Froesch

On may 2016, we moved from Hamburg (Germany) to Shanghai (China). I asked at least 7 different companies for quote to compare and among them I chose Froesch from Berlin. They were the second more expensive one, really expensive, more than 1000€ difference with the others but since I wanted to have a serious and trustful company, I chose them. Big mistake.
The commercial responsible for our contract was really fast and efficient (for sure!! they are just trying to get your money!). They work with a partner company in Hamburg, so they sent a representative to check on our stuff, he did some measures and also we asked him what we should not bring to China for what he mentioned that alcohol and food, for the rest he said that personal items should not pay any import duties. We had the possibility of selling some of our furniture in Hamburg but we didn`t do it since we were already paying for a full container and having and extra bed will not hurts.
The movers arrived on time, they were a team of 5 and the packing was fast and smooth but that was the only smooth thing about my moving. 15 minutes after the truck left our house and when the cleaning lady arrived, we realized that the person that was supposed to pack the kitchen left a complete drawer unpacked, we had in there kitchen appliances like blender, sandwich maker, hand mixer, etc, one more big box. I called immediately the commercial representative (Gabriel Durch) to see what to do and he forwarded me to the moving manager(Maximilian Bunde) because he was the responsible for the moving. The guy told me that he will send mails to the people in Hamburg to see what could be done. In my opinion in this cases what you need to do is to pick up the phone and call and get a solution right away and not wait for a reply on a mail and then forward me the mail as he suggested in the beginning. After getting mad he finally decided to pick the phone and called and he told me that the next day someone was coming to pick the missing items.
We arrived in Shanghai and waited for our moving to arrive. We got in contact with the Chinese partner from Froesch and she told us that customs clear in China will take normally 15 days. After the container arrived we were advise that my husband needed to go to the customs office since our boxes were not properly label and customs agent requested him to be in person for inspection. According to Chinese partner all the boxes need to be label with the name of the owner, according to Froesch that is not true? who to believe?, no matter what Froesch said, my husband needed to spend 1 morning out of the office (new job) to deal with this.
After we had green light for delivering our goods, the Chinese partner told us that we needed to pay import taxes and overstay. WHAT?? import taxes for a sofa, and electronic devices such as music stereo and speakers, videocamera, mattress and a bike. Big surprise that we needed to pay 1000€ in addition for these PERSONAL BELONGINS!! moreover considering that we were told in Hamburg that there was no import taxes for personal belongings. For sure if we were advised before we would get rid of these things and with the money we could get for them and the 1000€ for sure were would be able to replace them in China. Off course when I complaint to Froesch, no one said anything, normal! they just put the problem on your side since the price never cover the import taxes but hey don´t tell you that you will have to pay for your stuff.
Also they wanted to charge us for demurrage, which basically means an overstay in the port due to a quarantine or any abnormal situation that makes customs agent hold your shipment. It turns out that in Shanghai the normal timing at port is 15 days but Froesch contract only covers you for 7 days!! and they expect you to pay for an overstay of one week when they were supposed to know from the very beginning the timing in shanghai port and if they are not covering it they should advise you in advance of this, but no!! come one who cares !! it is your money. At the end I refused to pay for this since I was supposed to be cover for the normal transit in the port.

Next step, the remain box in Germany, after 2 months that our things were picked up, they came back to me saying that they found a way to ship the box, by sea and that I needed to wait 2 more months for it, because the guy that was responsible for packing the kitchen said that I asked him to not pack it, obviously lying just to protect his job because he did a really lame job. I discussed with them that it was not my fault that the guy was lying and that they needed to ship the box by air. And the response! again the same thing, they believed more to the mover rather than me (what would I ask them to not ship a blender that is impossible to put in the luggage!), but obviously because it is cheaper for them not to say it is free. They are taking the opportunity of another move (another innocent family paying for a container with this unprofessional company and they are putting my box inside their container!! )I am sure that the other party is even aware of this and if it is legal. If it would be my case I will never accept to have someone else box in the container, who knows what is inside!!
So because of someone else mistake we will have to wait 5 months for a blender because they will ship it almost 3 months after our arrival in China.
Finally the insurance, we got some plates broken and a toilet mirror, the Ikea one with 2 sides that cost around 6 euros. My total claim was for no more than 18€. Considering we insured our goods for 12000€, at this point in time the insurance company have not confirmed that they will pay the mirror because there was no mirror on the list. I told them that since it is a small mirror we include it in the toiletries field. So imagine if this is the situation for a 6€ mirror, what would happen with real expensive things?.
My advise, don`t use this people for moving, they are only serious when it comes to sell you the offer, for the other they will not be responsible for any problem you may have, everything will be up to you and your money for sure, so go for a cheap one and for sure since you will have problems at least you will have more money of your budget to cover them. Also if you are having a container check it before the packing starts so that you will not get someone´s else stuff in your container.
Be aware that of the lack of information from their side that will only be against you. Re think again if you want to move with this people.

Service cost: €5300