NEWS
When I last wrote, earthquakes were unheard of — well, almost. Our shipment of personal goods had left our apartment and I had started to cross my fingers.
Now, as I try to settle down in our new Canadian home, the shipment has arrived and there is, not surprisingly, a story to tell.
Packing, consisted of two methods; our own and the shipping company's (Air Sea Transport Inc. Kunming). We obtained many new cardboard boxes from the shipping company, supposedly designed for overseas shipping, and we packed those ourselves. Two glass-topped tables and two pieces of large wooden furniture were packed by the shipping company. Sixteen pieces all together.
I observed the above procedure and there is nothing untoward to say about it.
Eventually (and this is where things become vague) our goods were placed on three wooden pallets and plastic-wrapped. I assume that this was done at the port of loading (Hong Kong) by Air Sea Transport Inc.'s representative in Hong Kong. This is a crucial point.
The consignment was then loaded and handed over, administratively, to Roe Logistics, Montreal, who were responsible for delivery to Toronto. Initially, I received regular e-mail updates from Roe Logistics as to the whereabouts of the goods to the point of indicating a train delay in Alberta and the ETA Toronto. Here, it is important to note that ETA means Estimated Time of Arrival.
Unfortunately, at this point, the sender of the e-mail changed (with a new address) and my computer's wonderful anti-spam software sent later updates to the Junk box. Having heard nothing from Roe Logistics one week after the ETA, I sent an e-mail inquiry, which produced an immediate response stating that the goods had been waiting in the Toronto warehouse since the ETA date and, now, would be subject to overdue storage fees.
Horrified, we took a bus to the international airport at Toronto (as instructed by Roe Logistics) waited in a long queue for ages, only to be told by a gun-toting Customs officer in a bullet-poof vest that we were at the wrong office and should go to another office in the town of Brampton (near the location of the warehouse). Office closed. First day completed.
Next day, we completed the formalities at the new Customs office fairly quickly — their main interest was in Chinese alcohol which, being an intelligent person, I didn't have. Then, we took the 'cleared' forms to the Toronto office of Roe Logistics for permission to pick-up the goods from the warehouse. Unfortunately, they insisted on having the original copy of the Bill of Lading, which was with Air Sea Transport in Hong Kong. Pick-up was refused subject to a permission letter/statement from Hong Kong (who were sleeping, of course). Roe Logistics thought that this would arrive the next day. We were then asked to pay their transport and an administration cost, which was annoying because we had been assured in Kunming, repeatedly, that all costs to Toronto had been paid. There was also an argument about the difference between ETA and ATA (Actual Time of Arrival) the later seemed to be an unknown abbreviation. In addition, I asked why, when I had not replied to their lost (Junk) e-mail, they had not tried to telephone — no satisfactory answer was forthcoming. Second day completed (we needed the boxes).
Finally, the next day, I received a telephone call stating that a message had been received from Hong Kong releasing the goods to me. I telephoned my local moving company to meet me at the warehouse to move the goods to my apartment. I arrived early at the warehouse of Transpacific Container Toronto to discover that the worst had happened; most of the cardboard boxes had been crushed, some broken open, and glass broken, etc. 'Transpacific' explained that this was the condition after unloading the goods from their ship in Vancouver. Additional warehousing and administration costs were required, and the goods were moved to my apartment.
In my opinion, the crushed boxes were due to the shipper (Air Sea Transport Inc.) loading all 16 boxes onto three small pallets, thus requiring that many heavy cardboard boxes were placed on top of other cardboard boxes, none of which were designed for such an arrangement. It is interesting to note that the 'shipper' refers to the boxes as 'cartons'.
Unexpected additional costs, not counting Customs and home moving costs, amounted to ¥ 1,736.00 RMB.
