So, on a positive note, the cats are happy and healthy in Germany. Ev said they are so clean that they look like they just got back from a groomer, so my Poise Pad mats worked well. :) It seems that they were well treated while in transit, so that makes me happy.
Except for all of the extra money I ended up spending on them, I am happy with Lufthansa's pet shipping. I'll let you know when I hear back about my claim.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Beware the Hidden Fees
So, remember how I said that Ev was told he would have another 120 EUR to pay to spring the cats from the airport in Frankfurt? Try 283 EUR. That's right, it cost him about $415 to get them out of the airport. He had to pay a 110 EUR storage fee (why, I have no idea, since he was there before the cats even got off the plane) and a 183EUR vet fee (again, no idea why, since they were fully examined and documented before boarding the plane). Luckily, he had a military ID, so he didn't have to pay the customs fees. Note: if you have a military ID, ask for the military customs form when importing your pets. I think he said it would have been another 150 EUR or so for that.
Another note - if you have a Visa card, try to change it for one with a chip. Our cards are older, and don't have a chip, and so they aren't accepted in many places overseas, the Frankfurt Pet Lounge included. So, he had to pay cash.
Had those fees been included in the Barthco payment, I would have rescinded my complaint. The flight plus the airport fees would have been pretty close to that $800.
I also believe that we should have been warned that we would incur these fees. It seems reasonable for them to say, "That will be $800 for the flight, and be prepared to pay another $400+ when they get to Frankfurt."
So, I had originally budgeted about $1000 for shipping the cats, after I got the $800 estimate from Barthco.
$800 flight
$200 health certificates
Instead, I ended up with this -
$800 flight
$200 health certificates
$100 USDA certification
$155 "storage" fee
$258 FRA vet fee
So, a full $500 over what I had expected. That's ridiculous.
Another note - if you have a Visa card, try to change it for one with a chip. Our cards are older, and don't have a chip, and so they aren't accepted in many places overseas, the Frankfurt Pet Lounge included. So, he had to pay cash.
Had those fees been included in the Barthco payment, I would have rescinded my complaint. The flight plus the airport fees would have been pretty close to that $800.
I also believe that we should have been warned that we would incur these fees. It seems reasonable for them to say, "That will be $800 for the flight, and be prepared to pay another $400+ when they get to Frankfurt."
So, I had originally budgeted about $1000 for shipping the cats, after I got the $800 estimate from Barthco.
$800 flight
$200 health certificates
Instead, I ended up with this -
$800 flight
$200 health certificates
$100 USDA certification
$155 "storage" fee
$258 FRA vet fee
So, a full $500 over what I had expected. That's ridiculous.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Cat Shipping Correction & Rant
So, remember how I said that pet shipping for Lufthansa is hadled by Barthco? That's not necessarily the case. Though, this email had led me to believe it was so -
Good afternoon Michelle,
Thank you for your interest in using Lufthansa Cargo for your pet shipping needs.
For all inquiries regarding shipping animals with us, we kindly ask that you contact the following company who handles all live anmial inquries for Lufthansa Cargo:
Barthco
5101 SouthBroad St.
Philadelphia PA
19148
Tel: 267-570-2668
Contact: Mike Andrel
Email: mandrel@ohl.com
Barthco will be able to answer any questions you have regarding prices, required documentation etc. and they will also be able to create a booking for you. I hope that this information proves helpful.
So, that pretty much sounds like I needed to go through Barthco, right? Not so. I found out today that people going through some airports do, indeed need to use an agent (though not necessarily Barthco), but people going through Dulles do not. I had specified in my original quote request that they would be leaving out of Dulles.
