We used Global Ocean Freight, located in Plantation, FL, for a move from the U.S.A. To the Dominican Republic. Our contract was for a self-load and unload 40 container (full container load) that we placed both our household goods and a vehicle in. We selected them because of the competitive price they offered us, the fact that Anna Newman (my initial point of contact with the company) provided timely answers to my questions, and because the Better Business Bureau assigned them an acceptable grade of B-. However, upon sending in the signed contract on 10/8/07, the problems began with Global Ocean Freight (GOF).
Thats when Anna informed us that container pick-up could only be scheduled for a weekday and that there was no lift attached to the truck, so we would have to rent one ourselves to bring our goods up to the container, complicating the process and inconveniencing us. As we had never moved internationally before, we did not know these things and should have been informed prior to signing the contract.
On 10/9/07 Anna wrote that we would be responsible for bracing the car inside the container as well. This caught my attention because it was a direct contradiction of what she had told us before, that car bracing was in fact included. I made Anna aware of this and over the next two days I heard nothing but denial, both from Anna and Sara Kadosh who entered the picture during this dispute. Even though I forwarded the email as proof, they continued to deny that car bracing was promised, and simply stated that if I wanted my car to be braced by their crew that I would have to pay an additional $800.
I was, of course, furious to see their blatant dishonesty, however the contract was already signed, the necessary shipping documentation sent, and the down payment of 15% of the total contract price had been paid. Now I felt stuck.
The freight container was scheduled to arrive on 10/26/07. I wrote to confirm that the truck would be coming at 10:30 A.M., as planned. I had to do this because nobody wrote or called me, as was promised by Anna, who said that the dispatcher would confirm 24 hours ahead regarding the time the trucker would arrive. That was another falsity.
We were at the site that we were going to load from by 9 A.M. We got our things ready for loading and waited. 10:30 A.M. Came and went, and we waited. 11:00 A.M. Came and went, and we waited. Finally, at 11:15 A.M., we called GOF, since they clearly were not calling us to tell us what the holdup was. I asked for Anna but was transferred to Sandy who said she would call back in half an hour.
The half hour came and went, no call. I called again at about noon. I was told that there was an accident at the port and that the trucker was delayed. I asked when I could expect the trucker to arrive. I was told that they couldnt get a hold of the trucking company to find out. Meanwhile, my wife and I and all our friends who were going to help with the loading were waiting, and waiting, and some of them had to leave for work. My mother in-law was fed up and decided to call herself to get more information.
She called at 12:15 P.M. And asked when the trucker would come; they didnt know. She asked what port this supposed accident was in (because with the evasion and lack of information we began to suspect that they were again lying to us again); they would not give the name of the port. They had no intention of giving out any meaningful or detailed information about our freight containers detention or arrival.
At 12:30 P.M. I called again and was told that they still could not contact the trucker. This time I was told that there was a spill at the port and it was taking a long time to clean it up. After getting off the phone with GOF, I got a call from a woman who worked for the trucking company, who told me that the trucker had left the port but had been stopped by a police officer and was being detained, and they did not know for how long he would be held.
Another dramatic tale to add to the list of excuses we received as to why our container was late. I asked if she thought he would arrive within the next few hours and she said no. So at 12:35 P.M. We left, having accomplished nothing except wasting 3.5 hours of ours and our friends time. We would have waited a lot longer if we did not continue calling Global Ocean Freight, because they never called us.
And there was another problem. I had rented a Budget truck for a day with a lift on the back to get our goods raised up to the height of the freight container, and the rental company was going to close at 5 P.M. If I could not return the truck by then, I would be charged for another full day. So I called Global Ocean Freight again and talked to Sara who promised me that we would be compensated for the extra day if the freight container did not come in time. I was skeptical about that, but had no other option than to hope that would be true.
Finally, at 9:30 P.M. The freight container arrived - 11 hours late and with not one call from Global Ocean Freight. If I had not been constantly calling them, I would have waited at the loading site for 11 hours before my container would have appeared. The trucker said that he was delayed because of a big oil spill at the port and heavy traffic. No mention of an encounter with the police.
On 10/28/07 I wrote to Sara and attached a copy of the invoice for the Budget truck rental, so that half the amount would be deducted from our bill will Global Ocean Freight. She said the trucker would cover $72 of the price. However, as I proceeded to fully explain to her, the cost for the extra day was much more than that. The extra expenses that GOF promised to cover earlier on the phone they were now refusing to pay. They were caught in another lie and were again unwilling to make good on their word.
