I'll have to remember " James Shipping " and make a point of never using them .

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Blessed are the cracked, for they let in the light. - Spike Milligan
"When you come to a fork in the road ,take it ! When you come to a spoon in the road ,take that also ."

Hmmm, as James Cargo flashed up on this site as a reputable shipper for a future trip to N America, i feel some sort of general explanation as to these "circumstances" would be in order to your fellow bikers.

10/10 for posting and identifying your company.
The problem, now that you have raised your head over the parapet, is the lack of explanation. I reckon, because you are in business, that you realise this already!
But, it may be worth dealing with "circumstances beyond our control" (as a minimum) within this thread.

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Dave

Yes, well done Roddy for having the balls to come onto the forum to partially explain the sorry situation, I am sure that many people have used James Cargo without this sort of mishap, and I am sure for the benefit of business the company will do its best to avoid any further occurrence.

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'He who laughs last, was too slow to get the joke'
Never confuse the map with the journey.

Firstly good to see your bike is back in the UK Doug. I can see it was a complete nightmare and you were very restrained not to name and shame. I suspect that I would not have been so reasonable.

Fair play to Roddy for admitting it was a bad situation but it seems like the buck was passed to the circumstances beyond our control - I reckon a further explanation is needed if the reputation of the company is to be salvaged in the eyes of those that have followed this one. I wonder how much money was paid for this service? Obviously nobody sets out to create a situation like this but in my eyes it is the mark of a good company how they respond when things go wrong. The ball is in James Shipping's court.

Just to play Devil's Advocate, could Roddy be diplomatically saying (or rather, not saying) that paperwork wasn't probably filled out or there was some other customer-related problem? Not saying that was the case, but I think we should recognize that these guys can't wave a magic wand to get bikes out of customs.

In any event, kudos to Roddy for stepping up and identifying the company, and unless there are similar reports from other customers, we might want to give these guys the benefit of the doubt and chalk this up as an unfortunate but isolated incident.

The way I see it [ and if I remember the thread correctly ] ,they screwed up on the way out to the USA and they screwed up again on the way back .They or their US counterpart lost the customer's vehicle registration , mislead him about shipping times and ports and didn't bother to communicate in a timely manner .
How many weeks, sorry MONTHS was the bike in shipping ?

I've been wondering how to get a vintage bike back from Blighty , I don't think I'll bother with this crowd .
Not only was there no apology but also no explanation .
Except " circumstances beyond our control " - not really good enough is it ?

Kudos to Doug for letting us know about all this .

__________________
Blessed are the cracked, for they let in the light. - Spike Milligan
"When you come to a fork in the road ,take it ! When you come to a spoon in the road ,take that also ."

Hi All

Thanks to all who have been understanding.
As I said in my original post though, I don’t think that it’s a good idea to go into detail. It just results in head banging and a potential never ending debate. Shipping / Airfreight can often be circumstantial and unfortunately when anything in shipping doesn’t go smoothly, delay is a certainty. For example the BA plane that had a not too unfortunate crash landing at Heathrow had a far greater knock on effect that people can understand. Planes take off and land at Heathrow every 2 minutes so you can imagine that, when Heathrow is closed for half a day, how many aircraft, cancelled or diverted end up in the wrong place. So it’s not a case of cargo going on the next flight, but it can take days to get all of the aircraft back to the starting point. During hurricane season in the gulf, the Captain often turns the ship back in Charleston or other East Coast Port to avoid the hurricane and discharges the Houston cargo at an East Coast port, leaving us to sort the problem out.
On that note, anyone out there into general shipping? If the weather that has been forecast for the south of England over the next 48 hours hits as badly as they predict then there is over a 75% chance that all Southern and Eastern English ports (Soton, Felistowe, Hull, Tilbury etc will closed at some point, even if only for a few hours causing port congestion and delays of up to a week.
I’d like to assure everyone, especially those who have used or will use us, that we do everything that we can to foresee potential problems, either shipping related or maybe related to your trip itself. We pass on our past customers experiences, and our own to our new customers where it relates to their trip. We will always admit when someone asks us to ship a bike on a route that we have not previously covered that we don’t have experience on that route.
If anyone has any questions regarding their own shipping, feel free to email me directly. We will answer best we can

Best
Roddy

Fair play Roddy, you are still talking with your potential future customers on here.
That is a step further than, say, Touratech UK, who get slagged off on this website quite frequently.
I guess we will have to wait a bit to see what Doug has to say.

