Ben Hur Movers--Where do I begin?
Denise Drain
Submitted this review about
Ben Hur Movers
Review made Live: 7/10/2007 1:19:00 PM
First of all, they were 4 days late in picking up. They were supposed to weight their truck, pick up, weigh again so I could have the correct price. They did not. They took my belongings to a warehouse in NY to weigh.
When they picked up, they were picking up from a storage unit. The driver, who came alone, took two days to load. At one point, many of my belongings were in the parking lot when a thunderstorm blew up. Rather than try to get my items out of the rain, the driver sat in his truck and allowed my mattress, original water color artwork, other wall decorations, personal photographs, etc. to get soaked. Since some of the boxes were wet and falling apart, he "reboxed" the wet items into a large box (still wet, of course) where they molded.
A few days after the pick-up, the storage unit manager called to ask what we were going to do with the remainder of the item in our unit. My husband drove BACK to Virginia from Missouri to pick up items the driver left: desk top, boxes of photographs, mirror, "wet" boxes of personal items, etc. He had a truck-load. If the manager had not called, we would simply have lost these items.
The trip was "supposed to take" about 3-5 days. A week into the move, I received a call from the office telling me it would be another 7-10 days. AND they still did not know my total balance due. That was on Thursday. On Sunday evening around 8 pm, the driver called to say he would be there Monday morning between 10 am and noon--what happened to the 48 hour notice? He did not know the amount due.
Monday morning at 8 am, the office called to tell me that instead of the expected $1400 estimated due, I would need to give the driver $3573.78 at 10 am. IN CASH. (What happened to the 72 hour notice?)
My bank was still in Virginia since we had only just moved. We finally worked out the payment (I had to pay before they would deliver, they would charge me an additional $1500 plus if I did not take delivery on Monday). The office personel was very rude. When I faxed back the form, they called and rudely told me I needed to write a statement. When I asked how I was supposed to know this, she said, "I'm telling you now." Another trip to a place with a fax machine. After 3 attempts, that was finally finished.
The driver called at 11:45 to say he would be there in a little while. At 2:30, he called to say he would be there in less than 30 minutes. He finally arrived at 4:00. By the time we got the payment arranged, a thunderstorm blew in and he sat in his truck. At 5:30, it stoped raining. At 6:00 I called on his cell to see if he planned to unload. They finally did begin unloading.
When I asked to see the list of items they had picked up in Virginia, I was told there was no list. During the unloading, they continually asked "is this yours? does this look familiar?" None of the items on truck were marked in any way--no tags, numbers, nothing. They unloaded several items (bed, mattress, paintings, television) that did not belong to me. At one point, they told me I could just keep the extra mattress. I told them I did not want the mattress, so they put it back on the truck. I asked about the glass for my coffee table top and my patio table top. They said it was in a box in the bedroom.
At 2:00 am, they unloaded the last of it. When I asked about them setting up the bed, dresser, dining room table, I was told that they did not have to. I told them it was on their contract and they said they were too tired. They left for Kansas City.
When I began to look around, I noticed the television was missing. When I opened the box for the "table glass" there was no glass. It was a box with 2"student-made" oil paintings that did not belong to me. Two floor lamps were destroyed, the glass in all of the pictures were broken. I called the driver, but he did not answer. Finally around 4 am he did answer and told me it was late, he was driving, and I should call the company when they opened.
I have not had time to open everything or try to inventory my belongings, but every time I open something else, there is a new problem. When I contacted to company this morning, they said it was not their responsibility. Finally they said to take pictures and weigh the damaged items. They will give me $.60 per pound. They said I should hire a contractor to put the furniture together and they will reimburse me at the "contracted cost". When I asked what that cost is, they did not know. When I asked what to do about the missing items, they asked how did they know if they were missing if there were no list of the items picked up.
Do NOT use this company. They are all quite unreasonable, untrustworthy, and unprofessional.
