Anglo Pacific or 'Anglo Pathetic'?

[NickB]

The following thread details my attempts to have Anglo make good on their "Money Back Guarantee" when I shipped some personal effects from UK to NZ recently. If you think I am unreasonable, or they are please comment!

From: Nick Bell
Date: 8 October 2010 13:28
Subject: Re: Anglo Pacific 157196 tracking query
To: Daniel Easton <daniel.easton@anglopacific.co.uk>

Hi Daniel

Regarding my shipment.

How do I make a claim under your money back guarantee? On the quote it says "You will be entitled to a full refund of MONEY BACK GUARANTEE shipping charges in the event that the overall transit from collection to arrival at destination port exceeds 12 weeks, subject only to force majeure or other circumstances entirely beyond our control."

The items were collected 14th July. The ship is due to arrive in the next few days, which is over 12 weeks.

Cheers, Nick

[NickB]

Daniel Easton to me 9 Oct (12 days ago)

Hi Nick,
Thanks for your email. We did not receive payment via bank transfer until the 21st of July, thus could not release your goods until this time. The 12 week guarantee timeframe therefore begins on the 21st of July.
Thanks,
Daniel Easton
Anglo Pacific London
Baggage
Ph: 020 8965 1234
Fax: 020 8965 4954
Email: daniel.easton@anglopacific.co.uk

[NickB]

Nick Bell to daniel.easton at Anglo Pacific 9 Oct (12 days ago)

Hi Daniel

That sounds like a pretty weak excuse. Nowhere on the guarantee does it mention this exclusion. The guarantee is just based on the time between collection and arrival at destination port.

If your company makes a guarantee it needs to stick to it. Please tell me the name of your managing director, so I can write them personally to make my claim. Would it be Stephen Gray?

Thanks, Nick

[NickB]

Daniel Easton of Anglo Pacific to me 13 Oct (8 days ago)

Hi Nick,
Thanks for your email. On the invoice that you signed it very clearly says 'Goods will not be released until payment has been received in full.' If we released peoples goods before payment was taken, no one would pay for their shipment. How are we suppose to honour our guarantee when the shipping requirements have not been met?
The best person to email is our Baggage Sales Manager, her name is Bianca Robinson and her email is bianca.robinson@anglopacific.co.uk. Please let me know if I can be of any further assistance.
Thanks,

P Please Consider the Environment before printing this Email

Daniel Easton

Baggage Sales Consultant
Anglo Pacific International Plc
5 / 9 Willen Field Road
Park Royal
London
NW10 7BQ

Tel: +44 (0)20 8838 8000
Fax: +44 (0)20 8965 4954

[NickB]

Nick Bell to bianca.robinson at Anglo Pacific 13 Oct

Hi Bianca

Regarding my shipment number above.

Please tell me how I make a claim under your money back guarantee? On my shipping quote xxxxxxxx, which I accepted, it states "You will be entitled to a full refund of MONEY BACK GUARANTEE shipping charges in the event that the overall transit from collection to arrival at destination port exceeds 12 weeks, subject only to force majeure or other circumstances entirely beyond our control."

The items were collected 14th July. The ship did not arrive in Christchurch port by 6th October, which is over 12 weeks.

I have already placed this request with Daniel Easton, my contact there, but he has rejected the claim based on when you were paid for the shipment. However, your guarantee has no reference to payment dates, just shipping times.

I am going to pursue this claim vigorously because of the delay getting my items to me. Your company was very professional and quick at providing the quote and collecting the goods, but were not open about when they would actually be shipped. So my items sat with you for some time waiting for the next scheduled sailing. This caused me problems. Can I make a suggestion that in future your quote or order process includes shipping schedules. This would enable your customers to more accurately estimate arrival dates and avoid problems. It would also make us more likely to use your company again in the future.

Look forward to hearing from you.

Cheers, Nick Bell

[NickB]

Bianca Robinson to me 13 Oct

Dear Nick,
Thank you for your email.
Please note that we cannot ship any consignment without receiving payment in full. I refer you to point. 7 of our terms & conditions.

