Contour Logistics Inc

DO NOT GO NEAR THIS COMPANY.

They have no idea what is going on with one "department" telling me my stuff was in a container sat in their yard and another saying it had not cleared customs. I thought that was bad, but then my stuff was held hostage. Apparently, it is my responsibility to cover port congestion charges, to cover charges for them not moving their containers out of the port in time and so being fined by the port, and for additional haulage to my address, when I have already paid for door to door service.

I am now dreading what state my shipment will actually be in when it arrives. Honestly, if you have no other choice but to use these guys, sell your stuff and buy new in the next country - it will be less expensive, less worrying in the long run.

Move size: Partial Move Service cost: £2000

If I could give this company zero stars I would. For our move from Tucson to New Hampshire, I received their estimate and it was right down the middle of the other companies who had given me quotes. I looked at reviews on the internet and made what I thought was an informed choice. I signed up paid my deposit and anticipated their arrival. I was pretty shocked when the day before they were scheduled to come and pick up our stuff they called and said that the date didn’t work for them and they needed to come on the following Monday. I put my foot down and they were not pleased but they said they would be there to pick up our things as scheduled.  Imagine my surprise when they came to load the truck and it ended up being two thousand dollars more. I should have run screaming at that point, but as my husband had to be to his new job, I felt like we really had no choice. They picked up our stuff on the 13th of the month and we asked that it be delivered on the first of the following month, more than two weeks to get to our destination. We were assured by both our sales contact and the man who loaded the truck that with that much intervening time there would be no problem having the truck there on time. I paid an extra 1800 dollars to have them do the packing. It was so frantic that I didn’t have time to supervise all the packing and when everything was said and done the packing list was illegible and I wasn’t sure that everything was packed. About three-quarters of the way through the man in charge of the packing informed my husband that there were more boxes then they estimated (how is that my fault?) and refused to put any more things on the truck. I had to argue with him to get the rest of the things on the truck including my wedding dress which they weren’t going to take. When that truck drove off I knew I had been scammed, but there really wasn’t anyway to get out of it. On the 27th of the month they called to tell us that our things were just leaving Phoenix. No possible way for them to have it to New Hampshire by the 1st. When we complained they informed us that we signed their contract and their contract gives them 21 days from the date you request delivery, that’s 21 DAYS!!, to get you your things. Our mistake was to believe what they said and not what was written. I admit that was our mistake. When we complained they informed us that “you signed the contract” and offered no help beyond that. When our stuff finally arrived they sent a crew of two people to unload the truck.  When we informed the crew that they would not be able lift our antique player piano off the truck they laughed and said they could. 11 hours later they had everything unloaded but the piano.  About half way through the move I called the customer service line and complained at how long it was taking them to unload the truck. Their representative yelled at me and accused me of being unsympathetic to the fact that this was a large move and they were doing the best they could. Admittedly she was right is was a large move (two thousand dollars larger, which they knew) and they should have sent a larger crew, however, the crew they did send worked in 40-minute increments; 40 minutes on, 30 minutes for smoking. For a full service moving company we hauled many of our own boxes in and set up four of our own beds. They left one bed on the front porch without even taking it into the room where it was supposed to be. They took payment in full before they started unloading the truck and at 9:00 at night they wanted to drive off and come back the next day with more help. You can imagine how unhappy we were at the idea of them driving off with our piano after they had been paid in full. Nevertheless, there was nothing we could do. The company had been informed about the piano. I have emails showing that there was communication about how heavy it is, but in the end, it didn’t matter and they drove off with it and we had to hope they would come back the next day. They did come back at 7:00 am and sat outside our house until 10:00 am when additional help came. It was a joke. They had no idea how to move a piano. I am confident that my four years old could have planned it better than what they did. I paid 1800 dollars extra for packing. There were quite a few things damaged  ( not happy about it, but understandable in a cross country move) but I was pretty surprised to find my glass dishes packed on top of my hard drives and my Kitchen Aid packed in with my two flat screen monitors. Please, please, please people, stay away from this company. They are not going to care if you have beds to sleep on. They don’t care if they break your stuff. They don’t care if you are on a budget, and they have no respect for your time. There are plenty of other companies out there. The company I used goes by USA Moving and First Choice Moving. Please let me have learned the hard lesson and you can just take my word for it, they are creeps.  .

