I used Sonigo for my recent move from Dubai to Israel. From beginning estimate through to final delivery, the service was outstanding. I have moved my house 27 times in the last 30 years, including international moves to 10 different countries, and Sonigo is in the top 3 of all the global movers I have interacted with. Everything was done on or before time, nothing was damaged, and the cost estimate held perfectly. Response to queries was quick and helpful, too. Highly recommended!
Our experience was excellent. These kinds of moves from one country to another, are not simple and require professional people, who know their job. Biddulphs in S.Africa was one of them, and Sonigo (Ashdod) was the other. The communication was good, and once all the details were clarified, the delivery was made flawlessly. I have no problem in recommending Sonigo for your shipments to Israel.
International move from Germany to Eilat District.
AVOID THIS COMPANY !! It involves professional fraud with methods that ultimately costs the customer almost twice the agreed and contractually fixed transport price. Also many other customers made this experience with SONIGO, as a more intensive research on the Internet shows: In the end the price of the transport always comes out almost twice as high than agreed.
In my case (how likely in most cases) of a container transport from Berlin / Germany to Israel, the blackmail trick works like this:
As usual in Israel all services must be paid in advance, so that the full contract amount is already paid when the container reaches the port. At this point, SONIGO has already had a complete list of the container content and all the necessary personal documents of the customer for weeks. The embarkation in Rotterdam would not have been possible without these documents. All other import-related issues could then have been clarified by SONIGO in advance.
And this is exactly where the fraud process begins: SONIGO picks up the container one day after reaching the port and stores it on their own ground. This is possible by paying an average customs duty on private container imports until final clearance.
Now the customer is faked with all sorts of difficulties that prevent a fast delivery of his container. In my case, sudden missing the approval of the Ministry of Transport for an electric wheelchair, which later leads to lack of customs clearance, then again to different customs duties and ultimately looks like pure arbitrariness. Suddenly, all the necessary papers are missing, although these have been delivered to SONIGO weeks ago and several times as mentioned. Daily new problems with changing surcharges appear.
At the same time, the customer is falsely told that the container is still in the port, it would now produce daily harbor and Demurrage fees of nearly 100 € . As a result, there is growing pressure on a daily basis without any chance to get out of this situation.
To demonstrate the special perfidy of these "colleagues": I am a 100% handicapped wheelchair user whose entire mobility equipment was housed in the container. In fact, I was motionless in the literal sense of the word as SONIGO was squeezing extra profit out of me. To "confirm" the fraud, SONIGO only gave in after the immigration department was called by me and suddenly, SONIGO was ready to deliver the container for a "small" surcharge of more than € 2,000; an hour before the authority call they still wanted € 4,300!
At that time, more than 14 days after the arrival of the container in Israel, I was already completely exhausted and had to meet important health appointments. So I transferred the money, teeth grinding, and the container was delivered one week later in my absence.
All costs, including the extortion monies from SONIGO, have risen to almost € 10,000 for this 20 "container transport, instead of the contractual agreed 5700 € for the worst case scenario!
BTW: The role of the respective local supplier of SONIGO - in my case, the Berlin company HERTLING - seems also obscure concerning the above tricks and maneuvers: Questions about the integrity, reliability and honesty of SONIGO before the container shipping were always answered positively; but HERTLING did nothing to end this extortion process, even though they knew exactly that the container was no longer stored in the harbor!
All in all, this is a terrifying experience. The isaeli authorities should act as soon as possible against such methods to avoid further loss of image of Israeli ports.
it is very painful for me to read your letter which is why I have waited so long to respond....as you may remember, when you told me you had a electric scooter unit since you are disabled, I told you to bring on the plane with you - and you said you could not since you were bringing a motorized wheel chair on the plane.
Yours was the first time I have ever had someone with 2 motorized transport units and therefore this was the first time I learned a second unit is taxed at 17% (VAT only) since every previous time someone imported a motorized wheelchair it has cleared on a tax exempt basis.
So yes, it took us much longer to clear your container and in spite of your clear unhappiness, you did not mention how we spent a tremendous amount of time trying to get Rakefet Ishai (national head of Personal Import at Customs) to approve your import. Your daughter, Chana, was also very involved with these efforts as I am sure you remember.
I am particularly hurt you would write things like we performed tricks and cheated you in any way. That is not the way we work and for the record, the only "extra charges" were for Customs Duties, container storage and container detention or demurrage. These were *not* Sonigo charges and zero of your tax bill went to Sonigo, while a small percentage of storage and demurrage charges do go to Sonigo to cover our wire transfer, etc charges - as I wrote you in real time.
Again, I was very sorry it took so long to clear your shipment, but I want to assure you, in no way was there any tricking or cheating of any kind.
