Complaint Review: SEFCO Export Management Company - Forest Hills New York

Sefco Export Management Company, Inc. was formed on May 29,2001 in NY, NY as a "Domestic Business Corporation" with a limited board of directors, Joseph T. Quinn being Chief Executive Officer. Address on record is 1 Ascan Avenue Suite (Apt) 74, Forest Hills (Queens), NY 11375-6086. Ref. NYS Department of State, Division of Corporations.

As for Sefco office and operations, the complainant is correct. There is no record of holdings of any property or equipment, with the exception of Mr. Quinn's location of business as listed above. The location on record is actually an up scale apartment building which can be visited in person or viewed on google map.

The complainant is also correct that Sefco preys on the little guy and others by not fulfilling obligations agreeded upon in contract/context and "adding on" or "passing along"  additional costs once a shipment is enroute. Ref. Complaints listed on Ripoff, BBB NY and Federal Maritime Commission.

Sefco is licensed as an "Ocean Freight Forwarder" (OFF) or more simply put The Middle Man. We all know what happens when someone else gets in the middle of things?!/X. The service Sefco preforms can be accomplished by any individual or firm by going directly to the Non-Vessel-Operating Common Carrier (NVOCC) or the Vessel-Operating Common Carrier (VOCC). These can be found on any internet search and by doing some simple background investigation through the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC), your local BBB and checking complaints on-line. Always check their license status and look for complaints on the FMC site.

Bottom line - save yourself time, effort, money and headaces by doing your home work before you ship and stay clear of RIPOFF companies like Sefco and the like.

Buckey

Concord, NH   

Oh, brother. It seems as though SEFCO operates like any other type of broker. Call the broker, tell them what you need, and let the broker worry about the details for a fee. Many people just do not want to be bothered with the details of shipping. ALL brokers charge some type of fee; it is not a rip-off unless they are taking the fee and not delivering the service! This does not seem to be the case here. Doesn't matter where a company answers it phones. No one cares if they answer their phones in a phone booth as long as they deliver. Get some help Mike. This seems like a personal problem you have with someone other than yourself earning a fee.

If you are moving quantities of stuff overseas, what happens if there is a problem with the shipping? Would you have time to follow up and call the individual shipping companies, especially if you are already overseas? That $150 fee bought you a guardian for your stuff; the company will act on your behalf to deal with any problems should they arise. When you are far from home you can't put a price on that.

