DO NOT USE BEKINS NO MATTER WHAT!!
Written: Jun 21 '04
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Pros: None
Cons: Incompetent, cheaters, liars, rude, underestimate weight to suck you in.
The Bottom Line: Do not use this company. They have no regard for emotions involved with moving or personal possessions. They will take your money and you will never hear from them again!
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| mrs_min's Full Review: Bekins Van Lines |
This company has no morals or ethics. They tell you what you what to hear and then do the opposite. They lie about eveything and never return calls. Our move was terrible! Please never, never use this company. You will be sorry. We have called with no response to our messages. We wrote a letter about two weeks after our move from Pennsylvania to Texas and is outlines our experience. We have still not received an answer to our calls. The letter explains what our experience was like:
May 25, 2004
The Bekins Company
P.O. Box 109
La Grange, IL 60525-8006
To Whom It May Concern,
We are writing this letter, as per your policy, to express our discontent with the services performed by your company.
We contacted a representative from your company to give us an estimate for our move from Pennsylvania to Texas. John Renkawitz came to our home. One of our biggest concerns was that the truck was climate controlled. We asked him this and we were told it was. He also gave us an estimate based on his calculated weight of just over 3,000 pounds. He told us the minimum weight charge was 3,500 pounds and that if we had anything else, to go ahead and add it because we would be charged for it anyway. After hearing this, we decided to bring six stepping stones and a bench, which collectively do not weigh in excess of 400 pounds, still under the 3,500 pound estimate. We received other estimates of around 4,000-4,200 pounds and questioned John about the difference in weight. Again, we were reassured that he could not have been off by that much. He stated that he was a driver and could determine the weight to within a couple hundred pounds. He gave us an estimate of $2,345.16. He stated that we would receive an AAA discount, but to also add on an additional $125.00 for the packing of dishes, pottery and lamps (as stated on our copy of the estimate). We also requested the additional insurance of $20,000 with a zero deductible. We were quoted a price of $216.00 and received a paper stating such. We then decided to go with your company.
In boxing up our belongings, we determined that we might need a few wardrobe boxes for clothing. We called John about this and also reminded him about the packing of the above stated items. We were eventually informed that someone would come to our home to do the packing between 8-9 am on Friday, May 14, 2004.
On Thursday, May 13, 2004, Rich from Ace Moving and Storage in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania contacted my wife in the late afternoon. He stated that he needed to know what was being packed. My wife told him, as stated on the estimate, our dishes, pottery and lamps. Rich told her he was not sure if those were to be packed by Bekins and also stated that the driver was arriving by himself and would do the packing and loading himself. This upset my wife tremendously to the point that I found her upset and crying when I arrived home from work. I then called Rich myself and found him to be very unprofessional. We were told the driver would contact us that evening but did not.
The next morning, as previously mentioned, we were supposed to have packers come between 8-9 am. Two men dropped off boxes at approximately 9:30 am and left, stating they did not know anything about it. Fred, the driver, contacted us and assured us that somebody else would be there to pack before he arrived and that he would arrive between 10:00 am and 12:00 pm. When no one showed by 12:30 pm, we contacted Fred again. He stated that he would be there shortly and that he would again make a call to get packers to our home. In the meantime, I started building the boxes and packed our clothing myself. When the packers finally showed up between 12:30 and 1:00 pm, they were unclear as to what they were supposed to do and also did not bring any tape to tape the boxes together. They also had to use our phone (four to five times) to call the Wilkes-Barre office to find out what they were supposed to do and also to have someone bring some tape to our home (30 minutes from Wilkes-Barre). They had to use our tape to begin. When the driver arrived at our home, little packing had been done at this point and total chaos erupted as three packers, the driver and his wife started frantically packing our stuff in a very haphazard, random fashion. We wanted to have things packed in an orderly fashion under our watchful eye, as these items were very precious to us. This was impossible, as there were people packing in every room at the same time. During this time, the phone was used yet again because they did not have enough boxes and paper. My wife and I were very frustrated at this point. I helped to box, disassemble furniture and load the truck to expedite the process while others were taking frequent smoking breaks. I thought that this, at least in part, is what we were paying for. We thought we were going to be able to leave at a reasonable time to begin our drive to Texas, but they did not leave until after 6:00 pm. Moving is stressful enough without having to worry about the condition of every piece of clothing, furniture and valuables. Your company did nothing to reassure us or make this move easy with all of their incompetence.
