what wrong with mayflower moving and service company
Question:
We just moved from Atlanta, GA to Austin, TX. Moving company I used was
Mayflower Transit. Household was loaded on 12/13 and left. This truck had
5 household loads all going to Texas according to the driver. It was to
be
delivered to our house in Austin on 12/18. 5 days sound very reasonable.
BUT...
- 12/18 came but no truck showed up
- 12/19 came but no truck showed up
- called Mayflower hotline. The Automated status system said it was
already
delivered to our house.
- 12/20 came. I was informed by the hotline personnel, the truck was
about
40 miles from us and it was to be delivered in that afternoon.
But it was no show again.
- 12/21 came but no delivery yet. Mayflower hotline could no longer
locate
the truck.
- 12/21 Sunday came and gone.
- 12/23 I began calling the Mayflower customer support service at 7:00a.m.
At the end of the day, finally Mayflower located the truck parked in
Miami.
No one was able to explain how and why...
- Mayflower was to send another driver to pick up the truck.
- The Christmas eve and the Christmas came and gone.
- We spent our Christmas in the empty house. No trees, no lights, no
presents.
- 12/26 came and the day has passed. At 10:30 at NIGHT, the Mayflower van
showed up at our house.
- Only the driver with no helper to unload our furniture.
- I told the driver to stay in our empty room until the next morning and
get a helper to unload.
- the next morning, the helper was contacted but he did not showed up
- My son and I helped the driver to unload the household item.
- One piece of furniture (Lazy-Boy) was missing
- one piece (book-shelf) was broken.
- 2 pieces of chinaware and 2 glass doll-cases were broken in pieces.
It was a long 15 days in hell with no furniture, clothes, kitchen items,
and of course no Christmas. We spent Christmas in the empty house.
Mayflower hotline seems to be staffed with inept people, I spoke to at
least 5 or 6 different people there, including a couple of so-called
managers.
No one has been able to explain why the van was missing after it was
only about 40 miles from us and left Texas for Miami.
Has anyone had such a nightmare (real one) in moving. The Mayflower
customer support service has been such a helpless group and I often
wonder
why bother. Now that I end up with missing furniture, broken items.
Can they help to assist in recovering? Of course not.
I will have to get satisfactory answer from Mayflower exactly what
happened
and why they were unable to help me with the move.
My family will not forget such a nightmare over 1996 Christmas holidays.
Is anything wrong with this industry? I hope someone will do in-depth
investigation on moving company.
Answer:
_Nobody is Perfect... Quit your crying and just be glad you got your
stuff...Some people lose all there belongings to Fires, Theft, etc... My
guess is this Drivers Dispatcher promised him he would be home for
Christmas and then was unable to do it.. And the Driver went home anyway...
I understand that Motel, Restaurant and Emergency Personnel all work on
Christmas, but Drivers spend many weeks (months) away from home and they
can almost expect that they will be with there families for Christmas. I
can almost understand a driver blowing his top and Driving home to Florida
and abandoning the Truck. I think I would quit if my employer lied to me
also.. Maybe the Lazy Boy was a gift for his wife ( who knows ) This is too
bad this happened to you, Sorry your holiday was ruined... Praise goes to
the Driver that showed up to deliver to your house the day after Christmas,
because his holiday was obviously not as he planned either.. I'm sure he
was called at the last minute to take care of things and he obviously
worked Christmas, Driving the Truck from Florida to Texas... btw, you let
him sleep on the floor in your empty house while you and your Family went
to the Hotel.
_Seems to me I've heard this song before." I want to apologize to you and your
family for the fact that you had to listen to it. I really had nothing to do
with it, I don't work for Mayflower; but after almost 40 years in the industry
(not HHG but trucking) I feel somehow sullied by things like this.
There may be many reasons for what happened, not the least of which was the
holidays. But there was no excuse! That wasn't at all the way that smiling
sales representative told you it would be, was it? That sales rep was well paid
to tell you "what ever you wanted to hear", what ever it took to get your
signature on an "Order for Service".
Things in the HHG business were at one time much worse. Many of us can tell
horror stories dating back years and years. Customers were routinely cheated at
one time, charges made for services not performed and for weight not
transported. Enforceable regulations were written to remedy the worst of these
conditions and situations. What you experienced was not a criminal act, not a
theft of goods or services.
What you experienced was a good old fashioned "Service Failure". Just like the
time you called the plumber and were promised help by 2:30 but nobody showed up
until the next day. The difference is, of course, that in the case of the
plumber a portion of your life wasn't totally shredded, just a major
inconvenience.
The emotional destruction of your belongings, your symbolic hearth as it were,
disappearing while those to whom you entrusted it seem helpless or worse,
unconcerned is devastating. Some heartless fool saying "qwitcher bellyachin,
you got your stuff" seems pretty insensitive to me, after all those weren't his
kids waiting for Santa. But on the brighter side, you did, finally get moved.
You suffered a small, relatively speaking, amount of loss and damage. These
things do happen and are unrelated to the rest of the mess. For these you can,
and if you file the papers correctly, you will be compensated.
For the loss of Christmas, there is no compensation. No, the day will never
come when you can look back and laugh about it. But perhaps the day will come
when you can look back and groan rather then weep.
