Question: Is it possible/feasible to give PoA to a former colleague based in Hong Kong for the purpose of taking legal action against an HK moving company?
Context:
For our move from Hong Kong to the USA in December, we decided to go with Allied, as their quote was far cheaper than the other ones we got. The initial moving process went quite smoothly and they shipped our goods on December 19, and the shipment arrived in the USA in mid-February.
Allied booked Schumacher Cargo as their destination agent and that's where the trouble began. Once our goods had cleared US customs on March 2, I received an invoice from Schumacher requesting that I pay around $500 USD for an "additional distance charge", because Allied apparently did not pay for the full distance, even though our destination was clearly mentioned in the contract that I had signed. Only after a week of sending emails to Allied and threatening further action against them for breaching the contract, they finally agreed to pay for this surcharge.
With that problem resolved, I assumed we would be getting our stuff relatively soon - silly me! After a few weeks of radio silence, Schumacher Cargo informed us that they actually don't have any "agent" available who services our area and they are trying to find a different solution. (Note: we moved to a metropolitan area and not to a remote rock in the middle of nowhere.)
It's now mid April and we still don't have any ETA or any update on when we can hope to get our stuff. To me this raises the question why Allied booked Schumacher Cargo as their destination agent in the first place without confirming whether they would be capable of actually fulfilling the shipment in any reasonable amount of time!
Following up with Allied HK had zero effect. Our "moving coordinator" rarely if ever answers any emails and it's been impossible to find out the names of any supervisors or managers from their cryptic company website https://www.allied.com/hk (no management listed, no team, no email addresses). Their only phone number directs you to a mailbox that seems to be always full. I was naive enough to purchase their "insurance", which of course will be pretty much useless, as since making a claim would require me to get in touch with someone from Allied HK... It almost feels like I've been tricked into a scam setup rather than dealing with an internationally-operating company such as Allied.
TL;DR: Their quotations may look like a lot cheaper than other HK-based moving companies, but their abysmal customer service and the fact that you're basically on your own as soon as you paid them, would make me think twice before ever using them again.