Complaint Review: Move Management international

This is my account of a shipment made from LA to Berlin on June 9th, 2017. 1) THE COMPANY HAS HIDDEN CHARGES: Move Management buried us in paperwork and had hidden costs in the fine print. It is understandable to have costs for possible delays that are not the fault of the moving company which they are careful to list. However, Move Management knew about Port Charges that they did not explain clearly in advance. They were incredibly helpful to answer questions when they wanted my business but gave me a lower cost of the whole move becuase they neglected to mention that there would definitely be charges in the port of departure and arrival. This is a difference of approximately $700. (their quote to us was roughly $3500.) 2) THE COMMUNICATION TO THEIR OVERSEAS LIAISON WAS A DISASTER; When our shipment left Los Angeles, we were told to communicate wtih ACTIVE, the shipper in Germany who would be handling delivery to our home. The communication between Move Management(MM) and ACTIVE was terrible. MM had the container booked to Hamburg. However they failed to communicate this to their German liaison. ACTIVE actually asked me to pressure MM to send the shipment through Bremerhaven. The contact told me that they never receive shipments through Hamburg. Shipping international is a nervous business. I was careful to communicate with sevearl people at Move Management when I was in LA to make sure I had all the proper documents. However, when ACTIVE realized that the shipment to Hamburg was inevitable,they started scrambling to have me send last minute documents.

The shipment was loaded on June 9th and then didn't sail until June 22. Several weeks AFTER we thought all our documents were in order and already in a foreign country without all our stuff we received this email. When I expressed my frustration and confusion I got this e mail from ACTIVE on July 18th (this is just four days before our shipment was supposed to arrive) "The thing is that we calculated the hall time with Port of Discharge Bremerhaven. We got late the info that there is no possibility to change the booking – and Port of Discharge is Hamburg. Move Managemant International general should know that we handle always Shipments via POD Bremerhaven – because the customs officers in Hamburg are more strict then the customs officers in Bremerhaven For this we needed to change very late the Customs handling to Port of Discharge Hamburg The customs office in Hamburg are more strict and need more proofs for living abroad and has general also other requirements for the customs clearance. (like translating the packing list)" This was very stressful for us to receive such an e mail so late in this process.

I was very upset at this point and running to get everything together. 3) THE CONSEQUENCES of THEIR INCOMPETENCE WERE BLAMED ON US: Needless to say, because of these last minute dealings, our shipment was flagged for an X ray which is something that should never have happened. This has cost us at least an additional $1100 or more. We have STILL not received our final bill as of August 31 which is more than three weeks now after our container delivery. This is clearly due to a lack of preparation. What really bothers me is that there is a complete UNWILLINGNESS to communicate with us on these matters from the owner or director, Manuel Rojas. He completely disregarded my e mails from ACTIVE which clearly show the confusion between the two companies. He is dismissive and unwilling to address my concerns in his communications. His tactic is just to ignore those things which might prove that his company made a mistake and has some liability. This is not the way to do business. Where is the accountability? Please do not use MOVE International. You will be very disappointed.