ComplaintsforGolden Movers, LLC

• Initial Complaint

  08/17/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Order Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I hired golden movers to move my three bedroom condo from ***** to my home in ******. Prior to the move they came out and provided a quote which I accepted.Before the move I donated 2 bedrooms full of furniture and moved all of the artwork ( which was a large part of the wuote) myself.In spite of the significantly less amount of items which needed to be moved- the company only believes that they should reduce their spite by less than 5%. They did an awful job packing my items- virtually throwing things into boxes unwrapped and improperly labeling a vast majority of the boxes.This in turn led to quite a bit of breakage and further resulted in it taking me several months to unpack given the chaos I encountered with virtually every box I unpacked.So in spite of the markedly less amount of items to be moved, the woeful packing and the multiple damaged items the company believes a discount of $260 out of a &**** overall quote is watrAnted. That is outrageous even if I dont include the value of the broken items.I believe I am owed far more due to the much smaller moving thst occurred and the woeful packing which led to not only personal injury to me but also additional months of effort required in unpacking.

  Business response

  09/06/2023

  I met with the client in her home approximately 4 weeks prior to her move, as we find this is the best way to ensure all details are gathered and discussed so that both parties expectations are accurate going into the move.  It allows me to get a full scope of the work the client wants, get a complete inventory of what is going, and inmost cases, provide a guaranteed flat rate price for the move.  Its also during this time that I explained all of our policies, procedures, payment types, terms and conditions, etc.  I explained that I would provide a Binding Price for her Full Pack and Move, which means its not an estimate that could change, but rather its a flat rate guaranteed price.  We advise our clients that we can revise the price up until 5 business days prior to the move if they change the scope of the work, such as selling furniture, or deciding to do some of the packing themselves.  

  During my in home walk-thru with the client, she identified which items were going, and which items she was not moving, as she was downsizing.  There were quite a few pieces of furniture that she said were not going at the time of my home in estimate, and my quote to her reflected only the items that she wanted moved.  There was no correspondence from the customer about fewer items being moved, or the scope of the move changing, until part way thru the 1st day of the move, in which she mentioned to the driver that she was hoping the price would be less since she is not moving as many items.  My driver advised her that she would need to contact the office about anything pricing related.  She never contacted us.  Had she contacted us, or even attempted to, then perhaps we could have addressed these alleged changes to her inventory at that time, but that never took place.  

  Her move was completed on April 29, 2023.   She contacted us on May 8th to advise she had damages and we sent her our claim form.  She was informed that she has 30 days from the date of her move to file a claim according to state regulations.  On June 12th, 2023,  42 days after her move she contacted us saying that she plans on submitting the claim, but said she had covid and it was taking her longer to unpack than she planned.  This was also the first mention to our office that she was hoping for a price reduction for the fewer items that she said we didn't move. 

  32 days later, on July 18th, 2023 (a combined 74 days after her move date) she emailed us again saying she still needed more time.  This is the first time she provided any sort of list of items that she said we did not move and expected a refund for.  The list of items was vague and incomplete, and didn't match the inventory that we had on file for what she paid for.  

  23 days later, on Aug 10th, 2023 (a combined 97 days after her move date) she provided a detailed list of the items that we did not move, broken down by room.  Her list did not match our inventory list which I gathered when I met with her at the in home walk-thru.  The vast majority of the items on her list, were not listed on our inventory list, which is what the move price was based on. 

  After reviewing this in great detail, many many times, and discussing it thoroughly with my field manager who was the lead on her move, as well as the rest of the crew assigned to her move, and despite being against our policy of no price changes within 5 days of the move, let alone 97 days after the move, we decided to give her a refund for the items that we could best determine that we may not have moved, even giving the benefit of the doubt on a number of items.  Again, the vast majority of the items she said we did not move, were not items that were on her inventory list that we priced her move on to begin with.  She never paid us to move those items in the first place, so there is nothing to refund.   

  To this date, Sept 6th, which is now 124 days after her move date, we have still yet to receive her claim form.  We did advise her approximately 90 days after her move (which was 60 days later than we needed to allow) that we would have to close her file after waiting and waiting, and reminding her that she was given a Binding Quote (guaranteed price) for a Full Pack and Move, which she agreed to, and signed.   I can assure you that we were very patience, and tried our best to extend ***** and try to filter thru the broken and confusing and limited correspondence that we had with her.  This was incredibly challenging and frustrating to process.  Ultimately, to the best we could determine, and despite being way outside the limits, we reimbursed her with what we could determine was accurate.   

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