A Nightmare!
Marlene
Submitted this review about
Agility Van Lines
Review made Live: 6/20/2015 11:51:00 PM
What a nightmare! In fairness, Agility moved my elderly mother's belongings from FL to MA with nothing missing or broken. The movers were wonderful to work with – especially the nice father/son team that loaded. The nightmare that followed could have been avoided with some very basic customer service skills. Long story short, the sales rep screwed up the order & owned up to it, but did not report to his boss. The owner refused to believe my complaint or do anything about the disaster that ensued. And I lived though the classic moving nightmare – standing in a parking lot while some guy holds your stuff hostage and demands quadruple the amount you expect to pay… in cash.
Mom was moving into a retirement facility that only allowed moves from 9-5 weekdays. Angelo, the salesman, assured me this was no problem. Then the dispatcher called on a Friday afternoon saying that they would arrive on Saturday night. Angelo took full responsibility and explained that he entered "weekends only" rather than "weekdays only" into their system. I expected the company would work with me to come up with an alternate plan.
Boy was I wrong! Besides Angelo, everyone including the owner (Shane), the dispatcher, and the boss of the delivery guys, acted like this was my problem, that the mistake was mine, not theirs, and that I was trying to weasel out of charges. The facility agreed to allow the move on Sat. but not after 8 PM. The truck was due to arrive at 9pm, and I was told there would be a $600 "overnight charge." They also said I had to be available at "reasonable hours." I was steaming mad at this point and called Shane. Once again, he offered no alternatives and acted like his company had no responsibility to head off this looming disaster. As for the $600 fee, he insincerely said he would pay it. Clearly he was just trying to get me off the phone.
The facility allowed the move on Sun AM. I expected the final payment of approx $400 to be charged to my credit card as promised by Angelo. The movers demanded cash. Fed up and just wanting to get this over with, I went to find cash. Then the movers' boss called and demanded $1500, including the $400, the $600 overnight fee and the amount of the 2nd payment I already paid, which the drivers had no record of.
When I told the guy Shane was supposed to pay the $600 and the other amount had been paid last week, he said that I had to pay the $1500 in cash and "take it up with customer service on Monday." If I didn't they would put the stuff in storage and I could have the key when I came up with the $1500. A lot of screaming and swearing followed! I was living the moving company nightmare – someone holding your belongings hostage while demanding cash for lots of unreasonable "fees."
Both Shane and Angelo gave me cell phone numbers "in case anything went wrong during the move." Neither answered numerous calls and texts from me & the dispatcher. No one answered at the office. I told the guy that I was not going to give him $1500 in cash and he could put the stuff in storage. That was the best I could do and planned to call a lawyer next. My "moving scam" suspicions were confirmed when the guy miraculously my 2nd payment 10 min later. Now he only wanted $1000 – for the final payment and the overnight fee. This argument had lasted nearly 3 hours and not wanting to put my 80 year old mother through any more of this, I relented, paid the $1000 in cash and figured I would contest prior credit card charges.
Mon AM, I called Shane. When I complained about the $600, he said he would have to look into whether it was "a legitimate charge." Again, he acted like his company bore no responsibility for this mess.
He must have decided to actually investigate my original complaint because he called me back on Thursday, apologized and offered to refund the $600 fee. I give him credit for that, but his explanation pissed me off even more. He said screwing up the weekdays/weekends thing didn't sound like a mistake that Angelo would make and that people often try to get out of legitimate charges. Basically, he ignored my complaints from the beginning because he baselessly thought I was trying to rip him off.
Shane, here's a basic rule of customer service - do a little research before you decide that the customer is crazy or a scam artist. Every. Single. Time!!! One immediate call to Angelo would have changed the course of this drama and I would be giving your company kudos for dealing with your mistakes honestly. Angelo also could have reported the situation to his boss as soon as he found out about it – especially knowing the disaster it would cause.
While Shane did the right thing in the end, it was too little, way too late. I cannot recommend this company after this experience. Strangely, he did encourage me to write this review, knowing that it would be very bad, so there is some honesty and integrity there. Expect to have to fight very hard for it if something goes wrong though!
