We moved from Oregon to MN a few months back, and we of course shipped all our stuff out here. Dozens and dozens of boxes of stuff, in fact. In the process of unpacking them, we discovered a broken piece of art glass. Since the value of this is fairly high, I filed a claim against the moving company three weeks ago. Their website says you can file up to nine months after the move, so no problem, right? Well, they rejected the claim, saying that since we received the shipment without noting any damage, that they are not liable.
Seems to me that if you are allowing nine months for claims, that implies that you KNOW things might be broken inside of otherwise undamaged boxes, right? Having lost my X-ray glasses, I was unable to see through the boxes to determine whether or not there was any breakage (or theft, for that matter), and since the boxes were all packed by Bekins, I would think a lawyer could make a pretty good case that y’all are FUCKING LIABLE.
Now I’m under no illusions that these fuckers are going to concede the point (I sent them a politer version of the above), since they seem to have adopted the Trump model of doing business, so I’ll likely just end up flaming them on Yelp and other rating sites. On the other hand, I have money in the bank and nothing but time in my retired status, so maybe I’ll just sue the fuckers. Never done that before and it might be fun.
I confess to being curious about a few things, such as if the box was undamaged, could you tell how the piece of art glass got broken, especially if it was protected with bubble wrap or something?
With regard to moving companies in general, my expectations are very low. A saying I learned at my father’s knees was “3 moves is as bad as a fire.” I have never tried to move all my stuff any further than across town, so I haven’t had a real opportunity to test that (I think they tend to be more careful and have fewer opportunities for breakage when they only have possession for a couple of hours).
The glass bowl was lightly wrapped in brown paper and then another bowl was nested inside of it, also lightly wrapped. The nested bowls were the last thing placed in the box, and it looked to me like the box was slightly overpacked, meaning that the top was slightly bulged upward. I’m assuming that when another heavy dishpak or maybe two were stacked on top of it, the downward pressure caused the inner bowl to rupture the more expensive bowl. Everything else in the shipment of 12,000 pounds survived, so it’s not like we’re trying to run a game on these folks. But a $2500 bowl made by a famous glassblower (Preston Singletary) is not insignificant.
Make a copy of the contract, take lots of pictures of the broken item and the box, and then talk to an attorney. Sometimes just a letter from a lawyer explaining how they are legally responsible will work. It’s not like Bekins doesn’t have insurance, or it’s the first time something like this has ever happened. The trick will be assigning a value to the “art glass.” If you have a receipt for the art glass, that would be good too.
We have receipts for anything of value that we’ve purchased over the years, because of home insurance. I’m betting that their contract has weasel language that protects them from anything other than outright vandalism or malfeasance.
To be fair, if they didn’t have that “weasel language” I bet they’d get lots of customers seeking compensation for stuff the customers broke themselves (accidentally or on purpose, and maybe months after the move).
Why am I not surprised to see that Bekins has a customer rating of 1.36/5 on BBB. Apparently they do a very poor job for a A+ rated company, but then again, no customer reports are factored in.
But I bring it up because in addition to flaming on Yelp and any other sites, I’d also complain on BBB - I’ve had better results getting a company to contact me via that route than ones that are solely customer facing.
Yeah, I’ll be expressing my displeasure on whatever platform I can. I want to make sure that they are not going to come back and say ‘oh dear, you’re right and we’re wrong’ before doing so.
Sure, they have to protect themselves. But if I was going to make a bogus claim, it would be for something more expensive than a glass bowl.
If I understand you correctly, the movers did all of the packing?
We haven’t moved for some years, but I do seem to recall some similar “oddness” concerning acceptance of the delivery. I’ll be interested in hearing how they respond to your appeal, and what the contract says about when/how claims must be filed. You refer to the website, but what does the contract say? It truly does seem unreasonable to expect that the movers would wait around while you unpacked every box…
We don’t have any single bowls worth $2500, but we do have some fragile things I’d prefer not get broken, and several musical instruments which exceed that. I’m not sure what we would do about packing and transporting such pricey, expensive goods.
Good luck.
I assure you - suing someone for $2500 can be all manner of things, but IMO you’d have to be seriously twisted to consider it “fun.”
I’ll have to admit, I understand your frustration. You hire professionals, pay for professionals, they make you sign contracts like professionals, then shaft you. It really isn’t right.
But, surely your $2500 bowl is covered by the homeowner’s insurance you mention, right? File with them and let them fight Bekins. From what you are saying, you weren’t being cagey about the value and were fully insured. One of the reasons to pay for professionals is that you let the professionals take care of the problems.
Well, as it turns out, yes the item is covered by our insurance, but NOT if it’s broken while moving. I should change the thread title to “fucking insurance companies”.
You’re doing the right thing by complaining and putting bad reviews on yelp and BBB(don’t forget google and other platforms) Good luck with getting compensation from Bekins, they are a freight company, not an actual moving company, and unlike an actual moving company, they don’t give a damn about you or your complaint. Moving household goods is a way to make a little more money for them, it isn’t their bread and butter.
Bekins Van Lines, Inc. is an American domestic and international private and corporate household goods relocation service. Headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, Bekins also offers special commodities and logistic services.
I mean, the company is called “Bekins Van Lines”. Freight companies don’t use vans.
Yeah, the moving was actually done by Wheaton World Wide. It’s difficult to nail down who should actually be flamed, but the emails I’ve gotten are from Wheaton, not Bekins.
I just got done filing a complaint with BBB. I’m not expecting much in the way of restitution, but it’s worth giving their rating a ding.
Bekins van lines is a freight company that offers “pod” services. A van in logistics and transportation refers to the trailer; dry van is a regular trailer, refer van is a refrigerated trailer. A box van is something else, that would be the truck with a cargo box on the back instead of a trailer.
I have experience with Wheaton. If you had been dealing directly with them I’d say you had a good chance at compensation. As it is…I did quite a few pack and load and unloads for Bekins over the years. Most, not all though, of the people had a complaint about the company.
