One of the things about being an ‘independent’ contractor/consultant is that everyone assumes that you have loads of money. Sure, you may get a bit more in your pay packet than Johnny Punchclock, but there are a lot more factors to take into consideration – things that a salaried employee’s company shells out for. One of these things in moving expenses.
I’ve been fortunate in that my work has taken me to a number of different places: from England to Belgium, from there to Singapore, then to the U.S., then back to Belgium, and finally (so far) back to the U.S. again. The downside is that every time I’ve moved, I’ve had to pay for it myself, including the direct cost of shipping everything a family of (now) 5 owns, international flights, hotels (or a brothel, when we moved to Singapore – cheapest hotel in town, even by the hour!), the indirect cost of selling/buying cars, domestic appliances, and anything with a different voltage, having your landlord keep your deposit for spurious reasons, and so on, and so on. All told, I’ve worked out that an international move costs anywhere between $20,000 to $30,000 depending on source and destination countries, exchange rates, and taxes/bureaucracy. Which is not insignificant when you have to do that every couple of years. So I can’t be blamed for wanting to trim the costs where I can.
Several years ago we moved from Texas to Brussels. I asked my wife to obtain three competitive quotes from moving companies – one reputable international mover, one nationally-based moved, and one local mover. The local mover – which was Anderson International Transport (AIT) – came in with the cheapest quote, so we went with them. In fact, they were less than half the cost of the international mover – which with hindsight should have maybe been a warning sign…
Anyway, on moving day, Owen Anderson (proprietor of AIT) – who turned out to be an English gentleman of color (I’m just saying…) and a couple of ‘casual labourers’ turned up and loaded everything into a 40′ container that had appeared outside our house a few days earlier. Actually, they loaded almost everything into the container – they missed a whole closet of stuff (which thankfully I noticed before they’d left) and we had to leave behind some garden furniture that just wouldn’t fit in. Mr. Anderson padlocked the container, handed me the key, and assured me that it would all get to my new house in Belgium, in one piece.
Six weeks later, I’m in the new house in Brussels, sleeping on a blow-up bed, with a new baby (Gil), eagerly awaiting the arrival of our stuff, when I get an email from someone at the docks in Antwerp informing me that my container had arrived, and asking me when I wanted to collect it. I replied that AIT were taking care of that, and asked him to contact Mr. Anderson. He responded saying that he had already tried to contact Anderson to no avail, and that it was all nothing to do with him (the Belgian) – he had no agreement with AIT, and had only taken my container off the ship in the first place as a favor to the shipping line who needed to get it off the vessel so that they could sail again, so could I please come and collect it.
After several emails and a couple of phone calls, I finally got hold of Anderson myself. He told me that his ‘regular guy’ (apparently he was a big enough shipper to have a ‘regular guy’ in Belgium!) had let him down, that he’d tried to find someone else, but couldn’t afford to pay the higher prices they were quoting. All of which sounded like bullshit to me, but the people at the docks were charging me daily demurrage, so I had to do something fast. So I found a transportation company myself (through my new friend at the docks), and got a quote for $2,500 to move the container the 50km from Antwerp to Brussels and unload it at my new house. I agreed with Anderson that he’d pay $1,500 of this, and I’d stump up the remaining $1,000. Anderson assured me that a wire transfer was on its way (he even faxed me the FedEx Airwaybill as proof he had sent it), and to save further demurrage charges, I paid the full amount to the Belgian transportation company myself.
Needless to say, payment never turned up from Anderson (Fedex said the Airwaybill had never been registered). I got one sob story after another – he’d broken his (presumably cheque-writing) arm, a payment from another customer had bounced leaving him short, his bank had frozen his account, etc., etc.. Eventually I gave up chasing him, and basically wrote off the money. Not that I can necessarily just throw away a grand and a half, but even with the extra $2,500 I’d had to shell out, using AIT was actually still cheaper than the next least-expensive mover, so I reasoned that it could be worse. And at least we had all of our stuff – and most of it unbroken.
