William W. P.
1/5
If your goal is to get a royal screw job when deciding on a mover, then one of Unigroup's moving companies -- Continental, Mayflower, or United -- needs to be at the top of your list of companies to deal with. Having moved long distances several times in my life, I know moving is never easy or fun. But the incredible incompetence (if that's what it was -- read on for an explanation) I and my partner experienced with Continental, and its sister moving company, Mayflower, plumbed new depths of ineptitude on our move from the Seattle area to North Carolina.
Between the two companies, they managed to "lose" over 20 of our boxes. And interestingly, these were the boxes that contained many of our most valuable items. My partner and I, both retired professionals, merged households over twenty years ago. Both of us brought into our household, and added over the years, top-quality furniture, electronics, kitchenware, and accessories, including many heirloom keepsakes that a price cannot be placed on. Continental's packers told us to put our most valuable items on the table and they would take care of them. Boy, they sure did. These items just disappeared. Yet, as far as we can determine, the company never seriously investigated our expressed concern that we may have been the victims of an organized theft ring.
While I am focused mostly on the missing goods, there were also a number of expensive items, including Riedel wine glasses and an expensive George III serpentine chest that were damaged.
Wait, there's even more! Because of the value of our goods, we paid extra for full insurance on our move. Continental's director of business development told us that he would see to it that our claim was expedited. We produced two highly documented sets of claim forms. (We had so many missing items that we exceeded the capacity of the company's online claim system; we had to complete the inventory on supplemental paper forms.) The conservative total we came up with was over $25,000. After dithering for nearly four months, Mayflower has offered to pay -- drumroll! -- a little over $4K, using the flimsiest pretext to deny responsibility for the other items, which, once again, by the oddest coincidence, happen to be among the most expensive.
This is exactly the type of shabby trickery that is causing so many Americans to lose faith in our country's economic system. No doubt the suits in Unigroup's C-suite of this faceless, soulless corporate bureaucracy think their company is doing a great job as long as they get their lavish pay and bonuses. I hope our story convinces you otherwise.
Well, as you can probably tell, I'm fighting mad, and I am not going to let this drop, and I am not going to be pressured into taking this low-ball offer.
But please take our experience as a warning. Seriously, consider PODS or U-Haul to do as much of your own moving as you possibly can. If you absolutely need a long-distance mover, my advice is not to choose any of Unigroup's three moving companies.
ADD AND RESPONSE TO UNIGROUP: No, I will not call your customer service team. My partner's adult daughter, who has served as our representative, has taken time out from her oversea's trip where she is helping her expectant daughter, to contact your company seeking more information on what documentation you require. But from now on we will only deal with Unigroup and its subsidiary companies and partners in writing, because your written words have proven to be worthless but at least we can hold you accountable when those statements are in writing.
Added 5/23
My partner's daughter, who acted as our rep, reacted with outrage to Unigroup's attempt to buy us off, telling Unigroup NOT to send us a check reflecting their proposed settlement.
Well, big surprise, Unigroup of course ignored our expressed instructions and sent us a check, exactly what we told them not to do. Apparently there are no depths of baseness that Unigroup will not plumb in order to evade the costs of responsibility.