Service cost: $8000

Contour Logistics has to be the worst shipping company I have ever dealt with. I would accept if goods get damaged because that happens but my household goods were taken from the port on the 16th April 2015 and left outside in what the delivery driver described as someones back yard in Compton, California. My goods remained there until pick up and delivery on May 28th.  My goods were completely saturated with bugs coming out of the boxes and rat dropping in some boxes. I could pour the water from some of the boxes they were that wet. I contacted John DeMarcello to explain the situation. He was quiet smart with me on the phone until I confirmed that my goods had been left outside in the rain for over a month. His attitude quickly changed and he immediately referred me to someone else. He would not respond to any further calls or emails from me. WHAT A JOKE !! Luckily the initial pick up was through a company in Ireland that organized the insurance for me. Only for that I believe Contour would have left me out of pocket. My advice is stay away from Contour Logistics at all costs. Its easy provide a cheap rate if you store peoples goods outside.  .

Service cost: €5015

DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY - THEY ARE INSURANCE FRAUDSTERS!We used contour for our move from Boston MA, to London UK in 2014 - 15. In the process they damaged and destroyed almost all of our belongings - 2 cartons were stolen en-route. When we received them (2 and half months late) in London the warehouse staff and us were appalled at the condition of our items.We proceeded to file insurance claims, however the purchased insurance through Contour stated we were fully covered for all loss and damage to owner packed items, however they omitted several pages of the policy during the sales process that state owner packed items are not covered. We have found out that we are not to be covered for anything. This is the case even though we have it writing that they would cover us from more than 2 members of Contour's staff.  Throughout the process they have stalled us for time, lied to us, and we are now in the process of suing them in Small Claims in PA, as they have refused to sort out our claim.They do not care about their customers, and I would urge all in the position of moving or logistics to avoid this company at all costs.

Service cost: $2374

STAY AWAY and let my story be a lesson to you. My story of international move trumps the other horror stories here, unfortunately. I've moved from Sydney to San Francisco a couple of years ago with Pickfords (an Aussie company) and it was totally fine and speedy for sea shipment. Contour Logistics were the local agent for that move, and they didn't manage to screw stuff up (I believe they simply hired some third company to do the delivery).

SILLY ME decided that after this that Contour Logistics are an OK company, and when I was moving back in March 2016, I contracted them to move my stuff back to Sydney. WRONG DECISION!

To give you a TLDR - it's been 7 months by now, my stuff is STILL NOT HERE.

Despite quoting me shipping from LA to Sydney, as all other shipments on that route go, they sent my stuff SF->NYC->UK->AU and their AU partner is some sort of cheapskate company with interstate deliveries only a few times a year, so I am waiting when (if?) they deliver the shipment from its current location in Brisbane (Queensland, a neighbouring state) to Sydney "end of November".

Contents of the shipment was mostly books and household goods. Obviously after more than half a year I bought everything I needed and will probably have to send most of my SF stuff to the dumpster when it arrives, or sell on eBay for peanuts. Makes me regret I didn't simply junk it all when leaving SF.

Hilariously their boss(?) Alex Vayner rang me a week ago, after I sent them yet another email threatening to sue them internationally and promised that by the end of that week I'll have if not the goods then at least a definite deadline of their imminent delivery. Guess what, he never called back.

