I contracted with an international moving company based in NY for my move to England. I paid the deposit on Amex, but they wanted the rest to be paid via wire transfer from my bank. Included was the storage fee for June and July. They sub-contracted with a NW area moving company to pick up my stuff and put it in storage in Portland. So far, so good. That all happened as it should. However, about a week ago I got a phone call from a different international moving company concerned because they were supposed to be paid the storage fees (that I had already paid) and hadn’t been. Me, being suspicious, started by trying to contact the company rep I had contracted with. My email bounced as undeliverable, so I tried a couple of other people’s email in the company with the same result. Phone calls go unanswered, online contact form goes into the ether, overnight mail is undelivered because they are no longer at the address listed. Uh oh!

They obviously don’t know who they are dealing with. I have found their (former) landlord and gotten enough information to run a background check on the owner. I have his personal address and phone numbers. His landline is no longer in service – no surprise, but I did leave a voicemail on his mobile. I’ll be filing complaints with state agencies and the feds and BBB, in addition to bad reviews on Google, etc. I paid the deposit on Amex and they have already reimbursed me for that. They have until the beginning of September to determine whether the reimbursement will be permanent, but I’m hopeful because if I can’t reach the company, I’m sure they won’t be able to either. The bulk of the fees were paid via a wire transfer. My bank has already begun the process of trying to recall the wire. I’ll know about that in a couple of weeks. If I can get my money back, I’ll stick to the complaints. If not, I’ll sue in small claims court. Yes, I have loads of evidence saved at this point.

My stuff is safely stored in Portland. I’m hoping I can get the wire transfer back and be able to pay a new company to ship my stuff without it costing me more. Keep your fingers crossed!

Don’t do business with the ironically named Transparent Logistics, DBA Transparent International.