Revised epinion: ABF a great U-pack option
Written: Jun 09 '05 (Updated Sep 01 '05)
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Pros: Inexpensive, you do not have to drive the big truck, great customer service
Cons: Be proactive (make sure barrier works, no leaks in truck - insist on functional/intact equipment)
The Bottom Line: Be aware that the general contract states that ABF is not responsible for their gross negligence, however if damage occurs from faulty equipment, they try to be fair.
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| movedaway's Full Review: ABF U-Pack Moving |
Written 7/21/05
Update: Through an epinion connection, I began correspondence with a manager at ABF concerning our damage claim. This manager, Kay Lynn, was truly wonderful – she was professional, personable, and patient (she answered a lot of our questions). She advocated on our behalf to settle the claim and was very effective. She reopened communication between our party and the person managing our claim and in the end, we were reimbursed $300. It might have been more if we had pursued this sooner – but that’s speculative. The initial communication from the claims department stated that the maximum compensation would be $0.10 per pound of damaged goods however, in our experience ABF does try to work with you to find a solution that will make both parties happy (sometimes it takes a gentle nudge in the right direction :)). What we received did not completely cover the damages, but it was a solution that both parties could be comfortable with under the circumstances. Anyway, we are incredibly grateful for Kay Lynn’s involvement in our situation and appreciate all the ABF customer service representatives that have been so helpful.
The person from epinions that contacted me wrote that ABF tries to be fair - and in our experience, they were right. As I wrote previously, the people that we have interacted with at ABF have been overall very responsive (it seems that we just happened to have a claims representative that was a minimalist when it came to giving information/answering questions). So, we are changing our rating from “does not recommend” to “recommend”.
I will leave the original review so whoever reads this can understand the context. The bottom line though, is that we recommend that you use ABF because they are inexpensive, efficient, the customer service is very helpful, and if things should go wrong, they will try to be fair. They are a great U-pack option.
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Written June 13, 2005
Condensed version: Beware that ABF does not take responsibility for their negligence. During a recent move cross-country, ABF’s negligence caused thousands of dollars worth of damage. They will pay $0.10 per pound for damaged goods, which we estimated to be about $20 for about $3000 dollars worth of damage. Under the normal contract, the consumer receives virtually no compensation for damages directly caused by the company. As other reviewers who had similar experiences have described, when ABF is directly responsible for destroying your goods, they will be polite and apologetic, but will leave you out in the cold. Using ABF is a gamble. We recently discovered that ABF offers insurance, at a cost, to cover their negligence ($0.60 per pound of damaged goods). On a different topic, we received our belongings a day later than scheduled. Please read below for more details of our experience: 1) Negligence, 2) Punctuality and payment, and 3) Final thoughts/summary.
1) Negligence: We chose ABF because we liked the idea of paying less for doing some of the work ourselves, like loading and unloading our household goods. We loaded our truck and found that a faulty brace did not secure the bulkhead, although the driver insisted that it would be sufficient to safely travel to the terminal where he would replace it. Upon receiving the truck in another state, the bulkhead had been pushed out 1 foot from the original mark and much furniture had been completely rearranged in a manner which would be impossible to result from shifting during travel.
Evidently, the bulkhead did not hold and they piled our belongings (including destroyed furniture pieces) haphazardly. We were never notified. By the time we uncovered our belongings, much was crushed and damaged as a direct result from their actions. We estimated about $3000 worth of damage. To be reasonable, we claimed about $1200 total loss since a proportion of the damaged goods was still usable (i.e. bookshelf with a large chunk missing was not included in our claims form). We contacted ABF and their reply was that they are not responsible for their own gross negligence and that, at most, they would pay 10 cents per pound for damaged goods. We estimated that on that scale, we would get $20 for thousands of dollars worth of damage directly caused by ABF.
To be fair, it is stated in the contract that ABF is not responsible for their negligence, but we understood that to mean something like, if they took a speed bump too fast and something broke, they would not be responsible. We could deal with a few broken things - we were moving across the country afterall. However, we could not believe that they would not take responsibility for their faulty equipment and incompetence of this magnitude. We recently found out that ABF offers insurance to cover their gross negligence, but as an extra cost (!). So, buyer beware.
Moral of the story is: ABF is an inexpensive option and can be a wonderful experience. However, if ABF is grossly negligent and your goods are damaged, they shrug their shoulders and say, "you get what you paid for."
2) Punctuality and payment: I have to first mention that the day that they came to pick up our furniture in Cleveland, OH, it was dumping snow. Plus, it was during the winter holidays. We were not sure whether they would show up. So, they were a few hours late, but it was understandable and we were grateful. The people we talked to at ABF were very nice and understood how nervous we were. Anyway, we loaded our stuff in the ABF truck and drove our cars from Ohio to Colorado where we called the day before the truck was due to arrive. At first they could not locate our truck. Later that day, they found it had been sitting for a few days somewhere in Ohio although it should have been on the road (they never gave us a reason for the delay). Again, the people that we talked to at ABF were very friendly and apologetic. ABF told us that they would drive the truck to Colorado right away and that it would be a day late. That wasn't a big deal for us - we understood that these things happen. So in summary, we had some problems, but the customer service was really quite responsive.
As for payment, we paid by credit card (mostly as a precaution). However, I believe they take different forms of payment.
3) Final thoughts: I would like to mention that I'm not trying to say that ABF is evil. They really are an inexpensive option and their customer service (at least with our experience) was very helpful. We've used them in the past and have been very happy. However, I really wanted to make sure people knew the trade-off for using this inexpensive option, which we learned about the hard way. According to the company, the trade-off for paying far less is that they will not be responsible for things that go wrong whether it’s the customer's fault or theirs. ABF does offer the option of buying insurance that covers their negligence at $0.60 per pound of damaged goods. The main reason why we don't recommend ABF is because their general 'no fault' policy leaves them with little incentive to take care of your belongings and one could easily lose irreplacable things like family heirlooms and photos, and/or expensive furniture without consequence to the company.
Recommended:
Yes
Punctuality: Showed up late
Lost Goods: No
Amount Paid (US$): 1400
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Epinions.com ID:
movedaway
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Reviews written: 1
Trusted by: 0 members
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