Auto Marine Shipping Company- Reviews, Rate Quote

We offer the most extensive worldwide shipping services. Arranging delivery of motor vehicles and all kinds of goods both personal effects and commercial freight. Our expert staff prepare all shipping documents to enable trouble free exports or imports throughout the world:

- BILLS OF LADING
- CUSTOMS DECLARATIONS FORM C88
- DOCK RECEIPTS

Customer's Reviews:

BARRIE VANDERMOLEN

OVER 40 YEARS WORLDWIDE SHIPPING EXPERIENCE
SHIPPING MADE VERY EASY

Cerise Blair

This company recently shipped vehicles from the UK to the US and back. I cannot imagine a more horrible experience from beginning to end. Nothing went right. Paperwork was done incorrectly, resulting in customs problems on both ends and delays. Return was delayed about a month due to poor handling by shipper of paperwork. After demanding more money from owners, the shipment was released to Customs in UK with the word that thousands of pounds was owed. All shipping to and from was paid in advance. I would not recommend this company to anyone! In addition, shipment was returned to a different port. Beware.

Enzo

BEWARE!

BV charged me storage charges for my vehicle:

£225. 00 from 14.08.04 – 31.08.04 Southampton Port Charges 18 days @ £12.50

But I hold a receipt dated the 26 08 2004, and signed by BV (AA membership no: 6356 0114 3228 9184), wherein, vehicle license number L598 JVN (nb: my vehicle) was diagnosed the AA as having petrol in diesel and requiring permanent repair as soon as possible.

This shows me that:

1. BV was using my vehicle without my express permission on the 26-08-04.

2. We were made to believe that the vehicle was in Southampton Port as per BV's invoice and as per BV's letter of 31 08 2004 which states “we decided today to collect your vehicle from the docks and deliver it to the depot in Barking Essex to enable the trunks to be removed…” implying that the vehicle had been at Southampton Port from 14 08 2004 to 31 08 2004 inclusive. That BV charged me for storage of my vehicle in Southampton when it obviously was being driven in M'sex.

3. BV put petrol in my diesel engined vehicle, thereby causing long term damage. This he strenuously denied in an email dated 17-11-04.

"WE HAVE NO KNOWLEDGE OF PETROL BEING PUT IN YOUR CAR.
WE HAVE THE RECEIPTS FOR THE DIESEL WHICH WAS PUT IN YOUR CAR
BARRIE VANDERMOLEN"

He was also insultingly racist to my wife and she has made a formal complaint about that. To date I have received no compensation for the damage that BV caused.

Samantha Martin

We did our research on this company, as you see their name a lot in Google, etc. We discovered that even though the owner says they are a BIFA member, the shipper is not a registered member of BIFA (British International Freight Association) but told us repeatedly that he was. If you search http://www.bifa.org/Content/s-search.asp you will not find him or any of his companies listed. A search of Companies House on http://wck2.companieshouse.gov.uk/ doesn't lead to any registered companies either under this name.

We decided to go with a reputable, registered, and verifiable company as something just didn't work out right in our minds after talking to the owner.

Caveat Emptor!

Barry Elphick

This "company" is in my experience not worthy of (a) any more of your time than reading this page, (b) innept given how the "owner" repeatedly gives conflicting / wrong advise, and (c) you're better off using a qualified vendor. You would have to be a real moron to......

Elphich Phooey

Hi -- the owner, his "friends" or other nefarious types are clearly upset over their "company" being exposed and are now trying to entice us as previous customers to say something they can take us to court over. That's not going to happen Barrie -- the interweb is "onto you".

We will say nothing more...

Johnny: Chief executive Officer

I would add the following observations for the unwary:

1. Despite the diatribe, the fundamental point that some people seem to be charged for services that are not actually provided seems undisputed.

2. There is nothing illegal about describing yourself as a director of "The Acme Customer Service Company", even if it's not a Limited company as one might believe.

