Horrible Experience from Start to Finish
Pete
Submitted this review about
Wheaton World Wide Moving
Review made Live: 10/3/2012 2:27:00 PM
Let me start off by saying that over the last 14 years I have conducted a permanent change of station (PCS), or Army move, over 7 times. Working with Wheaton World Wide Movers to includes associates and subsidiaries has been the worst experience I have ever had with a mover and furthermore the worst experience I have ever had with a business.
To start, the company contracted by Wheaton to pack our belongings was utterly unprofessional. The men of the crew began the day by asking what they could do to earn a “big tip.” Throughout the entire day, they continued to hint that big tips were good for them and the customer. I asked when my furniture and belongings were scheduled to ship and they stated that they were dropping it off that night at a shipping yard and the moving truck was picking it up the next day to begin moving west to my next assignment location. As it turns out, they did not move a single box for three weeks. After calling Wheaton’s customer service line repeatedly, they finally told me ON THE DAY that my furniture was suppose to arrive that it would be another week before they could get it to me. They had not even loaded it onto a moving truck after three weeks. The entire time I got the run around and false reassurance that everything was on schedule. To make matters worse, my wife was 37 weeks pregnant at the time and Wheaton now had all of our baby items and nursery furniture in their possession. At one point, the representative at Wheaton did not even know the location of our property.
In accordance with U.S. Code, I filed an inconvenience claim to purchase essential property that would sustain us until our property arrived. I email Mike Chandler in their military affairs department with a list of items I deemed necessary. He pre-approved each and every item on the list before I bought them. Nearing a month after initially packing our property, about three quarters of it arrived. As it turns out, they had to separate our property into two shipments. Among the items in our inconvenience claim were a car seat to leave the hospital, a pack and play in the event the baby came, and other essential items. We purchased the cheapest items found in the area and even limited things like forks and dishes to one per person in the household. Fortunately, our baby arrived a bit late and after our property arrived. However, in Wheaton’s eyes, this was reason to not pay for the baby items that they pre-authorized with the understanding that baby due dates cannot be concretely put on a calendar. Mike Chandler even admitted to this fact on the phone; not that it would have made a difference if he did not because it is simply common sense. At this point I had to get the local transportation office and the Judge Advocate General, military lawyers, involved to resolve the issue. Wheaton still did not reimburse us for the full value and we had to simply pay for some of those items out of pocket.
Once my shipment fully arrived nearly a month after packing and over a week past the promised and contracted date, my property arrived with multiple broken and even stolen items. Many boxes did not have stickers or labels on them because the employees went through them rummaging for high dollar electronics and piggy banks. They stole hundreds of dollars worth of electronics and broken expensive furniture that is part of a set and cannot be bought individually.
So, after this horrible experience with this company I figured I could put my experience into the online feedback system the government provides to review transportation experience. When I attempted to do so I found that Wheaton rescinded this capability for me. Fortunately, I contacted the military transportation office and the quality control agent ensured me this review would be put into public eye.
To review, Wheaton World Wide Movers as well as their associates and subsidiaries since they are responsible for their work took nearly a month to move our property, had unprofessional employees that stole and broke our property after rummaging through it, delivered it in split shipments after promising it would be there on a particular day, broke their promise to pay for items they agreed to pay for IN WRITING, and in the end locked me out of the ability to review their company in the Defense Property System Customer Satisfaction Survey.
Do not use Wheaton and rescind their government contract because they do nothing but a disservice to service members who are already dealing with enough stress.