On moving day, we received a card from your company stating that we could pay with a credit card. We also received the paperwork from the people that dropped off the boxes and the price on that paperwork was $2460.62. I assumed that this increase included the additional insurance minus the AAA discount, but the driver stated that he did not know anything about the insurance. This required yet another phone call to John to confirm that we had the insurance, but we never received a call back and we needed to continue to pack.
When we arrived in Texas, I called John and Rich on several occasions to try to confirm and discuss these issues. John called back and basically said I needed to discuss this with Rich and stated that his job was done. I then called Rich, who never returned my phone calls. When I was finally able to reach Rich (several calls later), he said to talk to Fred, the driver, and that he would look into putting the charges on the credit card. I asked him to call me back with the total before charging it. On Thursday, May 20, I contacted Rich again because he had yet to call me with a total. He informed me that a charge of $3166.18 was already put on my credit card. I was extremely upset with this additional $700 increase. When I demanded to know what this increase was, I was told that it was for the insurance, additional packing and additional weight. I can understand the weight to a certain degree, but felt that I already had a few hundred pound window to reach the 3,500-pound minimum. Obviously, this estimate was grossly inaccurate. I cannot accept the additional monies for insurance and packing because we were told it would be $125 for the packing and $216 for the insurance at the time of the estimate (less the AAA discount). I do not understand the first $100 increase let alone the $700 increase. I refuse to pay any more than $125 for packing because we told John what was to be packed at the time of the estimate. It is not my fault that the packers were not there on time and that they did not bring the necessary supplies. Also, I did a lot of the packing myself and also helped to load the truck. I am not paying more than the stated price of $216 for the insurance, as that was also stated in the estimate.
On the receiving end, we called your tracking line on Thursday, May 20. We were told the driver was arriving that day! When we asked why no one had contacted us, we were told, “You are supposed to be ready for delivery at anytime during your stated window.” My wife told the person that we were ready, but that we were told we would have a 24-hour notice as to when the driver was arriving. Finally, we were told the driver would be arriving on Friday, May 21, 2004 between 8:00 am and 12:00 pm. The driver finally showed up at 4:00 pm. I asked the driver about the additional charges and he said that he just drives, loads and unloads and that I would have to deal with the company regarding this matter. Everyone we dealt with has done nothing but “pass the buck.” We had pieces of furniture damaged and I felt that although these were not the most valuable pieces in the world, they were damaged nonetheless. The driver was insulting about the furniture, stating a shelf was damaged because it was soft wood and it fell over and the other two were “only particle board on the back” and were expected to be damaged. Regardless, they left our home in excellent condition and arrived damaged. We do not want these pieces in this condition. The driver said that a claims representative would come out and probably glue it. This is unacceptable. I expect to have the piece as it was before and since this cannot be, I expect full reimbursement for it. That is what I purchased the additional insurance for. If not, I expect a full refund for the insurance plus the .60 cents on the pound and the piece adequately repaired! If you are not going to reimbursement me the full value of my damaged pieces, then what is the point of the additional insurance??
I felt like the driver and his helper were in a hurry when they unloaded our belongings because they were hastily calling out numbers as my wife was trying to follow along on the Bingo sheet. I can only assume that we receive all our pieces because it was too difficult to tell for sure. They were placing things in our storage unit very haphazardly, placing boxes on top of our wooden furniture without first covering it. I was fearing for our items being further damaged and told them to just unload the truck and that my wife and I would load the items into the storage unit ourselves. I was then told that I would be charged more money to deliver this into the storage facility than if it were to be loaded into a home and reassembled. This is preposterous! How can this be when it would require more work to load it into a home and reassemble the pieces as opposed to stacking them in a storage unit? We were not informed of this charge at the time of the estimate and since I loaded the storage unit myself, I refuse to pay any more than the usual delivery charge. We were told as long as the facility was tractor trailer accessible, it would be the usual delivery charge.
In summary, I feel that this was very unprofessional from start to finish. We were extremely unsatisfied with the people from Ace Moving in Wilkes-Barre. I have yet to see an itemized statement of what I am being charged for and I expect to see one. I would appreciate it if you could look into this matter. I am only paying the quoted estimate of $2345.16 plus any additional weight and only after seeing an itemized statement.
We would have never chosen Bekins had we known it would be this unprofessional and chaotic. We received several other comparable estimates, but went with your company based on reputation.
Recommended:
No
Punctuality: Showed up late
Lost Goods: No
Amount Paid (US$): 3100.00
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Epinions.com ID:
mrs_min
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Reviews written: 4
Trusted by: 0 members
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