Seven Seas Worldwide

I wish I could rate Seven Seas on simply moving things from one place to another. Our move to the US from Australia went fine logistically. And their drivers were helpful with a bit of incentive. However, their system for entering documentation for the shipment drove everyone involved crazy. Their system was counter-intuitive and did not seem to have been updated in decades. And the customer service seemed to vary from mediocre to exasperating. The amount of time it took for documentation of our four shipments ended up being exorbitantly long, and I regularly felt like shooting myself in the head at their failure to address issues we brought to their attention. Also, there was no scheduling flexibility at either end of the shipment. We had to match their scheduling, however inconvenient, or pay storage charges. I've designed computer systems, including with extensive data entry. Theirs is very poor and could use a big upgrade!

Move size: Partial Move Service cost: $15000

I thought all shipping options may not be great to begin with, but with Seven Seas not even honoring the insurance to pay for the damages, this represents a new low.

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.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $6644

I was really nervous about our move as we've had bad experiences with shippers before. But this worked really smoothly. We used a MoveCube which we packed ourselves. There was a small hiccup with the size of the van that came to pick up our things (it was enormous and struggled to fit down the street) but everything else worked perfectly. Communication was good, timing was accurate and pricing was very reasonable. I'd highly recommend the Move Cube to anyone - just ensure that the company scopes out where you live to check the correct size of truck is set for pick up.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: £3600

It's simple: they LIE and are simply DISHONEST. Here are a few reasons:

I added UPDATES following their reply to my review on Trustpilot (see 2nd APPENDIX)

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!

[point 3 redacted]

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,

Wan Yi Ho

Business Centre Advisor

Seven Seas Worldwide"

APPENDIX 2 -- MISSLEADING reply from Seven Seas Worldwide

Thank you for posting your review, Niceone, 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.

[point 3 redacted]

Regards, Seven Seas Worldwide

"

Move size: Partial Move Service cost: £1444

Their customer service and process for locating lost items are the worst i have dealt with. I have used SSW a few times with no issues until they lost my shipment. I have been communicating with them almost daily since they lost my shipment 5 months ago through their subcontracting arrangement and honestly the worst service i have worked with so far 

Firstly, they did not even realise one of the boxes was missing until I had to inform them by tracking the numbers. After that, it looks like they have not made any real effort in locating my shipment, with the same emails sent each time I contacted them, without any real information of the search. To make things worse, they have also refused to provide any information about the search information of my OWN BOX so that I can work on locating the box with the subcontractors!!!! I cannot understand this at all as it just shows that they have shown no interest and have put in zero effort to find the box. 

Their arrangement has made it impossible for me to be involved in the search and I would have been better off locating it on my own.  I was forced to put my trust in them to search the box and left feeling like it has costed me the box as it looks they have not done anything so far to locate this box in the last 5 months 

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: €1500

Save yourself money and frustration - do not use Seven Seas as your international moving company if you're in the United States.

If you're in the U.S. - be advised that they don't have an office or staff here; rather, you'll be dealing with offshore customer service representatives (CSR) from Malaysia, etc.

A few examples of my poor experience:

Their shipping document provides a list of "Restricted Contents" however, their website has a set of "Prohibited Items" that are in conflict with what is listed in the shipping document - I now have to have a box returned at a fee to me because of their refusal to recognize their discrepancy.

Each time I called in to request/confirm information, I would be given differing (conflicting) information based on who answered the phone (all of the CSRs apparently are named "Joe").

I've been sent multiple emails prompting me to go to the "Documents" tab on their website to upload documents but could never find it on your website.

One CSR told me "...it's because you need Google Chrome in order to see it"...I downloaded it and still did not see it.

Do yourself favor...don't trust ANY of the positive reviews for Seven Seas - chose another shipping company that is based in the U.S. that may be a bit more expensive...hard lesson learned.

Move size: Partial Move Service cost: $2900

Do not use Seven Seas.

Despite their “no hidden fees” guarantee there are actually hidden fees everywhere!

Once they had my goods they added 39% to the volume measurements and charged me extra and then also applied an overweight fee despite assuring me that weight didn’t affect the quote.

When I finally received the goods I remeasured them and confirmed my original measurements were perfectly correct but Seven Seas refused to refund.

This feels like a con to me!

Move size: Partial Move Service cost: $600

We booked a MoveCube on 24 March and paid a deposit of R4600. As part of the booking, you have to select the inspection date and the Cube delivery date. Due to import complications at the destination site, we contacted Seven Seas Worldwide today, 28 March to cancel the service. They have not done a single thing, however, according to their Ts&Cs we are not eligible for a refund as we've already made a booking for a site inspection. What absolute nonsense is this - a site inspection is literally someone that will drive to my house to ensure there is parking for the truck. But because this is scheduled in their system, I cannot get a refund!!!!! Worst customer service ever!

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: 4600ZAR

My wife and I recently moved from London to Los Angeles and used Seven Seas Worldwide.
We used this company to ship our most valuable items as we wanted them in our new home within 2 weeks.
Our 10 boxes full of wedding gifts, honeymoon purchases from aournd the world,items given to my wife from her mother and grandfather who have both past away from Cancer..
The boxes arrived, CRUSHED, TORN, SQUASHED,ITEMS SHATTERED TO PIECES!! Not just 1 box but over 7 out of 10 of them, all clearly marked FRAGILE wrapped in bubble wrap, extra padding and put into solid double ply cardboard.
My wife was in tears for days.. memories destroyed forever, items that were irreplaceable were completely destroyed!
We contacted Seven Seas Worldwide and I was Given Jane Elwell's e mail address as she was the manager of customer services.
She asked for pictures and evidence.
A couple of weeks ago my wife's grandmother got diagnosed with cancer.. we understandably had a little delay of a couple of weeks providing pictures to Jane as we were dealing with this tragic news.
After putting all the pictures together ( and there are MANY) my wife sent them off.
The response and I quote:

" You have stated below the additional images of the boxes, as they appeared on arrival, would be provided but I regret not to have received these and a period has now passed since the delivery was performed that it it will subsequently be unlikely for liability upon the courier to be accepted"

Jane Elwell NEVER mentioned that there was a time limit in ANY of her e mails. Of course Jane doesn't have a direct contact to discuss the matter.. instead I keep getting redirected to Malaysia. How convenient!

Seven Seas Worldwide thank you for destroying our most valuable personal belongings and memories.
Thank you for dealing with things the way you have, a true disgrace to how a company and customer services should operate.

To all those that have taken the time read thank you, and please find attached all pictures on Seven Seas Worldwide's Facebook page.

I truly hope that such a terrible and deeply wounding experience never has to happen to anyone else!

Marlow Warrington.

Service cost: $1000

STAY AWAY. My items were handled extremely roughly and sustained multiple forceful impacts. Everything was packed and wrapped with care, using their boxes, and every box was nearly split open when it arrived. Multiple electronics items inside were damaged heavily, as the boxes looked like they were THROWN from the container ship onto the docks.

https://puu.sh/EQrNZ/1ef1fd311b.jpg

Every item was wrapped and placed inside the box. What kind of force did the box take to sustain enough damage to a metal appliance inside that the metal was crushed and plastics utterly shattered?

You have just lost a repeat customer and I would warn people to stay away.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $1000