Flexport レビュー 152

Horrendous experience. Our shipment is over a month overdue and still no action from Flexport. They are not helpful in resolving issues. All talk, no action. Use any other freight forwarder.

I would never use flexport again. My experience was incredibly poor, and full of problems, delays, miscommunications, and priced well above other freight forwarders. In the beginning, I thought based on other reviews that I read, that their platform and communication was superior, and therefore worth the premium price. I was so wrong. Their team was slow, inefficient, and had many miscommunications and delays. I was asked for information that they should have been able to handle. As a freight forwarder, their job is to handle customs and shipping issues. I paid almost $7,000 to ship 17 CBM which I found out later is about what most freight forwarders charge for a full 20' container (28 CBM). No matter what feedback I gave them, no improvements were made, and the shipment took over 3 months, which was much longer than I was quoted. In the end, they were awful overall and I would certainly never use them again.

Flexport is supported by a very young and relatively inexperienced team. The way they go about handling any shipment is extremely systematic, and you would think this is a good thing in the world of freight but it's almost too robotic and at times feels like your dealing with an automated system. You will do the same shipment 5 times over and they will ask you the exact same question in 5 different ways, 10 times over. Very simple matters such as shipper info, weight, dimensions, etc. even though all shipping documents have been uploaded into their portal and they have direct access to all of it, you will be asked for it multiple times and nobody cares to cross check. Even when you tell them it's the same as last time, you'll hear "sorry, tell me again". There is no personal relationship, the people who work on your shipments don't really know you and sound like they barely know each other. Their custom clearance brokers are extremely inexperienced and need to be truly spoon-feed every detail of information. You will not have anyone to directly speak to. Try to call their number and it will be a call center asking you for the person you like to speak to and it always transfers to a voicemail. The person will never call you back and at best you will receive an email back. Also, the flexport team by definition will not communicate to your shipper via email. There will be 5 different flexport individuals on the email chain but none will respond. We have complained about this to them and they explained that all communication has to happen through their portal. Unfortunately, our not all shippers are willing or able to sign up on their portal and this is basically where communication breaks down and you look unprofessional because of Flexport. Their pricing is competitive but it comes at a high cost of quality of service. The concept is great, but the execution is rather elementary and poor to say the least. We have closed the chapter with them, and we would recommend not to open it if you haven't done so yet.

Not a good company. I met an individual who was a bit intense and was not friendly at all. It turned out that person was hospitalized for mental health issues.

Imports and supply chain congestion are real, and that's a reality for any forwarder/importer - but the level of partnership and accountability @ Flexport is beyond unacceptable. They coerced us into booking "premium" shipments with assurance they would be given "premium/expedited" service at the ports and rails..couldn't be further from the truth, and cost was more than double! Service level "Teams" lead to no one replying timely and no one taking accountability. We ship 80+ containers/year and they couldn't care less. Great company concept - but their employees are going to "sink the ship"...lol!

My company is a relatively small customer for Flexport; we've moved about 10 cargos over the course of a year. In early 2021 we got caught up in the industry-wide congestion at LA, and as a result had some cargos delayed by about 2 months. This congestion was clearly not Flexport's fault, however the consequence of it was that we were OOS some key items during our peak selling season. The financial cost of this to our business was tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars, as well as lingering inventory impairment threats due to some of our materials having only a 12 month shelf life.

