Complete and Total Dissatisfaction

Origanilly Posted: Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Complaint to Omega
What do you think of this letter?

Dear Alon,
I am writing this letter to inform you of my complete and total dissatisfaction and disappointment in your service and your company.
I do not ever remember dealing with a company who is handling such an important service for us, who claim to be professionals, and whose total incompetence was clear every step of the way.

When we first began dealing with you, we made constant attempts to reach either you or Tali or anyone that could assist us and failed.
You did not call back, you did not e-mail back with answers to our questions, and the very few times we were able to reach you, you always had to "check on the matter" or "look into it" and get back to us.
Never happened.
Tali even told us that you don't check phone messages so don't bother leaving them.

I remember after we paid our 25% deposit, debating canceling with your company because you were so completely unprofessional.
Looking back, we should have taken the loss and switched to another company.
I imagine that someone in your position has learned something about Customer Service, despite that it's not clear in the way you handle matters.
Perhaps you should go back to business school and take some of these courses.
You may have heard the saying that a happy customer tells 1 friend, but an unhappy customer tells 10 friends.
Experts have researched that and agree.
However, these days the Internet has changed all that.
Now, the unhappy customer can post intimate details about their bad experiences on blogs and message boards that reach millions of people everyday and can live on forever.
I, for one, plan on not only telling at the very least 10 people, but also posting on a variety of Internet sites, Yahoo groups, Facebook groups, wherever I can reach anyone who is planning on making Aliyah.
You may be aware that Olim Chadashim do a lot of networking, a lot of sharing experiances, and a lot of talking.
And while yes, people want to know that someone had a good experience with a company they won't necessarily believe the good things written on the web or certainly not the "Testimonials" on your website.
Those can easily be made up and "good" experiences easily posted by someone working in or for the company.
But let me tell you, everyone believes the bad experiences.
Why shouldn't they?As far as Customer Service goes, I have worked in this area for a number of years and dealt with my fair share of unhappy customers.
I worked in retail and people always find something to complain about.
I found an important article that you should take a minute to read and try to absorb what it says: http://www.allbusiness.com/company-activities-management/company-structures-ownership/11599156-1.html
Seeing as you don't want to take any blame for the way our case was handled, I imagine you ignored that article.
But I will reiterate a few points made. The article says that sometimes it's difficult to maintain your composure when a customer is angry.
But let them vent and don't interrupt.
Listen carefully and with empathy.
Try to rephrase the problem for clarity and ask for confirmation from the customer.
Then, look for a resolution.
When my husband spoke to you last week, he was frustrated.
He was tired of no one informing us of what was going on with our lift, or where it was, when it was coming, and even how do we get it??? When he spoke to you, you only seemed to be making it harder and harder for us to get our lift, as opposed to finding a solution.
Yes, he lost his temper but it was not unjustified.
When I called back to ask a separate question, I was appalled at how you spoke to me!!! You spent the entire phone call ranting and raving about how angry you were that my husband spoke to you that way and how now you really didn't want to help us get our lift because of that. I couldn't get a word in edgewise.
If you are upset about the way an unhappy customer talks to you, take it home with you and complain to your own wife, not to the customer's wife.
I was calling so I could attempt to resolve the problem not so I could hear that your feelings were hurt. And certainly not to hear that "now you really don't want to help us".
Once again, a sign of the unprofessional way that you dealt with us.
I know my husband already sent you a letter expressing his complaints. But to reiterate, our complaints are as follows:
1. It is almost impossible to reach you and has been from the beginning. You rarely answer your phone calls, don't respond to phone messages, and may occasionally "reply" to our e-mails but not with answers to the questions we asked.
2. Your failure to communicate with us.
You work in a field dealing with people moving across the world.
Most people have never done this before and therefore are unaware of the process.
Not only that but they are in the middle of uprooting their lives, their families, and leaving everything that is familiar to them.
YOU are the professional here.
You are the one who knows how it all works. And you should be aware and sensitive to that.
If you really do put customers first and you work around the clock, as quoted from your e-mail, then I imagine we would have been dealt with very differently.
We were only aware of what was happening with our lift because of our constant phone calls to VASM here in Israel.
Every time we called, it seemed another problem or delay arose.
3. Our shipping delay. As far as we are concerned, the last we heard from Tali was on September 9th which said she was attaching our shipment information - with nothing attached.
I do not blame you for the strike here or for the "400 files that customs had to clear".
What I do not understand is why didn't our container leave America until 6 weeks after the scheduled shipping date? How could you possibly not keep us informed of the status of our container? You should let us know when it leaves, when it is expected to arrive, let us know that it is delayed, and certainly let us know once it has arrived!!! How else are we supposed to know? This is YOUR job!
4. We were certainly aware of our open balance and had no problem paying it.
You may have noticed that once we finally got in touch with you we wanted to pay immediately and the fastest way possible.
All we asked for was our current balance which you had failed to provide for us until that point.
I don't understand why you make it so hard to pay you ?!?!
I would think you want your money and if you see an open balance, you would contact the customer to inform them.
We didn't even know where our lift was, let alone when we were to receive it.
If you place a hold on someone's lift, you should inform the customer of that hold.
All it takes is a simple phone call or e-mail stating, your lift is on hold until you pay your balance of X amount.
I was not withholding money from you. But for such a large balance, I have to withdraw from other funds and I prefer to do that at one time for the correct amount.
5. Regarding our payment, I would like my $152 returned to me for your "Credit Card Authorization fee".
We requested of Liat, the accountant who one would think would be familiar with such a charge, to send us your policy on credit card payments.
She seemed to be unfamiliar with this and said you would send us that policy.
We are still waiting .