BARRIE VANDERMOLEN - DIRECTOR

We have noted your web site and comments advertising our company.- we are taking legal advice in regards to damages.
Regarding mr Barry Elphic comments- we have traced his shipment.he was advised that he should not have any goods in the vehicle due to security regulations at the docks owing to terrorist activities, we understand our driver collecting the vehicle also informed him and he insisted that he should collect the vehicle which was taken to Southampton docks.when it cane to having the vehicle loaded on the ship it was refused by the shipping line and had to be removed from the docks. we ninformed Mr Elphic the vehicle had to be removed he asked us to remove the goods and ship the vehiclke without them and to ship them separately, we had to wait for Mr Elphic to make the respective payments before the docks would release the vehicle.on receiving payment we collected the vehicle and it was taken to London depot to remove his goods ant arrange shipment to South Africa.we were kept waiting for payments before his goods could be shipped which consisted ot three iron trunks which required a fork lift truck to lift them plus other items od personal effects wheels and tyres, these goodswere packed and shipped
when he made payment. On collecting the vehicle from the docks the driver had to put fuel in it , he went to a garage to fill the tank and at the time did not realise that it required diesel at the time of filling, there were no signs in the vehicle that itshould be filled up with diesel, when he opened the engine compartment to check the oil , he realised that it should havew been filled with diesel fuel, he asked the harage to remove the fuel and they refused, he called the Automotive Association for assistance, they collected the vehicle on transportet and it was driven to our depot in London and drained, at no time was the engine started with petrol in the tank and no damage was caused as when it was re-started by the A A engineer with diesel fuel it started immediatly, the vehicle was taken to the East London depot to have the goods removed and taken back to Southampton docks for shipment. it is noted that Mr Elphic says that I was insultinf and racist to his wife, I have never met his wife and would not be inbsulting and had no reason to become a racist.

With regard to comments from "Clair Blair - we have no knowledge of her complaint and would appreciate further details. AFTER 45 YEARS OF BUSINESS AND HAVING TWO COMPLAINTS WITH A TURNOVER OF A MINIMUM OF £400,000 PER ANNUM, WE CANT BEING TO BAD TO HAVE ONLY TWO COMPLAINTS WHICH AS FAR AS I AM CONCERNED ARE NOT TRUE.
I INSIST YOU REMOVE THESE COMPLAINTS FROM YOUR WEB SITE - AND RE-ITTERATE WE ARE CONSIDERING LEGAL ACTION -

Enzo

PS: I forgot to add that your only registered business, Simons Electrical Ltd, trades from an address in Stanmore, M'sex.

What a coincidence! That's exactly where my truck was picked up by the AA!

In your statement you said: “On collecting the vehicle from the docks the driver had to put fuel in it …”.

Say again? "ON COLLECTING THE VEHICLE FROM THE DOCKS..."

So, I'll ask again, how far is Stanmore from Southhampton?

STUART SEABROOK

to whom it may concern reading this review i have also used automarine shipping and mr vandermolens so called expertise . we used the said company to ship to 40ft containers to mombasa and said that we then wanted to remove the trucks and ship them in transit to the sudan. we paid our cash in full to mr vandermolan for the shipment there was then emails to the company regarding the fact that nothing said any thing about transit to sudan on the bill of laden bearing in mind we were employing him for his expertise
he assured me it was ok and the bill of laden would be issued after sailing he also quoted a certain sailing time in days to kenya then nieve of us the invoice had nothing so legally no comeback my mistake , the journey then took around 2 weeks longer. we then had to fly out to kenya and mr vandermolan had still not sent the bill of laden and said he would send i direct using dhl to our hotel in mombasa despite £400 of phone calls to bv and to dhl mombasa because bv said he had sent the bill of laden which was always a lie!! because this was physically impossible as he had not paid his shipping bill for our load to CMA CMG and they did not issue until paid so unknown to BV i had to get my 75 year old mother to pay the bill in england direct to the shipping line so we could get bill of laden form them (and yes barrie ! i can prove that in any court of law so please take me to court) and they still chased BV for me . it did not stop there as barrie had completely mucked the bill of laden by only saying the shippment was going to mombasa. and a note in the wrong box that it was going to sudan. this caused us to incur around 8 weeks container storage charge for 2 40ft containers at a rate of around $50 each /day as we tried to get the error sorted and a lot of other extra bills to boot. this was because the trucks were to old to import into kenya we nearly lost them due to this extra cost thats why we wanted to transit to sudan. these trucks are know and were to be used for food aid relief in the sudan and a lot of peolpe suffered because we did not deliver our trucks on time. so from me and many thousands of sudanese starving people we would like to thank mr vandermolan for his 30 odd years of expertise
stuart seabrook

Enzo

Mr Barrie Vandermolen is a sole trader trading as Auto-Marine Shipping, Shippers 2000, etc, etc...he put petrol in my diesel engined vehicle before shipping it to SA where I was waiting for it. He stitched me up over some trunks that were in the back of the vehicle and was dishonest, obstreperous and incompetant.

