On May 9, I contracted with Giant Van Lines via email and telephone conversations to move my furniture from MD to VA, this would also include the storage of our items for 4 days. My point of contact during all telephone conversations and email was Chuck Hayen, a Relocation Specialist for Giant Van Lines.
After a few emails and telephone conversations, I was asked by Mr. Hayen to give him an itemized list of all contents in my townhouse in Maryland that would be moved to Virginia. This was done verbally over the telephone. During this conversation, I explained the size of our Townhouse (a four bedroom unit with over 2500 square feet of living space, plus an attic and basement), listed all furniture and the other contents, ie, dishes, clothing, computer equipment, televisions, etc. After I gave this information to Mr. Hayen, he put me on hold to calculate the approximate time needed for this move, since this was considered a local move my fees would be calculated on an hourly basis per Mr. Hayen. After several minutes he came back and stated that this should be about a 10 hour move and that he would send a 28 foot truck to load it all into, for all of this Giant Van Lines would provide 3 movers, the truck and all packing material for a rate of $90.00/ hour, for an additional $15/hour we could have an additional mover. I asked him if he thought he needed to come to my residence to get a more accurate estimate and he said that this is his business and he does this all the time, and a personal visit was not necessary, and that a 28 foot truck would be more than enough space.
After determining the estimated time for the move of the contents, I asked Mr. Hayen many questions concerning the move. I asked Mr. Hayen if the team of movers who pick up my furniture would be the same team that would deliver my furniture. He assured me that this would be the case. After this conversation, Mr. Hayen quoted me a price of $990.00 for the move plus an additional $125.00 for Storage. Mr. Hayen stated that this price included wrapping all of my furniture with furniture pads, fuel, tolls, stairs or long-carry, it also included duisassembly and reassembly of all furniture.
After this conversation, Mr. Hayen sent me an email confirming the move date and time. He said that Giant Van Lines would require a $80 deposit (on a credit card). I agreed to this. Mr. Hayen stated that I would receive a telephone call from the dispatcher on the day prior to my move (Thursday June 26th). I did receive that call confirming my appointment for three movers between 8-9am on the 27th
At approximately 8:30 am on June 27th, I did not hear from the driver, so I contacted Giant Van Lines. Mr. Hayen answered the phone and put me on hold for several minutes and finally transferred me to the dispatcher. The dispatcher put me on hold, stating he needed to talk to the driver. After a few minutes, the dispatcher came back on the phone and said they would be a little late. Approximately 5 minutes after this conversation with the dispatcher, the driver called me from his cell phone to say that he was on his way to my house and he would be there in about 10 minutes.
The drivers arrived at approximately 08:50 am. They came into the townhouse to assess the contents, it was then I realized that we may start having problems, they were complaining the Giant had sent them out with the understanding that this was a small job, remember my conversation from earlier this was to be no small job. They were telling my wife and I that we could hire an additional body for $15.00/hour and the job would go faster so wanting to speed the operation up as much as possible we agreed. At that time the Crew leader, Jacob, came in with paperwork to sign and stated that the job was larger than they were told and that it would take about 17hours total for the job to be completed. Needing to beout of the house that afternoon my wife and I agreed and he then asked for payment up front, we provided a signature that we would use a credit card and they went to work, they then went back to their truck to bring up the materials they would need. At no time during this day did Mr. Hayen call to check on things or apologize for the inconvenience. At about 11:00am the additional mover we agreed to showed up along with several other people from Giant Van Lines and they all began to walk through my townhouse complaining that this was a much larger job than originally thought and stating that we would need an additional truck at least at a cost of $200.00. Again because we needed to get out we agreed and said to order it. The additional truck showed up around 2:00pm. The movers finished packing and loading the contents of my house at 5 pm on June 27th, a total of 8 hours for the day, completed and packed. The original Van had already been taken back to the warehouse when the second van arrived. After they completed my wife and I were presented a bill for $2400.00 for the move, the additional laborer, the storage and the 2nd van. We assumed that it was for the total job (the 17hours, storage and the additional Van) and we paid with credit card.
These movers left with my life in their van. I was in a state of shock and confusion. We had told Charles Hayen on numerous occasions and we were still upset that we needed additional vans but we were happy that we were moving so it sort of balanced out.
We were to go to settlement on the new house on the 1st of July and we had arranged to have the movers at our new location with our belongings at 1:00pm to start to unload.
On the 1st, 1:00pm came and went, 2:00pm came and went and we started to make numerous phone calls to Giant to see if there was a problems, of course when you call this company all you ever get is Voice Mail and no one ever returns calls. Finally at 2:45pm we reached the dispatcher who informed us that 1 truck was just about loaded and would be leaving within 10 minutes. Again we waited and at 4:30 no truck was there yet, on a bad day it takes 1 1/2 hours to get from Jessup to the new location, again we started calling and again no response. At 5:15pm we received a phone call from the driver and he stated he would be there with the 1st truck around 5:30pm. At 5:30pm they arrived with a smaller truck than what originally picked up our stuff, when they arrived the driver stated that he needed $2200.00 in cash or money order before they would start to unload, when querried he stated that was the base amount for packing the truck out of storage and for unloading and reassembling at the new house. When I asked him about this and told him that I had already paid $2400.00 he just pointed to the invoice and said we needed to pay. Well at this point my wife is getting upset and we continueed to argue about the credit issue because we didn't have the cash to pay. He agreed to take the credit card and then they would start working. THis being after 5:00pm there is no way to call the company and complain and remember they are holding our stuff hostage. After paying they start to unload and I realize that all of our items are not there, the driver tells us not to worry there is another truck on the way. The crew proceeds to start unloading the truck and carrying the items into the house, at 7:00pm the other truck shows up and they start unloading stuff into the house as well, the first truck is totally unloaded at 9:00pm and the 2nd crew leaves, leaving the first crew to continue unloading. At 11:30pm most of the truck is unloaded, but none of the furniture is unwrapped or put back together and the crew is starting to move slower, there is no way to talk to the crew other than the leader because most of them are on work exchange fro russia and they speak little or no english. At this point it is getting really late and my wife and I start to put stuff together since the crew that was unloading didn't seem to have any of the right tools. At around 11:45 they informed that all of our stuff still had not been loaded out of the warehouse and that it would need another truck the next day. The wife and I are totally furious, tired and hungry at this point when the crew packs up to leave at 12:00am. Let me restate that Giant Van Lines did not reassemble any furniture my wife and I did...
The next morning we started calling Giant Van Lines to find out when the rest of our stuff would be arriving as well as to try and find out where these prices came up with. To no ones surprise we never could talk to a live person, just voice mail... At around 1:00pm the truck finally arrived and the guys on it started to unload and finally finish up around 3:00pm, so from start to finish it was by my calculations, 8 hour packing and loading on the 27th, 6 hours unloading on the 1st and 2 hours on the 2nd. A total of 16 hours work time plus the additional 2 hours of travel and as near as I can figure we should have been charged for a total of 18 hours plus the storage fee that was prearranged. The total charge for the complete move should have been around the $2400.00 that we paid originally on the 27th of June and to date no one can explain to me where the additinal $2200 came up with.
Although the price was more than $3200 higher than I was originally quoted, there was very little I could do as it was Late at night Giant Van Lines offices were closed.
My furniture was delivered, and I have it all in my home now however some of my furniture was damaged.
So, a move that was supposed to cost me $1,300 has now cost me over $4,500 and we are still trying to resolve the issues with the damamges so this figure may actually go up depending on that outcome.
0 comments