The company has no warehouses, no trucks, no ships, no containers, no facilities whatsoever. Its main claim to fame is a large presence on the Internet, and shrewd use of Internet resources.
The company doesn't want clients to visit the office, because it is really a boiler room operation run out of a studio apartment in a residential building. The person providing most of the price quotes for the shipment of your property works out of his mother's home in Westchester.
The company webpage claims that it has been in business since 1986, but it has only been in business since 1994, and at that for most of its existence was actually only a 2 man operation whose main and only functions were to solicit clients to pay for overseas shipping, then contact real shipping companies to schedule and arrange the jobs.
For example, if you wanted to ship a car overseas, you could call All Shore Forwarding yourself, and arrange to have a vehicle shipped overseas. If you call SEFCO to arrange to ship a vehicle overseas, they would call All Shore on your behalf, and jack up the price that All Shore would charge by a minimum of $150.00. Therefore, for the same service, you would pay extra just to have SEFCO make a phone call that you yourself could make.
Another example: Suppose you wanted to ship a crate of personal items from New York City to a destination in Europe. You could call Omega Shipping in Long Island City directly, and arrange for Omega to either pick up your crate at your door, or arrange for Omega to receive it at their warehouse, for a certain price. Or you can call SEFCO for the same job, which they will then handle for the same price that Omega would have charged, plus their minimum add-on fee of $150.00 or more.
Another example: Suppose you wanted to ship a 20-foot or 40-foot container loaded with your household goods and personal furnishings to a destination in Europe. You could call one of the companies SEFCO uses yourself, such as Sea Shipping Lines, and arrange to have the container shipped to the destination you desire. Or you can call SEFCO to arrange the shipment of a container for you, after which they would call SSL themselves, get the price SSL would charge, then add at least $1,000.00 for a 20-foot container, or $1,500.00 for a 40-foot container, to whatever price SSL quoted them, or would have quoted you. Then, SSL would receive instructions from SEFCO on the job. Again, you're paying SEFCO just to make a phone call or calls you could have made yourself.
Last example: Suppose you wanted to ship any items (crate, car, container, etc.) from some area in which SEFCO hasn't established a connection with any particular company. SEFCO would then do the same thing you could do, which is to do an internet or phone book search for a company in that area that could handle the job. They would then get a price quote for the job. Subsequently, SEFCO would add their fees in, and present you with the total, which in some cases would amount to thousands of dollars extra just for the privilege of having SEFCO make the phone calls on your behalf.
For all aspects of arranging overseas shipments, SEFCO has no physical resourses to do the job. They merely add on additional fees to make the arrangements for you, thereby making all of their customers pay higher than necessary prices for every shipping job they handle. These additional fees could be avoided if the client themselves would take a little time and make a few phone calls themselves. And the level of service in most cases would be exactly the same as if they had used SEFCO.
Another thing you should be concerned about is the safety of your records and documentation. For some overseas shipping, a customer must supply SEFCO with copies, and in some cases originals, of identifying documents, such as drivers' licenses, vehicle registrations, passports, etc. Additionally, a customer is required to complete a "contract" form in which they must supply quite a bit of personal and identifying information. Noting that there is no type of commercial security for active clients in the process of shipping their property overseas, other than some old filing cabinets, clients whose overseas shipping jobs have been completed cannot expect greater security of their documents and information other than storage in an attic crawl space in the residential apartment SEFCO's office occupies.
Lastly, SEFCO's manner of doing business allows shippers to basically remain anonymous, since the company specifically does not want to have any type of personal or face-to-face contact with any of its shipping customers. The owner of the company insists on doing business via the internet, e-mail, or by phone. Documents and information are never independently verified, and in most cases, the description or list of the items shipped is left completely up to the shipper. This does leave room, especially in today's climate of terrorism and corruption, for anyone to ship anything anywhere.
In closing, the personnel at SEFCO are very aware that they must use caution in describing the company and its function. Technically, the company is an "Expediter", in that, SEFCO itself does not ship anything. They merely act as the go-between, contacting the actual shippers on behalf of the customers SEFCO obtains, and adding SEFCO fees onto the price of every overseas shipment SEFCO handles.
If you need to verify any of this information, contact SEFCO to handle your overseas shipment. Ask to visit their office. If you are shipping a car, you will be directed to the offices of All Shore Forwarding in New Jersey. If you are shipping property via Air Freight, you will be directed to the offices of Ambert Air Freight located near John F. Kennedy International Airport. If you're in New York City shipping less than a container-load of property, chances are you will be directed to the offices of Omega Shipping in Long Island City. Otherwise, in most other cases, your request to visit the office will be declined outright, and some false reference to security might be recited.
If you contact SEFCO to handle your overseas shipment, ask them what type of company they are clasified as. They will be very careful in their wording of what kind of company they are, and what their actual function is.
0 comments