Marie

Jan 14, 2021

Difficult communication, took months to refund my security deposit, cartons arrived in good condition, good price.

I did a small shipment of 21 carton boxes (1 bedroom apartment) (no furniture) from New York City to Switzerland via freight. I got a very good price (1400 SUD), since I was not in a rush and didn’t mind to do freight shipment (delivery time: 3 months). Initially the communication was good with my contact person Christopher, but as soon as I paid for the shipment, they stopped answering my emails. I was not able to update important changes in the delivery address or on the insurance that they made mistakes on (I paid for it, but they didn't seem to acknowledge that in the online portal). Ultimately, it seems I did have insurance – according to a phone conversation I had with them, but I am unsure it would have been easy to activate it there was a problem. I was able to change delivery address at the end too. It was only when the cartons were taken over by their correspondent in Europe (ITO) that things got better again with respect to communication (ITO did a fine job). Pick up in New York by Schumacher was on time and staff was friendly and professional and everyone wore masks (Covid times). My cartons arrived in Switzerland, pretty much on time (3 months 1 week, i.e. 1 week late, but there was Christmas in the middle) and in good condition. Delivery staff (ITO, from the German correspondent) were good too. Importantly, I made a mistake: I was supposed to pay only the announced price (1400 USD) but remove the security deposit (250 USD) that I had already paid in advance. This was stated in an email but not clearly visible and my bill was not updated so I missed it. So I paid 250 USD too much. It took them 4 months to pay me back after endless (dozens) emails and phone calls, and ultimately having to post bad reviews online for them to finally pay me back (which they did – the same day I posted the bad reviews; now that they paid I updated my review).