The dirty tricks of the shipping industry and the Freight Forwarders.


Hello all,

this thread should warn you about shipping companies and Freight Forwarders and their dirty tricks. Knowing the tricks can prevent you from being overcharged, knowing the companies that do it, can help you choosing the right one for your shipping needs.

Please contribute with your negative shipping experiences, explain in short sentences the way the companies treated you and the tricks and lies they played on you. Please name the companies in full and the route you shipped your bike or car.

I will start with explaining two tricks, that were played on me, shipping my bike from Germany to Chile. I used Name deleted to ship the crated bike (2,6m3) from Stuttgart to Valparaiso. NAME DELETED Cargo is only a Freight Forwarder and they used SACO Shipping, Hamburg to ship the consolidated container to Chile.

Since I have shipped my bikes many times, I thought I knew what to do, but I was not aware of the tricks played on me. And I have never felt that cheated in my life. This is the reason I want to warn you about Name deleted.


Trick No. 1: Bill of Lading (BoL).

Wikipedia tells us: A bill of lading (sometimes abbreviated as B/L or BoL) is a document issued by a carrier which details a shipment of mechandise and gives title of that shipment to a specified party.

Basically a BoL is the title to your goods and it has to be issued by the carrier, when the goods are delivered to him or loaded onto the ship (or airplane). Without the original BoL you dont get your goods (shipment) on the other side.

I used Name deleted as a Freight Forwarder (carrier) to ship my crate (containing a motorcycle) from Stuttgart (Germany) to Valparaiso (Chile). Name deleted to ship a consolidated container to Valparaiso.

Name deleted did not issue the original BoL to me, even I asked them in time to do this, they only send me copies.

I was only told that I could pick up the original BoL from SACO Shipping S.A. in Santiago de Chile. So I arrived in Chile without the original BoL.

SACO Shipping S.A. (Santiago de Chile) would only give me my BoL after I paid their very inflated bill for port charges. I call this black mailing. So, I had no choice than to pay what ever they wanted.

As very inflated port charges I define this:

Total costs until Valparaiso port: 750 USD (incl. transport Stuttgart-Bremen, sea freight 2,6m3 to Valparaiso, verifiying the wood and stamping it)

Port charges and storage costs (this I will explain in trick 2): 840 USD

For a 40 ft container with a volume of 67m3 this would mean port charges and storage costs of 21.700 USD, calculated for full container with the charges I paid. Good business, hey?

In all emails Name deleted just stated that they are not responsible for port charges, but they never explained why they would not give me the original BoL when I requested it. So, this black-mailing was only possible because NAME DELETED cargo would not give me the original BoL.




Trick No. 2: Port Charges and delays.


Name deleted gave me the original BoL only 5 days AFTER the ship had arrived in Valparaiso. The regulations state that the shipper should get the original BoL when the cargo is loaded onto the ship and not when it arrives in the port (or after this).

This delay was caused by Name deleted on purpose, and as my custom agent told me, this happens very often with them. So, I can only assume this is to increase the storage costs.

Mr. Marco Leiva in Santiago de Chile wrote: .... it is true that we had a little delay on sending original BL ....

At this point, I realised that there was no way to communicate with Name deleted Shipping S.A. and Name deleted in a normal way. I had become a victim of their black-mailing and there was nothing I could do about it.


Final: The total costs of getting my bike out of the port of Valparaiso were 1100 USD (incl. custom agent and other costs), making it a total of 1850 USD to ship the bike from Stuttgart to South America.

Or even better, buy your bike down here and sell it again ...

All the best.
mika from Bolivia

Hi Mika

you might find this interesting.
House Bill of Lading and Master Bill of Lading

NAME DELETED is a forwarder and uses CGLI bill of ladings (the bill of lading of the international freight forwarding organisation they belong to) - according to their website...
CGLI


Saco Shipping is an NVOCC (Non vessel owning common carrier) and has their own bill of ladings or has obtained the right to issue b/l in the name of the shipowner carrying the goods to Chili.

As far as I can remember from my days in shipping, Saco needs to issue a b/l to cover (back to back) the CGLI b/l issued by NAME DELETED. In the B/l NAME DELETEDwill be the shipper. Saco is agent for various shipping lines. I can only assume that delays have occurred between the 2 or 3 parties involved and the courier bag with the original b/l's ended up late in Chili. Hence the storage of your bike. port dues in itself are a common charge worldwide but the Chilean agent turned the storage into an interesting income...

The fact that you have not received an original from NAME DELETED sounds a bit odd... they are a known company with a track record in vehicle shipping...

It's worth a try to write your story in a mail to CGLI's headquarters in Antwerp (Belgium) and see what they say:

CGLI Headquarters
Noorderlaan 121
2030 Antwerpen Belgium

Tel +32 (3) 303 05 90

E-mail info@cgli.net

Thank you Endeavour for the information. I will send my story to CGLI, lets see what they come up with.


No, NAME DELETED is not mentioned in the BoL.


No, the delay that costed storage, was caused by the incompetents of SACO S.A. office in Santiago. And I assume it was done on purpose, as others travelers had the same problems with SACO S.A. office in Santiago.

We live in the 21th century, and writing a BoL can be done in ten minutes. And the delay of six weeks (the whole time the ship was on sea plus five days in the port of arrival) is criminal, nothing else.


Yes, stealing I call this form of income.