Alon, please send that to me.
We paid the first payment on credit card and that did not seem to be a problem at all.
When we wanted to pay our balance, you told us about this 3% charge all of a sudden.
I did some research into whether that was allowed or not and it seems that charging a 3% credit card transaction fee violates your merchant agreement.
I would like my money refunded to me. And I plan on lodging a complaint against your company for this bogus charge.
6. When our lift finally arrived here in Ariel and they opened the doors, I was shocked to see 10-15 meters (according to the moving company) of unused space.
Empty space that I paid for.
Your initial assessment at our house claimed that we would need a 20 ft lift with all our belongings.
Not only was that wrong, we brought presents and items for other people on our lift.
Our total amount of things maybe would have taken half of a 20 foot lift. And since we had extra space, we would have sent some items that we were told "won't fit because our lift is completely full."
We would have sent beds, our dining room table, and other items we left behind in Detroit.
I cannot begin to express how furious I am regarding that.
We paid thousands and thousands of dollars for that space and your screw-ups had us paying for empty space.
Alon, this is unacceptable!Once again, I am completely disappointed in Omega Shipping and especially in you, Alon Aviani.
I am certain you will lose many potential customers because of your incompetence and unprofessional actions.

Natalie Zacks

The Horrible Company

Originally Posted: 11/19/2008

I don't get this company it's as if they are trained that the customer is an annoyance, rather than a customer.
For those who don't know Omega Shipping is the horrible company that we used for our lift to Israel.

Here is my latest issue.
Some stuff on the lift came broken, so we filled out the insurance forms, but I needed some additional information.
I sent the following E-mail to Liat Yosef, Export coordinator
.....Hi, In order to fill out the insurance sheet I need the following informationDeparture date of ShipmentArrival Datepolicy numberPlus where do I send the form, to your or to Atlas Insurance? if its to Atlas how do I send it to them

Thank you
Shauli Zacks

She sent me this reply
Dear Shauli Zacks,
You have the information on the policy.
Please send it directly to atlas you also have their tell # and info on the policy.

Thank you
Liat Yosef
Export Coordinator Omega Shipping Co, Inc

Obviously, I don't have the information, or I wouldn't have asked her for it.
And let's say it is in my policy, which I don't see.
Would it have killed her to put in the information.
Even if she wants to tell me that I have it and I'm an idiot for not looking hard enough, but here is what you want.
Instead she basically says, don't bother me with your problems.
So I called her and she again told me that I have it, I calmly told her that I don't see it anywhere, and if she has it on file can she give it to me.
She really didn't want.
She insisted I have it in some policy, which I don't have.
I asked if I could at least have the phone number for the insurance company so I can submit my claim, and she says, its right there on the policy its a 1-800 and they have a fax.
I again,. repeated that I DIDNT HAVE THIS INFORMATION, CAN SHE GIVE ME THE REST OF THE PHONE NUMBER.
Perhaps she thought if I dialed 1-800 and wanted to call the insurance the phone would somehow know.
Finally she said she would look at my file and e-mail the information., I'm pretty sure she just wanted to get me off the phone because it's been about 4 hours and I haven't heard from her

These Guys are Criminals

Originally Posted : Wed Sep 30, 2009
Post subject: Re: Omega Shipping

I have been dealing with Omega Shipping since July and these guys are criminals.
It's Oct 1st and we still don't have any of our property, the local firm here in Budapest are obviously incompetent, and now Mr. Boaz Aviani is trying to leave me high and dry with our property sailing across the Atlantic.