On 11/23/07 I was sent an invoice from Global Ocean Freight for the contracted price, and I immediately sent a check for the total amount. On 11/26/07 I sent an email to Sara asking about the status of our shipment. However, she did not respond, yet another new person did, Stephanie Bodner. On the same day she informed us that our shipment was currently in transit and that I could track it online. I did this immediately, and online the amount was not what the invoice stated. It was $705 higher, so I sent an email to Stephanie asking that she correct the error. She stated that the amount shown on the website was correct, and proceeded to send a new invoice, which included $705 for storage and demurrage charges.
I asked Stephanie what the storage and demurrage charge was for. On 11/28/07 she wrote that she would send a full explanation by the close of the business day. She did not. Neither Sara nor Anna would respond to my inquiry either.
Finally, Stephanie replied on 11/30/07. She wrote that the storage and demurrage charges resulted from a delay in the export clearance of my vehicle at US Customs. She said the charge needed to be paid prior to delivery of my container, and that I could pay the $705 balance to the receiving agent. I responded the same day to Stephanie to say that where the contract elaborates on storage charges, it states: Storage: The first 30 days in house (USA) are always included for your convenience." My container was not held for longer than that.
Also, I asked Anna on 9/11/07 what are the other foreseeable costs were that were not included in the total estimate of $4,035. Her reply was that there are no hidden charges. Furthermore, because the proposed contract listed storage and demurrage without explanation as something not included, I specifically asked Anna what this meant and the potential of receiving such charges, before signing the contract. Her reply, received on 9/12/07 was that container detention, storage, and demurrage is charged only when you do not pay on time or include prohibited items in the container.
This, again, was not the case with us, so according to what I was told, I shouldnt have received storage and demurrage charges. None of this reasoning mattered to Stephanie. So, I also asked her to scan and email me a copy of the invoice she said she received from the US port with the details of the storage charges on it, attempting to get some proof. I did not hear back from Stephanie about this until 12/3/07, when she stated she would forward the invoice the next morning.
Getting email correspondence from the GOF agents since I started inquiring about the additional charges was difficult. They would generally not respond in a timely fashion, so I had to constantly make what were now international calls to get them to respond to my inquiries.
On 12/4/07, Stephanie did send an invoice, but it did not say it was from a port and it was barely legible. I had to call her to have her read it to me. According to the invoice, I was being charged for storage and demurrage days from 10/25-11/25. If this were an invoice from the port, why would I be charged for longer than my container was at the port? Clearly, the explanation Stephanie gave for the charge was false, as she said I was being charged for storage prior to sailing, yet my container sailed on 11/12/07 and the invoice showed I was being charged until 11/25/07.
I asked Stephanie about this over the phone and she did not give a logical answer. My best guess is that they are charging me twice for renting the freight container, once which is included in the price of the contract, and then again as storage and demurrage, and that the invoice they provided is not from the U.S. Port, but from the ship or trucking company, whoever is renting the freight containers out.in any case, I was trapped because I saw that they were not going to remove the charge and that they were going to hold my goods hostage until I paid the dubious fee, so I was forced to pay, expecting that I would just contest it later if I ever got my goods.
On 12/10/07 I received confirmation from the Dominican agent that my freight container arrived at the Dominican port of Caucedo on 12/9/07, but that they were not able to proceed with clearing my goods from customs because Global Ocean Freight had not yet sent the Bill of Lading. I called GOF immediately and was told that they did not provide the Bill of Lading (B/L) yet because they were waiting for the $705 check to clear.
Putting aside the fact that that charge seems fraudulent, according to them, the payment due date was extended and this outstanding amount should have only impeded container delivery, not inhibited the customs process or the issuance of the Bill of Lading. Also, the following was true, as I expressed in an email to the president of GOF, Eti Cohen, on 12/11/07: The $705 check I sent was received by GOF on 12/6/07 and cashed and cleared my account on 12/7/07.
I was told that GOF has a policy of not crediting the account until 5-7 business days after receiving the check over the phone when inquiring about why my account hadnt been credited for the payment. However, Global Ocean Freight should have immediately processed our Bill of Lading upon cashing our check for several reasons, two of them being: 1) The first invoice that I received in November left out the amount of $705. I paid the balance of the first invoice, and then received a second invoice several days later stating that an additional $705 was owed. If the additional amount had not been omitted, it would have been paid a long time ago. 2) I asked for details regarding the charge of $705, due to the fact that I had inquired about storage and demurrage charges before signing a contract with GOF and was told that there would not be any unless I didn't pay on time, and that was not the case.
I also asked for supporting documentation to see exactly what I was being charged for. I requested this information on 11/30/07 and did not receive it until 12/4/07. If I had received an answer to my question in a timely manner, GOF would have also received the check a long time ago, long enough to satisfy the 5-7 business day requirement. Etis response to my complaint only served to excuse GOF for what they had done by blaming the trucking company or steamship line for not sending them the invoice sooner, while ignoring the fact that GOF provided false information regarding what storage and demurrage fees were for and when they would be charged. She contradicted was Stephanie said about the invoice being for storage and demurrage charges from the port.
