Sunday, August 2
PAIR OF GUY MOVERS Charges Double Its Estimate, Refrigerator Still in Old House On Aug. 1 for Move of 5 Miles for 3 Bedroom House
Dear complaint:
While house closing and moves are stressful enough, the experience we have had the last two days with Pair of Guys Movers (POGM) has taken us past stressful to a mix of bewilderment and anger. Never in my 14 lifetime moves have I been through the experience of our 19-hour move yes 19 hours for a simple move from one modest three bedroom house in Alpharetta to another one five miles away and we still don't have our refrigerator (POGM said they didn't have the tools to get it out), and we don't have our washer/dryer or any electronics hooked up either.
The estimated time that POGM provided was 9.5 hours, which we thought was reasonable. At 5:30 A.M. This morning yes, 5:30 A.M. When POGM finally finished, we made a very impassioned and well-reasoned plea to owner Michael Ketterer that his company had grossly miscalculated the estimate of time/expense, as well as strategy, and had not completed transferring our household goods. Our point was that there was nothing unusual or unreasonable about the move, and an adjustment needed to be made to a quote of $1,501 (9.5 hours X 158/hour 3 men), which ended at a cost of more than $3,200, with the addition of an occasional fourth man (2 of them over different periods of time) that POGM shipped in from time to time.
Mr. Ketterer reminded us that his 9.5 hours was just an estimate, but we claimed (and pleaded) that missing an estimate by more than 100 percent was unacceptable 20 to 30 percent perhaps, but not more than 100 percent.
This was a simple move. It consisted of the normal furnishings (probably fewer than normal since this was a moderately furnished home) and boxes that we had already packed with the exception of the kitchen for which we had made arrangements for POGM to assist (in fact, we the homeowners completed packing half the kitchen goods and many are still there). We made full disclosure on all items that POGM deemed more difficult:
Washer/dryer yes, but customary
Treadmill but easily rollable from the garage where it was used
Two flat screens we actually ended up moving them ourselves in our car and POGM never touched them; we were told they could not be laid down flat and we should stand them up in back seat of car
Large wooden office desk
Steep driveway
Mr. Ketterer claimed that the reason it took so long was because of all the unusual problems his men encountered. I asked him to enumerate and he began my mentioning all of the above. BUT we had made full disclosure of those items ahead of time and can provide that documentation. And then he talked about a heavy desk. Yes, it was heavy and if we had taken the drawers out that would have lightened the load a bit. But unbelievably, no one from this so called professional moving company could figure out how the drawers came out and had no tools suitable to get them out, so they moved it as is.
And then there is the refrigerator which is still at the old house as I write this (Sunday morning after getting to bed at 7:00 A.M. This morning and dozing for about three hours.) They claimed they didn't have the proper tools to take the refrigerator door off in order to get it out of the house. Mr. Ketterer claims that he was responsible only for items that could be removed from the house. What kind of professional moving company comes so unprepared? A good moving company has seen a little of everything and should come prepared for about anything, particularly something as simple and probably common as refrigerators.
While the truck was being filled and unloaded twice, my wife and I also packed and unloaded two cars (Acura MDX SUV and Chevy Suburban) twice during the move.
Now it gets even worse. So when we asked Michael Ketterer at 5:30 this morning what we were to do about the refrigerator, he said that if I (homeowner) went out and bought the necessary tools he would send someone over to get it the next time they were in the area and that, of yes, there would be charge for that.
As we voiced our extreme dissatisfaction of the length of the move (I have moved across town twice for homes twice the size and it never took more than 12 hours and it never cost more than $1,500), emphasized the fact that we actually did a lot of this move ourselves and the fact that we do not have a refrigerator or the have the dryer hooked up (they left behind some key tubing), Michael graciously offered to reduce our bill by $150, roughly 4.5%. He had missed his estimate by more than 100%, but was only willing to reduce his final invoice to us at 5:30 in the morning by a meager 4.5%. At first I indicated that I thought $2,000 was more than fair, an offer of 33% over his quote and estimate, but he didn't budge. I finally asked him to split the difference, an increase of nearly 57% percent over his quote and he still refused. Plus, he still wanted to charge me additional for going back to get the refrigerator that POGM left behind.
This gets better. Finally after more than half hour of desperation, we threw up our hands and told him we'd take his best offer of $2,997 but we wanted to apply the $100 off coupon that he provided on his website for all jobs of more than $1,750. He paused and hemmed and hawed for some time before he said he would accept it, but would of course have to charge me another half hour of time for the discussion we'd been having on the phone. Unbelievable!
When it was all said and done, we settled at $2897, more than 92% over his estimate. Yes, I understand that estimates are just that, but you don't miss the mark by that much for such a simple move.
Okay, this gets even better. The day before, on July 31, POGM moved furniture and boxes from two basement rooms at another house where I had been living before we recently married. POGM was to show up b/n 1:00 and 4:00 pm. They arrived at 4:30. This was a few pieces of furniture, five file cabinets and about 25 boxes. I had moved this originally myself with sporadic help from a neighbor. It took me five hours to load myself and one hour to unload. This POGM group of three, took nearly as long five hours excluding drive time b/n the two houses. We finished that night at 10:30 pm.
To say the last few days have been stressful not to mention sleep-deprived would be an understatement. WE FEEL RIPPED OFF and disrespected as customers! After 35 years in business, I thought I had seen it all but this one takes the (wedding) cake which we would of course store in our refrigerator if we had one.
Any assistance you can provide in helping to get POGM share responsibility and keep it from taking advantage of any other customers in the future would be appreciated and valuable. I would honestly, still be willing to meet POGM halfway at $2,350 and would appreciate any advice you can provide on how to proceed or if we have any recourse. We would also like to get our refrigerator delivered.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Robert A. D Eva H
678-xxx-xxxx 678-xxx-xxxx
@yahoo.com @yahoo.com
Rad
Johns Creek, Georgia
U.S.A.
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