So, I got there today to drop off the cats, and I was given a bunch of papers to fill out. I didn't understand half of them, so I was frustrated. Then, the lady told me it would be $350. I was quite surprised and told her that I had already paid $800 for it, and now I needed to pay another $350? She was also surprised, so she went back to consult with the other ladies in the office. She asked me several times why I had paid that much, and I told her that's what Barthco told me it was going to be. She wanted to know why I had gone through Barthco, when I could have done it myself for about $400. Barthco is just an agent, and would usually do all the paperwork and everything for that price. She said they should have given me all of the completed paperwork to bring with me, and they had given me nothing. All they told me was that the flight was booked, and that I needed to have the cats at Dulles at 2. Though Mike & Lauren at Barthco had been quite helpful answering questions, I had done all of the paperwork myself, so she couldn't see any reason why I had been charged so much. The only thing they had really done was make the booking. I then saw the waybill, and Barthco had given Lufthansa $187. 84 for my cats. So, I had paid them $609.39 to answer questions. Why they had paid less than $200 and it would still cost me $400 had I done it myself, I don't know. But, whatever. Preferred customer discount, perhaps.
Ev was also informed by the people at Lufthansa's Frankfurt Pet Lounge that it will cost him another 120 euros (about $170 USD) in vet & customs fees to get them out of the airport. Whether part of the $797 I paid to Barthco is supposed to cover that, I have no idea, and since everything is closed and will remain so until well after Ev needs to pick up the cats, I can't ask.
The lady who seemed to be the office manager gave me the email of the head of the claims department at Lufthansa, so I wrote her an email when I got back from the airport this evening. We'll see how that goes.
I left the kitties in the office, so hopefully they got on their plane this evening. Ev said he'd text me when he picks them up in the morning (about 3:30am our time), so I'll let you know how the mats worked, and if they seem happy with their trip.
So, that pretty much sounds like I needed to go through Barthco, right? Not so. I found out today that people going through some airports do, indeed need to use an agent (though not necessarily Barthco), but people going through Dulles do not. I had specified in my original quote request that they would be leaving out of Dulles.
So, I got there today to drop off the cats, and I was given a bunch of papers to fill out. I didn't understand half of them, so I was frustrated. Then, the lady told me it would be $350. I was quite surprised and told her that I had already paid $800 for it, and now I needed to pay another $350? She was also surprised, so she went back to consult with the other ladies in the office. She asked me several times why I had paid that much, and I told her that's what Barthco told me it was going to be. She wanted to know why I had gone through Barthco, when I could have done it myself for about $400. Barthco is just an agent, and would usually do all the paperwork and everything for that price. She said they should have given me all of the completed paperwork to bring with me, and they had given me nothing. All they told me was that the flight was booked, and that I needed to have the cats at Dulles at 2. Though Mike & Lauren at Barthco had been quite helpful answering questions, I had done all of the paperwork myself, so she couldn't see any reason why I had been charged so much. The only thing they had really done was make the booking. I then saw the waybill, and Barthco had given Lufthansa $187. 84 for my cats. So, I had paid them $609.39 to answer questions. Why they had paid less than $200 and it would still cost me $400 had I done it myself, I don't know. But, whatever. Preferred customer discount, perhaps.
Ev was also informed by the people at Lufthansa's Frankfurt Pet Lounge that it will cost him another 120 euros (about $170 USD) in vet & customs fees to get them out of the airport. Whether part of the $797 I paid to Barthco is supposed to cover that, I have no idea, and since everything is closed and will remain so until well after Ev needs to pick up the cats, I can't ask.
The lady who seemed to be the office manager gave me the email of the head of the claims department at Lufthansa, so I wrote her an email when I got back from the airport this evening. We'll see how that goes.
I left the kitties in the office, so hopefully they got on their plane this evening. Ev said he'd text me when he picks them up in the morning (about 3:30am our time), so I'll let you know how the mats worked, and if they seem happy with their trip.
Monday, January 18, 2010
Cat mat construction
So, the flight to Germany is about 8 hours long. The cats have to get to the airport 3-4 hours ahead of time, so they'll be in their carriers a dozen hours at the very least. When they came over from Hawaii (about 8 hours in their carriers), they were covered with pee and other things. So, I decided to construct an absorbent pad for each carrier. I looked at puppy training pads, but most of them have puppy attractants, and I was afraid that something that would attract a puppy would scare a cat. But, I bought the one kind I could find that didn't say it had them. I tried them out on a trip to the vet, and they worked nicely, but they didn't seem like they would hold much. So, I constructed something of my own. I used the puppy pads that I had already bought, along with some Poise Pads. Here's how I did it, I'll let you know in a few days how well it worked.
