We’ve been in Farmington for three weeks, and it’s starting to look like an inhabitable house–no pictures though, there are things even I won’t do for fear of upsetting Holly.
But with every day of unpacking comes the increasing irritation at (In)Delicate Moving. The complete destruction they wrought has still not be fully discovered–but the record is pretty daunting so far. Even though the movers wrapped all the furniture in blankets and used shrinkwrap, it had to have been a ruse. One would be hard pressed to find a single piece of furniture that escaped damage, much of it significant.
So either, they are terrible movers or they were pissed off at Holly because of their early altercation and exacted their revenge. Either way, employ them at your peril.
I was googling my own company and came across this commentary. It was very interesting because it mentioned nothing about the 45 minute conversation I personally had with Holly on the night of her move. It also doesn’t mention the 20 minute conversation I personally had with Holly that morning. Were we late? Yes. Did the crew complain about the armoire going through window? Yes . Is that accceptable at my company? No. Was Holly extremely rude to the crew and talk down to them? Yes. Those are some of the reasons that I got on the phone with her at 11:15 that morning. She wanted the crew to leave and she said that she would find another company. I believed at that time that she would later regret making that decision so I encouraged her to give our company the chance to redeem ourselves and we would all have a fresh start. She finally agreed to let us continue and she offered to apologize to my guys for talking down to them. I told her that she didn’t have to do that but if she wanted to it wouldn’t be a bad idea. I also asked her to ultimately judge us from that point forward. She agreed and the move continued. That night around 9:00 I spoke with her about the move. I asked if the guys had done a good job since our conversation that morning. She said yes but that she just couldn’t find a way to get over the events that took place that morning (being late and complaining about the window). I continued to press her about the quality in which the guys moved her furniture and she agreed that they did a good job but she wasn’t going to get over the morning’s events. Everyone always has their perception of the way things are and ultimately that is their reality. That being said, here’s my perception. Things did not go as they should have that morning. I did not believe that she would be better off trying to scramble to find another company. If she had found another company and things went poorly she would have blamed us for putting her in that situation. I explained that to her and told her that I was confident in the crew and that I was willing to take the risk of her not being able to put the events of the morning behind her, but I couldn’t take the risk of another company coming out and doing a poor job and our company getting blamed for that also. I knew that it would take a minor miracle to erase the events of the morning but I was willing to take that risk because I didn’t want her to get stuck with a company that might not care. From my perspective she was not being fair in her assement that night when I spoke with her. She continually contradicted herself throughout the conversation. All of that being said, I extended her a discount of $509. There is no law or anything else that obligated our company to giving her a discount. The only damage to the furniture that she discussed with me (if my memory serves me correctly) was the piano. I assured her that if she would contact our office we would have a furniture repairman (an outside company) come to her home ([Ed. was here] – not sure why they are referring to their home as Farmington). She has never contacted our office since that conversation. We, like every other moving company damage furniture from time to time. The difference is that we work hard to resolve any damage claims. When I met with Holly in her home in Plano I expressed that very thing to her. I told her that if our crew wasn’t perfect on the day of her move that I would make sure we corrected any problems. I told her that if she went with a company from the yellow pages she might not get that committment. She would definitely get that from us and the fact that her realtor referred us would give her that extra level of committment from us to resolve any problems. Another issue that wasn’t mentioned in the commentary is the fact that I gave her an in-home estimate with a fixed price. She called our office later and said that in her opinion I over bid the job so she wanted to go with an hourly rate, because she thought that it would be cheaper that way. I advised her against that for many reasons. 1. If our crew runs into any problems (traffic, difficulty in moving a particular piece, fatigue, etc.) she wouldn’t be paying for that because the rate was fixed regardless of how long the move took. 2. It is a standard practice for us to send 6 or 7 men on a flat rate (I can provide documentation to prove that). When a customer is paying by the hour we 0nly send 4 men. 3. Whenever a customer believes they can save money by going with an hourly rate we are in a no win situation if they don’t save considerable money. I do more than 25 in-home estimates a week and we have completed nearly 6000 moves over the last 3 years. Over the last 3 years we have had 15 complaints with the BBB (an average of 5/year. All of the complaints have been resolved (that can be verified with the Dallas BBB). We are not and do not advertise our company as perfect. What we are committed to besides trying our best to provide outstanding service is making sure that any complaints that are called into our office are addressed and that we do everything in our power to fix the furniture and resolve the complaint as well as implementing policies that will prevent further complaints.
I don’t anything about this website or who reviews the complaints but please consider the following. We admittedly made a few mistakes in the morning on her moving day. We also did everything we could to resolve the issues (she never called and gave us the opportunity to repair anything) and we gave her $509 off of her move. Our guys continued to work hard for her throughout the day (which she confirmed when the move was over). This move was completed nearly 3 hours quicker than I had allowed for. And finally, moving is stressful and the movers typically receive the blunt of the complaints because we are usually the last straw to break the preverbial camels back.
I was actually shocked when I saw this because I specifically asked Holly when the move was completed if there was anything that we could do that would leave her with a better taste in her mouth about our company. She said no. I offered her the discount and she said that wouldn’t make a difference. My next question was; why should I give you a discount if its not going to change your opinion about our company? She said there probably wasn’t a reason why I should. I told her that she was being unreasonable but that I was going to extend the discount because when all was said and done I would know that I did everything I could to make “it” right. My last request of her was that she please consider my efforts and the sizeable discount before speaking negatively about our company. No positive reccomendation is one thing but to give a negative account of the move without including all of the facts (which I have tried to lay out) is another.
Thank you for reading this and please feel free to forward this to the author of the commentary.