In addition to contacting the company directly, they are also a member of “The Freight Club, world wide association of independent freight forwarders.”
http://www.thefreightclub.com/index.html

According to Chapter 7 of the By-laws of this club, a member can have their membership expired by exclusion. This occurs when “The board of directors can determine on the exclusion of each member by a 3/4 majority of votes, if one of these PERFORMS DISHONOURABLY or deliberately harms the interests of the association.”
http://www.thefreightclub.com/general.htm

Unfortunately, Mr. Ludwig is a board member, so this vote may not be possible, despite their dishonorable behavior.
http://www.thefreightclub.com/profile.htm

Nonetheless, you can contact other group members and let them know whom they are associating with, especially the other US members.
http://www.thefreightclub.com/cgi-bin/member.cgi

Or contact the club directly.
http://www.thefreightclub.com/contact.htm

Be polite and to the point, but let them understand that the actions of this company shouldn’t be tolerated.

If I am reading it correctly, it is worse than what you have understood. The second and third containers with the toys donated to the Iraqi children through Operation Give are being held up in Kuwait. Many localities allow for "disposal" of undelivered cargos and most charities ship underinsured against that kind of loss.
Absent an insurance carrier's legal capabilities, the Kuwaitis might be able to pay the cost of the container and the interupted shipping costs and have full rights to the container and contents, and subsequently be able to get a refund on the container itself.

jhn'1, you are reading it correctly. Which is onw more reason why it's so important that we act.

Clark Howard is an Atlanta consumer advocate who broadcasts on WSB 75 AM in Atlanta. He has something of a rep for dealing with companies like this. Found a number for "Clark's Consumer Action Center (10am - 7pm): 404.892.8227 (All U.S.)". He doesn't have toll free, but hey, can't be that much. And his show is on 1-4pm EST, and the number for it is 1.877.87.CLARK Locally: 404.872.0750

Why not do a press release blast, shame these bastards, and at the same time get some publicity for the cause?

Somebody's probably already thought of this, but it would be prudent for someone with Operation Give to call the Kuwaiti Customs authorities to try and get a little extra time before they treat the contents as undeliverable.

Thanks everyone for the wonderful comments and help so far.

Our people in Kuwait and Iraq have been in contact with the company there and so far, we are not in danger of having the contents confiscated. They understand the problem and they understand it is a charitable shipment. They are waiting for us to get this resolved.

Regards

I personally spoke to a representative of the shipping company (I live in Atlanta), and it is my understanding of the sitution from him is that hte problem is that the second check from Operation Give, which was for $20,000, is being held by the bank.

This in itself is not unusual for any checks over $10,000. I recently had the same issue with my bank when I deposited a home equity loan check for over that amount. It was the policy of my bank to place a hold for, if memory serves, 14 business days when the amount was over $10,000. When that happened to me, I also was a bit upset because I wanted to start spending the money on home improvements.

I was able to resolve the situation by going to the branch to speak to the branch manager. She was able to, on her authority, release the funds. My understanding from the shipping company is that The Bank of America is doing the same thing.

I was also informed that the President of the company was cutting short her vacation today to come in to help resolve the issue. It seems the company has been getting many angry phone calls and emails about the situation.

Let me be clear: I am not a spokesman for the shipping company or the bank. I am fully on the side of Operation Give and any charity that works with our troops to help the people of Iraq. I want to see the situation resolved as quickly as possible.

However, I would urge everyone to reserve their hostility until the shipping company has more time to attempt to get the funds released from the bank.

The fastest way is to skip lawyers--call Zell Miller, O'Reilly, Hannity and Greta--get them to call and take it public. This is a popular cause and this is the fastest way to resolve it.

We have been humbled by the amazing response we've gotten from people on this.

Methinks this matter will be resolved very soon.

"They are currently holding $30,000 of Operation Give's money and we need resolution. We have bank records showing our deposits and their acceptance and cashing of the checks. We have also contacted Bank of America, the bank we use, and they have traced the checks and confirm that they were deposited by the US shipping company, Atlas Line."

