Pollyana

Help! Anyone who has had their goods come through customs & AQIS - can you answer this one;

I started off with one consignment of boxes, one inventory, to be cleared all as one shipment. Owing to the incompetence of Anglo Pacific and their loaders, I now have TWO consigments. The first one has all the paperwork with it (allegedly) and has arrived - but presumably Customs will kick up cos the inventory doesn't match the goods? The second consignment is somewhere else, and may arrive sometime - or may not, they don't seem to be too sure about where it is. I don't know which boxes are missing, which doesn't help, and it may or may not have some kind of paperwork with it!
The main question is, do Customs levy a basic charge per consignment, followed by an inspection fee from AQIS? Cos if they do I assume its going to cost me more having it come in as 2 consignments (39 boxes, then 3 boxes,) instead of as one (42 boxes).
If it does cost more this way, am I within my rights to ask Anglo Pacific to pay the extra Customs charge, as they have said its their fault the consignment got split?

Pollyana the p****d off!

mr mover

sorry to here about your, problem, polly A, you will probably be hit with two fees if AQIS are called to do ,2 inspections ,they charge your import company hourly rate, for inspections, this would pass to you. And good luck getting the money out of Anglo, my company ,will not deal with them, they use I.T.S for their Adelaide work. If you had a correctly filled inventory, you can work out whats in the missing cartons ,and with a bit of luck they will be of no intrest to AQIS, ie, no shoes ,food ,veg products,etc...... MM

podgypossum

Hi MM..we had ITS..very nice people BUT, they were so busy we couldnt get our stuff delivered until christmas eve!!

mr mover

hi pp hows the head,? glad to see your enjoying Adelaide, ITS,are a good small company,alot of their employees are from our company, yes very busy in the relocation industry, at the moment thats why i don,t get much time on the "pooter", my first day off for a while , we have all the military moving at the moment, plus school teacher country postings , country bank manager postings ,etc nov - march is pretty hectic in this country..... MM

Pollyana

Hi Mr Mover,
Welcome back! I've missed you!! Happy New Year!!

Allegedly, Anglo have told the original removal firm in the UK (ALS) that they will cover the shipping fees for the second consignment, as its their fault - they just FORGOT to load 3 of the boxes into the container. So assuming they can find the boxes they say they will pay. What they haven't said yet is if they will cover the second lot of customs/AQIS fees. The company dealing in Brisbane is OSS - they say that Anglo OUGHT to pay, but I can see me ending up greatly out of pocket for their mistake. How a supposedly reputable firm can FORGET to load 7% of a consignment beats me.
I've told OSS that the inventory is short by 3 boxes, and they said they will work out which ones. Knowing my luck there will be at least one carton with wood in each consignment (I sent 3)!
The UK idiots (ALS) told me the wrong ship, wrong arrival date etc, and calmly forgot to mention that 3 boxes are missing until the first lot had arrived! The 39 that did make it are supposedly coming up from the wharf this week, then OSS will let me know whats not there. ALS have also repeatedly ignored my question about where the missing boxes are now, which makes me think that no-one actually knows, and they have probably vanished forever!
Anglo and ALS both said (much the same as you are!) that its been a busy year and thats why they forgot to load them - maybe its just me, but if the company is so busy that they can't deal with a consignment properly, surely they shouldn't take the job on!!!
The final insult from ALS was telling me not to get "emotional about this as it is purely a couple of boxes" - they seem to forget that they have most of my life in those boxes!!!

Presumably I will have to cough up the 2 lots of fees to Customs/AQIS (if the boxes turn up) and then try and recoup the money from Anglo - with whom I have no contract, cos ALS told me THEY dealt with everything! Leave me without any paws to stand on, I think?

Sorry to go on a bit, but I'm just a leeetle mad. bet you're glad you haven't been around much!

Pollyana the Disgruntled!

bondipom

Whoever you paid your money to is who your contract is with. They are responsible for their sub contractors. I guess Anglo Pacific is who you paid your money to therefore Anglo Pacific should pay.

Have a word with sussex trading standards.

Pollyana

No, I paid ALS (based in Hove) and had a contract with them - until this week I didn't even know Anglo were involved. O only found that out when ALS had to tell me about the missing boxes. Until then they claimed it was all done by them.
So while ALS and Anglo can sort out the shipping between them, unless I cough up customs/AQIS this end I won't get my goods will I. I guess I will then have to send the bill to ALS and hope they can extract the cash from Anglo. I don't mind paying inspection fee per box, cos I'd have to pay that anyway. What I DO object to is that there is a fee from customs per consignment apparently, and I will now have to pay that twice, instead of once.

Of course all this is assuming that they ever find the 3 missing boxes.....

bondipom

That is the most expedient way of getting your boxes.

Pollyana

OK, I'm now issuing advance notice of a large garage sale of assorted CDs, books, kitchen stuff etc - for sale, genuine reason, excessively large (and pointless) shipping bill to pay.

Detailed list on request.....

bondipom

ALS dealings with Anglo are irrelevant to you. You should have no care whatsoever whether Anglo repay ALS. If you pay the extra then ALS have to refund you.

I would start by saying to ALS that you will be paying AQUIS yourself and that you expect ALS to refund you or pay AQUIS first. Tell them that the behaviour of Anglo is the responsibility of ALS and not yourself. I would also threaten them with small claims court action via a friend of yours in the UK.

I remember having my boxes held hostage in a dispute between Seven Seas and Megatop so I know what you are feeling.

Pollyana

Thanks Bondi, I shall open the debate with ALS when I hear back from OSS (this end) about whats missing. I'll cough up to get the goods released and then threaten ALS with small claims and trading standards.

bondipom

Sadly that is all one can do. I contacted NSW fair trading and they told me there was nothing I could do about Megatop because my contract was with Seven Seas UK.

tinaj

Pollyana,

Sorry to hear all this garbage is still going on. I really hope they sort it out soon for you. Is the pink chair still missing as well?

We are sending 3 boxes excess baggage on Saturday, I must remember to insure them for mega bucks after reading this story. They don't hold much sentimental value, but I still want the things to arrive!

Pollyana

Thats half the trouble Tina, I've no idea whats missing, and if ALS know, then they aren't saying. The stuff hasn't got from the wharf to the warehouse this end yet cos of Christmas, but I'm hoping that when it gets that far the guys there will tell me what items on the inventory haven't arrived.
The insurance was only small too - cos 90% of the stuff couldn't be replaced so there was no point paying out on it.
Ah well ***t happens!

DagBoy

Hi Polly,
Cannot say whether you will be charged twice - here's hoping.

As for your shippers. As well as threatening with the small claims court etc. the other thing worth doing is letting them know that you will be publicising the way they treated you and your stuff on the web.

I did that to the crappo company that I got my PC from - I never got any money from them but they did go bust

One of my colleagues here was having a dispute after getting a pool - he registered the domain name <companyname>-are-crap.com and put up a website explaining why they were crap. Once they had seen it they re thought their bill.

Incidentally - it would cost you 9.50 GBP to register ALS-R-CRAP.co.uk for two years.

Cheers,

DagBoy