Dolphin International Shipping ripoff - did not pay the shipping contractor in Germany. I ordered door to door delivery, paid in advance, but no payment to the best of my knowledge forwarded to ITO Bremen, Germany Coral Springs Florida

To whom it may concern:

Found following on the FMC internet side about shipping companies:

The Federal Maritime Commission in Washington,DC (FMC)obtained a Injunction against persons from a lot of International Moving or shipping companies... same owners but different company names.... interesting so that Dolphin International Shipping has not been named.... but I ( we ) all know the names from persons we may have spoken to... written to... like Megan K.Karpick (a.k.a. Catherine Kaiser, Kathryn Kaiser, Megan Kaiser),Daniel Cuadrado and so on...

The good thing is that our effort to write a lot of complaints to a lot of different institutions seem to pay of a little...

check this link
http://www.fmc.gov/speeches/newsrelease.asp?SPEECH_ID=214

Some info:

Today I called Dolphin International again,to find out if they paid the shipper in Germany...

Kathryn was not available... like usually she is in Chicago and Kelly Love did not get feedback from Kathryn if they paid the shipper.... same old story... I just wanted to hear it again...

Here is the phone number I dialed within USA and it worked;

954-227-0163 this is NOT a toll free number, one shoud be able to contact Dolphin from overseas.

the toll free number is still the same if one would call within the USA. ( 866-718-7434 )

I would like to say thanks to everyone on this website who gave us some ideas what one can do that Dolphin International Shipping Inc. fulfills the agreements in the contract.

I filed a complaint to the Federal Maritime Commission too.
After reading Chandra's comments it gives us hope that justice prevails.

Again many thanks...

Guys, First up, the good news

1) Dolphin refunded all the amount that I paid them for moving my shipment from Minnesota to Hyderabad, India.

2) After I came back to US in the last week of August, I, like all others in this forum have been calling them daily and as-usual got the same standard response---"Kathryn is not in the office...etc etc.,

3)After I reported to FMC, (Federal Maritime Commisssion), (The lady@FMC Pearl Carr was very helpful) she was able to get their so-called Chicago Office number (where they say all our files have moved, from Florida).

4)I called up this number (hmmmm... 773-583-1650), one Marty Mckenzie took the call, I told him that either me or a friend of mine who resides in Chicago would go to his place and collect the checks that are due to me and to the warehouse where my goods are kept now. He said that they would be wiring the money on the 6th (as per thier letter to FMC), but I insisted that they didn't come good on earlier promises.
He told me that it's his residence not an office and do not want people turning up as bill collectors.

Instead, He offered to go to downtown Chicago and deliver my check and a copy of the check (along with DHL waybill ) that they are sending to the Movers in Minnesota.I insisted on a cashier's check, he refused.

The rendezvous did happen, (identified each other on their mobiles)and he delivered the check and the waybill to my friend. The local mover in Minnesota also acknowledged the receipt of the check next day (7-OCT). But, the shipment is not yet released, he wants the check to clear the bank , as it is not a cashier's check.

Let's hope they have changed for good (after all everyone is inherently good :)) and they should be addressing your grievances as well.

I plan to ship my goods with an other (good) company now.

A brief background:

Like all others, saw them on the net, inital quote was $2800, Local movers picked up stuff on May-26-04.

I got the invoice from Dolphin after three weeks for $5514.00,

I told them that I can't afford that amount and asked them to remove a king size bed and other related stuff,(to be given to a friend of mine in Minnesota), they did it after three weeks as usual after many calls and mails from India. (but not yet released the things set aside to my friend pending the clearance of the dues)
New invoice-- 4100+, paid $3400 by paybycheck on 29-JUL(Kathryn agreed for the remaining amount to be paid to the final destination agent) , since then have I been calling them daily...to send the check to local agent and so it ended.

God speed to you all

To anyone having problems with their international shippers, send your complaint to:

Federal Maritime Commission.

You need to fax to them with complaint info. 202-275-0059 Attn: Allen Jackson.

They are extremely involved when your move is from US to overseas.

Select the "complaints" button and read everything they can help with.

Their website http://www.fmc.gov

To anyone having problems with their international shippers, send your complaint to:

Federal Maritime Commission.

You need to fax to them with complaint info. 202-275-0059 Attn: Allen Jackson.

They are extremely involved when your move is from US to overseas.

Select the "complaints" button and read everything they can help with.

Their website http://www.fmc.gov

To anyone having problems with their international shippers, send your complaint to:

Federal Maritime Commission.

You need to fax to them with complaint info. 202-275-0059 Attn: Allen Jackson.

They are extremely involved when your move is from US to overseas.

