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Already used the UK legal system :/
3 years ago
General
Barely 7 months after moving into the UK, I found my hand forced into going to court. No, I didn't get into any legal problems, but had to file a complaint in small claims court to get back £1098 that were wrongly taken from me and Hamakei's funds.
After selling my home in Colorado, I contacted some company through a website called Shiply.com, which is some marketplace for people trying to contract others to ship goods. I managed to fit all the goods I wanted to transport into several boxes totaling 225 cubic feet, which I rounded up to 240 to provide a bit of a leeway. We received a quote from someone in the UK who said it would be $6000, with no hidden or additional fees. On more than one occasion we stated that the goods were not in pallets, and even provided photos to show it. We still were told that it was okay and the quote was correct, which led us to go with it. (Plus, I was running out of time to vacate my apartment in Denver.) The boxes were collected on April 26th by a third party, and I arrived in the UK in May.
One month later, the boxes arrived at the docks in the UK, and we were then told we owed money because the volume was supposedly bigger than we declared (275 cu ft, which later somehow became 266 cu ft), and thus we had to pay a hefty surcharge, and my goods would not only be not delivered until I paid it, but I would receive a daily storage fee if I didn't pay before a deadline. I'm not going to go into all the details about the email and other correspondence, other than these points:
* We asked for details and proof of this supposed excess volume. We only got one photo that showed nothing.
* We were told we could measure the goods upon arrival and dispute the charge. We did so -- around 246 cu ft in pallets. They refused to accept the dispute and the proof.
* We never received any invoice that detailed how they arrived with the charge of £1098, other than one that looked suspiciously from themselves. (It wasn't until some time later that we got some nearly useless papers, including one from the third party, dated and paid the day *before* they actually arrived to collect, with all amounts crossed out.)
* They requested mediation. We were willing to settle for a lower amount; they even refused to follow the rules of the mediation they requested.
So all was set for a small claims case last December 16th. Hamakei spent considerable time gathering all our evidence and going over all the points to make sure we would make our case clear. Despite this, I was not looking forward to the day -- courts make me uneasy, and since the contract was in my name, I would be the one that had to present the case from our side. I have had difficulties with expressing myself sometimes when I was in the USA, as English is not my native language, and stress often made it harder. I stated this to the judge, and she was willing to let Hamakei clarify a few things for me. (No offense to my British fans, but some accents here make it a bit of harder to understand you folks.)
However, as the proceedings continued, most of my anxiety seemed to go away. Not only I presented my case fairly well, but the defendant was not able to provide solid responses to some of the judge's questions. After an hour in court, the judge asked for a few minutes to come to a decision. And she ruled in my favor -- not only asking the defendant to pay back the fee, but our legal fees as well. The judge even had praise on how well organized Hamakei and I were when we presented our case.
I was happy, of course, but left the courthouse feeling numb. I did not want to go through that, but I was glad that I was able to speak for myself well enough when the time came. We left the courthouse to have lunch at Nando's (yummy chicken for this Carno).
On an unrelated note, that same day I got an email from Google that allowed me to finally recover my "bakensobek" account, after being unable to use it for several months (I forgot to update the recovery phone, and my password was lost when I forgot the password to the password manager -- messy). Amazing how many apps and Android services were waiting to be updated in my phone since they were still tied to that Google account.
Overall, a good day. Thanks for reading.
After selling my home in Colorado, I contacted some company through a website called Shiply.com, which is some marketplace for people trying to contract others to ship goods. I managed to fit all the goods I wanted to transport into several boxes totaling 225 cubic feet, which I rounded up to 240 to provide a bit of a leeway. We received a quote from someone in the UK who said it would be $6000, with no hidden or additional fees. On more than one occasion we stated that the goods were not in pallets, and even provided photos to show it. We still were told that it was okay and the quote was correct, which led us to go with it. (Plus, I was running out of time to vacate my apartment in Denver.) The boxes were collected on April 26th by a third party, and I arrived in the UK in May.
