BONDED WAREHOUSE

Would any one like to offer their thoughts/suggestions on dealing with a bonded warehouse that will not release my goods? I've paid the supplier for the goods, so I own the goods outright. The Custom Broker has told the warehouse that he has a lien on my goods and has instructed the warehouse not to release the goods until I pay his bill. I will not pay him because he is attempting to overcharge me by 50% on the freight (eventhough I have his original price in writing). Since I have no contract with the warehouse, then theoretically they should release my goods as long as I pay them their storage charges.



Any ideas on how to put pressure on the warehouse so that they release my goods?

RE-POST. Ditto on this one.

[Jerseee]

Is there a lien?



Have you seen it?



If not, it sounds like theft to me.



Is there a contract or agreement that states he can charge you 50% more?



I would definintely start reading the UCC on thsi issue as it deals with shipping and storage of goods.

UPDATE: First thanks to Jerseee. You pretty much confirmed my thoughts.



There is a de facto contract consisting of numerous emails among myself and his employees establishing the price, tems, etc. He has been made aware of that but doesn't care. He's basically a scumbag so I decided not to waste anymore energy on him.



Instead, I turned my attention to the owner of the bonded warehouse (BW). I sent him a letter asking for proof of a lien on my goods. He did not respond. I then drafted the following letter and put it on the letterhead of an attorney friend of mine. (Sometimes you need to do that in order to get people's attention.)



"Dear Mr. XXXXX:



Since my letter to you of October 19, I have learned that ABC & Co., Inc. is claiming a lien on the referenced goods, and that you are not releasing the goods because of this claim. The date of notice on the lien notice in question is October 6. The goods cleared Customs on October 5.



Title 19 CFR section 141.112(e) provides that Customs reject a lien if it is filed after the merchandise has been released from Customs. My client has spoken with Customs and they show no lien as having been filed. Customs further claims that if a lien had been filed, it would have been rejected by them. Thus, the lien being claimed is not valid. Because the lien claim is clearly invalid, there is no need to discuss the other issues surrounding the claim.



Further, as you have been made aware that the lien is invalid, your continued charging of storage fees going forward after receiving this letter is inappropriate. However, my client has graciously agreed to pay the storage fees through Tuesday, October 26, 2004.



On Tuesday, October 26, a representative of XYZ, Inc. [that's my company. --buscador] will be at your premises to take delivery of the goods. He will have a check for your storage fees to give to you. Please calculate and, in order to assure accuracy, provide to me a break down of your fees through the 26th so that the check can be properly issued.



In the event that you fail to release the goods upon payment of your storage charges, such failure will be considered an unlawful conversion of the goods by your company. It also may violate state and federal Law, including RICO statutes.



If you have any questions, please let me know. Otherwise I shall take your silence as agreement with the above and my client’s representative will be at your premises on Tuesday, October 26, 2004 with a check to give to you and to take delivery of the goods.



Thank you for your anticipated cooperation."



I just love the RICO thing, don't you?! My attorney friend was pretty impressed by it and asked me to explain it to him. Can you imagine that?! Scary.



Anyway...



RESULT? Within 15 minutes of having emailed the letter, my attorney friend received a phone call from the owner of the BW. (Gotta love RICO!) He claimed that it was not a Customs' lien that was obliging him to hold the goods, but some other lien. My attorney friend pressed him on what exact type of a lien it was, but BW man was evasive and could not, would not, identify the instrument in question upon which he was relying.



My attorney friend informed him that we were told it was a Customs' LIEN NOTICE (sound familiar?), form 3845, and that we had a obtained a copy of it. We sent him a copy of the alleged LIEN NOTICE with the following letter:



"Dear Mr. XXXXX:



Thank you for your telephone call. Enclosed is a copy of the only lien notice my client has received. Although it is difficult to read the fine print on this copy, the lien notice appears to be on Customs Form 3485.



If you received some other lien notice, please fax me a copy so that we can be sure we are talking about the same document. Otherwise, you may want to consult with your attorney as to the validity of the purported lien.



I am sure you would agree that it is in everyone’s interest to resolve this matter amicably."



TO WIT, MR. BW RESPONDED:



"Hopefully this gets resolved by Tuesday. I will check with my attorney and follow his advice."



I also contacted Customs, now called "U.S. Customs & Border Protection", and spoke with a very helpful guy who determined that the use of a LIEN NOTICE, form 3845, was as he put it "innapropriate" in this case AND had such a form been actually filed with Customs, they would have rejected in keeping with Title 19 CFR section 141.112(e). Which, btw, I did all the research on. I tried to get him to say that it was "fraud", but he wouldn't go there. He did tell me that it would make for a nice investigation of ABC & Co., Inc. and cheerfully provided me with the Code cites re: penalties for misuse of Customs' forms as well as the phone number of the Broker Compliance Office which monitors broker-freight forwarding companies like ABC & Co., Inc. Needless to say, the arrogant owner of ABC & Co., Inc. will have a some splainin' to do to U.S. Customs in the very near future.



Ain't life grand?!



So, we'll see what happens on Monday and Tuesday, and I'll keep you all posted.

[Ice]

Sounds like you've been having fun with this -- even though it's a pain in the azz to deal with this kind of crap.



But if more people would investigate situations like this maybe more idiots would start being held accountable for their misdeeds.



Good Job ... really good job.

Thanks Ice.



It has cost me a pretty penny in storage fees but not near as much as what the scumbag broker was trying to stick me for. I consider it tuition in the school of hard knocks.



I still have not decided if I'm going to go after the bonded warehouse for unlawfully holding my goods and charging me. Once I get my goods out of there, I'll see what mood I'm in and then decide. I'm thinking of using the NP and then liening their assets since you can well bet that they won't respond to anything coming from me alone. I'll keep my attorney friend and his letterhead out of that one.



On another note, wait 'til you see what I did to the NAF. I should have it all uploaded by tomorrow, if not tonight. Check out the "Success Stories" forum over the next few days. You're gonna love that one too.



Have a good'n!