No Consumer Rights or Protection. They hold your goods as ransom until you pay additional charges. Cartel like behaviour.
I engaged a UK company to deliver a 40-foot container to South Africa, and they subcontracted a local South African company called Kings International Removals for the service. Due to complications in obtaining permits, additional charges were incurred, which we accepted and paid.
Once the permits were issued and the container was customs cleared we instructed Kings Removals to transport the goods directly to the delivery address, as communicated to both the UK company and Kings International on October 18th. However, on October 20th, we received an invoice requesting payment for delivery charges. When questioned, Kings International explained that they had to transfer the goods from the port to their own warehouse to avoid additional charges. (Important to note delivery charges had already been paid to Kings to transport goods from shipping bay to our delivery address by the UK company. They obviously want to maximise profits by adding “EXTRAS”)
We disputed this decision, as our original request was for direct delivery to the address to prevent any additional fees. It appears that Kings International decided to store the goods in their warehouse and impose unloading and delivery charges, which we find questionable. The UK company confirmed that Kings International would not release the goods until we paid these fees, which we consider to be unethical and akin to ransom.
Furthermore, we were also burdened with an eight-week storage fee by Kings International. It is also important to note that they may respond with their own explanation, but the fact remains that we clearly instructed them on October 18th to deliver the goods directly to the delivery address. The question arises as to why they deviated from this instruction, unloaded the goods at their warehouse, and charged us storage fees and an additional redelivery charge. We have asked this question multiple times, but they have not provided a satisfactory answer.
I would like to share my experience and advise others to exercise caution when dealing with this company. It is also important to note that the various associations associated with their website may not necessarily provide consumer protection or any help in resolving your issues so unless you are able to engage lawyers stay well away from using this company. It is also crucial to do thorough research before engaging with any service provider, as these associations do not guarantee a satisfactory experience. This company has held us to ransom and caused significant inconvenience. If you are sending your personal belongings be extremely cautious as when they land you will unapproved charges without any agreement in place they have this sense of arrogance where they know they have you’re goods so you’ll have no choice but to pay. There is no such thing as dispute resolution!
Avoid at all costs.