Shleppers Moving and Storage review: Lies, no response, no service! 4

This is a complaint about Shleppers Moving and Storage, in New York, New York.

My wife and I recently used Shleppers to assist us in a move from Brooklyn to Jersey this past month. I had every expectation of the move going smoothly, as it did two years ago when I used Shleppers to move us from the Upper West Side to the Brooklyn address. As I was formerly a satisfied customer of Shleppers, I am quite shocked and upset about the experience I had during this recent move.

Their crew arrived on time and promptly began work. The move was going very well, in fact so well that the Shleppers Foreman mentioned to me that he was surprised it was going so fast (perhaps because I'm an expert packer by now). Before the move I had been told by the Shleppers Salesman that if the move was under the scheduled time of 5.5 hours for the crew, I would not be charged the full estimate I was given. Apparently their Foreman was quite aware of this policy as well, as the move soon came to a halt. I actually heard him tell his crew on two separate occasions to slow down, at one point screaming it at his crew down the stairs of my home in front of me. Selling a low estimate and then milking the move time is a very low end way to do business and easy for the client to see through; I'd recommend that Shleppers advise their associates against the practice.

Nonetheless I was determined to not be upset by the issue, nor was I upset by the constant bickering between their team. The Foreman decided early on that he hated one of the laborers, a fact he shared with everyone any chance he got. I was actually thinking in my mind of alternatives to finish the job with only three movers, in the event that one managed to kill the other. During the day I tried to keep everyone moving and happy, pitching in myself in moving the items and giving their movers two pieces of furniture to keep; one was a butchers block, the other was a wardrobe. Both pieces were less than two years old and the combined value was over $600. I then threw in a case of wine for them at that point as well. Once we arrived at my new home, I dealt with the bickering and tried to finish as quickly as possible. I thanked the Foreman for the job and handed him $100 in cash, instructing him to give each laborer $20 and keep $40 for himself.

The following morning on Sunday I received a phone call. It was from one of the moving crew, who wanted to know how much I had tipped them. I expressed surprise that he would actually be bold enough to call me. He informed me it was due to the crew's suspicion that the Foreman had kept some of their tip from them, as many Foremen in their company apparently do (his words, not mine). I told him that I had left $20 for him, to which he gave a long pause (just long enough to make me feel cheap and ungracious) and then said goodbye.

For about ten minutes it was a matter of shock to me that someone would actually call me early on a Sunday morning to question my generosity. The anger set in when I realized that the actual tip was in the neighborhood of $800, including the furniture and wine. An $800 tip on a $900 move should generate a call of thanks, not questioning whether or not there was more. I decided it was truly unacceptable when I looked at my cellphone and saw the same number had called me at 8:00pm the night before. This person clearly intended on calling until they reached me, to question how cheap I was. I decided to call Shleppers at that point to address the issue. I spoke with Ross in their dispatching office, who informed me that he would have their owner call me on the following Tuesday.

Tuesday came and went, as did Wednesday, Thursday and now Friday. No call. At that point I decided to write to the owner, more as an exercise to vent I suppose, rather than any hope that they would address this as a customer service issue. No response from the owner, their staff made it clear that I would not be hearing from her, as she ‘sometimes came to the office, but we don’t know when’ (their words, not mine). Either I was being lied to, or there was no leadership whatsoever regarding customer service with Shleppers, although I believe at this point that both scenarios are true.

Robert