One month later, the boxes arrived at the docks in the UK, and we were then told we owed money because the volume was supposedly bigger than we declared (275 cu ft, which later somehow became 266 cu ft), and thus we had to pay a hefty surcharge, and my goods would not only be not delivered until I paid it, but I would receive a daily storage fee if I didn't pay before a deadline. I'm not going to go into all the details about the email and other correspondence, other than these points:
* We asked for details and proof of this supposed excess volume. We only got one photo that showed nothing.
* We were told we could measure the goods upon arrival and dispute the charge. We did so -- around 246 cu ft in pallets. They refused to accept the dispute and the proof.
* We never received any invoice that detailed how they arrived with the charge of £1098, other than one that looked suspiciously from themselves. (It wasn't until some time later that we got some nearly useless papers, including one from the third party, dated and paid the day *before* they actually arrived to collect, with all amounts crossed out.)
* They requested mediation. We were willing to settle for a lower amount; they even refused to follow the rules of the mediation they requested.
So all was set for a small claims case last December 16th. Hamakei spent considerable time gathering all our evidence and going over all the points to make sure we would make our case clear. Despite this, I was not looking forward to the day -- courts make me uneasy, and since the contract was in my name, I would be the one that had to present the case from our side. I have had difficulties with expressing myself sometimes when I was in the USA, as English is not my native language, and stress often made it harder. I stated this to the judge, and she was willing to let Hamakei clarify a few things for me. (No offense to my British fans, but some accents here make it a bit of harder to understand you folks.)
However, as the proceedings continued, most of my anxiety seemed to go away. Not only I presented my case fairly well, but the defendant was not able to provide solid responses to some of the judge's questions. After an hour in court, the judge asked for a few minutes to come to a decision. And she ruled in my favor -- not only asking the defendant to pay back the fee, but our legal fees as well. The judge even had praise on how well organized Hamakei and I were when we presented our case.
I was happy, of course, but left the courthouse feeling numb. I did not want to go through that, but I was glad that I was able to speak for myself well enough when the time came. We left the courthouse to have lunch at Nando's (yummy chicken for this Carno).
On an unrelated note, that same day I got an email from Google that allowed me to finally recover my "bakensobek" account, after being unable to use it for several months (I forgot to update the recovery phone, and my password was lost when I forgot the password to the password manager -- messy). Amazing how many apps and Android services were waiting to be updated in my phone since they were still tied to that Google account.
Overall, a good day. Thanks for reading.
A very good thing indeed that you have a partner to help you out. :)
Makes you wonder who else they've done this to in order to get some extra funds from them while holding their property ransom. Glad you were able to litigate them into oblivion in this case.
This is why when you move, with few exceptions, you not only get _everything_ in writing, you also make a point of photographing and/or videoing as much as possible and blocking the moving truck in when it arrives at the destination.
Jacking up the price once they have your stuff hostage is so common of a scam that you are safe to assume it was exactly that without hard evidence to the contrary. The reason you typically don't see a lot of bad reviews is that the companies tend to keep shutting down and reopening under new names, (they make experience claims that refer to how long they, as a person, have been in the industry rather than how old the company is).
Were they eight-by-ten colour glossy photographs with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one?
Civil litigation (imho) seems to be the Western world's means of supporting bullying, just that your bully wears a suit (at least to court). This especially drives home the old joke about "What do you call 1000 lawyers at the bottom of the ocean?" -A good start. (I guess I should use the term 'solicitor' for the UK.)
Breathe easy. Draw something fun for yourself or your "mate" (intend that to be the British vernacular for 'friend' but the double meaning might apply). Envy you the excellent tea & crumpets and fish & chips renown for your area~
And thanks for reminding me of the last huge cargo shipment I had sent from home (San Diego to Reno, Nevada). I've learned that it tends to be cheaper and easier (not to mention less problematic with the service) to just buy new things when relocating great distances. I did that after learning my lesson in Reno, just had a liquidator sell/auction my old things and send me a check.
So proud of you, love *kiss*
Recovering that account was a boon as well. I hope you can enjoy some time off during the holidays. Love and strength
And happy holidays for you as well. :)