This is the kind of puppy pads I used -
I folded the puppy pads in half to make a base. I used double-sided tape to stick them together.
I used the overnight super absorbency Poise Pads. They have elastic on the sides to help them conform to the body, but I didn't want the little ridges on my mats, so I cut off one side of each elastic.
I laid down the Poise pads across the mat. The slight curve of the pads is a great addition, because it makes them go up the side a bit. I overlapped them so that the side of each pad that still had the elastic was on the bottom, and the elastic-less side was on the top.
I used an additional pad that I cut up to fill in a few spaces between the other pads. You can see an example in the middle.
I wanted the mat to be smoother, so the cats weren't quite as tempted to rip at them. So, I then took another puppy pad and ripped the top layer off. The bottom is plasticized, so I didn't want that as a barrier between the cats and the Poise pads. It's pretty easy to take the top off.
I placed the top of the puppy pad on top of the rest of the mat and taped it on around the sides.
I then put lots of double-sided tape on the inside of the carriers, and stuck the mats in. Viola!
This is the kind of puppy pads I used -
I folded the puppy pads in half to make a base. I used double-sided tape to stick them together.
I used the overnight super absorbency Poise Pads. They have elastic on the sides to help them conform to the body, but I didn't want the little ridges on my mats, so I cut off one side of each elastic.
I laid down the Poise pads across the mat. The slight curve of the pads is a great addition, because it makes them go up the side a bit. I overlapped them so that the side of each pad that still had the elastic was on the bottom, and the elastic-less side was on the top.
I used an additional pad that I cut up to fill in a few spaces between the other pads. You can see an example in the middle.
I wanted the mat to be smoother, so the cats weren't quite as tempted to rip at them. So, I then took another puppy pad and ripped the top layer off. The bottom is plasticized, so I didn't want that as a barrier between the cats and the Poise pads. It's pretty easy to take the top off.
I placed the top of the puppy pad on top of the rest of the mat and taped it on around the sides.
I then put lots of double-sided tape on the inside of the carriers, and stuck the mats in. Viola!
Cats
Shipping the cats from Hawaii was kind of a pain, and we've done it twice. They hated being boarded for those couple of days between when we moved out of the house and when we flew out, and both times, they had to live with my mom for a time while we found a house. The first time, it was only a couple of weeks, but the second time, it was a few months. So, we decided we didn't want to try that again. So, one of the reasons we decided that Ev would go over first was so that he could find a house. When coming from Hawaii, we only had two cats, and we brought them over on the same plane that we were on, as our checked luggage. This time, we have three, and they'll be shipped as cargo. I still thought it would be about the same, though.
When looking online, you'll find lots of info as to what you need to do to ship your pets. Much of it is contradictory and/or makes no sense. While your situation may be different, I'll tall you what I had to do.
First, find out with whom you want to ship. I called around to a few different places, and finally settled on Lufthansa. It cost a bit more than United, but I had seen many people sing their praises for pet shipping. Plus, I don't think I've ever had a good experience with United for anything. United was going to be about $650 from Dulles to Frankfurt, and Lufthansa is almost $800. Pet shipping for Lufthansa is handled through Barthco. It took me a little while to get a hold of them, but once I did, they were very helpful. I've been talking to Mike & Lauren in the Special Services Division, and they've both been really great this whole time. They told me they needed to see the health certificates before they could book the cats, and they needed payment before they will let them on the plane. It has to be a certified check or money order.
When shipping pets, you need a health certificate. In the US, they're only good for 10 days, but the European Union ones are good for 40 days. I didn't know there was a special EU one. I had seen contradicting info about having to have the health certificate translated, just leaving it English, etc, etc. I had seen nothing about an EU one. Luckily, though, Mike emailed me the one I needed, and it was bilingual. When reading, I saw down at the bottom about a rabies serological test, but it said "if needed." Form what I saw online, it looked like it would be needed when coming from the US. Unfortunately, there are only 2 EU-approved labs in the whole US - one in Kansas and one in Texas. I asked Mike, and he said that it wasn't needed. Thank God. He didn't see my questions about the other two "if needed" boxes (the one for tick treatment and the one for echinococcus) I guess, because he didn't answer me about those. They HCs have to be filled out by a USDA-certified vet, so I called my vet's office. The receptionist said that my vet was USDA-certified. Hooray!
