Below is an email I felt I needed to send to my shipping agent and logistics manager operating out OSI's Florida office:
Dear J%n and P%l:
I'm sorry to push this, but I'm still very confused about why my things were gone through and separated. If they needed to be reordered when consolidated, then why wasn't I told about it? ; and why wasn't the bill of lading revised to reflect the changes? I asked J%n about this in an email last week and he said that he was not responsible for what the steam line does with my things. Maybe this is the case. But isn't Jason, as the logistics expert, responsible for the bill of lading being accurate? This means that if my things were moved around or separated then he would have to know about it in order to make adjustments to the bill of lading. However, the bill of lading was not revised and did not match the shipment as it arrived here in Sweden. As a result of the B.O.L. Not being accurate my things have been held in the warehouse of the swedish company for nearly a week and a half longer than they should have been. I've considered the idea that this separation could have happened in Germany, and J%n wasn't told about it, but I can't see how an international shipping company can't keep in contact regarding their customer's orders. This can't be how it works!
I had to hound you guys for a bill of lading; correct numerous mistakes on the bills of lading I received in the U.S.; remind you to refund money that you owed me after my shipment measured less than quoted; wait as my shipment was delayed due to overbooked steam-lines; wait again after my things arrived in Sweden not matching the B.O. L; having the shipping agent in Sweden ask me if I could help get in touch with my U.S. Shipping agent (you guys) in order to clear up this mess; almost lose the deposit on my storage unit here after changing the dates several times.
P_l and I had a long conversation a week or two ago about how it was my responsibility to inform myself of the port and handling charges here in Sweden. He said that there was no way that he could know how much the T.H.C. Costs could have been when he quoted me months ago. He said that I only asked for a door to port, which isn't exactly the whole truth. I could only use door to port because I didn't have an apartment, or storage in Sweden at the time, but I asked (repeatedly, knowing what my limited budget was) all about what charges I'd be facing when I arrived here in Stockholm, and he said that there would be a possible customs charge of 75-100 dollars and that's it. I remember it clearly because it was the little bit of information I needed in order to make the decision of sticking with OSI. This is again very confusing, as you could imagine. Now my wife and I are forced to make HUGE sacrifices to get by, living from dollar to dollar until we can receive some help from relatives. If another customer has similar question about T.H. C charges in foreign ports in the future I would send them here: http://www.nykeurope.com/liner/tariffs/terminal-handling-charge.html. It's a pretty standardized list of all the ports in the world, and their respective handling fees.
P_l, you have to know the local T.H. C charges for the places you're shipping to in order to make an accurate estimate for your other door to door clients, right?
Anyway, I'm really glad that this is all over and done with (maybe—they still haven't released my things). I'll know more when I'm able to inspect my things on Friday of next week (but from looking at the pictures we received from the swedish company it appears that some things are damaged as a result of one of the pallets being unwrapped). This was my first international move; I was hoping to get to work with someone who could really help me through the move and give me a little piece of mind. I made a few mistakes in the beginning, which I admit to, but looking back I feel that a lot of those mistakes were brought on by a confusion that could have been avoided if I were given all of the information in a plain and simple manner.
Lastly, and I feel a little bit guilty about this, I need to say something in regards to the unprofessional way in which you hastily compose and send your emails. There's not one email coming from J%n without grammatical and/or spelling errors—some with an inventive use of phrases. This caused a lot of confusion on my part, and it did very little to boost my confidence in your company. I'm not trying to be rude, and we all make mistakes when writing, but you're operating in a professional capacity, and therefore must be held to a higher standard. I have every email from OSi staff in a specially marked folder on my computer, and to ensure this complaint was justified I went through them all before writing the above. It is justified.
I am going to expand on the above, remove names, and then post this to a consumer website. I'll be fair.
I have never been so stressed out in my entire life.
Aaron
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