I have just found your website,and read a defamatory report by Michael A. Oscar. I see that this fellow Micheal Oscar - a former short-term self employed consultant with his own small consultancy related to computer work - has still not gotten over the fact that the second time he threatened to resign from free lance job with my company - at the end of 2002, I accepted both times, and the gravy train ended. I own the company in question, and was foolish enough to hire Mike Oscar, someone I had trusted like a friend - I met him when I was a teenager attending Archbishop Molloy High School in Jamaica NYC - a really good school for which I am greatful for the good education I received, especially the Christian values they imparted to me. Its a very well regarded High School, a private religious school, run by Catholic brothers. After not seeing Mike for perhaps 25 years, around the end of 2001 I saw him in the subway with some woman (not his wife). It was a happy reunion of sorts. But in time, Mike approached me needing to make money, and wanted to get a job with my small company. People do not force me to hire them, I do so voluntarily. Our clients are not tricked into using us. Its a mutual agreement. Sefco is a small business involved in international export/import shipping services with an emphasis on vehicle shipping and HHG/PE household goods/personal effesct consignments - a difficult commodity for people who don't know what they are doing, a commodity often rejected by most freight companies as being too problematic and stressful to service. It is an area I have specialised in for the past 19 years. I learned the business from the bottom up and have done so honestly. My company has a small yet very loyal client base. Many clients come back to us to use us again, even years after their first experience, because I have built a small corporation that is very professional and trustworthy, worth whatever we offer and whatever clients accept. Thats why I have had many many diplomats / UN Missions who have entrusted my company, to ship their officers to their various overseas destinations. Often, Governments (like the diplomatic missions that use our company) undertake enough due diligence to make sure the people they pay, are reputable and come through with what they promise to do. I regret that I ever hired this fellow. Several months after he quit, he blew up and became a pycho case. He quit a relatively well paying job (where'd the money come from? heaven?) that in my estimation I paid him too much for - I felt his very young children needed a father who could bring home the bacon, as it were - I was sympathetic to the man and his family, but, months after he quit, I received numerous really sick tortured emails in huge font in bold red, cursing, etc, from someone evidently going through quitters remorse, but if that's the way to intereact with a former employee, don't count on ever getting a good reference. But: amazingly, after many months, I get a request in the mail for a reference - from a professional human resource background reference checking company - regarding Mike A. Oscar. And, amazingly, I looked into my heart, and bit my lip, and instead of telling them about the various abusive emails my company received from this guy months after he quit - instead I thought of his small son Michael Junior and the other kids who I met and knew needed a responsible daddy to be working, and not out of work forever... so.. long story short: I LIED. I gave him a glowing and good reference. I had told Mike never to contact me or our company ever again (I did not appreciate the racial and anti-Catholic diatribes - I am white, he is not...) and particularly felt his racial put downs of my long time girlfirend Yoko (from Japan) were the product of a tortured mind. But... why did I give him a good reference, when this was a really bizarre situation where a former employee seems to have become unbalanced...? well, I remember the Christian values I was taught - where Mike also attended - at Archbishop Molloy High School (I am class of 1977 - www.amhs.org as well as a graduate of Villanova University, another school that emphasizes a Christian approach to problems.) So... even thought we are suposed to always tell the truth: I LIED, to help him get another job, any job that would help his family in need. Another mistake on my part. And yet today, in searching the internet, I stumble across this ever continuing diatribe. I am sure other people with their own businesses has also seen or experienced some unfortunate things like this. For those who are reading, I will say this much: I do not recommend to you - if you are in business - to be a soft hearted fool like me, if some "old high school firend" that you give a job to, gets unbalanced after they quit. Do not take pity by giving a good reference to anyone who is undeserving. If his current employer reads this: ask me again for a reference, and I will say: he showed up, he worked, he was not necessarily stupid - and worked - for which he got paid fairly - from money paid by our clients - money that was over and above our "net buying costs" before our own expenses to management complex international movements - he got paid, he quit (twice) and then became unbalanced, threatening, made numerous negative racial declarations about me, my family and loved ones (are non white people given a free pass to make racist declarations? of course not.) and seems to think that getting paid for the work we do, is a "rip off" -- or is maliciously trying to give my company a bad name and create financial harm to us - I suggest that this Mike Oscar return the thousands of dollars in pay that he received from Sefco Export Managament Company, Inc. if he feels he was part of some rip off. No, this guy is three years out of work from our company and he still has problems. So be it. My African diplomatic clients do not seem to think I am a racist (as alleged in his various email diatribes), and I have no problems with being a Catholic, despite his apparent difficulties with the subject as well (the mail I got was pretty nasty). It's a suprise to me that I could have met someone like this at Archbishop Molloy High School. People do not have to be Catholic to attend, despite its religious nature, but its a real suprise, in retrospect, to have heard all that I heard from this fellow. But you live and learn, don't we? New York City seems to have more than its fair share of lunatics, unbalanced people, people out of work, always broke, unable to keep friendships despite whatever problems they go through. My advise to this fellow is: stay the hell away from me, my family, my loved ones, and my company. You are responsibly for your own life, and if you starve or get a job is totally up to you. Ranting and railing about a company / a fellow who took an interest in helping you, hiring you, helping train you and introduce you to our operational partners in the freight forwarding industry - this reflects poorly on you and you alone. The only opinion in the end is ones own opinion of one's self, not any one else's opinion about you. I know myself, and I know my company, and I am quite at peace with who I am amd how my company treats people. Sefco is a very good and reputable business. To the writer, Michaek A. Oscar: Stay away from us. You are not welcome. I have no interest in your defamatory ruminations. I doubt any future employer will find it a "plus" on your resume, either. Finally, I see there was one response to the rant/post Mike Oscar left on this website. The other person's (unknown to me) response to Michaels rant - seemed reasoned and fair. I think in the end most people are quite capable of being reasonable and fair minded. Most people are not dummies, and most people do not have axes to grind as the writer apparently still does. Most people know how the world works, and many can differential between the false, defamatory, and bitter - from the rationale, and responsible. If someone needs to move their property to another country, and wants to work with a professional company capable of giving good service for a fair and mutually agreeable price, then look us up. See: www.sefco-export.com I wish the rest of you good luck in your endeavors. Respectfully submitted, Joseph T. Quinn President Sefco Export Management Company, Inc. 200 East 58th Street, NYC NY 10022 USA www.sefco-export.com/corporate-info.htm also: Forest Hills, NYC (not a public office) Since 1986: http://www.sefco-export.com/quinn5.htm - background info - agents worldwide: http://www.sefco-export.com/australia-agents.htm our forwarding partners include: http://www.sefco-export.com/allshore1.htm our references include: http://www.sefco-export.com/references.htm make an inquiry: http://www.sefco-export.com/form.htm

I fail to see the rip-off here. Does this company provide the service that it charges for? You say that it does. There must be some reason that people call this company, instead of the actual shipper? Most people call around for the best price. If the shipper was right below this company in the phone book, people would soon discover the lower price on their next call. Profit? What's the matter with making a profit? Is $150 an unreasonable amount? Based on your conclusion, my local shoe store is ripping us off. They buy the shoes for $40 and sell them for $60. So is the local grocery store, then. They buy a side of meat for $2 a pound and sell it to me for $4 a pound. Are they a rip-off too? Many of the frauds reported here take consumers money and deliver absolutely nothing in return. It seems like the phone-room in a residental neighborhood seems to bother you. It looks like phones are the tools this company uses to conduct business. Perhaps, as they grow they may move to a business office. Would you feel better about that? I can't see how you can object to a business making a profit. Would you be willing to work for free? Perhaps, you should take out ad space in the yellow pages for the actual shippers you mention, at your own cost. That way, the customers would be able to see both All Shore and SEFCO right there on the same page in the phone book.