By: Revanche

Update on my movers

April 5, 2010

Well, Bekins failed again!

Pretty spectacularly, too.  They got so far as to get my shipment to the Bay Area Monday night, and contracted with another company to deliver on Tuesday.  Except 3rd party company called me on Tuesday saying they were NOT delivering that day, they were delivering Wednesday. And oh, btw?  700 pounds of stuff was going to be dropped curbside, they would not bring anything inside. 

No. No, and no.

Bekins got another call from me with this information, the dispatcher went off to do his thing supposedly, and came back two hours later saying it was resolved. 3rd party would deliver on Wednesday by noon and would bring everything indoors as per our contract.

I asked him to take the shipment back and deliver it with his crews- he absolutely insisted that he had a backup crew to deliver in case the 3rd party failed to come through but he was SURE they would.  Does anyone else doubt his word?  And his faith?

Wednesday at noon heralded a weak sun and no rain for which I was immensely grateful because I spent the next twenty minutes being told that the driver was going to drop a huge pallet of my stuff on the ground and leave because they were a freight company, not a moving company.  My dispatcher put me on hold four times, while the delivery guy was impatiently stomping about telling me, “I can’t do what they promised! I get ten minutes per drop and that’s it!”

His boss contacted him, telling him to drop my goods next to the elevator and leave.  Just leave. OR leave with my stuff and let Bekins deal with the delivery.

I was livid.

There was no way that guy was leaving with my stuff, but there was no way I was physically forcing him to stay.  I was very very polite to him, explaining that at my size, there wasn’t any chance I’d be able to bring my stuff upstairs alone.  I also told him that I didn’t hold him responsible for any of the mess, that I expected Bekins to fix it and pleaded with him to give me a few minutes to make something happen at their end.

The Bekins dispatcher had the nerve to tell me he could have a crew over to move the rest of my stuff inside my home by 3 pm, leaving me with a pile of goods in a public area, unattended!

Finally, I had the delivery guy break down the pallet and bring it the elevator, as far as his boss would allow, and was on the phone the rest of the time trying to get someone to do their jobs.

By the time he got all the stuff carted over to the elevator I still didn’t have a solution.

He looked at me, said, “My day’s shot. Where’s your apartment?  Don’t tell anyone, I’m just goin to take this up for you.”

And he did.

At that point, the Bekins guy called me saying that he was “so embarrassed” to ask me to do this, but was there any way I could get someone else to help move my stuff upstairs? He just couldn’t get anyone there right away.  Furious, I just told him that I’d figure it out and, for the first time in the entire ordeal, stated that I was completely dissatisfied with everything that had happened since pick-up, and this was the worst service I’d ever experienced.

He sputtered.  Considering he caused this entire mess, taking it upon himself to delay the shipment for two days for no good reason (which he’d stated up front on Monday), he entirely deserved that shot.  And was nearly apoplectic telling me that he understood I was through with them but they weren’t through with me, that he was seeking a resolution because they were absolutely embarrassed and were going to seek compensation for me.

Uh huh. 

I have my letter, edited to add the Wednesday festivities, ready to go out by registered mail with a copy emailed to the Better Business Bureau if I don’t hear that a check is in the mail on Tuesday.  More than six hundred dollars and all three days of my time before starting a new job was wasted dealing with Bekins in Southern California.  Not one of their shining moments.

3 Responses to “Update on my movers”

  1. Eeep. What a horrible mess. I sincerely hope they refund you some money or at least… SOMETHING.

  2. eemusings says:

    Hugs. I really don’t know how much worse that could have gotten…I hope you get compensated for that massive clusterf***.

  3. Revanche says:

    @AP: Oh yes indeed they shall be refunding me money. I think the guy was smart enough to realize that though I was nice and polite on the phone, SOMETHING was going to happen so he initiated a claim on my behalf pretty quickly.

    @eemusings: To keep perspective, I DID have the unlooked for assistance and they didn’t lose or destroy anything so I won’t go after them both guns blazing. Just with one hand on the trigger. 🙂

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