Greetings from Bolivia
mika

To keep this thread a bit like a knowledge base for the tricks used on travelers, here is what *The pinproject* wrote in another thread here on the Hubb:

Because of massive threats I decided to delete the name of the company in Germany.

Hi all,

just to shed a bit of light on me deleting the name of the shipping company.

As I was very sick at the time, with Chingukuya (a form of dengue) and a lawer friend in Germany advised me to delete the name, as I would be never able to win a court case about it in Germany without spending an rediculous amount of money and time.

People that know me, know that I am not the one that gives up easy, but sometimes all of us have to understand when to turn around.

But at least I hope this thread will warn people about some of the tricks used by criminal Freight Forwarders and Shipping companies.

For South America (where I live) it is anyway better to buy a bike here, and there are plenty of threads on the Hubb of people that have done this.

Pls keep this thread open and warn others about the tricks you have been conned with.

mika

Good day! I have a package in limbo in Canada with a freight forwarder/customs broker (Mark More, Global Lynx Agency and Practioner, Winnipeg, Manitoba) who is asking for a 3% on the goods. It is to my understanding that I will have to file a form with US Customs regarding the package due to its value. So, there shouldn't be any tarrifs associated. My issue is that according to the Harmonized Tariff schedule I do not need to pay any duties/tariffs as the content of the package is valued over $10,000.

Furthermore he is claiming the paperwork is incorrect. I paid the initial fee to have the paperwork created, and they paid again to have it corrected and now a 3rd time. I feel the shipping company (Coatings Mineral World in England) should stand behind the quality of their agents and fix/correct the paperwork. So far, I have invested several thousand dollars in paperwork creation.

Due to the nature of the package and value he is not furnishing me any particulars as he has the information is classified.

I am concerned that he has opened the package as well.

Can you shed some light on the situation as to why he is claiming a 3% tax and is he lawfully able to open the package.

I am at the point that I am considering canceling his services all together, but am concerned that the package will sit where ever he leaves it.

I would rather have the package seized by US Customs so I can get a clear and thorough understanding of what the issues are.

I may have to fly to Winnipeg to pick the package up myself... GGGGRR

Any advice will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

I had quite similar experience as mika while shipping my bike from Islamabad to Hamburg at the end of 2017.
Central Shipping Agencies (Karachi, Pakistan) and personally Abdul Qadir, who have send the bike from Pakistan, "forgot" to send the the Carnet in time to Hamburg. I didn't have or asked for Bill of Lading at that time. The company UNICON Logistics in Hamburg was assigend to me automatically. At the end, delivery appered to be very expencive.

Since you made your decision to ship goods from the U.S. overseas, you must clearly understand that as soon as your goods exit U.S. Commerce zone, U.S. laws do not apply on your freight, https://internationalshippingusa.com

CARGO RECOVERY PROCEDURES AT DESTINATIONS AND ALL CHARGES ASSOCIATED WITH THE RECOVERY ARE CONSIGNEE'S RESPONSIBILITIES AND ON THE CONSIGNE'S ACCOUNT. Neither U.S. freight forwarder nor ocean freight carrier will be able to manage your import recovery overseas. Ocean freight carrier's destination agent should guide you in your import recovery. However, the agent is not a U.S. business. If you will face a problem with your cargo recovery at the destination, no one but your consignee (in respect of import recovery professionally called Importer of Records) can be aware of and work on issues that lead to the problem.
Yes, International Maritime Laws should apply on your freight. But depending on the country that you ship to, the Laws may be interpreted in different ways. Do not say about other subjective factors peculiar to your destination country.

Most of the time, with LCL freight, you do not need to hire a destination country's customs broker. Carrier's destination agent is the customs broker as well. However, we suggest that in case of problems, your first step is to apply for legal help from an independent customs broker in your destination country.

Skilled exporters aware of and always consider destination charges in their business. Typically carrier’s destination agent contact information is in our shipping instructions. Shipper may contact the agent prior to proceeding with a shipment. If shippers would like to estimate the charges in advance, then upon receipt a quote in our online freight calculator, they may ask us about contact information of perspective carrier’s destination agent. Having the information they may contact the agent to find about cargo recovery procedures at the destination and estimate the charges.

Please keep in mind that without a quote or booking reference number we unable to see shipment's routing. Then before requesting an ocean freight carrier's perspective agent contact information you have to obtain a quote or booking reference number in our website https://oceanfreightusa.com/.

NOTE THAT A PART OF OR ALL DESTINATION CHARGES MAY BE REQUIRED TO BE PAID AT A PORT OF ENTREE, BUT AT THE FINAL DESTINATION. Depends on destination country's customs regulations, all or a part of destination charges must be paid at the port of entree. Then cargo will continue to travel to the final destination freight terminal cleared with customs. Otherwise, it may be transferred to the final destination in bond, and required to be cleared with customs at a bonded freight terminal at the final destination. Also, note that sometimes destination charges may be divided by separate invoices related to particular parties involved in import recovery.

Find more about most common customers' misunderstandings and mistakes in LCL cargo sipping from the USA that we are facing in our practice in this link - https://internationalshippingusa.com...#Common_issues

Link in #10 appears to be broken. [Edit: now fixed, Tim]

Link in #11 covers so much ground that it's unlikely to be very helpful. A summary or outline of the relevant points would serve us well.

SamRoberts, I'm going to message you separately about posting commercially on this site.

Mark