Warning - a financially painful lesson learned
Posted: 25 October 2008 03:40 PM  
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Total Posts:  3
Joined  2008-10-24

No names, no packdrill, but if our experience can help anyone moving to Spain, then this will not have been in vain. We used a spanish based company to move our ‘stuff’ from the UK to Spain. We were given the cost of both removal/delivery and storage in sterling, although the storage cost was quoted in both sterling and euros on the quotation, exchange of e-mails quoted everything in sterling. Due to family circumstances, beyond our control, I won’t bore you, our ‘stuff’ was in storage for 18 months. On receipt of the first storage bill, covering 39 weeks, I had to be resuscitated - how much!!!! We were then informed that all storage costs are billed in euros (although it can be paid in sterling) (however, collection/delivery is in sterling - go figure!). In the interim, of course, the euro had gone from strength to strength and even though I sent copies of the e-mails that clearly showed quotes in sterling, I had to cough up. I suppose one has to be philosophical, if it had gone the other way (yeah right), I’d be quids in!! but it doesn’t end there. On delivery of our ‘stuff’, certain items were broken, one of which was brought to the attention of the guy in charge at the time. 10 days later, having unpacked most of our ‘stuff’, I informed the company by e-mail of the broken items, no response. I followed this up, as I had paid an extra sum to cover such eventualities. No response. I followed this up which did receive a response to the effect that all such claims must be made within 7 days in writing, as stated within a whole page of conditions in very small print so basically, it’s ‘on yer bike’. True, we should have been more diligent and not taken anything at face value, a painful lesson learned. Be warned, read everything, including all the small print, get everything confirmed, chapter and verse, in writing.

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