About
Seven Seas Worldwide Shipping services helps you move excess baggage, personal belongings and commercial items all over the world at an affordable price. Whether you’ve packed one suitcase too many for a holiday or moving abroad for good, they can be there with you from A to B and Door to Door.
Sirelo asks...
What is your insurance policy? How do you deal with damaged items?
What is the best advice you would give to customers?
Reviews
Our items were packed professionally and I’ve added job number! I can make public photos and add photos Also for people to see!
No care was taken. Don’t try to message and lie. Proof is here!
Storage is usually applied when either we have not been paid for the job or the documentation is not complete or both, at which point we have no choice but to apply storage until the situation is corrected.
Regards, Seven Seas Worldwide
[I included UPDATES based on their dishonest reply on trustpilot, see APPENDIX 2]
1) UNETHICAL BUSINESS PRACTICE – I booked a shipment from the UK to Switzerland. They imported my stuff to Belgium (EU) for storage instead, so now I have to pay import duty ON MY OWN STUFF to get it to Switzerland (because the 2-year grace period has now expired). I found an easy solution: they could just ship my stuff the my parents' in France. They quoted me 1203.99 EUR to change the delivery address. For context, that's the same as the original shipping from the UK to Switzerland. They outsource final delivery from Antwerp to the final destination to UPS (by their own admission) so the price for them to ship to me in Zurich or to Lyon is equal or close to equal. Changing the address that a 3rd party shipping provider will be forwarding to is an admin or service task and should be billed as such. They are unethical, unfair, and dishonest.
UPDATE: I have now given up on all this and requested my stuff to be delivered to Zurich as planned but was told my stuff isn't ready for shipping yet, despite having passed customs and having been stored in their facility in Antwerp since Oct 2nd. It is now Oct 30th and 'they will get back to me' about when my stuff will be available. They suggest the delay mentioned later on in this review is my fault for not making my mind up but that's not the case as you can see from their email I copied at the very bottom of this review (see APPENDIX, dated 30th October).
2) CUSTOMER SERVICE MAKES FUN OF YOU – When I called to explain my position above the attendant proceeded to give me a bunch of unreasonable explanations such as 'you already paid for this stuff to end up in Zurich so now if we have to change address it's a whole new shipping agreement and we cannot refund the old one'. Of course you can 'refund the old one' because you haven't yet outsourced the delivery to UPS from the depot in Antwerp to Zurich, so you can simply decide to tell UPS to deliver to Lyon when you book that transit instead. That's how 3PL works. When I interrupted the attendant to tell them I wasn't interested in how they justified not doing something entirely feasible, he told me he had 'nothing to say'.
UPDATE: THEY NOW CLAIM THEY DON'T USE UPS BUT I HAVE AN EMAIL FROM THEM ON 27/10/23 STATING: '> Our depot is located in Belgium. Delivery to your address in Switzerland will be with our third party agent called UPS Mondays to Fridays'. See? ONLY LIES.
UPDATE: After digging a hole for themselves, they seem to have finally 'made my stuff available' for shipping out from storage (31st Oct). Note that I had to call to find out: they didn't let me know, of course. What's funny is that a few minutes after I called to set up the delivery, I got 14 emails from UPS (one for each box in my shipment) stating that the box was due to be delivered from Antwerp to Zurich next week. SEE THEIR REPLY BELOW: THEY WILL LIE THROUGH THEIR TEETH. Save yourself money, and save the world from this parasitic company: just book shipping directly through UPS! Or better yet, in my experience, DPD.
3) MISSLEADING – I asked if they could ship part of the items early and store the rest. They said 'maybe, we'll let you know' so I booked and paid for extra storage time in advance (with them). They then came back and said no. Since I need part of my stuff, I'll now need to get it all delivered. They won't refund un-used storage time (illegal under cooling off EU law, btw). EDIT: threat of legal action got them to abide by the Law with an email beginning 'Please be advised that upon further review...'.
UPDATE: THEY NOW CLAIM THERE IS NO COOLING OFF PERIOD TO DISCREDIT ME SO I COPY DIRECTLY FROM THE EU WEBSITE BELOW: 'As a consumer, you have certain rights when shopping from a distance, e.g. a refelection period of 14 calendar days to change your mind without having to give a reason, known as the ‘cooling-off period’ or 'cancellation period'. These rights are governed by the Consumer Rights Directive 2011/83/EU.'
APPENDIX:
As per their email I copy below, my stuff has cleared customs in Belgium (despite what they say in their misleading reply) AND THIS HAPPENED 4 WEEK AGO YET FOR SOME REASON AS OF 30/10 THEY STILL CAN'T RELEASE MY STUFF.
'Dear Enrico,
Job Number: [redacted]
We understand that your items have cleared custom about 4 weeks ago and currently located in Antwerp.
We are currently checking with the warehouse to see whether items are ready for delivery.
Please bear with us while we check.