Service cost: $3000

I'm in the middle of a nightmare. choosing contour logistics was the biggest mistake that i've ever made.

the container got stopped at customs and "randomly flagged" for an exam (much of the material that I saw online states that "random" often times means "container coming from a shipper with a poor history.") it was stopped on december 18th and the exam wasn't done until the 27th. we have been waiting since then to hear back and this week we were informed that we owe an additional (!!) $4500 (!!) for the exam, demurrage fees and shuttle fees.

perhaps the most infuriating part of the whole ordeal is the way that these charges were listed:

$450.00 - Shuttle Fees
$130.00 - USDA release
$3,797.85 - CET Exam Fees

when it was questioned why the exam cost so much, the response was that the CET exam fees contained the demurrage costs (costs for being held at the port for longer than 4 days) and that these fees typically cost between $125-$200/day. a [EDIT] estimate? you send me a bill for an extra $4500 for my shipment, which is a month late, and you don't even have the common decency to send it itemized properly??

the exam itself costs less than $1000 I deduce through google..would be great to have an itemized bill that tells me specifically though.

I have no idea what could have been done differently (pressure on exam happening faster, asking port for special considerations as holiday time likely delayed, getting results faster after the exam that was done on the 27th) but I don't plan on sleeping until I find out and until I get justice. during that time, I imagine that these crooks will try and keep charging us for storage fees or some other fee.

total garbage.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: £5255

The business office was absolutely horrible. They are happy to talk to you when they want money but refuse to return calls or emails when you want an update or clarification on why it takes 30 days for items that have already cleared customs and are at the warehouse to be delivered. They also charged fees that, in my opinion should be covered by the initial fees (stairs and claiming the walk to the door was 75 feet). The delivery team was fantastic although they refused to put boxes where we wanted them to put them because the boxes said differently.

Move size: 4+ Bedroom Home Service cost: £5000

Everything went smoothly in Portugal but we had no choice over delivery from the ship to our home in Connecticut. When we read some negative reviews of Contour Logistics, that was a designated mover, we were frighten. It was a nice surprise: contacts were professional. emails responded promptly, all questions answered. Yes, there was some delay in delivery but they do not control customs and other logistics. Finally the furniture was delivered by two most pleasant and cooperative men we ever encountered: smiling, eager to help, professional in what they were doing . Many thanks for the job well done. Five stars!

Move size: Partial Move Service cost: €2400

Since my personal effects finally arrived in Australia – more than 2 weeks after promised – I’ll call this a comedy of errors rather than a nightmare. The short version is that my shipment left the States with pretty much not a single document necessary to clear customs in Australia. When I started asking Contour questions, I was flat out lied to or told to deal with the shipper (FedEx – who was incredibly helpful, the exact opposite of Contour Logistics).

I tracked the shipment myself and saw Customs clearance was being held up because of a lack of a commercial invoice. I pointed this out to the mover, who said they’d resubmit. They apparently had never submitted one in the first place, and what they finally did submit FedEx told me was inadequate for clearance. I ultimately had to work with FedEx directly to provide the necessary paperwork, including documents Contour Logistics never told me were required and documents that I had already provided them, but that they never passed on to FedEx, including the authorization for the shipper to complete Customs clearance for me.

Among the documents never provided was a Customs declaration required by Australia for unaccompanied personal effects, which FedEX – not Contour – provided and helped me complete. Contour’s excuse was Customs had never required the form before. Really? You have to fill out a declaration when you get of a bleepin’ plane in another country. The excuse lacks all credibility.

Contour’s attitude once my shipment was picked up by FedEx was “out of sight, out mind.” Pretty much all the response I got from Contour was direction to deal with FedEx directly. Excuse me, that’s why I paid movers, so I wouldn’t have to.

Admittedly, they were less expensive that the other movers from whom I sought quotes, but give the headaches and the total lack of professionalism shown by Contour, I guess I got what I paid for. I have asked for a partial refund promised if the shipment was delayed. We’ll see if it comes to pass. In the meantime, avoid Contour.

Service cost: $1800