So, I took it to my vet, and we got it all filled out. We decided to do the tick & echinococcus treatments, just in case. I didn't want to have to bring them back, because it is not fun trying to herd my cats. They're mean little buggers.
I thought all was good, but no. Turns out, the receptionist was wrong, and my vet was not certified. Dang. But, I could send it in to the USDA vet in Annapolis. Yay. I called the USDA to see what all I needed to send them, and got this horrible man on the phone. It has been a long time since I've had to deal with somebody that unpleasant. So, just know that, if you have to call the USDA in Annapolis, pull on your big girl panties, because you're in for a fight. They said I needed an APHIS form 7001 in addition to the 998 I already had. I asked where to get that form, and the guy told me I had to call around and find one. He was unwilling to help me any further than that. He did finally concede (after a tense 10 minutes or so) that I could drive down to Annapolis and get one from them if I couldn't find one up here. Annapolis is about 2 hours away in good traffic, though, so I didn't really want to take that route. Luckily, my vet had the form, so they filled it out and I picked it up and sent it off.
Altogether, I needed to send them a 998 (EU health certificate) for each cat, the 7001 (all of them can go on one certificate for that), each of their rabies certificates, and a check for $105.
All in all, it's costing a bit over $1000 to ship them over there. Good thing we love them. :)
When looking online, you'll find lots of info as to what you need to do to ship your pets. Much of it is contradictory and/or makes no sense. While your situation may be different, I'll tall you what I had to do.
First, find out with whom you want to ship. I called around to a few different places, and finally settled on Lufthansa. It cost a bit more than United, but I had seen many people sing their praises for pet shipping. Plus, I don't think I've ever had a good experience with United for anything. United was going to be about $650 from Dulles to Frankfurt, and Lufthansa is almost $800. Pet shipping for Lufthansa is handled through Barthco. It took me a little while to get a hold of them, but once I did, they were very helpful. I've been talking to Mike & Lauren in the Special Services Division, and they've both been really great this whole time. They told me they needed to see the health certificates before they could book the cats, and they needed payment before they will let them on the plane. It has to be a certified check or money order.
When shipping pets, you need a health certificate. In the US, they're only good for 10 days, but the European Union ones are good for 40 days. I didn't know there was a special EU one. I had seen contradicting info about having to have the health certificate translated, just leaving it English, etc, etc. I had seen nothing about an EU one. Luckily, though, Mike emailed me the one I needed, and it was bilingual. When reading, I saw down at the bottom about a rabies serological test, but it said "if needed." Form what I saw online, it looked like it would be needed when coming from the US. Unfortunately, there are only 2 EU-approved labs in the whole US - one in Kansas and one in Texas. I asked Mike, and he said that it wasn't needed. Thank God. He didn't see my questions about the other two "if needed" boxes (the one for tick treatment and the one for echinococcus) I guess, because he didn't answer me about those. They HCs have to be filled out by a USDA-certified vet, so I called my vet's office. The receptionist said that my vet was USDA-certified. Hooray!
So, I took it to my vet, and we got it all filled out. We decided to do the tick & echinococcus treatments, just in case. I didn't want to have to bring them back, because it is not fun trying to herd my cats. They're mean little buggers.
I thought all was good, but no. Turns out, the receptionist was wrong, and my vet was not certified. Dang. But, I could send it in to the USDA vet in Annapolis. Yay. I called the USDA to see what all I needed to send them, and got this horrible man on the phone. It has been a long time since I've had to deal with somebody that unpleasant. So, just know that, if you have to call the USDA in Annapolis, pull on your big girl panties, because you're in for a fight. They said I needed an APHIS form 7001 in addition to the 998 I already had. I asked where to get that form, and the guy told me I had to call around and find one. He was unwilling to help me any further than that. He did finally concede (after a tense 10 minutes or so) that I could drive down to Annapolis and get one from them if I couldn't find one up here. Annapolis is about 2 hours away in good traffic, though, so I didn't really want to take that route. Luckily, my vet had the form, so they filled it out and I picked it up and sent it off.
