Complaint Review: FID International Inc

FID is TERRIBLE, horrible customer service. I was lied by them regarding how long delivery would take and once my furniture was picked up, they kept trying to nickel and dime me with additional charges.

Below is the majority of my complaint letter to them:

""
I initially contacted FID in February and scheduled for my furniture to be picked up on April 2 from Winter Haven, FL to be delivered to an Address in Glasgow, UK. During the days leading to the pickup, I spoke to one of your service representative, Marlon Rivera, who helped me determine that based on the number of things that I was shipping, I would need around 300 square feet. He also advised that the delivery would take between 4-6 weeks. At the time, I was quite pleased with the level of service and there was no indication of the multitude of things that would go wrong.

Pickup of the furniture was mostly uneventful and quick. The two movers did a good job in wrapping and packing the furniture and were done in a little over an hour. When I asked them whether the 300 sq feet should be sufficient, one of them told me that it should be more than enough and at the time I assumed that was the reason why they had only bothered to break up my bed and dinning table. Although there were 4 dinning chairs, 2 tables and a TV stand, which could have also been disassembled prior to the move, I assumed based on my conversation with Marlon and the movers that it would not be necessary.

The first surprise of the move came in on April 4, when I received a revised invoice from Richard Sanchez, which now stated that the shipment dimensions where going to be 374 square feet and I would need to pay an additional $634.92. The fact that I was now being charged for almost exactly 25% more space than had originally been suggested by both your staff and movers proved hard to swallow and on the same day that I received the revised invoice, I requested for some of the other furniture to be broken up to try and reach the previous estimate. On April 5, Richard Sanchez replied that they would try to re-organize and or disassemble the furniture further. I then had to wait until April 13 before I received a second reply from Richard who stated that they had re-packed the furniture but not disassembled it and the shipment now had dimensions of 346 sq feet. Having waited a little over a week and seeing how the new dimensions were 15% over the original estimate instead of 25% I decided to pay the additional $394.68 in an effort to not cause any unnecessary delays.

On April 16 I received confirmation from Itamar Dahan that they had received the wire for the remaining payment and at that point I assumed that it would be a matter of days before the shipment was on its way to the UK. Marlon Rivera also informed me that Sibele Amaral from the logistics department would now be my main contact. I then waited 10 days before following up with Sibele regarding the status of the shipment and was shocked at being told that the shipment would only be departing on April 30 and was not scheduled to arrive in London until May 27. When I called to inquire about the delay, Richard Sanchez stated he would follow up and I later received an email on April 26 stating that the information was correct and the Evergreen shipping company, which FID had a contract with, was carrying out the shipment. Richard then re-emphasized that even though normally shipments to the UK only take 2 weeks and deliveries usually take between 4-6 weeks, sometimes they may take longer. I guess I was unlucky, or so it was implied?

Having already been charged for an additional 15% of the initial estimate and having been forced to prepare for the delivery taking over 8 weeks I hoped that there would be no more unforeseen issues. However, on April 20 I received an email from Jason Evans from Eagle Relocations, which stated he would take charge of the delivery once it arrived at the UK. He then also informed me that I would need to pay an additional 165 British pounds to cover a terminal handling charge (THC). Not being a completely unaware customer I was able to find out that even though a possible THC was not covered by the initial agreement with FID, the 165 pound charge was nonetheless excessive. It was an excessive charge because the average THC charge for an entire container being delivered to Thamesport was between 120 to 180 British pounds and seeing how my shipment only took 16% of the space in a container the THC was unrealistic. Having again talked to Jason Evans, he then informed me that the charge also covered some of the moving/storage and transportation expenses incurred by Eagle. These additional charges should have been covered by the initial agreement by FID. After writing to FID about this, Sibele Amaral then informed me that the charge would be lowered from 165 pounds to 50 pounds. Not wanting to delay things further I agreed to pay the additional charge and sent a check to Eagle on April 26 which receipt was confirmed by Sarah Barnes from Eagle Relocations on May 6.

That was however not the end of the delays. Per an email from Jason Evans on May 12, the shipment had still not cleared customs and they did not expect to have the container in their warehouse until the week of 18-22 May. Delivery itself did not occur until May 25 a full 12 weeks after the furniture had been initially picked up. While I may admit that some delays may be unforeseen and inevitable The fact that there were significant delays in reorganizing the shipment, then a delay putting it on an outgoing ship, plus an additional delay in choosing a ship that took twice the time as normal to cross the Atlantic, followed by yet another significant delay in the release and delivery of the shipment is beyond appalling. The 4-6 week estimate of how long the delivery would take that I was given by Marlon Rivera in March and then again by Richard Sanchez on April 26 was not only completely inadequate, it verges on deceit aimed at securing business. I sincerely hope that you will modify your business practices and provide your future customers with realistic estimates and levels of service.
''"
2 Months passed and I have yet to get any sort of apology or letter. I suggest people that require a move avoid this company like the plague. They will lie to their consumers to secure business and then "nickel and dime" you on whatever occasion they get. If I had know how horrible of an experience I would have with this company I would have paid a little more up front and gone with a reputable company that does not such a horrible track record.

sincerely,

DSS
Glasgow
United Kingdom

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