Complaint Review: Luggage Free - luggagefree.com - New York New York

I recently went on a bicycling trip through Australia. I had been doing some checking for some other options for taking my bike with other than on the plane. Luckily I did not choose Luggage Free on my trip over there. I was running short on time and although their site said 7-9 business days to ship to Australia, I only had 8 business days, so it didn't leave much room for error. I did e-mail them and they told me that they would still be able to ship it in 8 days. I am so glad I chose not to do this. I decided to just bring the bike with on the plane.

On the way home, however, I decided to try out their service. Since I didn't need the bike for anything, it wasn't imperative to have it on a specific date. I had set up for them to pick up the bicycle on Janurary 5th.

I had a bicycle shop in Adelaide, Australia pack the bicycle. I was told previously that this would be okay. I was told that I had sent them all the customs forms and everything was ready to go and they would take care of the rest. I found out when they picked up the bike at the bike shop that they were asking the bicycle shop for all kinds of information about where it was to be shipped and had them fill out all kinds of forms. Nobody from Luggage Free had informed me of this. I even called Luggage Free earlier in the day to make sure I didn't need to do anything else. They confirmed I did not. The bicycle shop was rather upset about this and e-mailed me the details. I forwarded a copy of this e-mail to Luggage Free and asked for an explaination. They ignored it.

I had set up to have this delivered to my home on January 20th. This would give them plenty of time. I actually did this to be nice since I didn't need it right away. I thought this would be more convenient for them.

January 20th came and the shipment was not there. I called them and he basically said it was delayed one business day and would show up on Monday the 23rd. Monday came and it still had not shown up. I actually received an e-mail from them (Melony M.) saying it had been delivered to my home and signed by someone named Rose. This made me particularly upset since when I called them on this they seemed to have no idea why this was reported. The guy checked the tracking information and determined that the package was still with the courier. He had found out that the package was in Fargo, ND earlier in the day and then ended up in Sioux Falls, SD later. This made no sense either since this is the opposite direction of where I live (250 miles NW of Fargo). Anyway, the guy on the phone assured me that I would have the package the next day, Tuesday the 24th. This day also came and went with no package. I called them again. The guy told me that it would show up on Wednesday the 25th. He made up a bunch of excuses about how the package is an awkward size and requires extra care. If this is the case why would they advertise 7-9 business days as all the time that is required? They had also told me that being I am in a remote area that there would be a delay. They had never told me this when I set up the order. They had told me my package "would be there on the 20th".

Finally on Wednesday, January 25th (5 days late/3 business days late), my package did show up....after 14 business days when supposedly all they need is 7-9.

Also, they had claimed that they would provide e-mail confirmation EVERY step of the way for the shipment process. This was on their "Service" page:

"Additionally, for your peace of mind, we track your luggage and personally notify you by e-mail each step of the way, and then again to confirm delivery."

This was definitely not the case as they never initially contacted me once during this whole ordeal until the very end when I received an e-mail saying because I was in a remote area it could take 1-2 more days. I always had to call THEM every day to get updates.

I would highly discourage anyone from using this service when you are depending on receiving a shipment ON TIME. Luckily for me, I had already done my trip and was only going home. If I had put my trust in them and shipped it TO Australia, I would had spent my entire trip waiting for my package to arrive.

Please think twice before choosing this service.

Jesse

Des Lacs, North Dakota
U.S.A.