If your family's move was paid for by your employer, you have a great and
terrible club with which to bash Mayflower, your employer's traffic department.
If not, the best you can do is to cut your losses, file your claims and resolve
never to do business with so careless and callous a corporation again. (You're
also free to bad mouth Mayflower when and where ever you wish to whom ever will
listen, you have earned that right.)
For my part, I can only sympathize and apologize. And I can advise that it is
time to move on, life awaits, enjoy. Also, if the situation ever again arises,
the phrase "Extraordinary Damages will Accrue" often works wonders!
_I hope you called your local SPCA... as a former livestock hauler,
they were THE people to answer to when it came to issues about the
care and handling of animals enroute.
About the fellow with the crappy service from MayFlower.:Take this to
be my opinion and mine alone:
My understanding is that Mayflower is a cut-rate moving company, and
one of the biggest players in the HHG market. To save costs,
Mayflower takes in unlicensed people and trains them to be drivers.
The majority of their drivers are greenhorns. Some of these people
really don't understand the concept of commitment or customer service.
They pay their drivers really crappy wages, so few decent people are
willing to work there. If that's how they treat their drivers, one
can only guess how they treat their customer service personel. I
wouldn't use a company like that... and if I was forced to, I believe
I would ship COD if at all possible. Then, you pay for the service
after the work has been done.
Have you paid the bill yet? I wouldn't... let them chase you for a
change. There is no excuse for the kind of crappy service you
recieved. Next time, check-out the company a bit better. You seldom
get service that you don't pay for... and a cute-rate company is going
to provide cut-rate service. If you've already paid the bill, I'd be
looking for a lawyer. Fill-out all the claim forms and start the ball
rolling.... if no satisfaction, then get a lawyer working on it.
_Years ago my first summer out of high school, I worked for Von Paris
Moving and Storage a North American affiliate and I drove a local moving
van. We did packing(they made me a china packer my first day) and
loading shipments for transfers at their warehouse. The only reason I
was the driver is because I had a chauffeurs license. The rest of my 4
man crew were drug addicts and winos. They stole everything and anything
they wanted. While bringing a shipment back to the warehouse my crew
held a knife to me and made me stop by one of their homes because one
wanted a sofa and chair from the shipment. I gave up my career in
household goods after that.
_ Don't know for sure but how about your state's attorney general or
consumer protection Dept. They might be able to help. Since the ICC shut
down, I don't know who takes care of that type of incident federally now.
I guess your only immediate hope would be if your move was through
your employer. If their traffic dep't. handles that stuff then you might
be in semi decent shape as far having some leverage. If you didn't have to
pay in full already, I wouldn't be giving them anymore money until things
have been resolved to your satisfaction. Maybe you could try the Chamber
of Commerce and Better Business Bureau, too. Try them where you're at now
and where you moved from. Mayflower used to be based in Indiana, I think.
Try the Atty. General there, too. Let Mayflower know that until you're
satisfied with their response, you're going to keep the heat on them. It
might not work to get things resolved ,but maybe you'll have the
satisfaction of creating hassles for them anyway. Sorry for your
experience. Just remember, it was Mayflower and their dispatchers and a
driver that did this to you. The rest of us driving stiffs (at least 99%
of us) wouldn't be pulling something like that. Tough as it may seem to
believe at this moment, most of the rest of us are decent, hardworking
folks like you are and we get pretty PO'd about things like this because
most people figure that the rest of the truckers are the same as Mayflower
and other outfits that treat folks like you were. Hope your New Year sees
things improving. (Guess the'd have to, huh?)
_I may be coming in late on this problem but I would like to put in my
.02 cents worth.
I know that you feel you did the right thing in trying to contact
Mayflower account representatives. However, did you consider letting
them know on or about 12.20.96 that you were going to sue them for all
your incidental expenses due to their lack of control.
You can still sue them in Small Claims Court for your expenses but you
have to ready to stay with it to collect. Most likely the local Agent
for Mayflower will contest your suit against him but if you present your
case, no lawyer needed, you will win in court. You then may have to
have the Sherrif sieze one of his trailers and auction it off.
If the above scene is too much for you, assemble the costs and
document them and have your CPA take an un-insured loss due to the
failure of Mayflower to complete its side of the contract.
I went thru this in California and it took 3 months to resolve as the
movers agent kept asking for a continuance. I won and he changed his
connection to Mayflower,
_I can totally believe that! My family and I have made nine
professional moves. And in just about every move something was stolen
and/or damaged. I don't blame the drivers though because the way I
understand it they have to pay the first couple hundred themselves. It
is usually the packers that swipe the stuff. As for Mayflower we used
them for the first move and never again! The companies always pays off
on the lost items but its a hassle. I remember one driver called us
and said he was in town but the local reps had no one to help unload
and wanted him to go bail a couple of guys out of jail to do the job
and he said to us I can do that if you want or you can wait till
tomorrow...Needless to say we waited. (And nothing was stolen during
that move) Advice to those who move watch everything as best as you
can make sure all your valuables cash, jewerly go into your car and get
locked up while they are there. When they go over stuff for damage
make sure you walk around with them otherwise when it comes out the
other end you may get screwed!!
As a whole the moving industry does a get a bad rep from a few shoddy
carriers!
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