For further clarification, please do not hesitate to give us a ring at 0333 733 7337 (UK) or +44 333 733 7337 (EU).
Thank you and take care.
Regards,
[Name removed by Sirelo]
Business Centre Advisor
Seven Seas Worldwide'
APPENDIX 2: their misleading reply to me on trustpilot:
'
Reply from Seven Seas Worldwide
Updated a day ago
Thank you for posting your review, [Nameremoved by Sirelo] we will take each point you have listed in term:
1. You wish to move your possession from the UK to Switzerland, this move is between two customs areas and requires customs clearance which, in your case, resulted in taxes and duties to be paid in Switzerland. You then wanted to explore an alternative to deliver in France, which you correctly quoted in your posting. These are the charges for moving your shipment of approximately 1.4 cubic metres within the EU.
We could not act until you confirmed which option you wished to select: to Switzerland or to France, you have now decided to resume the shipment to Switzerland.
2. We will investigate your claim that our Advisors made 'fun of you' but, for your information, we do not use UPS to deliver to Switzerland except at the very last stage once within the country. You had incurred costs with your original UK - Switzerland job so this was not a straight swap as you suggest.
3. You were given 2 -weeks free storage, you paid for an additional week of storage which has now been refunded. There is no 'cooling off' period but, per our terms and conditions, you are entitled to a refund on a service within 2 weeks of purchasing it, if no other costs have been incurred. The contract remains UK - Switzerland so EU law does not apply.
Regards, Seven Seas Worldwide
'Read more
1. You wish to move your possession from the UK to Switzerland, this move is between two customs areas and requires customs clearance which, in your case, resulted in taxes and duties to be paid in Switzerland. You then wanted to explore an alternative to deliver in France, which you correctly quoted in your posting. These are the charges for moving your shipment of approximately 1.4 cubic metres within the EU.
We could not act until you confirmed which option you wished to select: to Switzerland or to France, you have now decided to resume the shipment to Switzerland.
2. We will investigate your claim that our Advisors made "fun of you" but, for your information, we do not use UPS to deliver to Switzerland except at the very last stage once within the country. You had incurred costs with your original UK - Switzerland job so this was not a straight swap as you suggest.
UPDATE: We h ave now listened to all the recording of our calls with you. There is no evidence of our Advisors being unprofessional but we fully understand your frustration.
3. You were given 2 -weeks free storage, you paid for an additional week of storage which has now been refunded. There is no "cooling off" period but, per our terms and conditions, you are entitled to a refund on a service within 2 weeks of purchasing it, if no other costs have been incurred. The contract remains UK - Switzerland so EU law does not apply.
UPDATE: The contract was with a UK company, Seven Seas Worldwide Ltd. whatever country your shipment travels does not affect the original contract.
Regards, Seven Seas WorldwideRead more
Regards, Seven Seas Worldwide
Secondly, I encountered a significant inconvenience when it came to scheduling the delivery of my shipment. While your company provided a specific delivery day, there was no indication whether the delivery would take place in the morning or the afternoon. To make matters worse, only two days before the scheduled delivery, I was informed that the delivery window would be between 1:00 PM and 4:00 PM. This posed a serious problem for me, as I had a pre-existing medical appointment to attend.
In an attempt to resolve the situation, I contacted your customer service. However, my experience was far from satisfactory. The person I spoke with, or possibly an AI, seemed incapable of addressing my concerns. When I inquired about the possibility of rescheduling the delivery to the morning or on another day, I was met with a response that lacked empathy and understanding. The representative simply insisted that there would be a charge of 70 SGD for rescheduling or in case of a failed delivery. This rigid stance failed to account for the fact that the charges remained the same, regardless of whether I proactively attempted to reschedule or allowed the delivery to fail and necessitate rescheduling later. This not only demonstrated a lack of flexibility on your company's part but also seemed to prioritize revenue over customer satisfaction.
I must say that I am truly disappointed with the entire experience I had with SevenSeas Worldwide. As a result, I feel compelled to share my experience with others, cautioning them to think twice before using your services. The lack of transparency and inflexibility in customer service are significant areas in need of improvement, and I hope that you will take my feedback into account to prevent similar experiences for your future customers.
I trust that you will investigate these concerns and consider changes to your company's practices in order to provide a more honest and customer-focused service.Read more
1. Your order was placed online, our quote very clearly and explicitly explains the charges both in the origin country and the destination country.
2. You can view our detailed PDF quote online and this copy is also emailed to you upon placing your order. This detailed quote also provides the days and times of operation in each country, whether our vans are involved or our partners and how the delivery process works i.e. we send you the time of arrival between 24 - 36 hours before the day that has been booked.
3. We do not offer AM or PM on our quote and we recommend that you leave the day clear precisely because we do not know the arrival time until we schedule our vehicles the day before.
The requirements you seek from our service were never promised or quoted so you are perhaps wise to seek an alternative service prov ider to move your possessions next time, if one exists at the price you are willing to pay.