This is my frank and honest assessment of Flexport:

THE GOOD:
- They have a nice website. UX/UI is good, tech seems solid, and it has some nice features. I can only imagine this must have cost them a pretty penny to build
- They agreed to a payment plan that allowed us to pay for some cargoes on a staggered basis

THE BAD:
- Industry data such as vessel waiting times and # of ships at anchor made it obvious (had one looked) that there was a problem brewing at LA port as early as Nov/Dev 2020. When Flexport quoted our job in Feb 2021 it would have been obvious to an experienced freight broker that there was a problem brewing. Flexport could have warned us of this, and it could have adjusted its delivering forecasts as a result. They didn't.
- We've tracked actual vs forecast delivery times for all 10 jobs we have done with them. They are an AVERAGE of 30 days late. They could learn from their own mistakes, refine their processes, and give more accurate forecasts based on past performance. They don't.
- They could have provided us with alternative routing options to avoid the mess at LA. They didn't
- Once our cargoes arrived at their warehouse, they could have had the customs clearance paperwork ready so that it could be immediately released, and not add further delays to an already drawn-out process. They had, after all, known this day was coming for about 2 months at this point. They didn't.
- in the final leg of our freight voyage, they could have contacted our warehouse immediately upon pickup in order to make a delivery appointment rather than wait til late Friday afternoon when everyone had gone home. They didn't
- Instead of sending us a $300 invoice for it, they could have said "you know what, you guys have had a rough time and we acknowledge we've let you down. Let us pick up the tab for this $300 weekend storage fee that arose due to our truck driver failing to make a delivery appointment on time". They didn't
- They could have agreed to payment terms, allowing us to take possession of the inventory, assemble some products, and make up for some of the lost ground during the tail end of our busy season. They didn't.

At every point of the way, what I observed in Flexport is
1) an unwillingness to admit their mistakes, or take ownership of them. The standard response instead was "delays are outside our control". Whilst I agree with their statement, their inaction on multiple fronts made them complicit in causing significant damages to us, their customer. Whilst they may not have caused the damage, they were in a unique position to be able to avoid it. What frustrated me to tipping point was that they just didn't seem to think it was their job or responsibility to behave proactively and help their customer incur further damages. Flexport is the sort of "partner" that will stand silently on the side of the road while the bus runs over the school kid, and not say a word or step in to prevent a catastrophe.
2) they were more interested in protecting their own downside than they were helping a customer recover. When we were down, rather than let us have access to the materials we needed to make product and generate sales, they held onto our inventory as a "security deposit" to make sure that we paid every cent on a few thousand dollars worth of invoices.

My overarching impression of this company is that they have over-invested in technology and a flashy website, and under-invested in people. We are looking for a new freight forwarding partner now, and something I will be looking for on the next one is grey hair. This is something the Flexport team appears to lack.

I have previously used Flexport for a couple of sea shipments after they repeatedly emailed me asking for me to give them a try.
On my last order with them, they repeatedly emailed me over and over to tell me they were waiting on documents and could not clear the order without them.
The thing is the documents had been sent to them and signed for by them weeks before. It took a while to sort this

Fast forward to this week, I went onto my account and asked for a Quote and they ignored me, absolutely blanked me dead.

I emailed them and asked why and they said that "they were sorry they had not added context but they were focussing on their regular customers"

Well one thing is absolutely for sure, I wont be a regular customer with them now or ever again !
Shocking

I am giving this company one star for a few reasons. First off, the communication was overboard in the beginning. I was called often which I get but the calls didn't seem productive. When they did give me a tour of their portal, I was very interested. The format was clean but kind of complicated to use. The main issue I had was they basically ghosted us. I had submitted two quotes in their system for OF. These were two of our most popular lanes. I had communicated with Victoria, who was nice and professional, that I was submitting these quotes. She said I should have an answer within a few days to a week. A couple of days I understand but a week? And I believe I requested this on a Wednesday or Thursday. Months later to today and I still don't have an answer! I had reached out to her about this and did not receive a resolution. I know we are not big like Walmart but you called me for the business. My recommendation is to look elsewhere until they are able to communicate quickly and effectively. Their quote-the one quote I did receive- did seem low price-wise which I was suspicious of further looking into it, many many fees were not included. Just for reference, 6+ months later, no one has still reached out to me to see what happened or why I wasn't booking with them which I thought was odd.