They could not even agree on where this charge was coming from, which makes it look like a whim of GOFs to charge more because they felt they could and get away with it. As the customer, during an international move you are at the mercy of the moving companys whims until you get your things, and they know this and take advantage of it.
On 12/13/07 Stephanie said, in response to my inquiry regarding the Bill of Lading that she had already forwarded the release to the operations department and that the release should be received by the DR agent within 24 hours. This was another lie.
After repeated phone calls, I wrote another email to Stephanie, on 12/18/07, to communicate the DR agents frustration, which was expressed to us, over trying to call and email GOF to get both the authorization to release the B/L to the steamship line and send the payment that was due to them, and receiving no response. Stephanie said that they would make sure the B/L would be received that day, as would the payment to the DR agent.
Another lie, as neither was released. The following day the agent wrote to confirm that Global Ocean Freight did not pay them for their services yet. He said our cargo would remain in hold until they did and that we were being charged $50 per day for demurrage and storage at the DR port. As it turned out, it was actually more than that. When I confronted Stephanie with this she said that the release for the B/L should be received that day, and when I highlighted that she had said the same thing the day before, she merely repeated that the release would be received that day.
I called Stephanie during the day to make sure that she would get this work done that day, and she told me she made the necessary request for the B/L and paid DR agent. I checked with the DR agent to see if this was true, and of course, they did not receive payment that day. And I also checked with the steamship lines agent in the DR and they did not receive authorization from GOF to release the Bill of Lading.
After repeated phone calls, emails, and outright lies, I decided to write a clear email on 12/21/07 to Stephanie regarding the failure of GOF to perform their contractual duties and to cc both the receiving and steamship agents. Again, Stephanie promised that these issues would be resolved that day. Perhaps making their business dealings known to the ship line was what was needed all along, because finally Stephanie did give authorization to release the B/L. She requested this one full week after she told us she did it. She said she requested it on 12/13/07 but did nothing until 12/21/07. Stephanie also assured us on 12/21/07 that payment to the DR agent had been processed.
However, as I found out on 1/9/08, this was yet another lie. I was told by the DR agent to expect my goods to come out of the port on that day, so I made the drive down to the DR port from my home, a 2.5 hour ride, to find that Global Ocean Freight had STILL not paid the DR agent, and that my goods would not be released until they did. A full day of my time, not to mention my money, was wasted. I got on the phone and called Stephanie at GOF. She again assured me that the payment would be processed that day.
I sent out an email to both her, the DR agent, the Better Business Bureau, the Attorney General of Florida, and the Federal Maritime Commission, and apparently this was enough to motivate Stephanie to at least come up with a confirmation of a wire transfer that she said was sent to the DR receiving agent that day. On the following day, 1/10/08, the agent agreed to take my goods out of the port, although the money GOF claimed to have sent had not hit their bank account.
Apparently they felt the confirmation was enough, so, on 1/10/08 my goods FINALLY came out of the port and were delivered to my home - over a month after arriving in the DR port and accruing storage and demurrage charges amounting to $2,033.04, that were entirely caused by Global Ocean Freights failure to provide the necessary documentation and funds. After adding to this total the suspicious port charges from the U.S. That they passed on to me and the amount they promised to pay for the rental truck and then didnt, this makes a minimum of $2,779.85 that GOF owes me. GOF gave me an estimate of $4,035, claiming that this was the amount I could expect to pay, plus THC in the DR which amounted to $450, making a total of $4,485. They assured me that there were no other hidden costs. The final amount I have had to pay, primarily because of their intentional deception and negligence has come to $7,722.29.
On Global Ocean Freights website under About Us it states their supposed business principles. These statements could not be more inaccurate about the way Global Ocean Freight conducts their business. They are, in fact, the opposite of the way GOF runs and handles customer relations. They treat the customer with little importance, assuming that instead of the customer, Global Ocean Freight is always right. They do not take responsibility for their inaccuracy, misinformation, disorganization, or poor coordination skills.
They blame anyone and everyone else, but never themselves. They lie and unleash every excuse imaginable, but never accept that they are at fault, because at the end of the day, their prime business principle is: Global Ocean Freight shall not be held responsible for any of its services, or lack thereof, and shall only demonstrate self-interest, rather than interest in the customer or the quality of our services.
Because their website does not state this, because of the repeated lies and cover-ups that this company employs, and because of their intentionally inaccurate estimates, it can be stated with certainty that Global Ocean Freight is a fraudulent business and should be held accountable for their deception, not only of this customer, but no doubt of many others.
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