Australian Vanlines Alice Springs
reviews and complaints

In August 2012 "Your small amount of goods will be delivered in six to eight weeks" was the answer to my question of wait time for delivery from Australia to Ukraine for a "door to door" contract. Almost FOUR MONTHS taken to get it on a ship! And SIXTEEN MONTHS for delivery! WHEW! And delivery only because I had to take charge as AUSTRALIAN VANLINES (AVL) were totally incapable of causing delivery. I've approximately 350 or more Emails with more than 100 direct to AVL, invoices and bank statements of proof of payments generated because of the incompetence of this totally inept "International moving" company.

There's a total of four (4) companies and an un-named shipping line AND myself involved because AVL couldn't control a simple task.

Initial contracted cost was $AUD4, 150. Total cost to me to actually effect delivery is well in excess of $13, 000, a mental break-down requiring hospitalisation and VERY close to a broken marriage, not mention financial ruin on my now seriously depleted aged disability pension savings. Mental trauma and constant medication continues as I try to recover my costs from this...this... well...what can one call them? A reply from my 9 page complaint letter to the Sydney manager Mr Kegan Vallaydam says he knew nothing of the problem until my letter arrived in December 2013, so just WHAT were the people I had contact in his office with, thinking. I have 3 Emails from him December/January saying "...it's not our fault..." and "...we'll have meetings and sort it..." etc. Now, March 2014 has come and gone...NOTHING FURTHER. But I will NOT give up!

I can supply Emails, my letter of complaint to AVL, invoices, bank statements etc from the very beginning. I've dealt with some dodgy companies in my life but this mob are head and shoulders above the rest.

It is my opinion the information, claims and chest thumping on the AVL website are fraudulent and totally misleading in the extreme. AVL could not cause my goods to be delivered as contracted, so I require the initial cost paid to them for the job of "door to door" PLUS I require all money spent by me to effect eventual delivery to my home.

Mr Vallaydam's contact details are;
Kegan Vallaydam
Australian Vanlines Pty Ltd
Management
Ph: [protected]
Fax: [protected]
Email: [protected]@vanlines.com.au

AVL know my shipment as;
158263 Huet
My Email address is; [protected]@gmail.com

I will be eternally grateful for your assistance.
Yours faithfully
Jim Huet

We moved from Dubai to Brisbane, Australia. And the company which we used in Dubai had partnered with Australian Vanlines Pvt. Ltd to clear freight, complete the quarantine formalities, deliver and reassemble our main furniture items. Our shipment was taking on 11th August 2012 in Dubai. It reached the Brisbane port on 3rd October 2012. I tried calling Australian Vanlines on 3rd Oct 12, but it was ringing and went to voicemail. So I left a voicemail. I then sent an email to Australian Vanlines to check on the status of when it will be delivered to us. The concerned person replied back on 5th Oct 12 saying our shipment had arrived into Brisbane and they were making arrangements to pick up the goods from the freight forwarder. So we kept waiting for some communication from them. Nothing till October 9th 2012. So my husband sent them another email to check the status and still no reply. Finally on 15th October 2012, they called my husband saying that apparently they found out from the freight forwarder company that the Relocation company we used in Dubai had gone bankrupt on 6th Oct 2012 and since they would not be getting their money from them(for clearing freight, delivery, etc.) they cannot help us out in any way. We were so shocked and kept calling them to try and figure out if they can help us out in any way but they washed their hands off and refused to help us out. Also there were many times i called them and it went to voicemail and I left a voicemail asking them to call back giving my number but they didnt call back even once.

Finally my husband had to run around to go and make all the additional payments below. Also he had to run around to get the quarantine formalities and had to look for a delivery company to deliver the goods home.

Also the freight forwarder company was charging us for 10 days of storage from 5th to 15th October amounting to 3323 AUD. And when I spoke to Australian Vanlines, asking why they delayed in letting us know that we had to run around and make all the payments and do all the work ourselves to get our goods home, they didnt give us any concrete reason. We were totally shocked about all the additional payments we had to make. Also what shocked us more was that Australian Vanlines didnt offer us any help in any way. One relief was that the frieght forwarder company felt sad for our situation and reduced the storage fee. (We had approx. 12 cbm of luggage and hence the storage charges charged daily per cbm amounted to 3323 AUD). Overall dealing with Australian Vanlines was a nightmare for me and my family. We understand it was the fault of the company we used in Dubai to ship, but atleast if Australian Vanlines could help us in running around to get the formalities done (Quarantine legalities, freight payment, delivery home) with us making the payments to them, it could have been helpful to us. However we got no help from them at all.

International Freight Charges : 2, 737.92 AUD
Storage Charges : 500 AUD [This was actually 3, 323 AUD, but the freight forwarder company felt sad for our situation and reduced this fee to 500 AUD which was a big relief.
Delivery Charges(without any reassembling of our main furniture) : 550 AUD (2, 085 AED)

Total: 3787 AUD had to be additionally paid by us to get our goods home in addition to the agony, stress and inconvenience we went through.

Do NOT use this company. Australian Vanlines destroyed some of my furniture during the moving process. They said they were looking into it, dragging it out for months. Eventually that said they wern't going to compensate me. They essentially lied during the whole "we're looking at it" process. I suspect they're probably not even insured. Did some digging and found the company has gone bust before - don't trust your stuff with this dodgy outfit.

We hired Vanlines to transport our goods from Sydney to London in August 2011. After a lengthy holiday we were told to expect our goods late November/early December. So we moved into an empty house knowing their eminent arrival.

After being told the delivery would be on December 7th I arranged to have the day at home. The afternoon prior to this my husband got an email from their UK contractor to say the container had been opened and our goods were not in the container.

We urgently contacted Vanlines to find out what went wrong, we were told the goods were not loaded by mistake and they were doing what they could to rectify the situation. We were told they may airfreight out clothes, but they haven't done so. Now almost one month later our goods have STILL NOT LEFT the Vanlines warehouse. We are living out of suitcases with no furniture and possessions. We are continuously being told they are looking into a resolution and yet nothing is being done. We are at a loss right now and are taking the next steps to take legal action.

DO NOT EVER USE THIS COMPANY!