Sonigo

17 Reviews: Add Review

1. Excellent experience

   Shmuel and the Israeli team were exceptional to work with - responsive and informative. The final cost was actually lower than the original estimate (I guess I didn't buy enough).
   
   Sonigo packers from the Miami area were professional and thorough; delivery in Israel was smooth and helpful. Everything arrived as it left, in perfect condition. This was a challenging time to bring in a shipment - every ship in the world was delayed. No reflection on Sonigo. These are not *normal* times.
   
   My experience with the company was excellent and I recommend them highly.

2. Amazing service

   Sonigo did an amazing job. My lift was packed in NJ and shipped to Israel. It arrived in 6 weeks and was delivered to me 4 days later. Everything arrived in perfect condition. My many questions prior to shipping were answered promptly and patiently. Thank you Shmuel. Highly recommend this company.

3. Very Good

   Shmuel kept us in contact regarding our shipment and we were very satisfied. The shipment came on time and even a bit early. Working with Sonigo has been a pleasure.

   

4. Movin from Woodmere, NY with Sonigo

   I realize that making Aliyah to Israel is both fulfilling and traumatic. Most of the trauma surrounds the transport of your entire life’s accumulated stuff 6000 miles across the globe. Our experience with Sonigo was trying, but ultimately very successful. Most of the thanks goes to our move manager, Shmuel Mantinband. He went above and beyond, to always be in contact, and to respond promptly and efficiently. Our items were delivered with only minor issues, which all seemed to be resolved quite miraculously. I guess that’s part of the Aliyah experience. Kudos to our packer, Schumacher Cargo, whose team packed and loaded a 40 foot HC container in a day and a half, and the four exhausted Jewish/French crew, who delivered to our apartment in a sweltering 8 hour day. Y’asher Ko’chachem!

   

5. Horrible customer experience

   STAY AWAY from Sonigo!!! They are the worst moving company on the planet!
   
   We have just relocated to the US, and needeles to say how difficult and expensive this process is. We've used their services to ship our container. They told us that it would take a maximum of 9 week for the shipment to arrive from the moment it's picked up, never mentioning that there might be delays.
   
   From the time they've picked up our stuff and we've paid, we didn't hear from them at all. After arriving to the US, they haven't communicated with us to let us know when should we expect our shipment, basically nothing.
   
   We've had to chase them endlessly, without understanding what's going on. Eventually, we have heard from the moving company they work with here (which are also horrible!), saying that our shipment has been delayed because the ports are congested. Having said that, they made us pay $15 a day for every day our shipment is at the port, as there is no option to transport it.
   
   They are extremely shady as they ask you to provide them with a credit card over email which you have no option but to do.
   
   Weeks and weeks has gone by, and we're not able to get an exact or an estimated ETA on our shipment.
   
   Finally, the moving company called us and said that the shipment will arrive to us in 24 hours (when there's a tropical storm, great!), but they have stated a fact that the 18-wheeler will not be able to access our community and that we need to pay an additional $350 for the movers to rent a small truck + labor.
   
   I have double checked with our community manager, who have confirmed that an 18-wheeler can IN FACT access our community but they've decided, based on Google Earth only, that it can't and that's it- nothing we can do.
   
   Sonigo had our address from the beginning, and they could have updated us in advance that there might be additional costs but they chose to do it in the last minute when we need to get our stuff & our hands are tied.
   
   Sonigo has never bothered to update us that there may be further delays, and that there might be additional costs. They don't care about the client after the shipment is paid and sent.
   
   14 weeks later, and still no shipment. Shame on them.

6. Super reliable, professional company!

   We moved a 20" container with an overseas shipping from Houston Tx to Israel.
   
   I can't recommend ENOUGH on Sonigo. The partner on the US side was informative, knowledgeable, communicative and friendly. The packing company was by far the best packers I've ever worked with- nothing broke on the way, everything was wrapped perfectly and packaged extremely carful. Arriving in Israel, midst Covid19 days, the Sonigo office in Israel was efficient, transparent, no surprises and no extra fees we didn't know about in advance.
   
   To sum up, we had such a positive experience I feel the need to spread the word so others could enjoy it as well.
   
   They are highly professional, know what they're doing, very experienced- this is the type of company you'd want to handle your life belongings.
   
   **Important to mention I'm a private person, payed for the shipping etc. on our own (no corporate involved) and have no incentive to write this review other that true satisfaction from the service level**

7. Sam Weiss

   Recently shipped some household contents/furniture,etc. from new York to Gush Etzion Israel. The staff at Sonigo was very helpful whether it was in filling out forms or answering questions. The movers in America were very professional and cleaned up after themselves. On the Israeli side the company was in contact with us about every step of the way. The movers on our side were very professional and helpful. We would defintiely recommend to others.

8. Sonigo

   My move was from Jerusalem to Gaithersburg, MD. In Israel the salesman Shai was very nice when he was selling me on the company. All that changed once they had my money in advance of the international move. Even though English was the only language I ever spoke to all the people in the company, they sent me a Russian speaking only crew of 3 to pack my apartment. The packing was good, but they knew few English words to write on the boxes. Bedroom was not one of those words! Neither was living room or cabinet or closet. Everything says “decor”, obviously a non-word they used as miscellaneous. It is taking me forever to unpack and I am having to move boxes myself from room to room. The Russians with no English did not tell me they needed to take all the papers that day. They left them with me and both Ed and Shai refused to pick them up, even though Ed lives in Jerusalem and I offered to bring them to him. Instead he left insulting voice messages telling me I am a stupid old woman. Lovely company! I hope David Sonigo reads this. I would never recommend this company. I went to Israel with Rainier and I recommend them. My mistake for picking Sonigo. The delivery company from New Jersey Best Guy Moving and Amir who I dealt with were lovely, but they also were confused by the non-English on the boxes.