These guys contracted a local firm in Nevada to pack up our property, none of them spoke English, they didn't give us a receipt or packing list, and once they got our things, we received a bill twice as high as our quote... but what do we do when they have everything we own? Now, because of their initial failures, we're going to get hit with ridiculously high customs fees.

For the love of god, no one use this firm.
Words like "scam," "con artists," "liars," and "crooks" come to mind when I think about these guys.

Omega Shipping what a Nightmare

Originally Posted: Sat Aug 15, 2009 9:30 am
Post subject: Re: Omega Shipping

We used Omega Shipping to move from Indiana to Sweden just a couple of weeks ago.
What a nightmare.
1. The price they quoted was half of the actual price.
2. They wouldn't return calls.
3. They didn't know how long it would take to ship from Indiana to Sweden - we were told three different time frames.
4. They accept credit cards for DEPOSITS only.
5. The Mexicans they sent to pick up our stuff didn't speak English (one spoke some English).
6. They tried to charge us $10.00 a sheet for each piece of paper they used to wrap stuff like our table and chairs, couch etc.
7. Our stuff had to sit in Chicago because they were afraid it would arrive before we did if they didn't park it somewhere.
8. We had to pay terminal charges in Stockholm and I had been told everything was paid for when I paid Omega.

For $10,500 for a 20 ft container they could have been a lot more professional.
AVOID this company.
Next time I'm going with a Japanese firm.
We did eventually get our stuff.

John the Grouchy Gaijin

Omega Shipping - Avoid like the Plague

Originally Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2007 5:02 pm
Re: Omega Shipping

OMEGA SHIPPING – AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE!!!
We asked Omega Shipping (also known as Mayflower - Omega Shipping Co., Inc., Tel#201-520-1546, Fax#201-863-3535, Tollfree#888-739-1066) to ship our belongings from Seattle, WA to Geneva, Switzerland.
They picked up our contents on Sept 25th 07.
The contract stated that estimated shipping time would be 6-8 weeks.
The contract also stated we had to pay 25% deposit at the time of signing, which we did.
We spoke to Omega Shipping at least 6 times prior to shipping to talk about all aspects the process. At no point were they able to give us a delivery date.
When the items were picked up from our apartment in Seattle, we also had to pay an extra $706.75 for pick-up to the local agents.
After we arrived in Switzerland, we telephoned Omega Shipping on 3rd October and asked for an estimated arrival date for our things and what other paperwork they needed from us.
They said they could not give us a date and stated they only needed a copy of our Swiss residency permit.
We assumed at this time that our shipment was already underway.
On 11th October we sent Omega Shipping an email with final details for customs clearance, asking them for delivery ASAP, for a delivery date estimate, and if they required anything else from us to complete the shipment - no response.
We telephoned them again that week, and the agent, Hillary Cammer, said they were still unable to give a date.
We telephoned again on Oct 16, and the agent, Liat, told us she would let us know by the end of the week (Oct 19).
On Oct 17 they sent a final invoice ($6500), which was twice the estimate that we had signed ($3300), even though our shipment was almost exactly the number of items that we had estimated prior to shipping.
The invoice also did not deduct the amount of $706.75 which we had paid on pick-up.
We telephoned again on Oct 19, and were ignored and told they would ring us back immediately. They did not.
We called back 1 1⁄2 hours later and were then told that they do not initiate shipping until they receive FULL PAYMENT, and to top it all that our house contents were still sitting in Seattle!
At no point in the previous few months had they mentioned they needed payment in full before shipping, and they hadn’t even mentioned they were waiting on this despite several emails and phone calls since they did the initial pickup.
At all times they’d given us the impression that our things were ‘in transit’, and they were just awaiting a final date.
On top of this, they had been charging us storage of our goods in Seattle.
Upon close inspection of the contract we signed, the note that they want full payment BEFORE shipping was buried half-way down the fine-print.
Despite calling them ~10 times over several months (May–Oct) and sending several emails enquiring if they needed anything else and asking for a delivery date and shipping ASAP, no one had ever mentioned that full payment was needed before the shipment would initiate.
Thus, they have been in possession of our personal belongings for 25 days. Despite numerous enquiries and them telling us the shipment time would be between 6 – 8 weeks, they have been holding our goods, and have been charging us for storage.
After having our things in their possession for nearly 1 month, they finally admitted that they had not initiated our shipment and claimed that the contract did in fact mention they would hold our goods without full payment.
During the phone conversation, the agent, Liat, argued with me and would not answer my question on where in the contract it said this was the agreement.
She claimed she had emailed the invoice to me on October 1st – I checked all through my inbox and junkmail, and there was no email from them – she was lying.
She then hung up on me even though I was being polite and was asking a direct question.
I rang back (from Switzerland) and spoke with Hillary Cammer.
She was very aggressive on the phone and shouted me down when I tried to explain that we had been given a leaflet of our Rights as Movers by the pickup company in Seattle, and told me that it did not apply and we basically had no rights to complain as we had signed a contract with them.
I then asked to speak with a manager.
They directed me to Boaz Aviani.
Mr. Aviani again claimed I should have known what was in the contract.
When I asked them how they were going to compensate me for their mistake and my repeated attempts failed to get a delivery date, they said they could offer to waive the storage fee they were charging me for holding my goods (which we had not even asked for originally – very generous!).
He asked if he should ‘initiate the shipment’, to which we of course said yes, of course – it was a whole month ago they had picked up our stuff! At the end of the conversation, Mr. Aviani was still unable to offer us an estimated delivery date.
He said he would email us with a date. Mr. Aviani finally got me an estimated delivery date of ‘Nov 25th 2007’.
He said he will only take check or wire transfer as payment, not a credit card or any other payment that may protect us from possibly not receiving any services from them.

