Shipment was international, from Baltimore Maryland to hopefully Port of Aqaba Jordan someday. It was the entire life work of my wife and me, our entire house stuff to put it simply. Pickup date was 3/14/2010 with an estimated delivery date of 4-6 weeks after shipment. Shipment started a week later. In the meantime we never received the bill of lading except after 4 weeks. On 4 /23 we were contacted by email to be informed of the shipment being re-routed to Beirut, Lebanon, since it was cheaper to do so. Anybody who knows the Middle East knows it is a completely different country. We were expecting then the shipment to be delivered by land afterwards since the country of final destination was Jordan. Worried the entire household will cross borders of two additional countries to get to Jordan, and the added risk of mishandling and damage, we contacted the company by phone and were promised re-routing to the originally planned destination port of Aqaba, only if we send them an email. The email was sent, a follow up phone call on 4/30 was promising stating that the shipment will re-routed right away after it reaches Beirut for it has not been received yet. To our surprise, we received a phone call from the Beirut agent the same day stating the container was in Beirut since 4/22, that is one day prior to our notification of the shipment being re-routed. We attempted contacting the company over a week span, leaving voicemails, emails with no answer. Finally on Thursday 5/6 we receive an email from the general manager Silvatore DAmato, stating that the company fulfilled their contract, and that they have no further responsibility in the re-routing of the shipment to its original destination. Phone calls and emails to convince them that Lebanon and Jordan are two different countries and that they actually have not fulfilled their contract were not answered. The container is still in Beirut to date 5/9/2010, with daily storage rates of hundreds of dollars at the port, every party including the Beirut agent is angry except maybe Blake Enterprises, or maybe not. We are in a situation where only a lawyer will be happy, so I decided to involve a happy person.
