Complaint Review: Blue Horizon Shipping

I asked David Rico repeatedly if we needed a detailed list for Costa Rica customs and I was told that Blue Horizon would make their own list.

This was clearly not true as when we finally started to customs clear the goods here in Costa Rica not only did we need a detailed list per item, we needed that list translated into Spanish.  

The lack of communication is appalling. As is the lack of care from David Rico and Blue Horizon. David Rico said we did not need an itemized list and there was no explanation of a hand search.  Had I known the goods were going to be hand searched item by item I would have prepared the paperwork very differently.

I've asked for an explanation as to how Customs duty is calculated and I've still not received an answer and I would like to see the Customs entry that was presented to Costa Rican customs.

The original transit time quoted by Blue Horizon was 3-4 weeks, the actual transit time door to door was a staggering 7 weeks. This is not acceptable and is double the original transit time.  The minimum I know the FAK sat in Limon or San Jose for a week plus, not unloaded.  How long did it sit in Miami?

Blue Horizons quote included storage, it also includes all door to door costs and agent fees, and they double charged me.

I have attached photos of the shipment as we received it, you can see the damage. Broken glasses and cookware. Clearly, the hand search consisted of tipping each box onto a dirty floor. All the clothes are dirty.  Pictured is a unworn washed white shirt covered in a yellow liquid.  This yellow liquid is on 50% of the clothing. Our hanging garment boxes had shoes thrown on top of clothes. Not one of the boxes was repacked with any care.  All the boxes had contents that were not originally in them. Most boxes were destroyed, see the photos, crushed and misshapen. We even found knives and cutting kitchen items in our children's toy box. Again see the photo. We then had to hand search each kids box to make sure nothing else was in there that was dangerous. We found glasses that were hand wrapped in Atlanta, no longer wrapped, loose in a different box.

Right now we are lodging a complaint against Blue Horizon at the BBB.  I am also writing to the FMC, and also reporting Blue Horizon to IAM, AMSA and the NMFTA.