Regards, Seven Seas WorldwideRead more
My order / route: Shipped personal articles from Asia to USA for family relocation
- INSURANCE: even PREMIUM insurance option does NOT actually pay for the damages unless Seven Seas are shown clear damages to the outer boxes, even when all boxes are marked FRAGILE but was clearly thrown around causing said damages. I wrapped a wooden box with a blanket and packing materials to put inside the cardboard shipping box, and the wooden box inside still fell apart, and they won't pay for this. CONSTRUCTIVE FEEDBACK: Should not provide Premium Insurance as an option if it’s not Premium.
- DEALING WITH DAMAGES: somewhat expected with so many different handlers in between, boxes aren’t handled with care and we ended up with some broken glasses etc. CONSTRUCTIVE FEEDBACK: Seven Seas should select intermediaries more carefully.
- SHIPPING TIME: more than DOUBLED TRANSIT TIME, with the quotation states 37-45 days for transit, when in reality exactly 80 calendar days from pickup date to delivery of all boxes; that’s over 200% margin of error. Before I selected Seven Seas I asked them twice how good is the 37-45 days estimate and whether that means I should get the boxes by certain date range on the calendar, and they would say yes; with my actual experience now, I find that to be a gross misrepresentation. CONSTRUCTIVE FEEDBACK: Give honest representation of shipping time.
- COMMUNICATIONS (or general lack of): yes, there are system email updates, but I still had to chase multiple times for whenever the process is “stuck”, such as when the shipments are on the vessel but missed they estimated arrival date, they only replied me after I emailed them TWICE. Seven Seas did not even provide tracking for UPS (last mile delivery) until after UPS had already showed up to deliver the first batch of boxes. CONSTRUCTIVE FEEDBACK: Train your agents to be proactive in communications especially when there are missed deadlines, and incorporate needed tracking numbers such as UPS into your system.
- SHIPPING FORMS: the red flag that came too late for me, as they contacted me four separate times in the span of over a week, to tell me I had to make various changes to the insurance form that weren’t indicated on their instructions. (and of course they say this caused more delays even though it’s their issue) Had there been a person or team that actually reviewed documents competently in one sitting, there would be no need to contact me four separate times for all the changes on one single form. CONSTRUCTIVE FEEDBACK: Train your team to review with a simple form with care and provide timely updates.
- SELF PACKING: for similar pricing, other companies send their teams to do the packing. I selected Seven Seas because I thought they would ship faster. They did NOT even provide enough bubble wrap to protect all the fragile goods, and asked me to purchased more on my own (which I’m glad I did), since at least my heavily wrapped dinnerware sets are in one piece. CONSTRUCTIVE FEEDBACK: Customers are shipping things they care about (otherwise why ship them) so Seven Seas should care about packing and shipping too, to provide enough packing material like bubble wrap.
- CALL CENTER: Most of the call center agents in the Asia time-zone who handled my order are well-trained and friendly, despite it was them who provided the misrepresentation of the shipping time. CONSTRUCTIVE FEEDBACK: Either build the internal processes to be more understandable to your agents or train them to be honest about estimates, as to not misrepresent what your service can actually deliver.Read more
Damage Our service is self packing, we do provide bubble wrap, tape and a marker pen to assist with the packing of the contents. We offer an estimate of the packing material from past experience and suggest you add more, if you think necessary.
We do not offer a packing service but do offer advise on packing. If the boxes arrive at the destination in the same condition they were sent then we have fulfilled our contractual obligation to you. If the contents are found to be damaged this is a reflection of how the contents were packed and outside our ability to control or take responsibility.
Your insurance claim is sent to an independent assessor we have no involvement in the process or the decision.
You provide the valuation of the contents, we regret if this is insufficient.
Delay, we offer our sincere apologies for the delay, there were typhoons back to back at that time which severely disrupted the scheduled the arrival of ships but we regret the inconvenience this caused.
Delivery Our quote states the operational days we operate in both Hong Kong and the USA and whether it will be our van delivering or or our agents, in this case UPS.
We reject your suggestion that our Advisors mislead you or misrepresented information, we provided you with the information that we had at that time, honestly and in good faith.
Regards, Seven Seas WorldwideRead more
Our Boxes and Baggage service by sea, the service you selected, is a self-packing service. We provide heavy-duty packing boxes, bubble wrap and tape as part of the service as well as online guidance we cannot take responsibility for the way items are packed.
In the event you are shipping fragile items like a mirror we strongly recommend you have such items professionally packed - we can still ship the item once packed. This is stated on our quote and website.
We offer two types of insurance, these are clearly defined on our website and our online documentation. You selected Basic which as the name suggests only protects you against the shipment being lost, it does not cover you for damage to the contents of the shipment.
UPDATE, as you are aware, we have listened to all the calls with our Advisors and can find no recording that supports your claim that one of our Advisors recommended selecting Basic insurance for damage.
Regards, Seven Seas WorldwideRead more