Complaint Review: Unishippers

We contracted Unishippers to logistically handle a number of freight needs for a major soft drink company. One of the shipments was 5 self-contained mobile (on cater wheels) gondola shelving units. The shelving units shipped to the location perfectly, however the return shipment they were damaged beyond repair. The very detailed photos taken by the location receiving the damaged goods showed that the gondolas were poorly loaded & not properly secured on to wooden pallets after leaving the initial pick up location. The photos also showed they were still on the Unishippers' contracted end carrier's truck.

We contact Unishippers about the damaged shipment immediately. They sent us their end carrier's claim form. NOT Unishippers' claim form. We submitted the claim same day, along with the very detailed photos. It took a few days for the end carrier to notify us the claim was received and another 2 weeks for them to give details about claim needs. One being do not remove the damaged shelves. Well the very small location that received the damage shelves could not keep them there and needed to immediately replace them for the showroom for an upcoming client meeting. A cost of +$2,500.00. 

We are responsible for the $2500.00 in replacement costs to our client because (1) we are a reliable company and (2) we selected/contracted Unishippers. However, Unishippers does not feel that they are responsible in anyway for any damages their contracted carriers incurred. ??? Their carrier may be responsible but not them. They have not attempted to contact their selected carrier on our (Unishippers client's) behalf. The also expect full payment of freight services for goods that arrived severely damaged/destroyed.

We have held back payment of the freight + the replacement cost, until they stand up and take care of issues with their carrier. Instead ... we have received harassing phone calls equivalent to playground name calling and bullying. They have gone so far as to hire a company "Ashton & Weinberg, Inc" from Greenville, RI to harass us. The Ashton & Weinberg company likes to pretend to be lawyers, but without the educated finesse. They have threatened to sue us, our soft drink company client, the facility that the shelving units were picked up from, as well as the location that they were delivered to. A&W has even gone so far as to implement "phreaking*" in an attempt to push confrontations.

* Phreaking is when one party uses an application to call a number but with the ability to change the caller ID number to another number to disguise the caller. In this case ... our home phone called my cell phone. I was home. ??? The home number was changed and unlisted. By the way, our attorney informs us that phreaking is illegal.

I wonder how much money Unishippers is wasting on hiring a company like Ashton & Weinberg? Perhaps being a stand up company would have been less costly. Saddly, they have no idea how much business they have cut themselves off from between our company and our affiliated companies. In the meantime, we are continuing with our negotiations with the end carrier our client's behalf to ensure proper reimbursement for their loss.

Aside from Unishippers lack of follow up performance, they also participate in shady business practices. They charged our business account with out proper permission. Chase's fraud department notified us and declined the charges. They have also sent us invoices for shipments that are not ours, and their customer service department has trouble understanding way we will not pay them; as well as having difficulty in understanding the shipments were not ours. ?