This is from the original post at Chief Wiggles. So some one is lying or mistaken.

Given the fact they the company wouldn't return phone calls on the matter, I would say that them getting inundated with concerned calls/emails was quite warranted, though outright hostility is inappropriate, uncalled for, and possibly counterproductive.

However, I would urge everyone to reserve their hostility until the shipping company has more time to attempt to get the funds released from the bank.

I trust both Scott and Dean on this issue. I'm going to stand by my post until and unless I hear that the characterization was unwarranted, and that this has been settled.

I am open to the possibility of that being so... but when a company ceases to return phone calls from Operation Give itself, that is not a sign of good intent to me.

Should a correction be necessary, it will be issued as its own full post, not buried in an update somewhere. This post will also be changed appropriately.

I made a trip to Atlas today, and hopefully this issue is now resolved (not as a result of my trip, they were frazzled when I got there, but I was able to get detailed commitments). I know a lot more than I'm comfortable saying, but I assure you this was not an overreaction on anyone's part.

The bottom line is that Operation Give's funds are being sent overnight to the proper location.

This might be kind of obvious ... but are we sure that Operation Give won't do any further business thru this shipping company?

--Fred

I hope that things come out OK, but the overnight bit sounds quirky. Usually those kind of transactions are done electronically. Faster, absolute delivery, and usually cheaper as well. A legitimate International shipper would have the accounts already set up for it, as well as a directory of International routing numbers to escrow companies in various countries if they they didn't trust the other side (much like the old irrevocable-letter-of-credit one sent from your bank for the other party to hold)

Actually, I just thought of a plausable explaination for the trouble we are seeing. If they weren't used to doing this kind of work, it could readily happen that they weren't aware of that had to be done to complete the task. Not used to International shipments (or shipments to third world countries anyway) or even just not such shipments from clients that do not already own the shipping containers the goods are shipped in. The former seems to more closely fit what we are seeing here, especially if the company in question went out of their way (and way out of thier experience) to be involved in this project.

Though the funds were being sent overnight, a copy of the check along with the FedEx receipt was faxed to Kuwait, and supposedly this usually is sufficient for an immediate release.

Trust me, from just observing during my visit, these people have been hopping all day on this. They got lots of phone calls and e-mails, and the media inquiries had begun as well. The writing on the wall was in three foot high letters, and they saw it. I'm 98% certain they will do everything they said they would.

And if not, I know where they live now. It's maybe a 20 minute drive.

i wouldnt give 10 bucks to a company with a website like that..

Believe me, gang, we waited a long while before saying one word in public. A long while. A long while of unreturned phone calls after we had fax'd them proof that the check was not being held and had in fact cleared.

After your calls and letters, and the great visit from Photodude, suddenly it's all good.

There's more to the story we don't want to get into based on what the company told us. The bottom line is they screwed up, they're sorry, and they're making good.

It ended well and you all helped. Thank you so much.

RE: Thorley Winston's suggestion

Without going into details, I have investigated the matter with the parties invovled. While I have changed the post above to reflect resolution of this problem, I am standing by my characterizations.

Note Reid comments that this was not an overreaction...

Keep on eye on Chief Wiggles' blog. This may not be resolved yet. Word comes from Plunge at GlobalAffairs.org that there will be an update on this soon.

It isn't over ... check Chief Wiggles' blog today

If one takes the Wiggles' timeline as fact there is a juicy obvious "what if" therein...

The timeline speaks of one excuse from the shipping company about new ownership transfer etc. Let's hope old owners weren't representing company value to assure and seal a purchase agreement via books that just happened to have some extra needed cash on the debit side.

Sure I have no details on this "change of ownership" and the whole new owner excuse of July 21st could have been just that... An excuse.

Thing is according to Wiggles' timeline the bank says the last 20k was in the shippers account on June 20th. June 20th - August 2nd... Heck the Pony Express coulda done better... They deserve a conspiricy theory.