7 Payment 7.1 Unless otherwise agreed by Us in writing, payment is required in full by cleared funds in advance of the removal or storage period. In default of such payment We reserve the right to refuse to commence removal or storage until such payment is received. Such advance payments are protected under the BAR Pre-Payment Protection scheme as detailed in the BAR Code of Practice

Therefore the 12 week transit guarantee starts from the moment full payment & documentation is received.

My apologies, but Daniel is correct to reject the claim for a refund under the 12 week transit guarantee.

Thank you for your suggestions in regards to improving our service to include sailing schedules. We do include a link to our Sailing Schedule within the quotation; however this only reflects the next available vessel. (http://www.anglopacific.co.uk/sailin...le_baggage.htm)

Should you wish to use our company again in the future, I would be happy to apply a 10% discount to our publish sea freight charges (subject to minimum charge).

Kindest Regards,

Bianca Robinson
Baggage & Tax Services Manager

[NickB]

This is the point I got rather fed up. Their terms seems perfectly fair, except that they have nothing to do with the Money Back Guarantee. They are linking one unrelated section of their terms to a promise they made elsewhere. Does this seem fair or reasonable to you? The emails continued...

[NickB]

Nick Bell to bianca.robinson 14 Oct (7 days ago)

Hi Bianca

Thank you for your prompt reply.

>>Therefore the 12 week transit guarantee starts from the moment full payment & documentation is received.

If this is true then the guarantee would need to say so, or, that it is subject to other terms and conditions. Clearly it does not; "You will be entitled to a full refund of MONEY BACK GUARANTEE shipping charges in the event that the overall transit from collection to arrival at destination port exceeds 12 weeks, subject only to force majeure or other circumstances entirely beyond our control." That says nothing about when payments are received or being subject to other terms and conditions.

2. You can't have it both ways; " payment is required in full by cleared funds in advance of the removal...We reserve the right to refuse to commence removal or storage until such payment is received ". The items were collected BEFORE I was able to pay, and I was not asked to pre-pay.

3. For your own information, not that I think it is relevant, I paid the account as soon as I was in receipt of all the details from Anglo to do so. I was sent your bank details by Daniel on 13th July but told specifically that I must include my invoice number on the payment so you could trace it. I did not get this number until 14th July (day of collection, on document provided by the driver), sent to me by email also on the day of collection by my father in the UK. My payment (from a UK bank, internet transfer) then was processed the next working day, the 15th. As a UK electronic transfer this will have arrived at your bank also on 15th July, certainly not the 21st July as Daniel suggested. (I later found out this I was wrong on this point, the bank was slow, but anyway, I can't see that it matters)

Please take the above into account and let me know.

With the greatest respect to you, if you are not going to honour your companies clearly written guarantee then I need to be in contact with somebody who will. My next step will be to email your managing director (is it Stephen Gray?) directly to see if he can help. Please tell me his email address. Also I will be telling him that unless the guarantee is honoured I will also publish all the emails back and forth to Anglo on as many public expat forums as I can such as www.enz.org, www.expatforum.com, britishexpats.com, www.britishexpat.com, www.alloexpat.com etc. Its only fair that your other potential customers have a chance to see how you provide customer service. He might also be interested to read how some others on these forums already refer to Anglo Pacific as 'Anglo Pathetic', presumably they are are dissatisfied customers too.

Over to you.
Best, Nick

[NickB]

Bianca Robinson to me 16 Oct (5 days ago)

Dear Nick,

Thank you for your email.

Please note that we cannot begin the shipping process until payment is received, which is further reiterated in point. 7 of our terms & conditions.

Should you wish to take this matter to our Managing Director, Stephen Gray, please do so via email- stephen.gray@anglopacific.co.uk

Kind Regards,

P Please Consider the Environment before printing this Email
Bianca Robinson
Baggage & Tax Services Manager

[NickB]

So now I stated emailing the managing director. I hoped he would be a bit more pragmatic, after all, this is a claim for just GBP189! But no such luck...