In the meantime, and slightly off topic but not by too much, I wonder if you have any views about this particular thread "Trip Transport", on the lines of this subject:-
http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...ga-forum-33346
(not that it has caught the imagine to date, with no replies and about 31 "reads"!).
It just struck me that there could be a dedicated thread per shipping agent, but I have suggested a web sub-area per geographical location.

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Dave

Hi Dave

Yes, hopefully you will be a future customer. realistically, we employ 36 people and I'd like to keep them that way, we'll do our best.

I've replied on your link to keep it on topic.

Best

Roddy
Dry roads - pleease

There are at least two sides to every story. And we don't know the full detail of either.

Hopefully this thread has flagged a warning to us all. Me as a customer and others as shippers.

My thoughts are -

1) not to give originals to shipping companies to send with the goods .. be that rego or loading bills .. get good colour copies and let them have those. At least get your own very good colour copies.

2) communicate. If you have not heard anything - ring and ask. Even if the shipment is not due for 2 weeks - ring and ask 'how is it going?' That may prompt them to tell you of any problems .. some times things get skipped due to pressure. Whatever .. talk to them .. and do realise you are not talking to the person actually doing the work .. if you can do that then there would not be too much of a problem. Things get filtered beween one person and the next .. at the top the distortion can be large. Just look at the politicians!

There may be many reasons why the details of this particular event won't be public. I'll not speculate nor request those details. Just be wary of ANY shipping. Keep it clean, and legal .. even over clean and dot all the i es ... make certain all is in oder then do it again.

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Regards Frank Warner
motorcycles BMW R80 G/S 1981, BMW K11LT 1993, BMW K75 G/S

I've returned to the UK and given the bike a quick look over. I am having to wait to get the key from the guy who received the bike on my behalf whilst I was away.

Not too impressed with also finding an invoice for shipping. It says it's for the amount originally quoted but doesn't take into account the extra costs I incurred getting the bike in the US (I was told at the time this would be reimbursed) and definitely doesn't take account of the fact that delivery was so late. Back to the solicitors office ASAP.

Someone queried as to whether I'd perhaps erred with the paperwork my end. Unfortunately I chose to accept guidance from the shippers and had been told at each time of asking that everything was in hand - until it was too late.

This is indeed a sorry episode, sorry to hear about the latest developments.

It might have been me that raised the possibility of paperwork errors; sorry, it was meant only as a theoretical possibility given the potential complexity of the shipping process. Sounds like you've been pretty proactive
and I don't see what you could have done better/different (other than, with hindsight, chosing a different shipper).

Don't worry I didn't take offence to you pointing out that possibility - it may have read that way but that was purely accidental. Yes, I can see how complex the shipping process was and could be.

I wouldn't know where to start trying to sort something out like that from scratch. for example, one of the other shippers I'd originally contacted (but did not use) was convinced that I would need a carnet for the US... They weren't a motorcycle shipping specialist but it shows how complicated it can all get.

I'm sure some browsing of the HUBB would aid but I find it difficult to find such information amongst the wealth of other info. Wonder if something like a wiki would be the best thing? Off topic...

G Day All -

My First post! Sorry this had to be the thread!

I think some basic points in issues are truly in order from "james Shipping" - ie: ROB for future customers.. I think a simple 1, 2, 3, 4 step procedure with notes on possible issues and things to aviod!

2. Now that the bike is home - a honest what the issue was is in hand.. If ROB can't due to possible work/legal issues then have someone,a 3rd party, all of the sudden join and give details on the nightmare/dream they had nast night!

insert: I do aggree that it is 10/10 for Rob to come forth! But the ID of the shipping company MOST likely would have come out/etc,etc.... Now nothing against Rob - BUT if the company really wishes to show the world they would in some form or fashion - state the issue and come clean and give a guideline for future travelers to use... The real issue is in there somewhere already - and if legal channels where ever enlisted - well - it would come out and cost a company a lot more!

So - a guideline in steps and possible issues for those NOT in the KNOW would be more then welcomed! Infact I would be one to ask James Shipping to please educate - this would be a perfect time...

In any event - this is total BS if the real issue can not be said!

peace!