My move was from Jerusalem to Gaithersburg, MD. In Israel the salesman Shai was very nice when he was selling me on the company. All that changed once they had my money in advance of the international move. Even though English was the only language I ever spoke to all the people in the company, they sent me a Russian speaking only crew of 3 to pack my apartment. The packing was good, but they knew few English words to write on the boxes. Bedroom was not one of those words! Neither was living room or cabinet or closet. Everything says “decor”, obviously a non-word they used as miscellaneous. It is taking me forever to unpack and I am having to move boxes myself from room to room. The Russians with no English did not tell me they needed to take all the papers that day. They left them with me and both Ed and Shai refused to pick them up, even though Ed lives in Jerusalem and I offered to bring them to him. Instead he left insulting voice messages telling me I am a stupid old woman. Lovely company! I hope David Sonigo reads this. I would never recommend this company. I went to Israel with Rainier and I recommend them. My mistake for picking Sonigo. The delivery company from New Jersey Best Guy Moving and Amir who I dealt with were lovely, but they also were confused by the non-English on the boxes.
thank you for your detailed letter. I note and am pleased to see you wrote: "the salesman Shai was very nice," "the packing was very good," the delivery company from New Jersey... and Amir who I dealt with were lovely..." make it sound like you had a perfect move: a nice salesman, a quality packing crew and a solid delivery team. Of course I am sorry none of the crew spoke English...but it is not unusual in our business to find new immigrants working as movers.
I also checked into your claim about Ed - he told me he was trying to work with you to try and find a way, via a neighbor, to scan or photograph us the documents needed for Customs.
Bottom line, your actual move sounds perfect and deserving of a 5 star rating, with maybe a little discount for poor language skills (which is usually not a requirement for a move.)
We paid full price for a complete package, from source to destination including packaging, disassembling of furniture, shipping the container, handling everything at destination, and reassembling.
However, the moving company at destination would not reassemble the furniture, they were not paid for it by Sonigo. So, we got stuck with disassembled furniture.
Sonigo simply does not care. A huge disappointment, and breach of contract.
Hello -- We moved from the USA to Israel and had a full container come over. The movers we used to pack up did a FANTASTIC job. Once shipped, Sonigo kept us informed along the way. If we had qauestion, Sam Bassin and Nofar Malka were very responsive and clear.
Upon arrival in Israel, SONIGO staff took care of the customs issues as well as other details. The moving team unpacked us in 4-5 hours and no damage ensued. They assembled furniture and also hired a special assembler for our new furniture. Debris removal process was completed within 1-week of the unpacking.
We could not have been more pleased. Gratitude and appreciaion to SONIGO.
The service we received was absolutely unacceptable. Many of our belongings were damaged, including broken pictures, warped albums and books, and a scratched dining table that was brand new. The packing was rushed and done unprofessionally, with items poorly wrapped and left loose in boxes, resulting in extensive damage.
Despite the clear negligence, the company refused to take responsibility. This is not what you'd expect from a professional service. Save yourself the heartbreak and avoid them.
This company pulled the classic bait and switch, estimating between 5-7 cubic meters, only to try and tell us the shipment ended up more than double the low estimate - 12 cubic meters. They threatened us, said we'd never see our possessions again, called us at all hours of the night to harass us - it was a nightmare. Plus, on their website, the show many affiliations with trade associations, etc - upon checking these out, most told us they had not been members, used to be but stopped paying, etc. Do not even consider using this scamming company for your move!
thank you for posting your message, although I wish you would have published the whole story. Two or three other companies also surveyed your home before your move and all of us estimated you had 5 - 6 cubic meters. During the packing, our crew chief reported you had more than 6 cubic meters. Your salesman, Joe Semel spoke to you or your wife 3 times during the packing to let you know you would be exceeding the expected volume and you continued to add more items. (Hard to call that bait and switch in my book.)
During the ongoing discussions after the packing, Joe offered to give you a $600 discount.
As you also know and I wish you would have mentioned, a court of law in Colorado ruled against you and said *you* had to pay the outstanding amount including our court costs and legal fees.
Finally, I wish you would have mentioned, we shipped and delivered your goods prior to getting full payment and you have still not paid what the court says you must.
I realize that making Aliyah to Israel is both fulfilling and traumatic. Most of the trauma surrounds the transport of your entire life’s accumulated stuff 6000 miles across the globe. Our experience with Sonigo was trying, but ultimately very successful. Most of the thanks goes to our move manager, Shmuel Mantinband. He went above and beyond, to always be in contact, and to respond promptly and efficiently. Our items were delivered with only minor issues, which all seemed to be resolved quite miraculously. I guess that’s part of the Aliyah experience. Kudos to our packer, Schumacher Cargo, whose team packed and loaded a 40 foot HC container in a day and a half, and the four exhausted Jewish/French crew, who delivered to our apartment in a sweltering 8 hour day. Y’asher Ko’chachem!
Recently shipped some household contents/furniture,etc. from new York to Gush Etzion Israel. The staff at Sonigo was very helpful whether it was in filling out forms or answering questions. The movers in America were very professional and cleaned up after themselves. On the Israeli side the company was in contact with us about every step of the way. The movers on our side were very professional and helpful. We would defintiely recommend to others.
Community testimonials, ratings and consumer reports on Sonigo - a professional company located in 6 Bnei Darom St. Industrial Area, Ashdod, SO, 4068. Discover Ashdod, Southern District moving companies.
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