My Awful Experience Moving Personal Good Using Crowley Logistics - Part 2 San Juan PR

Part 2 of My Awful Experience Moving Personal Good Using Crowley Logistics

On the morning of 1/23/2017 I went on my way to pick up my boxes at the Crowley Port located at (Calle Lindbergh, San Juan, 00904, Puerto Rico), upon zipping around the many corners of the rubbish roads of PR I finally made it to the entrance of the building. Granted its easier to ask and call (+1 787-729-1000) the operator and ask for directions, he/she will in more details describe the router to the entrance. 

Once there I showed the operator behind a glassed desk my paperwork which was basically my bill of landing and my SUPR number on the top of the paper located on the confirmation email of the bill of landing. I waited a good 15 minutes before she printed some more papers and told me to wait in the room next door.

I proceeded to the room which is just the entranced to the warehouse with a waiting / sitting space for visitors. I was asked to sign in to a sheet and I sat. 10 Minutes later I showed the employer my ID (Here in PR they like to document ID numbers a lot when dealing with any government work) he then sent a worker with a forklift to go grab a wooden pallet with my two boxes. He then told me to bring my truck back around, I did so, grabbed my boxes loaded them and left.

Here is where I will fill you in with the "bad" parts. 

Way before I went to pick up my boxes I called Crowley a million times to ask how I went about picking up my boxes. Please note this was my first time shipping ANYTHING overseas with personal goods, so I was anxious to have my belongings already since they were essentials that I needed.

Sad to say but I had to call Crowley so many times due to Puerto Rico's lack of work ethics of many people here, I even had to call Jacksonville HQ just to get a hold of someone here because either when I called the line ranged forever or they sent me to an automated inbox. I had the unfortunate luck of getting an employee who's name I will not mention or we shall refer to her as "Jen" she was titled as a "Logistics Coordinator" many times she was my only point of contact, her and the main operator for basic information as of how to claim my boxes.

 Now before you think I am making things up hear me out. I was told back in Jax, that all I needed to do was to go to the Crowley port here in San Juan and show them my bill of landing and that was it. 

NOPE 😐

So when speaking with Crowley here in PR in regards to picking up my boxes, I asked Jen what where the steps needed, aside from having terrible phone etiquette the coordinator told me that I had to navigate to a website called SURI which is basically Puerto Rico's Tax collections website for imported goods. At no point did anyone back in Jacksonville, notify me that I had to pay taxes when my boxes arrived after I had already paid my taxes back in Jacksonville. I was a bit irritated and tried to argue on why I had to pay taxes to go get my boxes. I even called HQ in Jax, spoke to Stacey Desanto and told her that Crowley here in PR was trying to make me pay to pick up my items. She sounded confused and said that she didn't know that I had to pay anything else but that if that is what they were saying that that was what must be done. So I sucked it up and proceeded to the next step. Paying these damn taxes.

Its about to get good..

While on the phone with Jen, she told me to go to the SURI website and once I pay my taxes on the boxes that I would receive a declaration number and with that number that the guys in the warehouse in San Juan would be able to sign off my boxes and give them to me

Lets all laugh together because it wasn't as easy as she said it would be.

So I asked her to help me on how I went about paying my taxes on the SURI website. She literally had no clue on how to use the website and kept claiming that the website is new and that she doesn't really know how to use it. That the website is being implemented and that she was used to using the old system and not this new system. 😑

 How the hell does someone who is claiming to be a Logistics Coordinator, is not trained on how to instruct the public on how to claim their boxes? I found this very unprofessional. 

So this is where it gets better, she was quick to mention that they do have someone else who does not work for Crowley (a 3rd party) that can assist you on claiming the boxes. Of course she told me the service wasn't free and it would cost me $25. I was curious as to why she would be asking me to use someone else to pick up my boxes after I had already paid all my expenses of shipping my belongings smells fishy right? 
I tried to tell her that I was tech savvy, that I have a degree in Information Security, that I could figure it out on my own.. I could tell in her tone she didn't like that, so finally after she kept insisting that I had to pay someone, she emailed me an outdated Spanish version PDF on how to claim it yourself. The PDF was horrible. Why? 

• There was no English version (you'd think there would be one for a company of its size)
• I had to skip to page 10 just to see visuals on how to get my declaration number
• No high lights or identifications on easily showing "Next do this" I was honestly lost
  
  I proceeded to call Jax to fill a complaint, but that did no good. So once again I sucked it up and proceeded to figuring it out on my own on how to pay my taxes and get my declaration number. I will create a guide for those of you out there on how to do this and possibly save you several hundreds $ 

I figured out on my own how to navigate through the SURI website and claimed the taxes on my boxes, at the end of the page when you submit the info, they mention that you need to pay in an external link. I did that and finally after paying my taxes, I got my declaration number. But guess what.. 

