Completely Untrustworthy and Unprofessional!
Steve C.
Submitted this review about
BestWay Moving LLC
Review made Live: 8/12/2013 2:20:00 PM
Mr. Jerry Margolin, Bestway’s Sales Manager: the master of delay and obfuscation, with a total disregard for his customer’s satisfaction. He is a scallywag, a scoundrel, a miscreant, and rapscallion. He is like a villain in a Dickens novel, and totally lacking in professionalism. He and his company have not even a modicum of care or concern for their clients. An utter lack of communication is also evident.
Like many other people who have posted comments about Bestway, I too have been completely disappointed with this company. They have no credibility. They utterly do not stand behind their service. I would strongly urge anyone who is looking for movers to hire someone else.
I signed a contract for $2,404.58 with Bestway Moving to ship my household items from Virginia to California on May 15, 2013, with the shipment arriving on June 2, 2013. I didn’t have much, just a bed, bedroom furniture, and boxes mostly. Upon inspection, I noticed several issues:
1) The bed frame for the queen-sized bed was missing and never delivered.
2) The box spring for the mattress had many dark, greasy stains, and one corner of the box spring was bent. How could dark stains appear on a box spring, when it was completely wrapped in plastic for protection? Why did someone apparently un-wrap it during the move then re-wrap it?
3) A book case was damaged, and a shelf from the bookcase was missing and never delivered.
4) A vacuum cleaner that was shipped was never delivered.
Perhaps worst of all, nearly all the 40 or so boxes that were shipped had been opened, re-boxed, and then delivered in a water-logged condition, with severe water damage. These boxes contained clothes, books, personal items, kitchen items, bedding, etc. that were utterly ruined.
There was dirt, leaves, grass and mold and mildew on many of the clothes. The boxes also had a moldy smell. It was utterly disgusting and unbelievable to have these worldly possessions treated with such carelessness and delivered in such a deplorable condition. Nearly everything had to be tossed.
It was as if I had paid Bestway the full contract price of $2,404.58 to destroy these items. If I wanted my household goods destroyed, I could have done it myself for free without being ripped-off by Bestway and Mr. Margolin.
Again, I repeat: DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY! THEY WILL RIP YOU OFF!!
As bad as that experience was, what followed has in many ways been worse. Despite numerous phone calls and emails to Mr. Jerry Margolin, Sales Manager at Bestway, no explanation for what happened during the move, nor any refund or restitution, was provided by Mr. Margolin despite repeated requests.
Mr. Margolin is utterly useless when it comes to providing customer service. Be assured, he is quite happy to take your money when you pay for a move, but when it comes to service after the contract has been signed and the money is in his pocket, he only knows how to stall, stall, and stall again and offer no credible explanation or assist with customer questions or help expedite requests for refunds.
Mr. Margolin is scheming, manipulative, relishes control, and seems to gleefully enjoy misappropriating money paid to him for a service that was extraordinarily poorly delivered.
As proof of that statement, here is what happened after I received the household items that mostly had to be thrown away, due to the utter incompetence of his company.
First (and this is perhaps the most galling and disappointing of all) I simply asked Mr. Margolin for an explanation of what exactly happened during the move that caused my items to arrive in such a deplorable condition, with nearly everything water-logged, destroyed, and unusable.
He will not and did not provide an explanation or even attempt to find out what happened. His attitude is simply one of “I don’t care” now that I have your money. I have moved numerous times before and know boxes and the like can get dinged-up, etc. but this was far beyond anything I’ve ever experienced.
Second, I immediately filed an insurance claim, and included approximately 90 pictures of the damaged goods to Bestway, asking for a refund of $345, based on the standard insurance offered by moving companies, at $0.60 per pound shipped. I submitted this claim on about June 5th 2013. More than two months later, I still have not received a refund or any indication of when the money will be refunded.
Yes, the insurance claim form says it may take longer than 30 days, I was aware of that. I had no problem with that. But I shouldn’t have to wait more than 60 days for a refund, or to at least receive an indication of when the insurance claim refund will be forthcoming. This is an example of Bestway’s incredibly poor service and total lack of customer care.
Third, due to the deplorable and incredibly poor service I received from Bestway, I also wrote an email, asking for a refund of two-thirds of the total contract price of $2,404, or a refund of $1,611. This seemed reasonable to me, as nearly everything was destroyed or rendered useless upon delivery.
While $1,611 would in no way compensate for the market value replacement cost of the items that were damaged beyond repair, it would have provided me with the necessary satisfaction of knowing Mr. Margolin and Bestway stand behind their service and the value of their reputation. It is obvious now they do not value their reputation; they seem to gleefully delight in ripping people off, and ensuring their customers stay unhappy.
I would have also listened to a counteroffer, and perhaps have settled for less, but none was forthcoming, until approximately a week ago when I sent an email to Mr. Margolin, stating if I did not have a satisfactory resolution to these long outstanding issues within 24 hours, after waiting two months with no relief or explanation from him or his company, I would be pursing relief through the BBB, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, and the Maryland Attorney General’s office to file a consumer complaint, as outlined below.
Only then, did I receive a phone call from someone at Bestway named “Eugene” who offered to settle with us for $500, which is only $155 more than what I am entitled to as a refund under the insurance claim I filed. In other words, the insurance company would have paid $345 of the total offer of $500.
Given the damages and losses I suffered, I rejected this low-ball offer. I made a counter proposal and offered to reduce my request from $1,611, or two-thirds of the total contract price of $2,404 to $1,202, or one-half of the contract price, representing a reduction of $409, which seemed very generous on my part. I gave Bestway 24 hours to think about it and come back to me with an answer.
Accepting a low-ball offer of $500 would have been the equivalent of accepting twenty-one cents on the dollar, not even one-fourth of the contract price. Since only $155 would come out of Bestway’s pocket, with the remainder being paid by the insurance company, it means Bestway is trying to settle for six cents on the dollar ($155 divided by $2,404.) That seems to be a ridiculously low amount, given the damage that I suffered and the total lack of professionalism and assistance I received from Bestway.
The next day, Bestway raised their offer to $600. Again, that is totally unacceptable, and is really a kind of slap in the face. Of course, I rejected that offer and will now take pursue other avenues to procure some satisfaction.
Be assured, I have taken the following steps:
1) Contacted the Maryland Attorney General’s office to file a consumer complaint.
2) Contacted the Better Business Bureau of which Bestway is a member to also file a complaint.
3)Contacted the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to file a complaint.
4) Naturally, I will be posting these comments on this moving website and other moving websites to discourage others from using this company. Most assuredly, you, the reader of these comments will likely be ripped-off if you use Bestway.
If you do use Bestway, and they damage your goods, (which is extraordinarily likely) and you cannot reach a satisfactory conclusion to having your money stolen, you are permitted to demand arbitration for an interstate move under the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) laws. You can find a sample letter to send to Bestway here: http://www.michaelgarcialaw.com/Moving-company-sample-demand-for-arbitration-letter.html. You can also contact and file a complaint against with the FMCSA by filing your compliant here: http://nccdb.fmcsa.dot.gov/
DO NOT USE BESTWAY MOVING. THE ONLY GUARANTEE THEY CAN OFFER IS TO TAKE YOUR MONEY AND UTTERLY DESTROY AND DAMAGE YOUR GOODS.
