Beware of Freight Forwarders (I am there are few honest freight forwarders somewhere)
I was searching the internet for freight forwarder to ship my furniture and family personal belonging to overseas. I got lots of offers and American Oceanic Lines was one of them. The CEO and owner; Mr. Mark Marcus called me and promised that he will personally attend to my shipment.
I wired transfer the money to his bank account and a truck with 20 ft container showed up at my residence in Florida and picked up the furniture to Savannah where it will be loaded onboard a ship.
During the shipping period; I called him so many times and asked him for the tracking number because deep inside I was worried not to see my furniture again. Finally, three weeks later I got the tracking number and sure enough I saw that my container will arrive on 27 August.
When I went to port to pick it up; they asked me for the bill of lading which I still did not get from him although it was requested several times. I contacted his agent in that city and they said I need to have Mark Marcus to send them an email authorizing them to release the container.
After a week of trying to contact him by phone and emails ; I managed to get him on the phone and he promised to send his agents an email saying that I paid the money in full. Sure enough, they received the email and authorization that I can get the shipment.
When I tried again to pick up my container at the port, they refused to release the container and said that the freight forwarder; Mr. Mark Marcus; did not pay for the Lines who transported the container ; the Lines were CMA.
Again, after another week of frustration, I got him on the phone and he promised to pay the lines. One week later nothing happened' I tried to call him for a whole week since he did not answer my calls or my emails; I got hold of him on the phone and he told me that the reason he did not pay the CMA Lines because they say they need from him $8000 and he was afraid to pay for my shipment and not get it still.
He asked me to pay the CMA agent the amount of $2000 to be able to receive the shipment and that he will transfer the money to my USA account within two days.
It has been over a month now and he has not paid the money; the sum of $2000 including the demurrage charges., he did not respond to my emails and did not answer my phone calls although I warned him through the many emails I sent him that I will take him to court and report him to every agency I know.
I thought I was alone until I scrolled thru this site. I felt lucky in a way since I read that some people did not even receive their furniture.
I don't understand how the system allows such crooks to still be in business. It seems it's a common practise to lots of such businesses to make their wealth using fraud, deception and taking advantage of the system.
Unlike, the air travel industry; travel agents in most countries that I know have to pay a bond to a government body inorder to minimize fraud.
I also blame the Lines who do not enforce measures to minimize fraud, liars and con artists such as Mark Marcus.
If you check www.americanoceaniclines.com website; it shows that he has several staff with their names and email addresses. When I tried to call the office or send emails I got no response; which tells you that he has fictitious staff and he is a one man show.
Finally; I blame myself for not doing my homework before selecting American Oceanic Lines; all what I did was checking if he was on the rip-off sites list; unfortunately he wasn't and that is why I am including him now so as he wont practise his deception with another innocent victim.
H
Casselberry, Florida
U.S.A.
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