"Mandy Rae, you might not remember this but the last time we lived in Africa our shipment never came. It was lost for a whole year, and was returned to our home in Tucson when we came back from Abidjan. The shippers claimed it was stuck in Amsterdam."
"Maybe it stopped at a coffee shop and couldn't get out." My mom's ability to spread anxiety is parallel to none. But I was excited to finally have my stuff with me so I could set up a real home. I was going to ship. This is the 21st century, not the early unpredictable 1990's. Shipping has to be more reliable.
Little did I know what was in store for my mother and I when we contacted Horizon Movers for what became a shipping nightmare. Beware...
I was planning a wedding, getting married in Mexico, unpacking my storage unit, and moving from Shanghai to Kenya all in one summer so I called a "professional" company to come give me a quote for my shipment. My new school gave us $5000 to spend on moving so I gave away a lot of furniture but kept my favorite couch, clothing, knickknacks, etc which were piled nicely in the middle of my mom's living room when Kristine, or should I say, Shady Lady #1, arrived. She quickly glanced at my items and pressed a few buttons on some fancy machine, asked me where I was moving and said they would get back to me soon with a quote. We had already packed it but Kristine said they needed to unpack it, do inventory, and repack it. Ok fine.
A few days later, the quote arrives. $4200 which was fortunately under our $5000 allowance so we say yes, of course, foolishly believing we have alleviated one of our responsibilities for the summer. Enter Shady Lady #2, Olivia, most well known for never being at her desk, always at lunch, and for taking several days to reply to an email, if she does at all. We had to fill out all sort of forms, insurance, and a power of attorney so my mom could sign off on the move since the packers were coming a day after we got on the plane. Red Flag!
I think waiting until the client has left the country is a great way to pull a fast one because you know they can't do anything about it. Most people just say yes, I know the price went up, but ship anyway, we need our stuff.
Well, not this mother-daughter duo! The packers came with two small crates and managed to fit everything inside both of them and take them away. I received an email stating the actual price. Now, I know the quote was a quote and that the real price would be a little different. I assumed that being a professional moving company, Horizon might have hit the nail a little closer to the head, but no. The original quote was $4200 and the actual cost was NOW going to be $7200. WTF?! That's almost double! Going ballistic does not even begin to describe my emotions as I sit in a five-bedroom house without any furnishings....in Nairobi.
The face-off had begun. I immediately email Shady Lady #2 stating that they need to cancel the shipment. The price is way too high. No response....for two days. She writes back saying ok where would we like it sent? I ask her what will happen if we take out the couch and she says that might help. We find out from Shady Lady #1 that the quote was for only one container. Then why did you bring two?
My mom was on and off the phone with Horizon representatives for weeks. She went down to their warehouse to try to repack and get as much as possible into one crate but the person who was supposed to meet her forgot about it. Then that same person tried to offer her $100 for gas and wasted time. My mom adamantly refused this "bribe" all the while politely filing a report with the Better Business Bureau. The BBB starts investigating our little shipment fiasco and at the same time my mom somehow reaches marvelous Michael who works for another moving company contracted with Horizon who takes the shipment through the next step from Arizona. He is also appalled at the way we have been treated by the swarthy Horizon associates. The Shady Ladies also tried to accuse us of adding extra items like chairs and extra boxes. The chairs were folding beach chairs and we didn't add them, they were in the pile. The extra boxes came from the packers when they packed up some of the items in the pile that weren't already in boxes. It was one thing after another.
After all of this back and forth, almost a month has gone by. We wait in an empty house and our shipment hasn't left Tucson. At this rate, we will open our shipment at Christmas. With the pressure from Michael and the BBB, Horizon finally reveals itself as the money-grubbing scum that they are. They drop the price to $5600 but that is still over the $5000 i wanted to spend. Finally they came down. The actual cost to us will now be $5000. Obviously Horizon and the shady ladies were making a huge cut somewhere. I didn't realize I had to bargain in the USA.
Lessons learned:
1. Make sure your shipment leaves the country before you do.
2. Always have someone on your side back at home like a fierce Mother!
3. Just because it's America doesn't mean "professional" companies won't try to rip you off. But because we live in the good ol' USA, we can complain to a higher power like the BBB and then be treated fairly.
4. Everything is negotiable. (I learned that from my mom who will bargain anytime and everywhere, and who always gets a better deal.)
We have been charged $5000 and our shipment leaves LA on September 9 to travel the big blue sea hopefully bypassing any Somali pirates, arriving in Nairobi around November 9. Just in time for Thanksgiving!
I would like to take a moment to thank my Mom. Without her forcefulness and resourcefulness, the evil Horizon Empire and the Shady Ladies would have won, resulting in their taking advantage of countless others.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Tucson
No comments:
Post a Comment