First, a bit about me. I am a Div. Mgr. W / a large multi-national company with offices around the world. I manage our freight and logistics business units — therefore, I have a lot of experience dealing with freight companies and shippers in the industrial segment, not the personal effects segment.
I recently accepted a transfer overseas and proceeded to choose a freight company. I called around and Global Ocean Freight provided the cheapest price. As my grandfather often said; never be afraid to buy the best, you'll usually be much happier in the long run. Suffice it to say, I chose not to follow grand dad's sage advise in this instance... And have paid the price accordingly.
I should also note, throughout this exercise I've kept copious notes; voice memos, journal entries and email communications. Suffice it to say, I have VOLUMES of info., which for the purposes of this alert, I'll forgo posting.
Bottom line, my advice to anyone considering Global Ocean Freight to handle shipping your life's possessions — DON'T DO IT, I BEG YOU! Their organization is complacent, non-proactive, unprofessional, and incapable of handling even the most simple of personal effects shipments. The promises made by their sales people were never met ("We will call/email you at every step of the way throughout your shipment." and were blatant lies!). Ive since done a bit more digging around on this organization and have learned that theyre not even listed in Thomas Register for those of you unaware of Thomas, theyre a business-database that has been used for years to provide info. On businesses. Further digging has turned up numerous user complaints a simple Google search: GLOBAL OCEAN FREIGHT will provide you with plenty of horror stories. I challenge you to find more horror stories out there than youll find on Global. One more little tidbit, it appears this GLOBAL organization employs home-based managers to oversee their GLOBAL enterprise. Dont believe me, theres plenty of job postings out there you can easily find via web searches. And lastly, take a notice of their mailing address. Its a suite # in FL hardly the address of a reputable, well established freight company. The sad thing is, their website portrays them as a huge enterprise, but in truth, its a couple of women answering phones in a two room office in Plantation, FL. Yes, this GLOBAL organization is actually a group of 5-10 women sitting in FL answering phones. They do not possess any of their own people who actually handle your shipment. EVERYTHING IS SUBCONTRACTED OUT! In a nutshell, Global is a middleman and is run by a handful of extremely inefficient women who cant even manage to stay on top of simple emails or file paperwork with port authorities properly. If you choose to go with them, be prepared to enter an abyss of finger-pointing, circle-jerks, blame games and excuses.
I am quite certain their response to my posting (as theyve done throughout my shipment) will be to blame my displeasure on "container unavailability", or try to paint me as a never-happy-about-anything customer. The only thing they managed to do is to FINALLY get my freight from Point A to Point B — but not after subjecting me to FOUR months of anguish.
Lastly, if you're still considering them after reading all of this, don't even bother talking to them about any of the negative postings you've read about them online, (as I did, and chose to ignore), because as their sales people (in my instance, the wonderfully efficient NOT! Alisa) will resort to the time tested; "We handle thousands of shipments every year and there will always be a handful of disgruntled people." Don't buy it... PLEASE! Who knows how many people haven't bothered to sit down and take the time to alert others to this bone-headed and unprofessional organization?
Their President/CEO is a woman named Eti Cohen. Eti can hardly manage to type a coherent email (that assumes, she even bothers to respond to your email). Sandy the phone answerer is the most aloof and unprofessional woman Ive ever dealt with. She is so bone-headed, she actually sent a cut down of me to her boss and erroneously ccd me on it!!!
Their customs clearing experts Joan and Stephanie couldnt collectively manage to send a simple telex the day payment was received. Actually, it took them 2 weeks after receipt of payment from me to get around to sending it and then, get this they sent it to a company in SAUDI ARABIA!!! Are you friggin kidding me!!!
And heres one more little ditty. The customs clearing house on the receiving end here complained that GLOBAL owes them money from previous shipment they cleared for them and they have been dodging payment for over a month. Apparently they dont return emails or telephone calls when the company here tries to pin them down for payment.in my estimation, any company who doesnt pay its subcontractors is the absolute worst you can deal with.
My recommendation to anyone considering a shipment of this magnitude is to contract with only large, well-known and reputable companies (I had never heard of GOF before this move). Do NOT focus on saving a few bucks — even if you pay a few hundred or even a thousand dollars more, it will be well worth it because the Big Boys employ their own forces and as such, are able to stay on top of your shipment. If the ball is dropped or cherished items broken, you have one company to deal with and the "wiggle room" will be greatly reduced — not to mention, they also have the capability to stay on top of your shipment, from start to finish. GOF, quite honestly, couldn't manage their way out of a wet paper bag...
I hope you found this alert helpful.
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