The declaration number was no good. What a surprise right ?

When I called Jen back to let her know that my taxes on the boxes where paid for and that I figured out how to do it. She said please wait (she put me on hold) and then came back and told me that for some reason on her end it wasn't showing up. Total bullshit She then said the same thing she said before. That since it was not showing up in the system that the only other option would be to pay the guy that they "know" I was infuriated and just wanted to pick up my boxes. I even emailed her confirmation that I paid my taxes and showed her my declaration number.

at this point I had several options, I could of kept trying to argue my point but I knew that it would get me no where. So I played stupid and said sure I'll pay the $25. Here is where we get back to the beginning of the story. As I mentioned after I went and picked up my boxes literally NO ONE mentioned anything about a $25 fee of any kind. I was kindly asked for my name, the bill of landing paperwork, and my ID that is all. I went about my marry way but ironically, as I was pulling out of the parking lot about 5 minutes from the Crowley port I get a call from Jen and she says "Hey Franco its me Jen, did you pick up the boxes?" I said yes we just left, she said "did you pay the $25" at this point she seemed anxious and I quickly tossed the phone to my grandpa since he was insisting on speaking with her as his Spanish is much better than mine's especially in a defensive situation. I over head the conversation (because she didn't know she was on speaker) but after my grandfather said that "we just left the building and at no point did we see a desk with Jen anywhere nor did we hear anyone bring up the $25 fee. That if we did we would of paid for it" Obviously I wasn't going to but she comes back and says yet another lie. She says that my taxes where waived and that all I needed to do was pay the fee. I was like "are you kidding me?" She did not waive anything at all I can provide a screenshot on my card. Also how would she waived a federal tax that is required for any imported goods? Hmmm ? 

Coming to a conclusion..

Throughout this whole experience I learned that you truly do learn best though trail and error and through personal experience. A company this size should NOT be operating like this. There is no strategic flow, everything is unorganized and at this point I am not sure if Jen from Crowley is running an illegal scam and charging people for something that they already get once they pay their taxes on those imported goods. Since then she has called me and told me to pay that if not that people from "aya fuera" meaning people from the mainland will follow collections to claim the money. She sent me a Crowley invoice for the money under "transport other".

She called me today and I have ignored all calls from her. Hopefully someone in Crowley that has the power to investigate her and this issue can figure out what is going on and fix all the problems that I ran into for claiming only two boxes. I feel sorry for those who are moving and bringing their whole house with them.

Have any questions or concerns leave your email below and I will reach out.

My Awful Experience Moving Personal Good Using Crowley Logistics - Part 1 Jacksonville FL

This is and was my experience with Crowley Logistics upon moving from Jacksonville, FL to Puerto Rico January 2017. It was not a happy experience.

Part 1 - Jacksonville, FL : Moving My Personal Goods

    Everything began months ago when I decided to change my life completely by being more self sustainable and living a more off-grid lifestyle, I decided to move back to my home land Puerto Rico so I could achieve those dreams of being more self reliant and self sustainable. Having lived in Jacksonville 18 years I practically was raised here, I did not know a thing about the cost of moving across country. So I began researching all over the web of what would be the easiest way of moving my personal items overs seas with a low overhead and even sending my car but that will be a separate blog post for some other day.

The Beginning: Research is the key 

Early one day I decided to post on Reddit and see if anyone on the web would have some advice for me on how to move several boxes across the seas without breaking bank. I posted a thread and to my amaze a few people actually responded. One person advised for me to check out a freight forwarder. So I called around Jacksonville but to my avail I could not get a hold of anyone that was helpful. Finally one day I took a trip to my local postal office, the sweet lady behind the counter notified me that they wanted $200+ (not insured) for each box. I was flabbergasted at those prices, she kindly advised for me to check out Crowley. So I headed back to the keyboard to mash away until I could find a lead or source to cheaply getting my items overseas on a boat using Crowley.

A few in depth Google searches later I found an email for inquiries on freight shipping from Jax port to San Juan. Honestly It wasn't too difficult finding the contact email I just had to navigate through Crowley's website and find it. So I emailed them, here is the original message:

 I was easily forwarded over several emails to a lady named Stacey who then gave me a quote and an invoice for (2) 18 x 18 x 24 Boxes. The total was $102.60(uninsured) for both and I was very happy to get that price.

 Pro Tip: Don't use Walmart boxes use the heavy duty Home Depot boxes. 

Continuation... 

Being only 24 years old I did not have much to take with me on the move. I did how ever have a room full of personal goods such as clothes, a few electronic gadgets and some clothes. Prior to me deciding that I was going to move to PR i started getting rid (selling/donating) a lot of my belonging. I limited myself to only two boxes to avoid taking too much with me. So I went to the address that I was given, I dropped of my boxes and that was it. 

