Dear Simon (1)

[Names of people, places and companies have been changed in order to preserve anonymity. Though I was tempted not to.]

Dear Simon

Following my previous email to you, I finally got through to a member of the office staff at Americal Removals around lunchtime on Friday. She told me that Bob (the only person there who ever seems to know what is going on) was not in the office that day, but she would contact the truck driver and ask him to contact me with an update on his progress. (So obviously they had absolutely no idea where the truck was when I rang). About two hours later, the truck driver did indeed ring me to inform me that the truck had broken down in Kentucky, he would not be moving again until Monday at the earliest and that he would ring me again then.

Kentucky is approximately half way between New York and Oklahoma City. It takes about two days to drive, so why he was only in Kentucky by Friday is anyone's guess. Now, I know that trucks do break down, and we do not hold you directly responsible for that - although I'm sure you can understand that it does not exactly increase our confidence in the whole operation, or in this particular company. What we do feel is that, in this kind of situation, any logistics company worth its salt would arrange for another truck, one which has not broken down, to come and pick up the goods and continue the journey. Plainly this is not going to happen in this case, presumably because it would adversely affect the profit margin of all involved.

It is now over a month since our goods cleared customs in New York. By now, I could have hired a truck myself, driven it to New York, loaded up our goods and driven back to Oklahoma City several times over. It is not rocket science; you simply have to get the stuff from A to B. I am quite amazed at the catalogue of delays, disasters and misinformation which we have had to endure.

I know you will say that this is a different company, one which you have contracted to work for you in the US, and you cannot control what happens. Frankly, I don't think this is good enough. Our contract was with you, for the shipment of our goods from our home in the UK to Oklahoma City, and if you're not going to arrange directly for the entire shipment yourself, it is your responsibility to ensure that any other company involved is competent, efficient, has good customer service, and communicates regularly. This is palpably not the case.

Apparently, when your representative originally came round to talk to my wife and give her a quote, he assured her that we would be able easily to track the progress of our goods at all times. This has not proved to be the case. It has been extremely difficult to track the progess of our goods. None of the companies involved has been in regular contact with us; the onus has always been on us to phone daily to find out what is going on; frequently I cannot get through to people who can help and when I do they often don't know what is going on any more than I do. It is not my job to be contacting the truck driver on his mobile phone to find out where he is; I paid a removals company to do this for me.

At one earlier stage when my wife emailed you to ask for a progress update and to inform you of our new US contact details, you replied telling her not to bother you as you would contact us in due course. You never did so. Clearly, you do not know what is going on, as you had to email me last week to ask whether I had received the goods. It should be you telling me when I am going to receive the goods, not the other way around.

As far as we can work out, there is one truck coming from New York with one driver. How exactly are our goods going to be professionally unloaded and set up in our home – including the packaging being taken away - as we were originally promised? Are removal men going to be contracted? If so, has this been arranged? If not, am I expected to help the truck driver myself?

Moreover, our main concern now, even more than this or the delay, is for the condition of our goods. As you know, these include some very expensive and delicate musical instruments, together with a lot of important papers and books. When you were giving us your quote, my wife made it very clear that she was concerned that our goods would always be held in air-conditioned and/or temperature controlled conditions. It seems to me highly unlikely that this has been the case, although we cannot be sure, and neither I am sure are you, as you don't seem to be sure of anything. As far as I can tell, at this precise moment our goods are sitting on the back of a truck in a garage in Kentucky, and we have no idea about the temperature, conditions, or security - and again, neither I'm sure do you. All I can say is that if it turns out that any of our stuff has been damaged, as we fully expect may now be the case, we will be seeking full compensation through your insurance procedures - something which does not fill us with hope or confidence, as we can only assume it will be as difficult to communicate with you in that matter as it has been up to now.

Please understand that I am trying hard not to be difficult, unreasonable or emotional about this. My own job in the last few years was one in which I had to deal with many complaints from members of the public, so I know what it's like. I know things can go wrong: what I find unacceptable in this case is the total lack of communication; the lack of sufficient apology; and the lack of any sense of urgency or concern on your behalf or anyone else's. You do not seem to understand that moving continents is an incredibly stressful and difficult process, and that the shipment of someone's entire posessions over several thousand miles therefore needs to be handled with enormous sensitivity and care for customer service. The only people who seem to be at all concerned about all this are myself and my wife; no-one in any of the companies we've had to deal with seems remotely bothered. From this, I can only conclude that this sort of situation is quite normal and to be expected; in which case, the very least I can say is that this was not the impression we were given when you were touting for our business.

We will not be using your services again, and we will certainly do all we can to suggest that anyone else we know does not use your company. We are looking into our rights, as customers who paid in full and upfront for a level of service which we have not received, and fully intend to take this matter up with a higher authority such as Trading Standards or whatever body may be appropriate.

best wishes

Andrew