Shipment finally arriving

In a week, the total time we came to the Netherlands will be three months. Three months ago yesterday, a sunny morning in Providence, Rhode Island, we saw our home belongings leaving in this big truck, on its way to the Netherlands, a so far away place that we couldn't imagine at that time.

Now, three months later, today, finally we got a message saying that our things will be delivered either on September 5th, or 10th. What a long wait. We brought with us the basic things that we thought will accompany us for at most eight weeks. I have been missing so much about my cozy quilt, juicer, those comfi cushion we recently bought, many many things... Surprising we survived till today, and the Netherlands summer was generous enough to support us wearing with what we have. The experience was so bad, that we have to find some place to release our anger towards this shipping company "NY International Shipping". I will try to post it also in some business website to warn others how things can turn wrong.

The start of the experience was OK. The sales agent was very professional and kept contacting Mr. Awaara regarding the quote and arrangement. That was the main reason we stayed on this company. We have kept following up and asking him how things are going, and he informed us that things are fine, and they would directly contact your institution for the payment.Everything went well until 20 days after we were in the Netherlands. We were noticed that the payment was not arrived yet, and they couldn't let go our shipment. We soon contacted the institution here and made the payment. Again, a few days later, "your shipment has been staying in our storage for more than a month, and you have to pay for the storage fee before we can release it. "

We later traced back why the payment was delayed. It was because the invoice they sent to the institution was a wrong email address!!! However, nobody informed us that the email was bounced back. They waited so long delaying our shipment, and asking us to pay for the storage. Mr. Awaara was determined to fight. Then they compromised a little. The manager said, "Let's not wasting time on this problem, and I give you 40% on the storage fee and the case is closed".

So the storage fee will be around 300 dollars. I was hesitating to accept the offer. My Mom volunteer to pay for it. She was the most worried since I told her that the Netherlands was quite cold in the summer and I have been wearing most of my clothes. Mr. Awaara said no. Why do we have to pay for other people's mistakes? So that weeks, he kept calling the manager, talking, talking, talking... and finally the manager gave up. That was the middle of July, our stuff finally left NYC, stayed in US for almost two months.

I think a cargo from US to UK might only take a week's time. I doubt our previous experience might also affect the later part of its journey. It arrived in UK, and we were told that it is selected for custom checking. Another two weeks passed for that. Then customs was cleared, but not arriving the storage for the delivering company yet. Finally it will arrive this Friday...

Mr. Awaara has a colleague who also came from Boston, in the middle of July. Their shipment arrived this past Monday. It just doesn't take a lot of time, but things can go wrong, and nobody can predict. It is like Shaoqing's recent car rental experience in Los Angeles. He reserved it online, showing checking out in LA and return at San Diego. But when they were there, the company said they don't provide the service of returning in another location. My Mom made the right comment , you guys trust too much in the internet. It is true, we are more and more relying on the internet and many things go wrong because we trust the network. If the agent made a phone call to the institution asking for the payment, or Shaoqing called again to confirm his order, all these trouble should be avoided.

Since most of the time the internet works fine, we are just spoiled, and less cautious. We might still trust it as we did before.