Beware of hidden destination charges! There's no way to predict them and AMID will take no responsibility for them, even if such charges are in error.
I needed to ship 80 lbs of personal effects from Boston, USA to Vienna, Austria. I was looking for an economical (but not necessarily fast) option. With USPS no longer offering ground shipping, companies that ship by ocean are hard to find these days for a small, one-time shipment such as this. When AMID quoted me $275, I thought it was a good deal.
The initial communication was excellent, they provided clear instructions on how to deliver the packages to the terminal in Boston, and good updates on the shipment's progress.
A month later, when I went to pick up the packages in Vienna, a nasty surprise awaited. I was told that for various destination charges, I owed an extra 499.88 euros in cash! One item on that invoice was 263.82 euros for transport from Hamburg (the destination ocean terminal) to Vienna, although AMID's bill of lading stated that freight was prepaid all the way to Vienna. At first AMID agreed that this was a double charge, but then they changed their tune and won't be any help in getting this back.
Bottom line, I ended up paying 3 times what was quoted, and would've been better off using FedEx, DHL or whatever air shipping service which would have taken a fraction of the time. The value of my personal goods never justified this cost.
BTW I'm not very experienced at this, but not a total novice. In 1998 I used a similar service (unfortunately now defunct) to ship personal effects from the US to France, and did not encounter any surprise charges on arrival. So this is definitely a problem with how AMID handles this, and essentially washes itself of any responsibility for what happens upon arrival. read more