after receipt of cargo shipping company raises prices and charges for release cargo

[chrmhh]

What is the name of your state? California

I'm having a problem with a shipping company that is trying to take advantage of me.

The company in question is in the business of shipping cargo overseas. About 4 weeks ago I called and asked for a
quote to ship two pickup trucks to Germany. They quoted me $850 each. I agreed and dropped of the cars at there wherehouse the following day. Then I got on a
plane Germany where I am right now. They couldn't ship out the cars immidiately because I didn't have the titles yet. I emailed them two weeks later to let them know that getting the titles would take a little longer. They answered that there was a $3 a day storage charge per vehicle after 14 days (I didnt like that but thought it was ok under the circumstances) and that they had reconsidered everything and that the price was 900 for one of
them now and 975 for the other. Five minutes later they sent another email changing it to 1075 and 1200. I responded that I expected them to honor our original agreement. They responded that they wouldn't and that they would charge me $6 a day and car for storage from the third day and a $45 in&out fee each if I wanted to pick them up. That would be almost $400.

It is my impression that it was there strategy to quote me a low price on the phone, thinking that they could charge me anything they want once they would have the cars and I would be overseas.

What I would like to do is send a friend there and have him pick up the vehicles and take them to a competitor. I don't see any reason to pay them $400 to make them release the cars though. They broke our contract, not me, plus they never told me anything about in&out or storage fees before. So I don't
feel they have a legal basis to demand that money.

I expect however, that when I send my friend there, they are going to tell him: Give us $400 cash or we won't give you the vehicles.

Does anybody have any advice on how to deal with this situation? Should I pay the $400 and try to get them back later through small claims court?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[djohnson]

Did you sign a contract with them? What was stated in the signed agreement? Id nothing is signed what proof do you have of the original agreement?

 

[chrmhh]

Unfortunately nobody signed anything. I've been working with this company for several years with no problems so I didn't condider that necessary. There was a change of ownership recently though that I wasn't aware of and that seems to be the reason for the problem.
So I have no proof of the agreement except that they haven't explicitly denied it in their emails so far.
I guess without proof there is no way to force them to honor the agreement. But do they have a right to demand the storage and in&out fees? After all a storage contract has never been signed either.
????