Container travails

[Written on Friday, September 15th]

Remember the container that broke this real man back at the end of July? Well, its story continues.

It found its way uneventfully, it seems, to Naples. Perhaps not surprisingly in this “colourful” city with a storied past, things started going awry. Having arrived on the 18th August, neither Maria nor I were notified that the Italian agent (Alpha International) were waiting for the appropriate documents to clear the container through customs, this in spite of the fact that I told the US mover (that we paid), Rainier, based in Oregon, to contact me in Chapel Hill until I gave them Maria’s telephone number (email being an unlikely option for her given its paucity and unreliability in the area of Regnano).

Having communicated the telephone number to Rainier on the 21st, I also asked about the due date for the container’s arrival, blissfully ignorant that it was already there. Rainier failed to answer my query, and so I counseled Maria to contact the Italian agent handling it. After struggling to find a company name buried amongst many in a plethora of emails, and then having to call several numbers to finally find the right one – all along with no help from Rainier – she finally got through, learned of the documents to send, and duly did so on the 28th. What she was also required to do, however, was send them a cheque for over €4,000, which she did in an induced state of following instructions rather than her normal questioning mode.

Two weeks later, we still hadn’t heard anything, so we called Alpha, only to find that our container had been selected randomly for “special inspection” by customs, involving further delay and, unbeknown to us, further cost. Believe it or not, no-one had thought to notify us. Alpha said they would call us back the following week to let us know of progress. Guess what? They didn’t. (As it turns out, thankfully, the “special inspection” yielded nothing.)

We only learned of the container’s status when, after 2 days of trying, we got access to the internet, and received an email – in spite of our explicit instructions to call, not email – saying they were waiting for us to pay demurrage and delay fees of nearly €1,400. Needless to say, I was shaking with anger, and promptly dispatched a seething email to Rainier, who was involved in a pissing match with the Italian agent. We were in the middle, and bearing the brunt of it. I asked Rainier to call us to discuss the issue. Guess what? He didn’t.

Turns out Rainier, who I’d paid back in August, told the Italian agent to demand COD in order to clear the container and get it delivered to us. So we paid twice. While Rainier continues to ignore my question on what this €4,000 was for, Alpha – who was operating under Rainier’s instructions – has agreed that it needs to be refunded to us, and so is helping to facilitate it.

In addition, Alpha was prepared to share the demurrage/delay cost with us, even though we don’t understand why we are responsible for any of it. But at €680 (instead of €1,380), I’m willing to pay to play. Maria isn’t, and continues to fight the good fight.

Having agreed to pay the €680, Alpha said that our container would be delivered today late morning. It’s now early afternoon, and we haven’t heard anything. Needless to say, we’re shocked…