Altogether, I needed to send them a 998 (EU health certificate) for each cat, the 7001 (all of them can go on one certificate for that), each of their rabies certificates, and a check for $105.
All in all, it's costing a bit over $1000 to ship them over there. Good thing we love them. :)
Sunday, January 17, 2010
More cars
So, it came time to get ready to ship the second car. I figured that since we already had the Germany insurance set up, it wouldn't take as long. Not so.
So, a bit of background. We bought our Honda in April, so we've had it for less than a year. Before we bought it, we told the finance guy at the dealership that we were moving to Germany at some point (we didn't know exactly when back then), and asked him if we would be able to ship it. We had known of several people who had bought their cars in Hawaii, and then weren't allowed by their banks to ship it back to the mainland when they got sent back. We told him that, and he said that there shouldn't be a problem at all. OK, so we bought it and went with their financing.
The Honda is financed through PNC Bank. I was a bit nervous, because one of the requirements from SunTrust had been 12 months of on-time payments. Since we've owned this car for less than a year, I was hoping that wouldn't be a requirement for PNC.
Jess & I went out to CA to visit my family for the holidays. While we were there, I called PNC to see what I needed to do to get my letter of transportation. The guy said I needed to fax a request with all of the car info (VIN, etc) to their loan department. I didn't have all of the info I needed with me in CA, so I had to wait until we got back to MD to do that. When we got back to MD (on 1/6, we fly out 2/11), I called again. I thought it was odd that SunTrust had required so much info, and PNC was only requiring a couple of things. The lady that I talked to this time said that I could fax that stuff, but that was just to have them consider letting it out of the country. She said that, as far as she knew, they had never released a car to go overseas before. Oh. Damn.
So, I then start looking at alternate financing. I won't go into everything, but I spent lots of time on the phone with different banks, trying to work stuff out. I also spent some time on the phone with the Honda dealership, letting them know that their finance guy was wrong. Then, Ev called them from Germany and really let them know he was unhappy. They decided to help us. They said that they would pay any refinancing fees that we ran into. The finance guy, Matt, also called and talked to his contact at PNC. He explained the situation, and they said that they would consider it if I sent them lots of info. No problem! I had all of these other possibilities, but all of them were quite likely to take too long. I desperately didn't want to try and get somebody else to ship the car after I leave. So, being able to stay with PNC would be really great.
I faxed in the stuff on Tuesday, and was told it would take about 3 days. I hadn't heard anything on Friday (and this is a holiday weekend), so I called them. I talked to a guy in the loan department, and he said I need to send them the insurance info for while in transit, and for once we get there. Same stuff I needed for the Toyota. Unfortunately, things were closed in Germany already by that time, and Monday is a holiday. But, I'll be able to get the car on the Geico Overseas policy on Tuesday hopefully, and then I'll be able to fax them that info. I also need another copy of the paperwork from the shipping company, because I can't find the stuff they sent me before. If it all works out, I'll be good to go. If it doesn't, there's no way I'll be able to get a refinance done before we leave. It was a tough choice to decide whether to try with PNC or to go ahead with somebody else. The PNC guy seemed pretty confident, though, so I went with them.
Wish me luck!
So, a bit of background. We bought our Honda in April, so we've had it for less than a year. Before we bought it, we told the finance guy at the dealership that we were moving to Germany at some point (we didn't know exactly when back then), and asked him if we would be able to ship it. We had known of several people who had bought their cars in Hawaii, and then weren't allowed by their banks to ship it back to the mainland when they got sent back. We told him that, and he said that there shouldn't be a problem at all. OK, so we bought it and went with their financing.
The Honda is financed through PNC Bank. I was a bit nervous, because one of the requirements from SunTrust had been 12 months of on-time payments. Since we've owned this car for less than a year, I was hoping that wouldn't be a requirement for PNC.
Jess & I went out to CA to visit my family for the holidays. While we were there, I called PNC to see what I needed to do to get my letter of transportation. The guy said I needed to fax a request with all of the car info (VIN, etc) to their loan department. I didn't have all of the info I needed with me in CA, so I had to wait until we got back to MD to do that. When we got back to MD (on 1/6, we fly out 2/11), I called again. I thought it was odd that SunTrust had required so much info, and PNC was only requiring a couple of things. The lady that I talked to this time said that I could fax that stuff, but that was just to have them consider letting it out of the country. She said that, as far as she knew, they had never released a car to go overseas before. Oh. Damn.
