I had decided to ship some things home to the Gold Coast and only organised two days before I left - which I don't recommend.
I decided to go with Simpsons because they were the cheapest. I lugged all my stuff down to London Bridge as because I wasn't going to be home that is where they were going to have to collect it.
I had packed, no more than 30kgs worth of things into my box, securely sealed the top, sides and bottom and then went on to fill in the paperwork.
- Did you pack it yourself - Yes
- Is there any alchol in there - Nope, I remembed to take that small bottle of sangria out
- Is there anything there that was used to package fruti - No ... as a image flashes through my mind of me putting all my magnets into a plastic container that I had washed, that did once house strawberries ... she'll be right I said for the next three months, secretly hoping they wouldn't notice the container and that I had lied on my declaration form. I watch Airline, I know thats bad!
I got an email in December from the Australian company telling me that my box was due to arrive in Australia, yah, and also letting me know that if I wanted it to be delivered to the Gold Coast that will be another $80.00 plus GST.
Hold up! I got a quote that was for door to door service my invoice was issued to my address in Southport and there is no mention of Brisbane whatsoever. I promptly wrote back to them to say that I paid for door to door service and this is my invoice for door to door service.
This is what I got back
Dear Ms O'Neill,
Further to your email, I have reviewed your file, and at the time of obtaining a quotation, you selected the first option of Brisbane, QLD Fremantle/Perth, Sydney Adelaide Melbourne or within 30 mile radius of port., and this is the quotation which you accepted. Southport is 75 kms / 47 miles from Brisbane, and therefore outside of the zone you selected and paid for. If delivery is required to this address, then additional charges are payable to cover this. Whilst our records show an address in Southport, this is correspondence / postal address based on the details provided.
We can instruct our agents to forward and deliver your consignment to Southport, however we would require payment of GBP 15.00, this being the difference payable in zones. Please let me have your instructions / payment at the earliest opportunity, to resolve.
So I wrote back and said
Dear Tracy
As per my email above I did not prepare the quotation - so I did not select the first option.
I provided the information to your office at the quotations email address and then to Steve at your office. Steve prepared the quotes on my behalf with the information I provided - as per the attachment I forwarded in my previous email .
As a person who is not familiar with the zones, etc you use in your office, how was I supposed to know that
Destination:Australia,
Australia(Zone AU-A)
was not in fact what I wanted? That it was in Brisbane and not in Southport where I clearly wanted my box to go?
As professional people in this industry I expected that what information I gave would be put into my quotation and when I accepted that quotation that my box would be delivered to the address that I specified.
I have been very unhappy with the service I have received from Simpsons my emails go for days/weeks unanswered or delayed, I had to chase up my invoice to try and make a payment and then when I got my invoice it didn't reflect the deposit I have already paid, I couldn't get the website to work and now I am having this issue. At the end of the day all I want is for my box to be delivered and I think its very unfair to ask me to pay for the additional costs when it was your office that did not provide me with the correct quotations and the correct area on where my box was to be delivered to.
I am asking you to consider changing your position and telling Ocean Sky that they are to deliver my box free of charge to my chosen address in Southport. I look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible.
And this is the reply I got
Further to your email, I have referred your email onto my manager, and on this occasion he has authorised me to have your cartons delivered at no additional cost to yourself. I will contact Ocean Sky Int'l and inform them of this accordingly. Please accept my sincere apologies on behalf of our company for the inconvenience which has been caused with this matter.
Yes I won this time Simpsons
I now have my box, it got delivered looking like the dogs attacked it but at least its in one piece and I have all my pretty souveniers.
Now I don't tell you this story to bore you to death I tell you this story to warn you about the problems I have had with my box. I will also let you know that another friend who shipped her box back to New Zealand got an email from the NZ port authority telling her that her box had been lost! They then called her back and told her that in fact her box was not lost but it was left in the UK. She then had to wait another 3 months for her box.
When you look at shipping your things home to whereever you may live, maybe Simpsons isn't the best company to use ...