Select the "complaints" button and read everything they can help with.

Their website http://www.fmc.gov

To anyone having problems with their international shippers, send your complaint to:

Federal Maritime Commission.

You need to fax to them with complaint info. 202-275-0059 Attn: Allen Jackson.

They are extremely involved when your move is from US to overseas.

Select the "complaints" button and read everything they can help with.

Their website http://www.fmc.gov

As of October 07, 2004 Dolphin did not respond or paid the shipping company ITO-Bremen in Germany.

I gave Dolphin an ultimatum to execute the overdue payment to ITO no later than today. Again and not to a surprise to me they did not....
I e-mailed Dolphin International Shipping today, that I will take legal action against Kathryn Kaiser and/or Dolphin International Shipping to get my money back.

Again if we would not have paid the contractor out of pocket, even we paid in full for door to door service, I would not have any idea what could have happened to our belongings.

DO NOT DO USE DOLPHIN INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING

As of October 07, 2004 Dolphin did not respond or paid the shipping company ITO-Bremen in Germany.

I gave Dolphin an ultimatum to execute the overdue payment to ITO no later than today. Again and not to a surprise to me they did not....
I e-mailed Dolphin International Shipping today, that I will take legal action against Kathryn Kaiser and/or Dolphin International Shipping to get my money back.

Again if we would not have paid the contractor out of pocket, even we paid in full for door to door service, I would not have any idea what could have happened to our belongings.

DO NOT DO USE DOLPHIN INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING

As of October 07, 2004 Dolphin did not respond or paid the shipping company ITO-Bremen in Germany.

I gave Dolphin an ultimatum to execute the overdue payment to ITO no later than today. Again and not to a surprise to me they did not....
I e-mailed Dolphin International Shipping today, that I will take legal action against Kathryn Kaiser and/or Dolphin International Shipping to get my money back.

Again if we would not have paid the contractor out of pocket, even we paid in full for door to door service, I would not have any idea what could have happened to our belongings.

DO NOT DO USE DOLPHIN INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING

As of October 07, 2004 Dolphin did not respond or paid the shipping company ITO-Bremen in Germany.

I gave Dolphin an ultimatum to execute the overdue payment to ITO no later than today. Again and not to a surprise to me they did not....
I e-mailed Dolphin International Shipping today, that I will take legal action against Kathryn Kaiser and/or Dolphin International Shipping to get my money back.

Again if we would not have paid the contractor out of pocket, even we paid in full for door to door service, I would not have any idea what could have happened to our belongings.

DO NOT DO USE DOLPHIN INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING

Dolphin International Shipping Inc. did not pay the shpipping company as of today.

We contacted a "million" times Kathryn ( or Megan ) Kaiser VP of Dolphin or her office, but no answer why they do not pay the contractor in Germany. Actually one can not get a hold of Kathryn at all. The office, mostly I spoke with Kelly Love, really nice on the phone, tells me that Kathryn is in Chicago and opens a new office and they do not have phones yet, but the office will call Kathryn to find out the status ... This goes on for more than two weeks... no answer yet if they paid... The shipping company in Germany tells me they did not get any money yet... and Dolphin will not send me proof if they paid or not..

If I would not have paid the contractor, in addition what I had paid in full for a door to door delivery using Dolphin... I would have not gotten my belongins yet and I would have to pay storage and demurrage since August 4,2004. ( it would have been 70 Euro per day !!)
.
Interesting is also that Kathryn Kaiser is listed as Megan Kaiser as VP of Dolphin International Shipping with the Florida Department of State, Division of Corporations. ( signed January 15th,2004 ) A Mr. Dov Wysocki is listed as President.

(dov@dolphininternationalshipping.net )

By searching the internet, it looks to me that former companies of Dolphin International were Globe Movers, International Shipping Solutions, Inc. ....

Also interesting is that they change the phone number that no one can reach the office from overseas. Means one can not get a hold of Dolphin. The website still shows a number not longer in service. One has to use the US toll free number 866-718-7434, but this is not easy if not impossible from overseas... With other words if I would not be here in the USA, no contact is possible, since Kathryn does not reply to e-mails. When I wrote e-mails, I often copied the salesdepartment and Dov Wysocki too, but no reply...

I gave Dolphin until next week to pay the contractor, than I will have to get legal advise how to get my money back.

Make long story short, DO NOT USE DOLPHIN INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING, you may have a lot of trouble ahead. I assume it will not take much longer and this company will change names again and will start the same "stunts" under another name....

I filed a complaint with BBB Southeast Florida. They told me that they contacted Dolphin and they are waiting for a reply from Dolphin.
I will update the website as soon as I have new messages to share.