The experience in Jacksonville with Crowley was bad but not as terrible as in Puerto Rico. (Part 2 Coming Soon)

Why was it bad you ask?  

Experienced in Jacksonville, FL 

• Called a million times no one picks up the phone.
• No one at front door to answer questions to the general public
• Had to call HQ in Jacksonville just to get told to speak to the security guard
• Security Guard looked like he was having a shitty day and rudely told me to go through the back door.
• Once inside the building no one was behind the glass counter I had to knock and finally 10 minutes later someone shows up
• Filled out paper work waited another 10 minutes and was told to drive around the back of the building and drop off the boxes
• Found one of the open door/gate and picked up my own heavy boxes and left them on the back door and waited shit you not 20-30 mins just for anyone to show up.
• When I asked about insuring the boxes, the lady stuttered and did not have an answer. I asked her that I don't want my items broken and if she could find out if there was an insurance option. Bluntly she said she doesn't know. Frustrated that it took that long I left and assumed everything would be fine without insurance 
• I was handed a receipt and I left.

         1 week later I received an email of the bill of landing (verification it arrived to PR)

As of today 1-22-17 I am going to be picking up my boxes tomorrow here in San Juan, PR. Part 2 of this terrible experience is only about to get worse. Hopefully I am saving someone out there the time, state of mind and stress of dealing with Crowley. I sincerely hope someone in the board of director reads this and makes a change because honestly I do not know how such a company is still running with the lack of work ethics in this place. But just as in those cheesy late night TV commercials, "But Wait There's More!" you will soon see how much worse it gets. 

Internet Installation Day: ISP In Puerto Rico

As any other utility essentials in the 21st century the internet today has strongly became a must have for many people. No I don't mean you're going to die if you don't get a dose of your daily Reddit trolling, or update your Facebook about your niece's 5th birthday party, but for those of you who rely on the internet for business and educational matters you know exactly what it means to get your lovely packets flowing through your living room and into your laptop. Well for me today was the big day, the internet was finally installed. Granted it wasn't as smooth going as it is in the mainland as with ISP companies like Comcast or AT&T. Below you see me having to physically help the service “technician” install the internet myself..

Holding cable while technician ran it to another post

No fancy Liberty company truck just a beat up old truck

Of course living in Puerto Rico means putting up with an abundance of working citizen tax dollars not being put to use.  We had a post with cables that ran to our house and other nearby houses fall over a few months ago and the city did absolutely nothing about it. So what did the tech do? He decided to run the cable from 2 houses down all the way to the closest post which thank God happen to actually be quite close (across the street) from my house.The post he used still looked extremely beat up and to be honest I don't think it will last another strong tropical storm.

Running cable through living room wall

Nevertheless the internet was up and running. In case you were curious and are technical savvy the cable the company used was a RG6 line. Now that the internet story has been told, ill tell you in greater details on why I chose Liberty as my desired ISP.

More details

So I did a bit of research on Google. The one link that did help me decided was This one

I chose liberty for many reasons, first they where a very popular and well known internet provider company. Second, the infrastructure that they use is physical landline cable (RG6) NOT cell phone towers like Claro does. I don't have anything against being connected to the internet over cell phone tower, but its just that hot spots tend to be quite dubious keeping a steady internet connection.Last but not least, upon going to Liberty's website I noticed that they were running a promotion. For only 10 month contract of 41.99 for 30 MBPS. I instantly decided to grab this deal. I was actually paying more in the mainland (Jacksonville, FL) than I am here and I get faster speeds.

My advice for you if you are going to get Liberty in PR is first and foremost, you must call to inquire about this deal. I don't know why they do not have a portal to sign up for new customers. But I am guessing its because we are in Puerto Rico and they make everything 10x more difficult than they should be. Another tip I will give you is this. This tip is very valuable as I was not aware of this when I called.

Most ISP companies and some utility companies more than likely will ask you for your Social Security Number to run your credit. I was asked to provide my SSN to the liberty operator over the phone, I quickly asked her why she needed my social. She simply stated that its to check if you are a good paying customer or not. She also mentioned that if you have good credit the installation is free, im not sure if she was BSing me or not but I had no option but to give her my SSN because if not she would charge me for installation. She gave me a date of when the technician would arrive and that was that.

Credit Check

A few days later I decided to check my credit on the app credit karma, I noticed that 1 Hard credit check was recently used on my credit and low and behold it was the ISP company Liberty that ran it. At first I was worried because upon Googling what a hard credit check does to your credit I saw that it was mainly used for loans, I thought that someone over at liberty was using my credit to take out a loan of some sort that I never authorized but after researching a bit more I found out that its completely normal for utility companies to run hard credit checks. See here for more details: Here

Also Google: hard credit check vs soft. Its always good to know about your credit and how things work.