A couple of years later, we moved back to the U.S. I did consider using AIT again (some people never learn!) and just net out the money he owed me, but there was no guarantee he wouldn’t pull the same shit again, so I went with Allied. When we first got back I did consider paying him a visit and extracting $1,500 of value out of him one way or another, but never got round to it. As I say, I’d already written off the money. I had lodged a complaint with the Better Business Bureau in Houston, but they announced that as “AIT wasn’t a member of the BBB” there was nothing they could do. Jeez, talk about a toothless watchdog! Obviously if a business is up to something dodgy they’re not going to join BBB in the first place…
A couple more years passed, and I got an email from someone at the Federal Maritime Commission (that’s right – the Feds!) saying that they were investigating AIT and had come across my details in connection with them, and wanted to talk to me about it. Apparently Anderson made the mistake of using a secretary who actually filed paperwork for a couple of months which handily included the time I was dealing with him, and the Feds found my name and email address in his files.
So I gave the Feds a call to see what I could do for them. It turns out that Anderson had been pulling similar stunts with other people – one to Australia, one to Switzerland, and a domestic one in the U.S. that the Feds knew about, and probably others they didn’t. In each case he had not paid for or arranged anything in the destination country, and in one case hadn’t even paid for the sea voyage, leaving the poor customer to pay for that (again) themselves. So I could have been worse off. Anyway, all the Feds wanted from me was a deposition, which was disappointing. I was hoping for the chance to appear as “key witness for the prosecution”, pointing to Anderson, and proclaiming “That’s him! That’s the one what done it!” before collapsing dramatically, in tears. Anyway, I duly provided the signed deposition, which basically outlined the tale above, and sent it off to the Feds.
Eventually, the case made it to the courts (and a closed court at that – hence my not being called as a witness, I guess…) and, much to my satisfaction, Anderson was found guilty. Officially, he was found guilty of “operating as an ocean transport intermediary without obtaining a license”. This carries the serious penalty of a slap on the wrist and a promise not to do it again (no jail time – boo!). In theory , there is also a ‘civil penalty’ (a fine), but Anderson pleaded poverty, and in the final judgement issued, the prosecutor decided that because there was almost zero chance of getting the money out of Anderson, there was no point in even bothering with the fine. (What‽ What kind of stupid argument is that? What about garnishing future earnings, or something??) Marvelous. So that’s well worth the hundred thousand dollars or so the court case probably cost. It would have been cheaper for the Government to just reimbuirse myself and the other poor schmucks who got scammed, and have done with it.
However, it didn’t end there for poor Mr. Anderson. Shortly after the case was considered closed, Anderson filed for bankruptcy, a common tactic to avoid paying your creditors. Unfortunately for him, the bankruptcy court didn’t buy it, and rejected his filing – the bottom line being that he can’t weasel out of paying back the money he owes. Worse, filing for bankruptcy requires submitting extremely detailed financial records to the bankruptcy court. Bankruptcy filings are a matter of public record, which means that anyone – including the Federal Maritime Commission - can access them. Which the FMC did, and determined that contrary to previous claims, Mr. Anderson wasn’t actually penniless – not quite. According to his records, he has an annual income of somewhere between $37,000 and $44,000 (he claimed different amounts in different filings, much to the court’s annoyance), and a house valued at $124,396.00. Unfortunately his house was subsequently repossessed, and he owes $38,000 in attorney fees, and some $270,870 in ‘non-priority claims’, including $36,238 in child support (a stand-up guy all round, then!). This all nets out to not very much at all, but is apparently enough to justify levying civil penalties.
So the FMC reopened the case, and reassessed the civil penalties. These were determined to be $30,000 dollars per offense. And unfortunately for Anderson, the judge had previously found him guilty of 22 offenses, giving a total fine of $660,000! Result! (Not that I’ll see any of it, but still, justice is justice.) So, now, in addition to being convicted of a Felony (pretty serious over here), Anderson has now been hit with a fine he’s going to be working (hopefully honestly, this time!) for a lot of years just to pay off. And partly, thanks to me. Dirk Manuel, Supergrass!
Ooh, maybe Anderson will take it all badly, and come after me. I wonder if I can apply to go into the witness protection programme? But this being the Federal Maritime Commission, my new identity would probably be that of an itinerant trawlerman. Better get practicing on my “Aarrr, ’tis the catch of the day!” line…
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