I started doing investigations of Omega Shipping, and found numerous other complaints about them.
Given that after one month they had nothing with our shipment, lied to me about it, and then demanded money that was twice the estimate, I decided to cancel with them and go with another company – hopefully this will work out better.
Luckily I could still do this, as all this time my possessions had not moved from the storage depot in Seattle.
Mr Aviani refused to refund my deposit of $800, but I think it’s a better option for me to take that hit than to consign thousands of dollars and my worldly possessions to this bunch of scammers.
To end the story, on October 26th after getting another company to take on my shipment, I had a long phone call with Mr Aviani trying to get my deposit back.
He said that he would’ve been able to deliver my goods “on time” if only I’d have given him the chance.
He even sent me the booking for the shipment he’d made, claiming that proved that he could do it and had been working on my shipment.
Unfortunately, the booking he had made was for a ship leaving the East coast on Oct 25th…. this was on Oct 26th and my things were still awaiting collection in Seattle.
Another example of the lies him and his company will string you - don’t believe a word this guy says. Omega Shipping sucks.

Do Not Use Omega Shipping

Original Author: Amanda from Wellsville, PA
Occurred In: Vienna, Virginia

Hi - I just wanted to warn anyone that was moving to Turkey and thinking about using Omega Shipping (located in New Jersy USA omegashipping.com)
My family and I moved to Turkey about 5 months ago from the USA. It was a company paid move but we were required to find a shipper.
I researched moving companies on the internet and sent out several bids for quotes, one of the companies I sent a bid request to was Omega Shipping.
After receiving my request, their sales person Micheal called me 3-4 times every day asking me if I had choosen a shipper yet.
He seemed very nice and very attentive.
There price was not the lwest, or the highest, but I thought it was fair and I thought if he was calling as much as he was that we would be in good hands.
We signed the contract and paid the 25% down.
The very next day all tlephones calls stopped.

