VIVOLOG DOO

This story began, like all such stories, with hopes and expectationsI will be brief – I live and work in Serbia and have a business here. I purchased goods in China for asubstantial amount and, expecting to make a profit, shipped them to Serbia. I chose a certain DmitryKudrevatykh as the freight forwarder, through the Serbian company VIVILOG (VIVOLOG DOO NOVI SAD,address: Železnička 20, Novi Sad, Serbia, company registration number (MB): 21862061, PIB: 113410621). Ichose him because he was recommended by Nikolai Khovansky, with whom I had previously worked inRussia for more than fifteen years. That recommendation carried so much weight for me that I did not checkVIVOLOG, and that was a mistake.So, my containers sailed to the Port of Rijeka for onward delivery to Belgrade.The first container seemed to go smoothly. It arrived from Rijeka in Belgrade, was customs-cleared,and we put the goods in our warehouse. At the same time, we duly paid every invoice issued by the freightforwarder, including the freight charges for the first and second containers.But then the second container arrived in Belgrade and stopped there. Dmitry suddenly went onholiday and became unavailable. Suspecting that something was wrong, we went to the carrier – DELTA(DELTA TRANSPORTNI SISTEM – D.T.S. DOO BEOGRAD, address: Vladimira Popovića 6, office B07, 11070Belgrade, Serbia, company registration number (MB): 20443120, PIB: 105719592) – and found out that ourcontainer had been placed on hold because that same VIVOLOG had not paid anything at all. How much hadnot been paid and what we were supposed to do, these gentlemen, who are very proud of being a very largecompany (those were the words of DELTA’s director himself during the negotiations), apparently did notconsider important enough to tell an individual customer.And a little about this DELTA and its directorHis main argument during the negotiations is that their company is large and respectedWe will leave that without commentBut their conduct can hardly be called worthy of respectDuring the negotiations they say – the container is with us and we are holding itWe say – give us the informationThe director replies – who are you, I do not know you, our contract is with VIVOLOGFine, we say, then resolve the problem with VIVOLOGNo, they reply, you resolve itAnd what exactly are we supposed to resolve? According to our records, we paid VIVOLOGeverything it invoiced – the freight and the costs for the first container. No one did anything with the secondcontainer and no one invoiced us for anything.Four letters to both companies asking them to provide information about the location of the cargo,the reasons for its detention, any debts, which so far we have only heard about indirectly, and so on – noresponse for three weeks.And the icing on the cake – we ask DELTA to hold negotiations with us – and receive the reply: wehave been forbidden to negotiate with youLet us look at the situation from our perspective – we paid all costs to the freight forwarder; what ishappening in the relationship between the freight forwarder and the carrier – we do not know. We knowabsolutely nothing: where our cargo is, why it is there rather than with us, and how we can get it back –under what conditionsAnd DELTA’s conduct in this case resembles the actions of fraudsters – I am not asserting that it isfraud, but let us read what the Serbian Criminal Code says about fraud – does it not look similar?We cannot assert anything; we do not know what is happening. Maybe DELTA’s director is currentlyon holiday in the same place as Kudrevatykh and both are unavailable, which is why we are not getting aresponse. Anything is possible, including that DELTA’s internet was cut off for non-payment and they areunable to send us a replyBut that is exactly the point: we ourselves are tired of guessing what is really happening. And wecannot find out, because DELTA, the company most interested in resolving the problem, gives us noinformation at all and does not wish to negotiate with us.
We will be glad if we are wrong in our assessment of DELTA, but as of today we have no informationthat would allow us to revise it.
