Wheeler moving and storage: Awful
Dan Ray
Submitted this review about
Wheeler Moving
Review made Live: 1/6/2008 3:32:00 PM
Their stationary of this Boca Raton, Fla., ripoff firm said "Mayflower," their phone ad said "Mayflower" their truck said "Mayflower." I thought, naturally, I was dealing with a national company. No such luck. They lost (?) gave up (?) got booted from (?) their agency with Mayflower.
My experience:
I moved from Boca Raton, Fla., to Austin, Texas. It was about a $5000 move.
They misrepresented themselves, held my property hostage for more than a month, and then tried to hold me up for an estra $750 on delivery day.
Step by step:
First, they charged $550 for 75 cardboard boxes. OK, I thought, there's the profit margin. Fine. They have to make money somehow.
Then, when the truck was halfway loaded with my property, moving dude says, "Since you don't have a full load, we're going to hold your stuff in storage until someone else hires us to go west." How long? "Oh a few days."
1 week goes by.
2 weeks go by.
3 weeks go by.
4 weeks go by.
5 weeks go by.
6 weeks go by.
I'm sleeping on a frickin' blow-up mattress for 6 weeks, while they hold all my property. Phone calls are met with excuse du jour.
After 6 weeks, I file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, the local consumer afffairs office, and start posting negative reviews online. Suddenly, my property is on the road. That's when I discovered they were no longer affiliated with Mayflower.
Instead of Mayflower's online property tracking sysytem, my tracking system consisted of whether the goober driver found a phone booth at the truck stop, and decided to call me.
The first such conversation went like this. Him: "Austin. That's in New Mexico,right?" Me: "AUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!"
After some geographic instruction, they finally arrive at my house in Austin, which is on a slight hill. Hills have apparently never been seen by them before. They tell me they have to charge me an extra $750 to go park the moving van on flatter land, rent a U-haul, and shuttle my property back and forth.
At that point, I channeled my inner 4 year old and went ballistic.
Goober finally relents, and says that if he parks 10 feet away, it's not a problem.
I have most of my property. There were minor missing items, many broken items.
Want to move? Put your belongings in a rucksack. A bindlestiff. A FedEx envelope. ANYTHING but use Wheeler Moving and Storage. They misrepresented themselves, held my property an unconscionable period, only move when complaints are filed, lose stuff, and try to charge extra fees above the contract.
