We moved from Dubai to Brisbane, Australia. And the company which we used in Dubai had partnered with Australian Vanlines Pvt. Ltd to clear freight, complete the quarantine formalities, deliver and reassemble our main furniture items. Our shipment was taking on 11th August in Dubai. It reached the Brisbane port on 3rd October. I tried calling Australian Vanlines on 3rd Oct 12, but it was ringing and went to voicemail. So I left a voicemail. I then sent an email to Australian Vanlines to check on the status of when it will be delivered to us. The concerned person replied back on 5th Oct 12 saying our shipment had arrived into Brisbane and they were making arrangements to pick up the goods from the freight forwarder. So we kept waiting for some communication from them. Nothing till October 9th. So my husband sent them another email to check the status and still no reply. Finally on 15th October they called my husband saying that apparently they found out from the freight forwarder company that the Relocation company we used in Dubai had gone bankrupt on 6th Oct and since they would not be getting their money from them (for clearing freight, delivery, etc.) they cannot help us out in any way. We were so shocked and kept calling them to try and figure out if they can help us out in any way but they washed their hands off and refused to help us out. Also there were many times i called them and it went to voicemail and I left a voicemail asking them to call back giving my number but they didnt call back even once.
Finally my husband had to run around to go and make all the additional payments below. Also he had to run around to get the quarantine formalities and had to look for a delivery company to deliver the goods home.
Also the freight forwarder company was charging us for 10 days of storage from 5th to 15th October amounting to 3323 AUD. And when I spoke to Australian Vanlines, asking why they delayed in letting us know that we had to run around and make all the payments and do all the work ourselves to get our goods home, they didnt give us any concrete reason. We were totally shocked about all the additional payments we had to make. Also what shocked us more was that Australian Vanlines didnt offer us any help in any way. One relief was that the frieght forwarder company felt sad for our situation and reduced the storage fee. (We had approx. 12 cbm of luggage and hence the storage charges charged daily per cbm amounted to 3323 AUD). Overall dealing with Australian Vanlines was a nightmare for me and my family. We understand it was the fault of the company we used in Dubai to ship, but atleast if Australian Vanlines could help us in running around to get the formalities done (Quarantine legalities, freight payment, delivery home) with us making the payments to them, it could have been helpful to us. However we got no help from them at all.
International Freight Charges : 2, 737.92 AUD
Storage Charges : 500 AUD [This was actually 3, 323 AUD, but the freight forwarder company felt sad for our situation and reduced this fee to 500 AUD which was a big relief.
Delivery Charges (without any reassembling of our main furniture) : 550 AUD (2, 085 AED)
Total: 3787 AUD had to be additionally paid by us to get our goods home in addition to the agony, stress and inconvenience we went through.
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