I'm the owner of a freight forwarding firm, Global Gateway Logistics and I have audited several quotes and invoices from Flexport that their dissatisfied customers send to me. Rates, communication and the story the invoices tell are nothing if not opaque and questionable. It's exactly the reason I started my firm because there are too many big box firms like this out there that don't provide the transparency and service. Yes technology is great, but logistics is a relationship business. Relationships that matter especially when those relationships mitigate delays, issues and find solutions. And not to mention the most important relationship...the customer. My firm may not have billion dollars of investment, but we have heart, experience, transparency and trusted service.

For all of the companies that had to deal with poor service and unexpected charges (especially the small and medium companies trying to scale), hang in there and know that not all freight forwarders operate like this.

I switched to Flexport after being sold on their innovative interface. The initial service and pricing was good for our first couple of containers however it was quickly downgraded after 6 months of continued service. After pricing began to drastically change for the worse we were switched to different service reps/teams with less experience than the previous. In addition to the poor service was the constant headache of fighting illegitimate charges on every invoice. Flexport constantly asks for reviews yet never responds directly to the issues you share. I have since moved on from Flexport to find MUCH better rates and new appreciation for our business.

A horrendous organisation claiming to transform an archaic industry by automating the process.
They in fact manage quite the opposite.
We trialled them across 20 or so shipments after being chased by their sales team.
In almost every instance there were delays, errors, additional charges, problems, endless admin changes etc. It has been exhausting.
Far from relieving us of our work load, they have added to it tenfold, and to that of our suppliers.
Their inland charges in Asia are so expensive that suppliers threatened to stop working with us.
Their total costs are around 5-10% more expensive than traditional forwarders, so you expect something special!
They incur excessive additional costs (one US shipment cost us an additional 50% in costs due to inexperienced staff not knowing how to handle HS codes).
They continuously change booked delivery dates, causing mayhem for all involved, with feeble excuses including COVID (predictably!).
When you start complaining and voicing concerns, they eventually stop responding and just ignore you which is beyond amateur.
Ultimately we had to end the relationship as it was not conceivable it would work.
Watch this space, but I dont see them surviving with a market offering like this.
My advice, stick with experienced, honest and efficient traditional freight forwarders with whom you can build lasting relationship and a dependable service.

Before I used Flexport, I was working with logistics companies thru email. That was a nightmare.

I normally don't write reviews, but I feel like most of these negative reviews are unwarranted.

The bait+switch complaints are from people new to forwarding.

What Flexport does is quote people for their service which stays the same.

The 'additional' charge added to the invoice is customs and duties, which they have to charge at the time the products arrive at the receiving port because those fees are always changing.

Communication with my account manager has been 10/10.

We had a small mishap where they accidentally put the wrong HTS code and my account manager Frank called me right away and fixed the issue.

It would take a lot for me to switch to a different provider.

I've asked for quotes from different companies and Flexport's prices are very competitive.

Bait and switch pricing, they give you a nice low quote up front then double your invoice when it comes time to pay. From $1700 quote to almost $3200 invoice!

Very poor customer service. Not a good option for small business and unlikely to utilize them as we scale due to rude CS interactions.

I have used flexport several times and they always add unexpected fees that add up to about 25% higher than their advertised price.

However, my last shipment was a whole new level of BS.

They quoted me under 5k and then charged me $13k dollars. And they charge you right when they share the invoice.

I'm so pissed off. What a sleazy company

I have used them many times. Things were much better when they took different shipping options/vendors. But with them trying to take the whole shipping chain in house, their delivery times are awful.

The dashboard is easy and customer service is pretty good, but there logistics/warehouse is a 1 star at best.

I went online and made a quote request, no response so I had to call them to follow up. When I did get the rates they were .15/kg more expensive with a slower transit time. But it was all inconsequential as the client booked elsewhere. We were just too slow ! Thanks for nothing flexport.

Not for small business owners.

Put it on your website that you only want large companies. Save everyone some time.

Love Flexport. They streamlined our entire logistics operations. Now everything is in one place and easily searchable. Would highly recommend Flexport.