   

9. Move from America to Israel

   We just completed our move from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to Jerusalem, Israel. (January 2021) We were very pleased with the packers in America as well as the delivery personnel in Jerusalem. We received all of our belongings in excellent shape. We would highly recommend Sonigo to others who are contemplating such a big move.

10. Moving into Jerusalem

    Sonia and all the hard working movers were simply superb. They were polite, efficient and smart.
    
    I recommend them completely

11. The best moving from N.Y to Jerusalem.

    Thank you, Shmuel , sonigo team, for your great service for my container from NY to Jerusalem my shipment arrived safely to its destination, and so, thank you for your past help in making it happen smoothly.
    
    I hope you are well and getting more orders? Thanks to all at Sonigo too.
    
    . Shabbat shalom.

12. Sea voyage to Uk.

    I can only review my case, but I found staff at Sonigo very helpful, and felt they did not neglect me in the process of my overall ten week absence of goods before delivery.
    
    Noam was my main contact; very informative and helpful.
    
    Their associate company in UK were also attentive.

13. Threatened not to give us our goods if we didn’t pay more.

    Moved goods from their warehouse in NJ to Israel. When they arrived at our home they mentioned that they were not aware of the items that we had or the weight even though they had packed the items. They claimed they needed a better moving truck to move these items as they were too heavy. Somehow they seemed to be content with the existing moving truck and had no trouble moving 2 heavier boxes off of the truck - but told us we needed to pay $800 more or else they would not unload the rest of our goods. Really a terrible experience on what is already a stressful day and should have been a more pleasant experience. There are a few other companies which are in the similar price range - please stay away from Sonigo.

14. International move from Germany to Eilat District.

    AVOID THIS COMPANY !! It involves professional fraud with methods that ultimately costs the customer almost twice the agreed and contractually fixed transport price. Also many other customers made this experience with SONIGO, as a more intensive research on the Internet shows: In the end the price of the transport always comes out almost twice as high than agreed.
    In my case (how likely in most cases) of a container transport from Berlin / Germany to Israel, the blackmail trick works like this:
    As usual in Israel all services must be paid in advance, so that the full contract amount is already paid when the container reaches the port. At this point, SONIGO has already had a complete list of the container content and all the necessary personal documents of the customer for weeks. The embarkation in Rotterdam would not have been possible without these documents. All other import-related issues could then have been clarified by SONIGO in advance.
    And this is exactly where the fraud process begins: SONIGO picks up the container one day after reaching the port and stores it on their own ground. This is possible by paying an average customs duty on private container imports until final clearance.
    Now the customer is faked with all sorts of difficulties that prevent a fast delivery of his container. In my case, sudden missing the approval of the Ministry of Transport for an electric wheelchair, which later leads to lack of customs clearance, then again to different customs duties and ultimately looks like pure arbitrariness. Suddenly, all the necessary papers are missing, although these have been delivered to SONIGO weeks ago and several times as mentioned. Daily new problems with changing surcharges appear.
    At the same time, the customer is falsely told that the container is still in the port, it would now produce daily harbor and Demurrage fees of nearly 100 € . As a result, there is growing pressure on a daily basis without any chance to get out of this situation.
    To demonstrate the special perfidy of these "colleagues": I am a 100% handicapped wheelchair user whose entire mobility equipment was housed in the container. In fact, I was motionless in the literal sense of the word as SONIGO was squeezing extra profit out of me. To "confirm" the fraud, SONIGO only gave in after the immigration department was called by me and suddenly, SONIGO was ready to deliver the container for a "small" surcharge of more than € 2,000; an hour before the authority call they still wanted € 4,300!
    At that time, more than 14 days after the arrival of the container in Israel, I was already completely exhausted and had to meet important health appointments. So I transferred the money, teeth grinding, and the container was delivered one week later in my absence.
    All costs, including the extortion monies from SONIGO, have risen to almost € 10,000 for this 20 "container transport, instead of the contractual agreed 5700 € for the worst case scenario!
    BTW: The role of the respective local supplier of SONIGO - in my case, the Berlin company HERTLING - seems also obscure concerning the above tricks and maneuvers: Questions about the integrity, reliability and honesty of SONIGO before the container shipping were always answered positively; but HERTLING did nothing to end this extortion process, even though they knew exactly that the container was no longer stored in the harbor!
    All in all, this is a terrifying experience. The isaeli authorities should act as soon as possible against such methods to avoid further loss of image of Israeli ports.

    

15. Take care.

    When relocating from France to Tel-Aviv during the summer 2018 our French relocation company used Sonigo as the Local Agent.
    It turned out to be a terrible experience where our shipment was blocked in Asdod port for more than 1 month while Sonigo was charging additional demurrage and storages fee's.
    Sonigo completely mismanaged the custom clearance didn't plan the delivery and send a team to deliver the furniture who only spoke Russian. The worst relocation services I have ever experienced.