] I had to man my trade-show booth," she said. "I had to try and figure out how I was going to get to the hospital to pick up these solutions."

Cey assumed getting a refund after the mix-up wouldn't be a problem. She was wrong — and so began a two-year battle to get her money back

Staff at the local store kept giving Cey a 1-800 number to call, she said. Cey said when she called that number, she was told to go back to the local franchise.

"They were in the wrong and they fully admitted it, and yet I could never get in touch with anyone who could actually make a decision. So it was just really frustrating."

Cey doesn't need dialysis anymore. She's had a kidney transplant — a donation from her dad. "I mean, I feel sad that it had to come to this, it had to take TV cameras and everything else … but I feel good and hopefully it won't happen to anyone else."