Selecting a Shipping Company

[Nick H-J]

Shipping your vehicle can be a pain or it can be a breeze. Selecting the right shipping company is the most important decision in determining which it will be.

To read about our experience shipping our truck, and to see our two part guide on shipping see : http://ramblewriter.com/ramblings/?p=394 and http://ramblewriter.com/ramblings/?p=397

[noahschum]

DO NOT USE BARWIL or KING OCEAN!

We ran across a blog that said that Barwil was great so we decided to use them. It was a horrible mistake that I hope nobody else makes. This is the email (below) I sent to King Ocean and got a reply back that basically said "tough luck". As Nick suggested use Seaboard!

To whom it may concern,

We wanted to make you aware of an unfortunate experience we have had with your company while shipping our vehicle from Panama City to Cartagena, Columbia. As of right now, we have been stuck in Cartagena since the 21st of October, and according to your agent Evelyn Batista in Panama, we probably won't see our van until at least Nov. 3rd. What was supposed to take one to two days, is now creeping up on two weeks. We want to stress just how disappointed we are with the current outcome and proposed resolution of our situation.

We trusted that your company and agents would take care of us, but instead we feel deceived. We feel that information was knowingly kept from us and apparently Evelyn, which directly impacted the time-line of our trip as well as our decisions for mode of travel to Columbia. It appears that there was no way that our cargo was going to ship on the dates we received and your office knew that. If someone had been up front with us from the beginning, we would have accepted the situation, and we would have chosen to sail to Columbia, visiting San Blas, etc. Instead, we flew to Columbia to make sure we were here to accept the cargo when it arrived. On top of it, your office continued to tell Evelyn (which was later relayed to us) that the ship was leaving in just another day many times, which again, limited what we could do while in Columbia, because we were afraid we would not be here when the boat arrived.

We chose Barwil and King Ocean over other options because all parties in our group wanted to get to Columbia quickly and move to our next destinations. Not only did your company end up taking longer but it was more expensive than others we looked at. Combine that with the cost associated with being forced to stay in Cartegena for an extra two weeks and we have lost quite a bit of money and time.

We found your company based on an online recommendation. You can be sure that in our online assessment of the trip, Barwil and King Ocean will be criticized heavily for deceptive service practices. While we understand that sometimes things happen that cannot be controlled, the way this was handled was not acceptable. We will use all resources possible to make sure that other people do not make this same mistake.

Recently we were told we would receive a refund of $116. Our share of the 40' container was $950. Combine that with the extra two weeks that we have had to pay for hotels and food and the proposed refund is just a small percentage of what was lost working with you and your company.

I understand that we are not a significant part of your overall shipping market. We do however provide your company revenue for a service. I would hope that you would honor your end of the agreement and help resolve this matter in a way that is agreeable to all parties.

[samy_2111]

I usually use 40ft container capacity for any shipment i received which consider the best container.