Complaint Review: Luggage Forward Inc. - Boston MA

I contracted with Luggage Forward to ship two pieces of luggage from my home to a cruise ship in Ft. Lauderdale, FL for an approximate 3 week holiday cruise including Christmas and New Years Eve celebrations. Luggage Forward NEVER delivered my  suitcase to the ship during that three week period, even though Luggage Forward had guaranteed delivery AND made multiple promises to forward the undelivered suitcase to any one of our multiple ports of call.

LF NEVER forwarded the suitcase despite many promises to do so. I even offered to go by taxi to the Panama airport to pick up the suitcase if LF would just send it. A Princess cruises representative phoned LF multiple times, instructing LF to put the suitcase on an American Airlines flight to Cartagena, Columbia and the suitcase would be delivered directly to the ship by the airline.

LF declined to forward the suitcase no matter how many options they were given to do so. The suitcase contained over $7,000 worth of clothing including evening gowns, shoes & other items purchased exclusively for the cruise. Because of that loss, our @ $16,000. cruise was ruined. What my family was put through was a nightmare.

The only clothing I had was the clothing I wore to board the ship. For three weeks I had no underwear, nightgowns, shoes, casual clothes, or evening wear for the four formal holiday dinners onboard. We spent our valuable vacation time washing clothes in the ship’s laundromat. We were forced to purchase over $2,500 worth of items on board the ship at incredibly inflated prices.

We had no choice of where to buy items needed just to exist thru this emergency situation, as the only place to shop was the ship’s “boutique”. After many conversations with Luggage Forward, the company did reimburse the cost of the luggage transportation from Houston to Ft. Lauderdale, and offered an “apology”.

LF admitted they failed to deliver as per their written guarantee. But LF will not reimburse any other expenses unless my husband and I agree to sign a non-disclosure agreement. We are not obligated or willing to be FORCED to sign a non-disclosure agreement. LF asked for our receipts for items purchased because of the untenable position they put my family in.

I faxed @ $2,200. in written receipts to LF. I pointed out this was only a small portion of our loss, due to the time and money lost having to wash clothes every day instead of being able to enjoy the shipboard actives that we had paid for in our cruise fare. The amount of stress caused by LF’s failure to deliver the suitcase as guaranteed negated the very reason for the “vacation”.

The company has not offered reimbursement for the $2,220 we were forced to spend. Why did LF ask for receipts they have NOT reimbursed? Instead LF offered an insulting $700. settlement, which would not even pay for the costs incurred having to contact LF over and over again. All calls to LF were “international calling” charges and using internet on the ship to contact LF cost $200.

Luggage Forward LEFT ME WITHOUT CLOTHING FOR THREE WEEKS - ON A CRUISE SHIP IN THE MIDDLE OF AN OCEAN. What reason does LF have for refusing to reimburse the expenses we incurred as the result of their incompetence and insisting we sign a non-disclosure agreement in order to be reimbursed? What is the purpose in our signing a non-disclosure agreement? LF is not acting in good faith.