I'm normally not one given to berating people, but I'm very tempted today

Normally, I'm really laid back. If I get angry over something like poor service, I tend to step back & calm down, and then ask to speak to a manager. If that fails, I'll either write a senior person in the company, or threaten to contact the State Dept of Consumer Protection and/or the Better Business Bureau.
(Actually, had a computer replaced under Connecticut's "Lemon Law" within 48 hours of contacting the CT State DCP after fighting with Packard Bell's customer service for months!)

But, my wife stayed home from work today to watch over the movers packing up our house for the big move across state... we had called them probably a month ago to set up the move, then confirmed with them this past weekend that they would be at our house at 7:30am sharp this morning. (this company actually had a pretty good BBB rating) Not long after we contacted them, they dropped off a bunch of moving boxes at our home. They had promised 30 or 35 free boxes, but gave us maybe 15 small & medium sized boxes. They said that they would reimburse us for the next 20 if we bought them at a local UHaul, which we did...

So, this morning, nobody showed up at 7:30. My wife, who was probably not happy at having to get out of bed that early, called them up not longer after and got no answer. She left a message. Still no response and nobody showed up. So, she called them up again and finally got ahold of a receptionist some time after 9:00am this morning. She fired them, of course.

In the meantime, she called another mover and was able to get them to come to our house this afternoon...

Finally, however, the owner of the fired company called back, screaming at my wife and demanding his boxes back. My wife can handle herself (A woman scorned is nothing compared to an angry Chinese woman!), but I'm just ripped that this fuckhead actually has the fucking nerve to actually ask for his boxes back, and then scream at my wife and my mom, who was there to help my wife.



:argh: :nuke: :grr:

My wife found a 2nd group of movers that were able to come out to our home today to move everything. They had given us a quote before for the home 8 rooms, 3 bedrooms, about 2,500 square feet.

However, when they showed up, they said our home was much bigger than they thought and that they would have to double their rate... never mind that our home didn't suddenly grow, and we have no appliances to move - the washer & dryer and the fridge are all staying.

Honestly, I can't remember ever hearing a story where somebody didn't get ripped off.

Unless you're physically incapable, you're better off renting your own truck and hiring a few sturdy teenagers to help with the larger items. After all, you're already packing it all up, loading the truck and driving it across town isn't the hard part, especially if the appliances are staying there.

So good that I sent the company a thank-you letter for the great service.

I always go out of my way to recommend any local business that takes really good care of me like that. In my case it's my roofer that I make a point of telling people about- he's done a few more houses on our block since because our neighbors knew he did such a great job for us and he did great work for all of them too.

They showed up when expected, the materials they used were actually less than the estimate I received, and everything was done in less than four hours. They billed me for three (making sure the credit-card swipe was before the three hour mark) - you can bet those guys got a good tip.

But, they are seemingly out of business now. My wife had misplaced a very expensive watch she had bought years previously. (We guess that our then 18 month old daughter relocated it...) In the process of the move-out, they found it and handed it over to her. They could have kept it and hocked it.

Though, when I was at uHaul 10-12 days back to pick up some boxes, I did see a sign about hiring people to load & unload the truck for us and I was thinking about it then.

They lowball you the first time, then fuck you once they get everything loaded and you can't do anything about it.

bastards

My wife is programmed to find as cheap a price as possible, no matter how many times I prove to her that you get what you pay for, and that a lot of movers aren't reliable, and that we should use local movers with good reputations to handle a local move from east of Hartford, CT to west of Hartford, and not movers from New Jersey.

She thinks that just because she is talking to a manager now at the 2nd company and he is telling her that they won't charge more than their estimated rate that it will be true after they have everything loaded on to their truck or trucks. (this is the company that showed up at our home and told us that even though they gave us one estimate for our home, they really had to charge us twice the rate and for twice as many hours...)

The bastards would not unload the truck with all my stuff
until I paid them.

To compound the insult, they charged me twice the rate of
the original quote.

my wife stopped them before they did anything.

Mover's suck.

We had a very good experience with our long haul mover -- showed up when they said they would both in Boston and on the West Coast. I think with shorter distances and local companies it's more of a crap shoot but I have friends who had no complaints there either. Still, your experience is the only one that matters today and who needs the STRESS on top of moving? Grrr.

Please let your fellow DUers know which companies to avoid by telling us who screwed you

No shit. Yeah, it was snowing, but this is upstate NY and it was December (two years ago)--despite this winter's balmy weather, it's most likely going to snow around these parts.

The movers came with their truck, tried to back in once, and gave up. (No, the snow wasn't blocking the driveway.) That was it--sorry, we don't think we can fit. Gotta go.

We HAD to leave that weekend, yet we would have been stranded there, subject to legal action from our buyers, but one of the movers approached us and said that he and another guy would rent a U-Haul and move us "under the table" (rather than not get paid by the moving company that day, so I guess it was beneficial to them too). The U-Haul truck cost us many extra bucks in gas, but it was better than being sued by our buyers.

Movers...:mad:

Never, ever, ever again. Based on your story, I'd say that while you have every right to go off on those assholes, you got off light. What if they had all your stuff?