Anonymous1900:
THIS IS A STERN WARNING/ADVISE TO ANYONE INTERESTED IN SHIPPING FROM US TO NIGERIA with VHI......if you hear the name VHI or VHI Cargo or Value Handlers International.... or whatever acronym they now use..... RUN with your goods

I am not advocating from any other company or suggesting alternatives since that's not my motive, my warning stems from a personal experience with the company and it was entirely terrible. I wish someone had put something like this out there to give people an idea of what to expect in terms of service from VHI so we could make informed decisons.

I wont spend the whole day typing but ill give you bullet points:

Does this company fulfill deliveries in 7- 10 days like they advertise.... Hell no (i got my item after 5 weeks)

Does this company keep you informed of progress/updates especially when the expected delivery date has passed..... You wish ( you have to email, call and follow up yourself to get any information)

You are asked to fill a pre-shipping form the item you want to send to them whih includes tracking number of the courier your using to send the parcel to their warehouse and all your details(phone number, address etc) and then scan your id to them for verification. You would only assume this means they have all your details at hand and they will be professional..... Guess again (You can understand my surprise when issues arose and i was being asked what my contact number was?)

This company gives u an exact format of how to write your name on the parcel when shipping to them, I emailed them and got them to send me an exact format of how they want it written..... So imagine the shock i got by email after 2 weeks for a parcel that was meant to be in Nigeria within 10days from someone telling me i wrote the address wrongly and my goods have been returned by the courier to me (this only after i had inquired to the status of my goods)

After several calls and emails by me to my courier company and their company representative who originally told me i sent it to the wrong address (bear in mind my tracking number confirmed my goods was delivered to them 3 days after i sent it and i emailed them to confirm this was done.), i then emailed them the address they sent me to which they confirmed that the zip code they gave me was wrong by a number. Nevertheless the courier company confirmed it was delivered to them. Eventually after a few days, they told me it was an error and it was not my goods that was returned but another customer.....I was already obviously deep into this and could not pull out but to say i had began to regret using them was an understatement.

Eventually my item got to Nigeria and another 7days to clear and a further 3 or 4 days for them to pick up from the cargo office to their office before the item was collected. So after 5 weeks of waiting and emailing and jumping through hoops i naively believed my journey was over and i could receive my parcel and run for dare life....... my recipient picked up the parcel, got home and opened it to find it damaged (the screen of the tablet had cracked)

I am cutting my losses and washing my hands of this company but decided to help someone avoid such a terrible experience if possible. I was not recommended to them, i came on nairaland and searched for ways to ship to nigeria desperately an my main motive was speed of delivery rather than cost without using ups/fedex/dhl. Please note i emailed them to advise of the damage and they responded in the defense as expected saying with the amount of protective packaging i used (bubble wraps for the item and air packets in the case)item could not have broken unless it was tampered with i transit. You would expect anyone with common sense to know if you throw a box around for 5 weeks with glass in it irrespective of the packaging, there is the probability of damage as evidenced by a damage on part of the screen and not the whole screen.

Either way you have been warned/advised.

N.B i dare anyone from the company from the 3 representatives i dealt with to call me out on any of the things i said or term my feedback false as i have all emails from the beginning of this transaction to prove my claims and you can judge for yourself.....

Many of us that patronize freight shipping service providers do not really understand how the process runs. I have used this VHI cargo or value handlers several times, and i do not see anything bad as you have painted. I think we need to understand that freight shipping business is a process that includes many player, of which VHI cargo or any other individual shipping service provider can not be in total control. If airline didn't delay, what about custom, and even suppliers that are found of sending goods out without proper labeling. I have also had bad experience from a few shipping companies in the past, but i understand. I think its just not good to shower bad about service providers taking advantage of this platform. I am a business owner who will not want anybody to bring my business down, so i wont encourage people talking bad about other companies online.

I think you're just impatient ( sorry for this comment). Before i started using Valuehandlers or VHI cargo i inquired from Segun my cousin and he recommended valuehandlers as the best among all these shipping companies in Lagos. I have used them to bring in items from both china and usa, and i must confess, they're trying. So agreed with PerfumeRepubli when he said the delay you experienced was general and not peculiar to only VHI. I had of the strike action at the port at that time too.
Of course most company will have link to their terms and conditions at the signature of emails. Its our responsibility as importers to make sure that we read condition of service. I will recommend VHI cargo for reliable cargo shipping service to Nigeria

dynamitee:
Since i wrote a review on VHI, I will update you guys.

I finally got through to someone who said that they had sent me a mail on 5th of January at 11PM. I found the mail as they said, in my SPAM folder.

They also charged me an extra 20 dollars which they did not mention when they initially gave me a quote. When I called and asked why, they directed me to a very tiny tiny print at the very bottom of the price quote (after the quote and the name of the sender and the signature, at the very very bottom of the email) sent to me that said
"Destination Charges: This does not include custom duty if cargo is considered as dutiable item by Nigeria custom service."

This, they said, was the justification for the extra 10% charge on the cost of my cargo. They also said I had to pay the invoice before my goods would be cleared from customs, another detail that was not in the initial email sent to me; and which was also contradictory to what I had been told before by another customer rep.

I paid the bill at 4:35pm this evening, i'll update here whatever happens.

Meanwhile, I ordered another item from amazon, through mall for africa. Check below.

don't doubt those guys. i have tried many shipping agents in Nigeria. i advise you use www.valuehandlers.com for any goods from USA. I always use them to ship things from amazon and other USA sites to Nigeria since 2012. Relatively goods guys compare to those that will promise heaven and will later delay with hidden cost. Value handlers offers cheaper price, reliable and faster service. I fell in love with the way they operate.