Moving Is Stressful Enough! Great Driver But Horrible Packers at Bekins!
Written: Dec 14 '01
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Pros: Driver was great!
Cons: Packers were horrible!
The Bottom Line: I would give the driver of our move a 10 point rating, but the local agent and her packers could barely get a 1!
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| sweetsue_98's Full Review: Bekins Van Lines |
Having moved many times in my life, I have had good experiences and bad ones. It really isn’t the company that determines the quality of the move, but instead the individual people that you deal with. Bekins just moved us from Whitefish, Montana, and although I would like to write two reviews, one about the packing process, and a separate one about the actual move, epinions will not let me write two reviews on the same topic. Therefore, I will break the move down into several different categories.
We contacted the local Bekins agent in Whitefish, Stacey Transfer and Storage, and had a pleasant initial contact with Pamela who runs the local office. Actually the people that own this company live in Great Falls, so she gives estimates, and is supposed to take care of all the loose ends. I was rather impressed as she did spend quite a bit of time going through our home, and getting a good idea of what the total amount of services we were going to require. Although when it came time for the estimate, and she wanted us to come down to their office, I thought she should have brought it to our home. Instead we went to the office to find out the bad news.
I think a persons surroundings at work are a real indicator of how they conduct business. I was really surprised that this “office” was a real mess. It looked like it had not been cleaned for years, dirty walls, carpet, and no place to sit down. The printer wasn’t working, so we ended up looking at our estimate on the computer screen, and the price of $8200 for packing and the move to Minnesota was about what we expected. Finally after I offered to help her check her printer, she finally did something, and the paperwork was printed out. Now maybe the fact that the first impression was one of disorganization and filth does not mean much, but seriously, if that is the way a person works every day, no doubt they have little concern for those of us that want things done right. We agreed to the fixed price that had been quoted, told that the packers (the very best they had) would arrive on Monday morning and finish packing by Tuesday. The van was to arrive on Wednesday. We were given a guarantee of delivery the following Monday to Wednesday.
Packing day arrived, and since most people start working by 8am, we were kind of astonished when they arrived after 9am. We were also taken aback when the very senior citizens turned out to be the packers. The nepotism of the whole thing got quite interesting because our 80 year old packers were the previous owners of Stacey Moving and Storage, and now had turned the business over to their son. They then worked for the son in Great Falls that we never had contact with. I have no complaints about elderly workers, but go back and remember what I said about the messy office; well they were just a follow over from that chaos. However, now it was in our house. The mess had moved right into my living room. Fred (the retired owner/now packer) decided to do our good artwork, and my husband offered to assist him because some pieces were quite large and valuable. We had all the boxes, and crates as well as bubble wrap for these paintings, and had packed them before. When my husband got down on the floor to help wrap these, he got really rude and basically made a major mess. Nothing was in the right box, except the one that was crated. I even found one very expensive painting yesterday that had been wrapped with a cheap picture in a metal frame and the back was totally damaged. It was totally stupidity to say the least.
For 2 1/2 days I lived in a house that had no organization, nothing that was packed was put out of the way, and they never put any kind of pads down on the carpet which we now have to pay to have cleaned. These folks preferred to arrive late, take long lunches, and quit early. By Wednesday morning I looked at my husband and ask him if he was getting very irritated with these people. He agreed 100%! I called Pamela, told her that we were not happy with these people, and she made no effort to every come out. However, remember she didn’t want to make any waves, because she was working with the ex-owner of the company and his wife. On Wednesday, although the packing was not completed, as soon as the driver arrived, the packers disappeared, and left the driver to finish up their work. My complaints fell on deaf ears at Stacey Moving and Storage.
Now the good news was that the driver was super. He had a nice clean van, and an excellent helper, and could not have been more polite. He was organized, and frankly was the total opposite of the nearly three miserable days we spent with the local people. Also, he made every effort to keep our house clean by putting pads down on the carpets and moving things in a well thought-out way. I was very pleased that he would be delivering our furniture on the first day of his three-day delivery window.
My husband stayed at the house until the van was loaded, and amazingly he found drawers of things in the kitchen that had never been packed. The drawer under the stove was still full of its original contents, and another one had all our good German kitchen knives. Although he should have not had to go back and check anything, it was good that he did.
As we were driving to Minnesota, I remember the Customer Satisfaction Guarantee sheet that breaks down the move into different categories. If you were not pleased with a certain aspect of the move, say the packing; you would receive a portion of your cost refunded. I called Pamela, and she said it was too late to do anything about it. Obviously in the chaos, and our irritation with the packers they took it with them, as they certainly didn’t want to have to refund any of their overpriced services to us.
The driver called me the day before he was to arrive, and asked for directions. He said he would arrive at 8am, which he did. Everything went well, and he spend a great deal of time going over the final inventory to make sure that everything was accounted for. At the end of the day, we were tired, but pleased with the long haul part of our move.
So, how do I rate Bekins in general? Well, the local agent was pathetic, and could have cared less about taking care of the customer.....So she and the packers get a 1 out of 10. On the other hand the driver gets a 10 out of 10! So this just goes to prove that Bekins is no better or worse than any other moving company. Each part is separate, and needs to be rated accordingly.
Recommended:
Yes
Punctuality: Showed up late
Lost Goods: No
Amount Paid (US$): 8200
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Epinions.com ID:
sweetsue_98
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Reviews written: 394
Trusted by: 370 members
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"Still More George W. Bushisms: 'Neither in French Nor in English Nor in Mexican'"
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