M
montezj
Guest
We are small company that imports furniture and other items form Morocco to our location in New York, NY. Our most recent shipment was sent by a carrier that lost "contact" with our shipment for several weeks.
The shipment was sent from Morocco on June 27 01 and beginning July 15 we began calling the shipping company on a daily basis with our bill of lading number and shipment number and each time they said they had no information on the shipment and this meant that the shipment hadn't arrived, call back in a few days. After 3 weeks of this we went back to the shipper in Morocco and got some further info and contacted the shipping company again. About 3 days later they told us that the shipment had arrived on July 17 but our customs broker could not release the container until we received a "revised bill of lading" from the shipping company. It was another two and a half weeks until they were able to fax us an updated bill of lading. The entire time the shipment was accruing storage charges of approximately $80 a day.
We were told that the shipping company would pay for the storage charges. When our customs broker went to get our shipment however, they were told that they couldn't release it until the storage charges were paid. We went back to the shipping company with this information and they spent the next week pointing the finger at everyone but themselves (adding several hundred $$ to the storage bill). Ultimately we had to pay the storage charges ($3200--more than it cost to ship the merchandise) as we needed the merchandise for an upcoming trade show. We were subsequently told that the shipping company refused to pay the storage charges.
They way they handled this entire thing was absolutely atrocious...we did not receive a single phone call from them ever during this entire ordeal, we had to make every phone call to them and they were incredibly rude and unapologetic. I would like to know what legal actions we can take to recover this money. Small claims will not recover the full amount (the service was performed in New Jersey though the company is an international company), and it doesn't seem practical to hire the services of an attorney for such a small amount.
The shipment was sent from Morocco on June 27 01 and beginning July 15 we began calling the shipping company on a daily basis with our bill of lading number and shipment number and each time they said they had no information on the shipment and this meant that the shipment hadn't arrived, call back in a few days. After 3 weeks of this we went back to the shipper in Morocco and got some further info and contacted the shipping company again. About 3 days later they told us that the shipment had arrived on July 17 but our customs broker could not release the container until we received a "revised bill of lading" from the shipping company. It was another two and a half weeks until they were able to fax us an updated bill of lading. The entire time the shipment was accruing storage charges of approximately $80 a day.
We were told that the shipping company would pay for the storage charges. When our customs broker went to get our shipment however, they were told that they couldn't release it until the storage charges were paid. We went back to the shipping company with this information and they spent the next week pointing the finger at everyone but themselves (adding several hundred $$ to the storage bill). Ultimately we had to pay the storage charges ($3200--more than it cost to ship the merchandise) as we needed the merchandise for an upcoming trade show. We were subsequently told that the shipping company refused to pay the storage charges.
They way they handled this entire thing was absolutely atrocious...we did not receive a single phone call from them ever during this entire ordeal, we had to make every phone call to them and they were incredibly rude and unapologetic. I would like to know what legal actions we can take to recover this money. Small claims will not recover the full amount (the service was performed in New Jersey though the company is an international company), and it doesn't seem practical to hire the services of an attorney for such a small amount.