We had barely left the negotiations when a message arrived from DmitryGentlemen,The freight forwarder called me:- he is not aware of any arrangement to pay only the second invoice in order to release the container.They insist on full payment of all expenses- they also insist on advance payment for services related to delivering the cargo from the secondcontainer to Montenegro; I will issue the additional invoice and send it to you during the day.To put this into plain language – DELTA is demanding that we make an advance payment forhandling the second container, including paying for the handling and dispatch of cargo in that container thatbelongs to a Montenegrin company and will be sent to it. And this is a condition for releasing the secondcontainer to usThat same day, we sent letters to VIVOLOG and DELTA asking them to explain the situation – torepeat, we paid for all services relating to the first container on 21 August (the negotiations and the letterwere on 26 August), asking where our cargo was and why we were not receiving it, as well as notifying themthat we were terminating the agreement with VIVOLOG because it had failed to perform its obligations. Intotal, we sent four sets of letters to both addressees and received no repliesIn other words – it is unclear where the container is, we do not have the cargo, we have paid for allthe services, and nobody is telling us anythingActually, no, we did receive something – more precisely, I received messages at my address fromDmitry and VIVOLOG, except they came from a company registered in Saint Petersburg (ООО «ВИВОЛОГИСТИК», OGRN 1207800000902, INN 7805761226, KPP 780501001, registered address: 198095, SaintPetersburg, intracity municipality Narvsky Okrug, Marshal Govorov St., 35, building letter A, office 210,premises 16N. General Director — Dmitry Aleksandrovich Kudrevatykh)I am currently on holiday.I am receiving strange letters from your manager; thank you for at least having this letter translatedinto Russian.I am very sorry that our cooperation has reached this point.Please let me know when you intend to pay the invoices for the local operations relating to the firstcontainer.I also inform you that the agent has been instructed not to issue the release for the third containeruntil further instructions from us.As for your letter: termination of the agreement does not release the parties from obligations thatarose previously.In my view, the most appropriate and least painful way to resolve the current situation is as follows:you pay us the invoices for the local costs relating to the first container and the freight for the third container;we, in turn, settle the debt to the Serbian freight forwarder, after which you will be able to handle your cargoas you see fit.First, as I already wrote – the local costs for the first container were paid on 21 August, so it isunclear why we should pay them again
Second, and far more interestingly, a third container suddenly entered the picture. It is beinghandled through an entirely different freight forwarder – it is still in transit, and nobody has even issued aninvoice for it yet. Yet Kudrevatykh has already put it on hold, instructed that it not be released, and madepayment for the third container a condition for the return of the second container, after Dmitry Kudrevatykhuses that money to pay the debt to DELTA. What will then happen to the third container, the payment forwhich, as Kudrevatykh himself writes, will be used to settle HIS debt for the second container, is anyone’sguessAnd now the third messageTo be honest, I do not quite understand why there are accusations and some kind of threats fromyour side (this probably refers to the claims).You should understand that Serbia is, so to speak, not my main place of residence or business, andwhat you are writing about will not affect me very much.I believe everything can be resolved through dialogue.My proposal is that I transfer to you in Russia, in roubles, the amount paid for the freight for 2containers at the NBS exchange rate applicable on the payment dates, and that we end our cooperationthere.For the second container, we paid the local costs and the freight forwarder, as I already informed youearlier.I will await your response.The third container as collateral disappeared from the pictureBut what costs for the second container did Kudrevatykh pay, if no operations whatsoever werecarried out with the second container? It should be in DELTA’s possession, not customs-cleared, notunloaded and not handed over to us.And in general, we have no idea what he paid DELTA, because as of today we have received noinformation whatsoever about anything either from Kudrevatykh and his Saint Petersburg and SerbianVIVOLOG companies, of which, as follows from Kudrevatykh’s letter, he could not care less about the Serbiancompany, or from DELTA. In addition, due to the termination of the agreement with VIVOLOG SRBIJA, towhich Kudrevatykh himself does not object, no services can be provided on our behalf. The agreement wasterminated on 27 August, and as we remember from Kudrevatykh’s first letter dated 26 August, he wasdemanding an advance payment from us for the second container, which means that as of the date theagreement was terminated, the services had not been providedAnd just look at the logic – so he will refund us the freight for the second container because it wasnot paid to DELTA, but he has supposedly already paid for non-existent services relating to the secondcontainer. Bingo.Why am I writing all this.Good people, please sign a freight forwarding agreement with Kudrevatykh and his VIVILOG SRBIJA,which he does not care about, or with VIVOLOG Saint Petersburg – with your advance payment he may beable to settle his debts to DELTA, and DELTA will return our cargo to us. As for your cargo, you will receive itafter another trusting customer is found who is willing to work with VIVOLOG without checking theinformation about it – both companies have ongoing court cases and enforcement orders. Customers like us– special thanks to Nikolai Khovansky for thatAnd so that the reliability of this account can be understood – at present we have filed two lawsuitsagainst VIVOLOG and DELTA, including claims for damages, and a complaint with the Serbian Prosecutor’sOffice – let them examine the legality of their actions. This is about the “threats”, so that it is clear what isbeing referred to