With all the international car shipping companies to choose from, who can you trust? This is a great question asked by one of our previous customers who lives in Europe. In this short blog post, we will be telling you what to look for to insure you are dealing with a REAL international car shipping company and not a reseller.

We will use ourselves as an example:

Licensed and Bonded

Ship Overseas is a licensed Freight Forwarder/NVOCC licensed with the Federal Maritime Commission to provide a service to the public. Our License Number is 019334NF. This means we have secured our position with a guaranteed  bond so that should we default your vehicle will be safe as funds will be taken from our bond should we misrepresent.

It is important that whoever ships your vehicle, they MUST be licensed. It is not good enough for the company to tell you they are licensed. It is important that you can see their certificate made out in the company’s name and you can verify it on the FMC website. Below is our license. You’ll see it matches our license on FMC government site.

You will also find that we have no bad marks against our name which is not always the case elsewhere.
Our prices are competitive and with this in mind you can feel relaxed about shipping with SHIP OVERSEAS, INC.

Using the services of a non-licensed company means the company is probably using a licensed company like Ship Overseas to ship your goods. That means you’ll have a higher price.

Never do business with a company who cannot provide this information.

BBB (Better Business Bureau)

While this isn’t a deal killer, check out the BBB.org site to see if there are lots of complaints on the company. We are part of the BBB and carry an “A” Accreditation. Grades range from A – F.

Most people who give feedback on BBB leave negative experiences. So a company that does 1000 shipments per month might naturally have a couple complaints per month. Don’t let that change your mind about working with a BBB accredited business. In this case, there were 998 happy customers.

 

Rating on Independent 3rd Party Sites

You want to see reviews on a company? Well we are just like you. We don’t trust when companies write fake reviews and post them on their site. So look for reviews on 3rd party sites there the company has no control of feedback.

 You want an example? Here you go! Go to Shopper Approved and see our ratings. You will see a lot of great reviews here. Sometimes you’ll see okay reviews. Sort from lowest rating to highest ratings to see the most common types of complaints. So if the company you are looking for cannot provide 3rd party reviews, then consider a different company.

 

CONCLUSION

Make SURE the company is licensed and bonded. That is a MUST!

BBB are secondary, but very helpful. Many, not all, companies pay a membership fee to be part of the BBB. It’s optional, but can cost a lot depending on the size of the company. While we hold a BBB Accreditation, there were many years when we didn’t. For the end user (you), this can provide a peace-of-mind since only real companies pay for it. Spammers and scammers don’t get onto BBB.

If a company cannot produce 3rd party reviews, then how do you know they are doing a good job? Reviews are a good way to gauge if a company is providing a good service to their customers.