[Going2NZ]

Hi all

We are in an ongoing battle with the freight shippers who have our stuff. They were sub-contracted by the company we worked with in the US. At the moment , they are holding it for ransom after sending it on a tour of the north island than throwing it in storage - all of which they want us to pay for since "we should have known" that there were exorbitant costs involved.

The question is, who can we go to to complain or help us break the deadlock? No one seems to regulate these people and despite get everything in writing from the original company, they won't help us either. Any advice would be very welcome.

Thanks
Susan

[Milliemoo]

Hi there,

So sorry to hear this. Unfortunately, you hear of this happening all the time :(

I think I'm right in saying that you should foucus you attentions on the company you used in the US as they are the people you have a contract with, not the sub-contractors that they hired.

Is there anyone who can help you back in the US. You don't happen to have any contacts with the local press do you? There's nothing like some very public bad publicity to get people moving.

Miliiemoo

[jess]

I'm very sorry. We had a terrible time of it too. Your best bet is the Federal Maritime Commission (http://www.fmc.gov/home/FilingComplaints.asp) since you're from the states. They got back to me fairly quickly and more importantly they contacted the shippers which seemed to get them going a lot faster than I could.

I also made calls to the port and found out the name of the person who was the one who could say our container was released (we had a problem with them not releasing it due to a conflict between our shipper and thier sub contractor - nothing to do with us). Then I called the person who's name they gave me on a very regular basis, even though she didn't wwant to talk to me and said I should just wait to hear from the shipper. Anytime someone gave me another number, I called an bugged them with questions too figuring sometime someone would get tired of giving me the run around and would give me some answers. (And I am not normally good at those kinds of calls.)

After I filed a complaint with the Maritime Commission, everyone seemed a lot more eager to get it all settled, and I finally got my container without paying hundreds for the storage they put it in.


Added:
Just saw that you are in Welly. If you go to the Wellington Port Page (http://www.centreport.co.nz/) and click on Contacts under "Who we Are" at the top, you'll see contact info for the people in charge of property. This could be helpful if your container is now in Wellington. They couldn't release it without authorization, but they did give me a name and number for the person who could release it, and they did tell me that the storage costs were less than what the subscontractor was quoting me.

[Going2NZ]

Thanks Milliemoo and Jess for the good advice. We've got a call into the Maritime Commission and hopefully they can rattle some cages for us. This whole mess has just got both myself and my husband really upset. Its really not that much in the way of volume or even the stuff itself - although my artwork is in there. Its more a matter of being lied to and cheated quite deliberately that has me angry.

[jess]

Just wondering if you had any luck at all... hope it is being resolved!!