loubiblu

Just wanted a bit of a rant really. Keyboard screaming to go with my RL screaming.

Our movers came with the shipping container today (finally). It had docked in VA on 8/26 and by 8/29 it arrived in Chicago for customs clearance. Customs cleared with no additional inspections. Tracked Customs clearance on 9/1. The U.S. Agents have been poor in their communications (English euphemism for f**king sh!te). After a public Twitter shaming they finally gave me a delivery date yesterday. They'd be with me between 8-9am this morning.

No faults with the crew - they worked their socks off. 282 pieces on the packing inventory - 220 came out of the container. 62 pieces missing

None of the kids have beds.

18yr old is missing a desk, electric bass and amp, x-box 360, chest of drawers and all his clothes (except the suitcase he brought on the plane.

12yr old missing a desk, chest of drawers, mattress, bed slats (ok he has a bed frame), trombone, tennis racquet.

No room has everything in that it should have. Shelves missing from bookcases. I'd go on, but I'm bored typing so imagine you're bored reading.

No one from the U.S. shipping office has called me back despite me leaving 3 times.

I'm slightly pi55ed off!

WJS

I am sorry for this it sounds a nightmare. Could you please say who it is in the US?

loubiblu

We used Pickfords and they appointed Schumacher Cargo Logistics for the US side.

WJS

Thank you Loubiblu. That says a lot about Schumacher! I assume they had to load into a truck and then reload into a container which is probably what we would need to do as well because of access. Perhaps they just didn't load part of your contents when reloading and it is sitting in a warehouse somewhere which is ridiculous. Is it not possible to start an insurance claim?

Pulaski

I'm not sure why you'd assume that. Loubiblu hasn't said enough to be sure what has happened.

Was the delivery in Chicago made from a freight container (big metal box) or a moving van?

Was pick up in the UK directly into a freight container, or a moving van? If it was a container, was it completely full when loaded at your home in the UK?

If both ends were direct to/from a freight container, was the container shared?

Every time things are handled there is a risk of things going missing. From where Loubiblu is now, the best scenario is that the Chicago delivery was from a van and that the missing stuff is at the Schumacher depot. If the transatlantic container wasn't loaded directly in the UK then the missing stuff could have been left behind in the UK, loaded into another container (shared) heading for the US, and hopefully to Chicago eventually, .... or mistakenly loaded into another container and have gone somewhere else in the world.

If both ends were directly to/from a container, but it was shared, the riskis that some things were removed with the shared other people's stuff, and is either at the depot in Chicago, or has been delivered to the other people.

Or maybe it's karma, for moving children while they are at high school?

loubiblu

Pulaski is right (what am I saying!!), I was detail lite on the logistics. We had a 40' container for sole use. It was supposed to come to our house on the last day of Pickfords packing, but it hasn't been ordered in time (Puckfords didn't include all our visas in the Customs paperwork) so too late for container to be loaded at our home. Stuff was loaded onto a van and taken to their storage facility at Liverpool docks to be loaded onto a container (less than 2 miles from our house).

Schumacher arrived with the container to unload and unpack. It looks like one of the wooden boxes (the crew called them vaults) wasn't loaded from the Pickfords van onto the container back in the UK (assumption as I haven't had any answers yet). Pickfords are supposed to be calling me back this morning.

My rant against the complete lack of communication from Schumacher still stands. They do not answer the phone, they do not reply to emails, they DO respond very quickly to Twitter, however!

loubiblu

That made me smile, yep bad parent alert! Got to admit it was a rough few days when the 16yr old started High School, but now she's much happier. She's even got a date for homecoming next week! And, apart from no bed, all her stuff seems to be here

Awesome Welles

So you don't know for sure that the missing items even made it into the container? Hmmm, stuff being pinched - I think the clue is in the word "Liverpool".

loubiblu

That's a very outdated stereotype, but I'm going to let it pass and assume it was in jest as I'm too tired to be offended.

I now know that one crate/vault is still sitting at the storage warehouse in Liverpool, it didn't make it onto the container. It's being sent in its own container and won't have to wait for a groupage full load. 16 days to get to Chicago, then it depends on customs and the movers here.

Oh, and they're opening 'a full investigation' into how it happened. I know these places are huge, but how did the warehouse systems miss a crate for 9 weeks???

Any tips on demanding compensation. Was thinking at least they could get beds for the kids...

Pulaski

It could have been worse, ...... if the shipment had gone via Lagos.

username.exe

That's really cool. I applaud her bravery and attitude. I shudder at the thought of doing that transition at 16 yrs old.

loubiblu

My husband had his car stolen in MANCHESTER about 8/9 years ago. He got a follow up call last year to say that it had been found - in Lagos!!!

Welshgator

You're lucky , when my stuff came over it all went missing from the storage yard in Fremont.

Pulaski

(i) never trust anyone west of the Pennines.

(ii) I do know what I'm talking about.