The facts of the case are such (as in his own words):

…” the driver had to put fuel in it , he went to a garage to fill the tank and at the time did not realise that it required diesel at the time of filling, there were no signs in the vehicle that itshould be filled up with diesel, when he opened the engine compartment to check the oil , he realised that it should have been filled with diesel fuel, he asked the garage to remove the fuel and they refused, he called the Automotive Association for assistance”…

BUT! In his email of 8th August 2005, sent from Dircon [shippers@dircon.co.uk] he, Barrie Vandermolen, said:

“WE HAVE NO KNOWLEDGE OF PETROL BEING PUT IN YOUR CAR.

WE HAVE THE RECEIPTS FOR THE DIESEL WHICH WAS PUT IN YOUR CAR.”

So, first of all he denied all knowledge of putting petrol in my truck. Then, ON A PUBLIC WEBSITE, and in an attempt to clear his name, he ADMITTED THAT HE DID PUT PETROL IN MY DIESEL ENGINED TRUCK.

So, thank you Mr. Barrie Vandermolen for PROVIDING ME with EVIDENCE of your duplicity.

REMEMBER: the AA receipt was signed by YOURSELF (and not your driver) and dated 26.08.2004 and gives YOUR AA membership no: 6356 0114 3228 9184 and the address of the incident: Stanmore, Middlesex. {How far from Stanmore is Southampton?]

The AA diagnosed the vehicle license number L598 JVN (my vehicle) as having “petrol in diesel” and requiring “PERMANENT REPAIR AS SOON AS POSSIBLE”.

Did he repair my vehicle? No! To quote him: “they collected the vehicle on transporter and it was driven to our depot in London and drained, at no time was the engine started with petrol in the tank and no damage was caused as when it was re-started by the A A engineer with diesel fuel it started immediatly,.”

Why would the AA recommend PERMANENT repair AS SOON AS POSSIBLE if there was no damage done to my truck? You have made NO mention to making any repairs to my truck and, no matter how much you protest, there IS a problem with the fuel system.

NB: There IS a sign inside the filler cover that says DIESEL in big BOLD letters!

Now, about the fabricated billing, below is copied your invoice of 31.08.2004

Your letter of 31 08 2004 states “we decided today to collect your vehicle from the docks and deliver it to the depot in Barking Essex to enable the trunks to be removed…” implying that the vehicle had been at Southampton Port from 14 08 2004 to 31 08 2004 inclusive. [SO HOW DID IT MYSTERIOUSLY GO WALKABOUT ON 26.08.2004 ?]

You also threatened me that you would inform the captain not to release my vehicle in Durban but to return to the UK with it IF I DID NOT PAY.(Whether you could do this I was in no doubt about as you arsed about for days over the telex release for my vehicle.)

Once the vehicle was in your control – YOU SQUEEZED US FOR EXTRA MONEY! We left the vehicle in your ”care”, you knew we had left for South Africa, and you knew how desperate we were for the vehicle and so you saw an opportunity to make a fast buck! Our invoice doubled with the inclusion of an extra £639! This is was 100% profit for you and you thought you had got away with it…until I found that AA receipt in my vehicle.

NB:

31/08/2004 VIA FACSIMILE – e mail
MR POOLY

Shipment of 2 metal trunks Consolidated Freight

We have today delivered the two trunks to Freight Consolidators – Ariel Maritime, the trunks should be at Durban port in three weeks time, subject to the container in which your trunks are loaded is filled up with goods.

We have to inform you that we tried to have the trunks collected by three different consolidators, in each case the drivers refused to lift the trunks from your vehicle as they are too heavy and could not handled unless by using a fork lift , as the storage rent at Southampton Docks was continuing to mount, we decided today to collect your vehicle from the Docks and deliver it to the depot in Barking Essex to enable the trunks to be removed , as soon as a ship is available (mid September) we will return it to the docks for shipment

We have to revise the charges quoted to you as follows :

£ 98. 00 Driver to Southampton by train to collect the vehicle take to Barking Essex 95 miles
£ 98. 00 Driver to re-deliver the vehicle to Barking to Southampton for shipping 95 miles
n/c Drivers return journey after delivery of vehicle train fare £30. 00
£ 95. 00 Ocean Freight to Durban 2 trunks minimum rate
£ 21. 00 Bunker Adjustment Factor - Fuel Surcharge – Worldwide Fuel Increase
£ 30. 00 Documentation – Bills of Lading
£ 22. 00 Terminal Handling Charges
£225. 00 from 14.08.04 – 31.08.04 Southampton Port Charges 18 days @ £12.50
£ 50. 00 Diesel Fuel Southampton-Barking London-Southampton
£639. 00 Total
£ 50. 00 Less £50 found under carpet

£589. 00 Balance now due
We would appreciate it if you will let us have payment by return direct Bank to bank transfer to Lloyds TSB Bank Edgware Branch 30-98-07 Account Number 3519724 cover these charges- costs.