So, I then start looking at alternate financing. I won't go into everything, but I spent lots of time on the phone with different banks, trying to work stuff out. I also spent some time on the phone with the Honda dealership, letting them know that their finance guy was wrong. Then, Ev called them from Germany and really let them know he was unhappy. They decided to help us. They said that they would pay any refinancing fees that we ran into. The finance guy, Matt, also called and talked to his contact at PNC. He explained the situation, and they said that they would consider it if I sent them lots of info. No problem! I had all of these other possibilities, but all of them were quite likely to take too long. I desperately didn't want to try and get somebody else to ship the car after I leave. So, being able to stay with PNC would be really great.
I faxed in the stuff on Tuesday, and was told it would take about 3 days. I hadn't heard anything on Friday (and this is a holiday weekend), so I called them. I talked to a guy in the loan department, and he said I need to send them the insurance info for while in transit, and for once we get there. Same stuff I needed for the Toyota. Unfortunately, things were closed in Germany already by that time, and Monday is a holiday. But, I'll be able to get the car on the Geico Overseas policy on Tuesday hopefully, and then I'll be able to fax them that info. I also need another copy of the paperwork from the shipping company, because I can't find the stuff they sent me before. If it all works out, I'll be good to go. If it doesn't, there's no way I'll be able to get a refinance done before we leave. It was a tough choice to decide whether to try with PNC or to go ahead with somebody else. The PNC guy seemed pretty confident, though, so I went with them.
Wish me luck!
Cars
So, it takes a lot of work to ship your car. We have two, and need them both. Ev's job will ship one for free, but we need to ship the other on our own. We considered selling one and just buying another when we got over there, but we ultimately decided to ship them both. I don't really remember the reasoning, exactly, but both of our cars are pretty new, and we like them a lot. Plus, I really didn't want to try to sell any cars on top of everything else.
We had shipped cars both to and from Hawaii, so I thought I had it down. However, I had never shipped one that I didn't own outright, and I had never shipped one to another country. Our original plan had been to ship the car out mid-November, which would be about a month before Ev would get to Germany, so we wouldn't have to pay for a European rental car for very long. We could get one for a lot cheaper on this end.
So, shipping. In order for Pasha (the group that does the military shipping for this area) to ship a car that has a lien holder, they need a "Letter of Transportation" from said lien holder. So, I set out to get one.
Our Toyota is through SunTrust Bank. They needed to see proof that the car would be insured while in transit, and proof that it would be insured once it got there. We have Geico, so I called them about insurance while in transit. Geico doesn't insure for that sort of thing, so I called Pasha to see if they had any recommendations for maritime insurance. They said that the car is actually insured for $20,000 while in transit anyway. Awesome, no worries then. They faxed me the papers, so that was easy as pie. Getting the overseas insurance was not so easy.
We decided to go through Geico Overseas, since we already have Geico, and we like them. It turns out that, though they are both Geico, they're not really connected in any way. Geico Overseas is based in Europe, so their hours are 5 hours ahead of ours. So, everything needs to be done between 3-11am. Not so very convenient. But, I called and got everything started. Jennifer was very helpful and polite. I couldn't finish it, though, because I didn't have an overseas address yet. So, I called Ev at work and asked him if he could get one. By the time that he did, it was too late to call her back that day.
So, this whole thing ended up taking a long time. We started communicating through email, since she needed to send me forms to fill out and scan back in to her. Unfortunately, she would send forms, and then when I sent those in, she would send other forms. Each time she would send something took another day, because they needed to be signed by Ev. So, I would get something at 8am, but not be able to send it back until the next day, because they closed at 11am. She was sick one day, and this was November, so there were holidays galore. Between holidays and delays for time differences, it ended up taking probably two weeks to get it sorted out. I had no idea it would take so long.
