Moving Company not recommended - Fred Mover (Shanghai)

We would like to share our experience with the moving company Fred Move, which is a local company located in Shanghai. My wife and I hired Fred Mover to coordinate our family’s move from Shanghai to Gothenburg in March this year. Unfortunately, this turned out to be a bad decision since we, still some months after the move, are claiming compensation from Fred Mover. Our damages and losses, which Fred Mover has taken responsibility for by giving us Protected content (!), are as follows:

Piano: Broken at two places. It is a crack on top of the piano, which is the sam side as they tilted down on the floor. It is also a damage on the bottom of the piano. Next to the damage there are clear marking from a dirty hand which imply that the damage was caused there and then. This piano is a family piano that was brought to China together with us.

Bed table: Was found broken when the box was opened.

Leather hand bag: The leather was damaged due to poor packaging and not enough preparations to keep it dry. The leather was pressed together and the moist damaged the leather once it as separated. Fred specifically told us that nothing will be damaged due to a high humidity in the container. If something would happen anyway he would take full responsibility.

Missing: piano cover and two bed sets.

1.After some initialing emailing and receiving a list of the broken things, Fred writes about the possibility that his workers threw or took out our missing items. He also says that he will contact the insurance company, which we have paid Protected content for of the total contract amount).

2.Two days later, Fred replies. First, he mention that our claim got rejected since the insurance never got registered. There a few thing here that are questionable:
a.Yes, we handed over the insurance paper after 3 days. However, we got never any information that the insurance was not valid.
b.How can a claim be filed if the registration never got registered? Shouldn’t there have been a confirmation or denial that the registration never happened.
c.Why let us pay Protected content for insurance in the contract, if the insurance never got to exist? Then the insurance fee should be paid back. Since we never heard about this until we go an insurance claim, it is very easy to think that Fred Mover is using this as a strategy. To have clients paying for insurance which never gets registered, then keep the money themselves and hope that nothing happens.

After saying sorry for the insurance issue, he is offering to pay for a repair service of the broken furniture. By doing this, Fred is clearly taking responsibility for the damages. For the missing items, he is now leaving the possibility of them making a mistake, which he on the contrary mentioned in the previous email.

All this ends up with Fred only offering us Protected content in compensation. He changed his mind and argumentation various time throughout the process. We want to share our experience to our families so they do now do the same mistake as us and accept the cheapest offer that says “ok” and “no problem” before the move. Once the container was shipped and the invoice fully paid, then Fred totally changed his attitude. Our family ended up with broken family piano, broken furniture, and damaged hand bag etc. and missing items. Even though we lowered our compensation demands, Fred Mover were not true to their words.

Please leave a comment or feel free to contact us.

Best Regards,
Tom & Louise