May 11, 2023 09:49 AM
835 Views
Unfortunately, we recently used BookMyRelocation's services(packing and moving) for an overseas package, and I must tell our first-hand experience. They packed and picked up 16 boxes on 21 Feb 2023. These boxes contained household goods & had to be shipped via air cargo from Mumbai to Canada(Winnipeg). We booked BookMyRelocation with 25k advance in Jan 2023 and then on 21 Feb we paid the full balance amount(in lacs). As per terms, the package was supposed to be delivered within 12-15 working days(subject to customs clearance) but it took almost 2 months 20 days.
Our experience:-
1. Everything in terms of services was great until they picked up the shipment.
2. At the time of billing, they had issues with bill.
a. They increased the dimensions of the box by 1 cm in all length, width, height for calculating volumetric weight and then also rounded off the Volumetric weights to the higher end. This leads to increased chargeable weight & overall cost. Not sure how other service providers do it, but to us this looked unfair.
b. They recommended we pay customs duty for Canada in Mumbai to avoid any issues once the shipment is in Canada, to which we didn’t agree. We did pay customs duty in Canada when we received our shipment.
3. To transport the shipment, the documents they requested were - Aadhar card, Passport, Visa & Air Tickets which we gave them on 21 Feb. Since our shipment was not dispatched from Mumbai till our date of arrival(10 March) in Canada, we started following up with them. At this point, we were informed that they also need our boarding pass and passport with immigration stamp.
4. We had to chase them for itemized list of boxes that were required for customs declaration at Toronto Airport on our landing. They shared only a list of no.of boxes(box no, weight, dimensions)
5. As per our booking, we expected a single delivery. However, they delivered our boxes in 3 separate installments in >2 months. They haven’t shared a single tracking no.
6. Endless excuses for the delay e.g.
a. Custom clearance is taking time as it was not packed as per international customs guidelines.
b. Customs clearance is taking time due to heavy rush, cargo flights being full, long weekends & holidays.
c. Our shipment got delivered to wrong person in Toronto. Once he is back from US, they will redirect the shipment to us.
7. We chose air cargo due to faster delivery time. Even though we told them that our shipment includes warm clothing for our child and ourselves, they seemed unconcerned about delivery timeline and ultimately took >2 months to deliver the shipment.
8. As per FedEx tracking nos.(shared with us by FedEx) our 1st shipment was sent on 29 Mar and delivered on 3 Apr, 2nd sent on 12 Apr and delivered on 15 Apr, and 3rd sent on 5 May and delivered on 8 May. If we track travel history of our packages from Fedex, they were delivered to us within 4 days after being dispatched from the booking place. Also, we were promised door-to-door delivery but we had to collect our first 2 shipments from Fedex centre as the shipper had mentioned weekday delivery instructions and we were not at home to collect the shipment. We were not informed in advance about delivery by BookMyRelocation. After an unsuccessful delivery attempt, we got call from FedEx informing that our shipment is ready for pickup at FedEx centre.
9. When we received our packages, we came to know that BookMyRelocation was never the shipper. The 1st shipment was booked through a Mumbai-based company, unknown to us. The 2nd and 3rd shipments were sent under our name only making us the shipper/receiver both.
10. We got cold and redundant responses on followups(Email/ Whatsapp) and there was no transparency from BookMyRelocation.
11. We never got a call/email proactively stating the shipment delivery status. Every time it was our responsibility to call/text/email and check the shipment's whereabouts. We even had to call early in our morning to factor in timezone difference.
12. We had opted in for cargo insurance but never received any written policy details/copy.