Once we got it all sorted out, we faxed the info to SunTrust. They said it would take about three days to process it, and then they would send us the letter. About a week later, we still hadn't seen the letter. So, Ev called SunTrust and asked what was going on. They said that it was still sitting on the fax machine. It had been logged, but nothing had been done about it. Awesome. By this time, we were down to mere days before Ev was due to get on the plane. So, Ev yelled at them, and said they needed to overnight it to us. They asked how he wanted to pay for that. He said that there was no way he was paying for it. It was their fault that it wasn't to us yet, so they were going to pay for it. Thank goodness, we did get it the next day, so we were able to take it in. It was the day before he was going to fly.
If you're going to ship your car from Maryland, you have to go to the port at Baltimore. Be prepared to sit there for a while. It takes about an hour to get through it once you get in. We didn't have to wait very long for Ev to get in, so that was nice. Make sure you know what you need to bring, because they will turn you away if you don't have it. If your car has more than 1/4 tank of gas, they will make you drive around until it doesn't. Luckily, we also got there on a shipping day. They won't tell you when the boats are going out, they'll only tell you that your car will be there between 30 and 45 days from when you ship it. We shipped ours on 12/9, and it got into Germany on 1/19.
We had shipped cars both to and from Hawaii, so I thought I had it down. However, I had never shipped one that I didn't own outright, and I had never shipped one to another country. Our original plan had been to ship the car out mid-November, which would be about a month before Ev would get to Germany, so we wouldn't have to pay for a European rental car for very long. We could get one for a lot cheaper on this end.
So, shipping. In order for Pasha (the group that does the military shipping for this area) to ship a car that has a lien holder, they need a "Letter of Transportation" from said lien holder. So, I set out to get one.
Our Toyota is through SunTrust Bank. They needed to see proof that the car would be insured while in transit, and proof that it would be insured once it got there. We have Geico, so I called them about insurance while in transit. Geico doesn't insure for that sort of thing, so I called Pasha to see if they had any recommendations for maritime insurance. They said that the car is actually insured for $20,000 while in transit anyway. Awesome, no worries then. They faxed me the papers, so that was easy as pie. Getting the overseas insurance was not so easy.
We decided to go through Geico Overseas, since we already have Geico, and we like them. It turns out that, though they are both Geico, they're not really connected in any way. Geico Overseas is based in Europe, so their hours are 5 hours ahead of ours. So, everything needs to be done between 3-11am. Not so very convenient. But, I called and got everything started. Jennifer was very helpful and polite. I couldn't finish it, though, because I didn't have an overseas address yet. So, I called Ev at work and asked him if he could get one. By the time that he did, it was too late to call her back that day.
So, this whole thing ended up taking a long time. We started communicating through email, since she needed to send me forms to fill out and scan back in to her. Unfortunately, she would send forms, and then when I sent those in, she would send other forms. Each time she would send something took another day, because they needed to be signed by Ev. So, I would get something at 8am, but not be able to send it back until the next day, because they closed at 11am. She was sick one day, and this was November, so there were holidays galore. Between holidays and delays for time differences, it ended up taking probably two weeks to get it sorted out. I had no idea it would take so long.
Once we got it all sorted out, we faxed the info to SunTrust. They said it would take about three days to process it, and then they would send us the letter. About a week later, we still hadn't seen the letter. So, Ev called SunTrust and asked what was going on. They said that it was still sitting on the fax machine. It had been logged, but nothing had been done about it. Awesome. By this time, we were down to mere days before Ev was due to get on the plane. So, Ev yelled at them, and said they needed to overnight it to us. They asked how he wanted to pay for that. He said that there was no way he was paying for it. It was their fault that it wasn't to us yet, so they were going to pay for it. Thank goodness, we did get it the next day, so we were able to take it in. It was the day before he was going to fly.
If you're going to ship your car from Maryland, you have to go to the port at Baltimore. Be prepared to sit there for a while. It takes about an hour to get through it once you get in. We didn't have to wait very long for Ev to get in, so that was nice. Make sure you know what you need to bring, because they will turn you away if you don't have it. If your car has more than 1/4 tank of gas, they will make you drive around until it doesn't. Luckily, we also got there on a shipping day. They won't tell you when the boats are going out, they'll only tell you that your car will be there between 30 and 45 days from when you ship it. We shipped ours on 12/9, and it got into Germany on 1/19.
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