The worst shipping company in Qatar- Agape International
There are 85 % of expats living in Doha who eventually one day will return to their country of origin. That was the case with me and my husband after 7 years of living in Qatar.
There are many things to resolve when going back and one of them is shipping all possesions and belongings from Qatar to your destination. We (unfortunately) chose the worst company in Qatar- Agape International (Mr. Muneer and Mr. Nixon) to ship our things and we seriously couldn't have chosen worse company! We are posting this for all expats out there in Doha- to at least know which company TO AVOID when shipping your things back home.
Not to go in many details but just to highlight some important facts- everything was going relatively ok when we were preparing for shipment, that is at the sales stage of their contact when they were assuring us that eveything will be handled professionally. After when we decided to ship our things with Agape International they had a few unprofessional glitches- such as promising that they will come at certain day/time to collect the boxes and then cancelling last minute, etc. But living in Doha and experiencing these type of things everywhere, we didn't think much of it. The day all our things were collected by Mr. Muneer from Agape is the day we paid the Invoice in full (3rd February 2014). We were leaving Qatar in the next few days and we were assured by Mr. Muneer that all our belongings will be shipped on coming Sunday (after 2-3 days).
We thought that our items were shipped and we were expecting our first shippment to arrive after 2 weeks (few boxes we sent by plane). We were emailing both Mr. Muneer and Mr. Nixon to follow up on the shipment but we were receiving no response. Luckily my husband was going to Qatar on a business trip around that time so he chased them up in Qatar (after many ignored emails and phone calls). It turned out that they did not even ship our things yet more than 2 weeks after they collected all our items and we paid them for shipment.
Finally they have shiped our things (not sure they would even do it then if my husband wasn't there!).
In addition to plane shipment, all our major items and many other things were sent by boat and we have paid for insurance against damage and loss of certain valuables (we paid additionaly for this). We have been waiting for 2 months now and we still did not receive the insurance policy for this!! We are not receiving any responses from Agape International and we have emailed them many times and tried to call them. On occasions when we were able to reach them, they would tell us they will send us the policy which was a lie because they never did it. Also, we do not have any response or update about our boat shipment status so we are very anxious if we will ever receive it given our experience with them!
We have now filed a case against Agape International through Ministry of Economy and Commerce and we are also in process of seeking legal advise on how to resolve this.
In brief, if you need professional company to handle shipment of all your belongings so that you get what you paid for as well as receive your items in promised time, we advise you to avoid Agape International and Mr. Muneer and Mr. Nixon Chacko!
We hope you have better luck when shipping your things. We are not able to advise you which company is good, but at least avoiding the bad ones is a good starting point...
Can anyone please give me the location of their office / company in Doha? The same issue happened to one of my colleagues. Paid the money, things were collected. It's been more than 2 months no response, no shipping. I'm trying to chase them by calling and trying to find their location. But could not. Please help.
I know this is an old post but for anyone searching info on this company: I've recently had a similarly bad experience. My things were picked up at my home in Doha three months ago and so far I have received no Bill of Loading, no ETA, nothing, despite numerous emails, phone calls and even visits by myself and friends in Doha. Even an email from a lawyer didn't have any effect. I don't know if they're actually shipping my stuff - I have no evidence that they are! So stay away from this company. The hassle is not worth the money you save!!
Dear, I am in probably worst situation then you, because my container was 20ft having all my items in there. I would like to inform all of the expatriates to be very careful .My company was EuroMovers .They will keep your luggage as a hostage and you have to pay for everything. I have also launched a complaint in the consumer department.
I agree with you, these guys are crooks. I wish that I had seen this thread too.
They quoted me to ship my things to Zagreb, Croatia only 3cbm. They asked me when I wanted them to come and pack, when I gave them a date they said it would be 1,200 minimum charge. No mention of this on the quotation. I declined the offer to pack
When they came to collect they wanted to jack up the price, I was leaving next day, but manged to keep the price as quoted.
Once they had my things and my money they told me that there was not a port in Zagreb, so could only ship to Rijeka 200km away. I found out that there IS a hard port in Zagreb. When I remonstrated with them, they told me that the quote was only sea freight and not land transport.It would be another $400US to get the shipment from Rijeka to Zagreb. I am wondering how they managed to quote me a price to Zagreb, if they only started looking for ports to ship to a week after they collected.
My guess is that they never intended to ship to Zagreb, they know that 1cbm costs around $110 to ship port to port so gave me a quote for 2x that and added $300 for local costs. I have used a lot of forwarding agents in the last 20 years and have never had my trust betrayed like this before. Every other shipper has managed to get the shipment to the place quoted.
I am reminded of taxi drivers in New Delhi, who make a habit of taking you somewhere, eventually the wrong place, then feign a mistake and want to charge extra to get you to where you actually asked to go.
Stay away from these shysters.
So sad for what happened in your shipment. :-(
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http://www.mbt.gov.qa/English/Consumer/Pages/HowToComplain.aspx
Well, I hope Ministry will act on this because it's awful that things like this happen and there is no protection. I would think that companies would think twice before doing things like this in a country where law can be harsh (if you are convicted eventually).
Well at least warning for all other people not to use them!
Worst part I found another experience like mine for the same company (post by Lynnette): http://movingreviews.org/2013/04/21/international-movers-qatar/#comments
I wish I've read it BEFORE shipping our things- we should have avoided Agape for sure!
We've filed a case against this company through Ministry so let's hope something will come out of this. If you experience similar, you can also try your luck through this: http://www.mbt.gov.qa/English/Departments/Consumerprotection
I will definitely stay away from that name. You've been duped to believe that this company has a big capital in the bank and can guarantee the safety of all your belongings. In 7 years, you should have learned that there are lots of small companies in Qatar who are playing bigtime. It's about time the authorities impose rules to these companies to require bank capitals before granting licenses to them.
You have to go for certified companies such as ISO certified
That's Horrible loosing all your stuff like that, hope the ministry acts quickly, as for good freight companies I have dealt with "Direct Freight Solutions" and they were ok