www.internationalmoving.com

A Nightmare International Move – Avoid at All Costs

We contracted **International Sea & Air Movers** to pack and ship our belongings from Brooklyn, NY to our new home in Italy. We were quoted a reasonable price that included full packing, custom-built crates for artwork, and coordination with **Bliss Moving** in Italy for customs clearance and delivery, including the extra cost for delivering up one additional floor.At first, everything seemed great. Our sales rep, was personable and convincing. But once the sale was complete, the experience turned into an absolute nightmare.Our assigned move coordinator, was unhelpful from the start—slow, vague, and unresponsive. If we didn’t email her, we wouldn’t hear from her at all. Her “coordination” amounted to one-line answers that provided no real information, even though this was a life-changing international move for us.**Packing Day – April 29, 2025**The moving dispatcher, assured us he was sending the “A” squad. Instead, it took them 10 hours (not the 4 hours promised) to pack our apartment. One mover spent more time texting than packing, the custom crates we paid extra for were never built on-site (apparently they were the wrong size and sitting in a warehouse), and the team had to call in backup just to finish by 9 PM. No follow-up call from Ronnie as promised.We moved to Italy the next day with essentials for what we thought would be a **6–8 week wait** for our container. Instead, our belongings sat in a Brooklyn warehouse for **two months** with no explanation or proactive updates.**16 weeks later** we finally heard from Bliss Moving in Italy—only to be told we had to pay **an additional €1,000 in “fees”** before delivery could be scheduled. These were supposedly for splitting the load into two smaller trucks, but we were told earlier a larger truck was possible. It felt like ransom: pay the fees or you won’t get your belongings. We had already paid for delivery to our apartment, yet now there were “unexpected port fees” and “transfer fees” from Genoa to Milan—why it wasn’t delivered directly from the port is still a mystery.We paid under protest, and now, after months of living in an empty apartment on lawn furniture, we’re told delivery won’t be until **August 23, 2025**—**nearly four months** after pickup.**Summary:*** Misleading sales process* Incompetent and unresponsive move coordination* Poor packing execution (custom crates not provided)* Lack of communication for months* Surprise extra fees before delivery* Endless delays and excusesLeaving your home and moving to another country is stressful enough—**International Sea & Air Movers and Bliss Moving made it a nightmare**. I would never recommend them for any international move.Update 9/26/25Be sure to write down EVERY Thing in down to a pen cap color, my husbands watch and our Nintendo switch magically disappeared. We had full coverage BUT since these were not listed line item by line item we will not be reimbursed, but somehow my double boiler (not listed as an independent item is covered) Our 2 month old dining room table was also damaged, thankfully the Bliss moving team in Italy had it together, noted the damage and my double boiler and we will be reimbursed (minus the $500 deductible) Oh well, glad its done.

Date of experience: Aug 12, 2025