Q: 3 years ago we made aliyah and there was a strike in the shipping industry. Our company charged us an additional $800 for our container being stuck outside of Italy. They assured us that once we paid this fee, they would file and claim and reimburse us the money they owe us. Meanwhile each time we call them, they advise us they haven't received their reimbursement. In addition, they lost my American passport and we had to buy additional clothes since it was during the chagim. What actions can I take to be reimbursed for all the additional costs we incurred?

A: When you mentioned overcharging…I thought, here we go again, another story of someone being held ransom for some unfair and unreasonable charges.
In this case, I do not think that is what happened to you.
I would be happy to look over your specific charges to tell you if $800 was fair and reasonable. I would need to know the size of your shipment, when it arrived here or in Italy and how it made it to Israel in order to give you a precise answer, but let me lay out the issues on a more generic level below.
Shipping lines obviously, want to spend as much time sailing as possible and as little time standing as possible. When they are kept waiting an unreasonable amount of time, due to war, strikes, work slowdowns, congestion, etc. they impose fees on "owners" of containers – the shippers. Since a strike's end is never known in advance, vessels will sail to a port knowing it is closed, hoping the strike will end soon and not slow them down. They want to go to every port on their schedule as they have containers to unload and load. They may wait a week or more until they decide to skip a port. They may either hold the containers until their next scheduled arrival or unload them at a near by port such as Port Said, Cyprus, Greece or in your case, Italy.
The shipping line has the right to declare End of Voyage (EOV) which means they have fulfilled their contractual obligation. Even if you booked your container to Israel, by declaring EOV in Italy, they have no obligation to bring your container to Israel. EOV is based on international maritime law and while completely unfair remains an option for them. So not only is your shipment delayed – you have to pay for another shipment to get your container to Israel!! By the way, during the war in Lebanon last year, almost none of the lines declared EOV and instead shuttled the containers to Israel at no extra charge. During the big strike you write about, many lines declared EOV and clients had to pay for an extra shipment to get their containers to Israel.
It gets worse…The foreign port, where your container is waiting until the strike ends, may charge you storage fees. Furthermore, EOV may cause your insurance policy to lapse and if you want coverage to your door – you have to buy another policy! This is typical for Israeli insurance policies. We use insurance through our sister company, Mayflower and United in the US and they did not end coverage due to EOV. It is probably a good idea to check this in advance, even though it is a very rare situation.
Demurrage and storage fees might also be incurred. If the container was off loaded in port, and then got stuck, the port will start charging storage fees from day five. And they do not care that this is not your fault. The port also says it is not their fault, so they charge.
Shipping lines allow a shipper to hold their container seven to 10 days after the vessel arrives. From the 8th or 11th day, they start charging demurrage which is rental on the container. Again, if your container got stuck at the port, the shipping line would say it is not our fault and again…charge you demurrage.
I would imagine that some of these fees were charged to you.
It is true the government set up a committee to approve refunding some of the fees (mostly port storage fees) incurred by shippers during the strike. The filing requirements were onerous and very time consuming. I believe there are one or two people going through the tens of thousands of claims. I do not know if any claims have been paid yet.
Losing your passport is certainly within your shipping agent's realm of responsibility. They should have covered any expense you incurred to replace it. Buying clothing is not something the shipping agent will cover, especially in a situation like a strike.
I fear I have not given you much to work with other than a better understanding of what are legitimate charges. As I said earlier, I will be happy to review your specific charges to see if they were fairly assessed.
All the best,

Shmuel