On June 16 I contacted Golden Hand Moving Co to obtain a bid to deliver household goods from my house in Littleton Co to my home in Charlottesville VA. I had used Golden Hand to before and the move was uneventful, but expensive. This project was the same; move household items from Littleton to Charlottesville, just a much smaller job. It was the final items from our house in Littleton that needed to be shipped because the house finally sold.
Janine Knudson at Golden Hand was pleasant and quoted me a rate of approximately $1000 since the load was of minimum weight, about 35 boxes, one table and chairs, and one chest of drawers. I did request that some of the boxes be re-packed.
On June 24 the moving crew went to the house in Littleton to re-pact and pick up; the packing crew leader called me on my cell phone and said there would be an extra charge for the packing, was that okay. I said yes, but did not ask how much. I was thinking it would be around $200 since it was only a few boxes that needed to be re-done. That was my first stupid move.
I instructed Golden Hand to not ship our items until after the 4th of July and said I would be willing to pay for storage, to please let me know how much that would be.
On Monday, June 29 I received a phone message from a man at Golden Hand telling me that the items were being shipped and would arrive at my house on July 1 or 2nd. I called back to say that I could not accept the load until after July 4th; I needed some time to make arrangements for storing these items in my garage. The person I spoke to said too bad it's already on the truck. I was not happy about that; but I decided to go with it and get ready.
The truck driver called me from the road on Wednesday July 1st and said he would be at my house in Charlottesville between 7 and 10 A.M. The next day. I asked him if he could come later in the day that I had a 6 A.M. Meeting that morning. He got mad and said no I better be there.
It got worse from then on. At around 7 A.M. The following day, Thursday July 2 the delivery driver called and said he was unable to drive into our neighborhood that the road had too many low hanging trees. I told him that we had 18 wheel delivery trucks in the neighborhood all the time, that that no one had ever complained about this before. I also told him that the previous driver from Golden Hand had no trouble delivering to our house and that I would be happy guide him if he wanted me to. He got very mad and told me that he was not going to come to our house that his truck would be damaged and that if I did not come to his truck and unload the items into my car he would dump them on the side of the road and leave.
I called Janine at Golden Hand and told her what was happening. It was 4.30 A.M. Out there and I apologized for waking her up and told her what was going on. She said that is ridiculous and called her boss. Her boss called the driver. The driver called me back and said no way you come to me now or else I dump the load by the road. My husband has a pick up truck so he went with me to get our items. We have more than 50 homes in our neighborhood and people move in and out all the time with large semi trucks.
The other driver came and delivered, why couldn't this guy? We took our truck and then the driver told me that I had to sign a credit card slip or he was taking off. The charges went from $1000 plus or minus $250 to over $2,600. I complained the guy started to swear at me. I called Golden Hand and talked to owner, Ron and reminded him that the other driver had delivered to our house why couldn't this guy finish the move and especially since it was $2,600?
Ron spoke the driver in a foreign language and much shouting took place. The driver hung up on Rod called him bullshit looked at me called me piece of shit and started putting boxes in our pick up truck. I asked for copies of the delivery sheets, the credit card invoices and the inventory and he refused to give them to me. I was forced to sign the invoice that it was delivered but I wouldn't with writing NOT DELIVERED in bold on the sheet.
I called Janine and told her how upset and mad I was after my husband I drove two pick up loads ourselves to our house and unloaded them. She said she was sorry and would make it right with me. I asked her to call me on Monday July 6th and she said she would.
She never called. I emailed her on July 7 and left a phone message. She did call me back and said she would talk to the owner and get back to me. Two days pass, nothing. I called her back on July 9 and she said I had to call the owner myself. I called Ron was told he was too busy to talk to me. I call back that afternoon. I tell him all I want is a reasonable accommodation and an apology. He said he would call me back the next day. I called my credit card company and they refused to allow me to dispute the amount because I had no receipt. I tried to explain that I was refused copies. They said too bad.
On July 10 Janine calls me back and said she can refund $150. I said that was not good enough, I spent $5000 on the first move and another $2600 for this last move and that I expected at least $250. $250 is less than 3% of the total monies I spent with Golden Hand. She said she would have to talk to the owner Ron. I wait another day, nothing. I call Ron, and he says he will look at my file and let me know. Another day no call no nothing.
I had asked for copies of the documents and receipts in an earlier conversation and had never received them. I called Ron one more time and he said he wants to talk about it some more. I said no more talk and I want action and he said forget it. I then told him that I would be following up with an attorney, the BBB, and any online referral source I could find.
This is my complaint and I will continue to pursue it as far as I can.
Ellen
Charlottesville, Virginia
U.S.A.
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