My shipping date was in 3 weeks, I was not contacted at all during this time.
Several times I called Micheal and left messages on his voicemail asking if there were any documents I needed to prepare either here or in Turkey.
After a couple of days he finally called me back and assured me we needed to do NOTHING, our items would be picked up at our door and delivered to our door in Turkey, no problems, and again, NOTHING we needed to do.At 9PM the night before my pick up date, the driver called me to tell me he would be at my home at 9AM.
I said that was fine. An hour later he called back and said he would be there at 3PM, again, I said that was fine.
The day of the pick up they did not show up at 3PM, 4PM or 5PM.
I tried calling the cell the driver gave me, but noone answered.
Finally, at 6PM they called me and told me they would be at my home at 6:30.
When they arrived, the driver and 2 guys came in.
They took 5 minutes to walk around my apartment and then told me they did not have enough space left in the truck, they would come back tomorrow morning at 9AM and that I would be their first stop and they left.
The next day they did not come at 9, 10, 11 or 12. Finally around 1PM the driver called me and told me they would be at my home at 3 PM, they got there at 4:30 PM.
It took them less than an hour to load my items (mainly boxes and a couch and chair were the only pieces of furniture - we were not shipping that much).
A few days later I received a call from the accounting department at Omega Shipping and was told they weighed my items and it would be 2000 more than the original estimate.
I was shocked and upset, becasue we were not shipping that many things and already the quote was around 4000.
I called Micheal several times to talk to him and each time he said he was having his manager check it out.
Finally after several days and several telephone calls, I called and told Micheal to forget everything and just bring my items back.
Ten minutes later his manager Joe called and said he had personally went to the warehouse himself and weighed the items and I was correct, they were overcharging me that I should not be charged for extra weight.
He did say though that he needed to charge me $350 for packing materials (they wrapped my sofa and chair in some type of paper material).
I agreed to pay the $350 and told him how important it was that my items be in Turkey when I arrived, in a month.
He again told me there would be no problems and that we needed to do absolutely nothing, Omega shipping would handle everything.
We paid for door to door shipping from Virginia USA to Adana, Turkey.

Around June 10th we received a telephone call stating our items were in Istanbul (they should have been sent to Mersin).
My husband was told he needed to fly to Istanbul and fill out paperwork.
Due to my husband's job position, he was inable to go to Istanbul.
Istanbul started making demands. They told us several documents we needed to get, they wanted my husband's US passport, when we would send them papers, the next day they would give us a list of 5 more papers we needed to get, stamped and translations.
THey also wanted papers from the US government.
During this time I called Omega shipping.
I had been told their agent in Turkey would handle any paperwork or anything that needed to be done.
Their agent NEVER contacted us.
He NEVER helped us at all.
Everything was left to us.
Anyone who has had to get any type of paperwork done in Turkey knows it is an all day adventure to get one paper completed.
You need to go to several offices, see several people and pay moeny. It is not an easy thing.
My husband is Turkish and it was even difficult for us.
This went on for 2 MONTHS! During this time, no one from Omega Shipping helped us or called us at all.
I emailed Omega Shipping and called them on a daily basis, no called me back.
Whenever I did get to talkt o a person and not voice mail I was told someone would research and get back to me.
Finally I reached the owner of Omega shipping.
A receptionist had given me his cell number and I called him all day and left 11 messages.
During this time, all our items were in Istanbul and they were charging us daily to store the items.
Finally I called the owner and he answered the phone. He told me in no uncertain terms was there anything he was going to do to help us.
He admitted it was Omega's mistake that our items were shipped to Istanbul and not Adana.
He told me the agent in Turkey should have been helping us and if he was not that was not his problem, we would need to contact the agent in Turkey (when we contacted the agent in Turkey he told us there was nothing he could do we had to contact Omega).
He told me he had my money (approx. $5500) and he wasn't going to do anything and hung up the phone on me.
I tried to call since and cannot get anyone.
Finally we had to pay $5000 to someone in Istanbul to release our items.
Omega shipping is a rip off and horrible.

My recommendation is not to ship anything to Turkey - bring a few suitcases full of things and start new here.
Shipping is a extremely expensive and complicated.
When we received our items most of our glassware, plates etc were broken.
All the boxes were cut open and squashed.
I had to rewash all of the linens and close because boxes were open and dirt and dust had gotten in.
Several boxes and items were missing.
Someone slashed the back of our couch open with a boxcutter.
It was horrible - do not ship anything! Save yourself time, money and sanity! If you do need to ship, please do not use Omega shipping.

Omega Shipping

This Blog list reviews and complains about Omega Shipping a company involved in the shipping of household goods.

Over the years Omega Shipping accumulated a great number of complains and dissatisfied customers, indicating less than an honest pattern of operation

Please feel free to add your story and personal experience with Omega Shipping.