Unreachable when needed
I had arranged for Luggage Free to deliver two trunks directly to our cruise ship in Sydney, Australia, and collect them upon our return, and bring them back home. The idea was to have the things we would need for the cruise not be part of the luggage with which we would travel through Australia the remaining weeks of our vacation. Luggage Free does not actually store or ship the luggage for which it contracts to provide services. Its only function is to coordinate such services to be provided by others. In our case, it has done so miserably. The single most important criticism I have of their performance is their deplorable communication protocols. The problems began when the trunks had not arrived on the ship as we were approaching one hour from sailing. This was mystifying because the trunks of our friends had arrived on the ship much earlier. I was able to track our trunks because they both had Air Tags to a warehouse near the port and began trying to reach Luggage Free. My calls to every phone number I had for them were answered by the same irritating recorded message that I had reached them outside their business hours and they would respond eventually, which did not occur in time to address this. In desperation, I also tried email but received the same response. Had they bothered to answer my calls or email when received, they would have had plenty of time to arrange for the trunks to be delivered before sailing. We learned later that their agent’s driver had simply overlooked the trunks in their offices. Over the next two weeks, Luggage Free failed entirely to get the trunks to us while underway. Most frustrating, while we spent an entire day in Auckland, the trunks were a few kilometers away at a FedEx office but, because Luggage Free didn’t answer their phones, they could not be reached to have them delivered to the ship. I’ll place my frustration in context. My wife is recovering from a very severe illness - completely paralyzed and in intensive care for a number of weeks, followed by additional months of hospitalization for recovery and rehabilitation. This trip was intended in part to celebrate a partial recovery and to celebrate her birthday. The trunks contained a number of articles intended for celebrations on the ship with friends who had generously joined us. The absence of the trunks cast an unnecessary shadow on these celebrations. Mistakes happen. But the deliberate practice of being unavailable in real time “outside business hours” is inexcusable for a company that pretends to provide global services.