Assuring you of our fullest and best attention at all times

Yours truly
Xxxxxx (the name has been removed to protect the innocent)

Accounts Supervisor
Auto-Marine Shipping Company

By the way Barrie…meet you in court.

Stuart Seabrook

Still not heard any reply from your solicitors barrie vander molan
surely not another nontruth on your part i would not beleive that of you and its now 2007 are they as fictional as your stories

Nkosilathi Mathe

I used Automarine in December 2003. I shipped a vehicle to Durban South Africa and was told by BV the vehicle would arrive in the first week of January 2004. I travelled to Zimbabwe on Christmas day 2003 on a 3 week holiday in anticipation of picking up the vehicle during that time. As arranged I kept calling BV to inquire if the carrier had arrived in Durban to which informed me it hadn't this went on till I had to return for work in the U.K on 14.01.04. Days after returning and numerous calls to BV, I finally decided to contact the shipping line directly to enquire when the ship would arrive, at which point I was told it had arrived on 03.030.04. After informing BV and getting into contact with the clearing agent in Durban I was told I now had a storage charge of £6000. To make matters worse, the car, a Peugeot 406 is key coded, I'd attached the pin on the key, the pin got detached and by this time I had forgotten the pin. So after severeral wrong attempts the cars cpu locked up. I had to have the vehicle taken by a vehicle carrier to Beitbridge in Zimbabwe and towed to Bulawayo. I then had to search for a refurbished cpu at £100 as new one costs £700 and ship it to Zimbabwe to have the car running again. It was all such a nightmare because this man that says he has 40yrs experience doesn't have a clue and was really surprised so many others have suffered at his hands. I did manage to aqueeze £150 compensation but that didn't even go halfway towards even the storage charges I incurred. I'm glad someone has taken the time & effort to warn others of this guy.

John Macnamara

I contracted AutoMarineShipping to ship a caravan from Southampton to Brisbane, Australia. After receiving incorrect bills of lading (which had to be corrected) prior to shipment. The bill stated the ships name but on checking with the ships agent in Australia the caravan was not aboard! After numerous attempts to find where the caravan was Barrie was finally contacted and a new set of B/L was produced - not sent to me, but the shipping company had a copy and the caravan arrived two sailings later.
Now the trouble starts - the shipping company would not release the caravan as the freight had not been paid by Barrie. Of course prior to shipping I had paid Barrie by bank draft (fortunately), so I had proof of payment. The shipper was adamant that the caravan could not be released until freight had been paid by BV. In the end I had to pay the freight as the storage charges were mounting daily, with the assurance that if they were able to collect the money from BV I would be reimbursed. Unfortunately I could not claim for the thousands extra I had to pay in wharf and storage charges.
The happy ending was that some time later BV did pay the shipping company and I got my money back.
BV seemed to have no concern that I was up for a considerable amount in storage charges.
A hard act to follow? NEVER AGAIN!

John Anderson

Vandermolan took £2000 from me in may07 in payment for Shipping a trailer to North America from Southampton. As i was receiving a trailer that was coming into Liverpool, and because I live in Scotland, I asked him if he could ship it from Liverpool. He told me that was not possible as there is no Ro-Ro from Liverpool. I contacted a shipping company in Liverpool who said they could do it, and guess what, it was The same company that Barrie was using. He agreed to send me back my money, and despite about 30 phone calls to him. I have received nothing. He kept on telling me one lie after another saying that the cheque had been sent. This went on for months before i contacted a lawyer who has now got a county court order on him. Barrie has now changed offices again, and is trading from his house. I now have his full Address, so get the kettle on Barrie, as I am going to pop in for a friendly chat and a cup of tea!!!!

Clive Thorp

Mr B Vandermolen told me today 01/09/08 that Auto Marine Shipping Company were no longer trading and thus unable to pay a customer's demurrage/ charges which previously 30/09/08 he had said,writng on LIS letterhead, that he would pay. When asked whether London International Shipping Co would pay he said they were a new Company and would not. Proceedings will be now issued using the internet court system

Freda

Never ever ever use this company. After a dreadful experience I am now in the process of seeking legal advice. Its disgraceful.