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Review 1/21/2010
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I've just had the unfortunate experience of choosing this company to do our 2K+ mile cross-country move from the midsouth to the west coast. Dealing w/ this company's driver/foreman, logistics manager, sales dept, and owner was an absolute nightmare.
It all began when the sales person low-balled us a quote, it was so low that we called back to extensively revisit the quote, this time going room-by-room in our attempt to mitigate any inaccuracies and avoid any surprises come moving day. You know, you hear horror stories...
After this second call, they thanked us and gave us our new "guaranteed price" based on square footage, telling us that the weight would no longer matter because now it's guaranteed not to exceed the price. The sales gal assured us that since we went from room to room, taking over an hour to list the items with her, we were now secure with the quote in terms of its accuracy. She was slick and smooth talking, reassuring and acted as our advocate should any questions come up, and boy, did I fall for it. I trusted her expertise, since this is what they do every day. I then comfortably paid the $300 downpayment, and thus there was a binding offer / acceptance, i.e. an agreement between the parties to use Universal Moving and Storage for our cross-country move. They seemed happy and so were we at the time...
Day of move -- first huntch that the fox had entered the hen house... A dumpy looking, old white-painted tracter-trailer moving truck shows up over 2 hours late (supposed to be 9 AM but it was past 11 AM). Already, I'm thinking, oh no... Then their foreman/driver lays out all these forms on our kitchen island and tells us that the quote was off and that we were going to have to pay for much more square footage than estimated or reflected in our "guaranteed quote." They insisted upon these higher fees, and wouldn't move a thing until we agreed and signed off on their paperwork. While some of their crew smoked or napped in our front yard and inside their tractor trailer, I tried desperately to reason with the foreman on the job, then speaking by phone to 4 different employees, including the owner. I even had a conference call, with several from the company on line at the same time. Each voice had foreign accent, which only compounded the audibility and challenge to connect on a reasonable level. Fees now required were nearly $2K higher than our careful, meticulous quote. Having been unemployed for several months, we needed every dollar that we had for our transition (we're a family with 5 children).
Feeling the duress of the time ticking away, knowing we had to be out of the home that day and the new owners were arriving early the next morning, I relented to the higher fees, under protest.
Day of Delivery - the company was a week late the time specified in our original delivery date in writing. It's very difficult for a family to live in an empty home, no furniture, communication equipment, bedding, etc. This rattled our nerves. So they show up with our stuff now in two different trucks than the one original truck (unmarked with any company logo btw), than that which departed from our home. They said that for them to unload, we had to pay Universal an additional "labor" fee for their having to unload and load our stuff onto a different truck. Again, I was on the phone passionately disagreeing, trying to reason, arguing, and they would not budge. Wouldn't even compromise , and when I threatened arbitration, they were completely unimpressed. Almost inviting me to take it to arbitration. So again, I relented, paid the extorted fee under protest.
A day later, we realize that our lawnmower is nowhere to be found. We had the bagger attachment for it, and they made me empty out the gas, but they didn't bother to deliver it to our home. For the next two weeks, I'm on the phone daily with the Logistics Manager. He at first claimed he saw a lawnmower in their storage, and kept asking me to be patient until he could get back to the warehouse and confirm. I was patient, but didn't trust them as far as I could throw a brick. 2 weeks later, I call again as I had almost every day, and the logistics manger finally admits that there is no lawnmower in any of their storage facilities. He gave me a toll free number to file a claim, no apology, no empathy, no care whatsoever for any of the grief they'd put us through in the span of about a month. Every time I asked to speak with the owner of the company to try and work this out, I was told he was out of the country.
Unfortunately, this will now go to arbitration for some kind of remedy, though I don't expect much. Truthfully, I don't ever want to see or talk to them again unless they are willing to make things right. Their contract says I can only recover no more than $0.60 per pound for items, if I win the judgement. That proceeding, sadly, is in progress right now. It will take 30 to 90 days to resolve.
I've never have been so poorly treated by a company in my entire life. Financially, Universal Moving has harmed my family with their scam. We're good, hard-working, easy-to-like people -- kind and fair to everyone. We were taken advantage of, and the harder I fought in defense of what was fair, just, and right, or reasonable, the more they dug in and fought against me at every turn. The lawn mower was only a year old, a very nice one that my sons used for their lawn business. I sincerely believe that was malicious intent, though impossible to proove. What do you think? The other possessions that we carefully boxed with expensive bubble wrap - such as crystal glasses, clay pots, picture frames, other decorative items that were destroyed in the move by their careless handling, can be somewhat easily be replaced, but not the nearly $2k they scammed us under pressure of the move.
We will ulitmately forgive these people for their mistreatment of our family; our value system that our family lives by requires we do said same, but I will not and must not take this abusive treatment sitting down, especially at the thought that this could happen to others just as easily. I want others to know of Universal Moving and Storage Inc.'s unscrupulous behavior and dubious business ethics and how that impacted us. Companies that don't abide by good faith have you over a barrel because someone in custody of your life's possessions has significant control, and can make up rules as they go along. This practice puts the average consumer operating in good faith in a highly vulnerable spot for such mistreatment -- i.e., financial, ethical and emotional violation.
My best advice to you -- STAY AWAY FROM UNIVERSAL MOVING AND STORAGE!!! STAY FAR AWAY!!
If you pray, pray for conviction and that they would have changed hearts. I actually asked the Logistics Manager how they sleep at night... Pray for tighter laws to protect innocent, paying consumers, and pray that the vultures preying on people in tight spots go out of business quickly. Their conduct, a blight that tarnishes an entire industry.
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