I don't want to be ripped off by the moving company

[ciphergoth]

When I moved to London, I knew I wasn't going to have room for all my stuff from Edinburgh, so I put it into storage at my Mum's place in Chigwell. Eventually my Mum decided it was time to reclaim that space, though, so I decided to put it into storage. I found a storage space, and used the Man with Van service they recommended. I booked them to turn up at my Mum's for 1200 today to transport it to the storage place in Wimbledon, for which they estimated the cost at £140-150.

They turned up at my Mum's at around 1315, saying "Traffic's really terrible"; I resisted saying "Did that come as a surprise?". We got the stuff loaded in the van pretty quickly, but we were in a hurry because the space hire place wouldn't take the stuff after 1530. Still, we estimated that we should be able to make it in an hour if we were quick.

That was before I learned that they planned to go via Finchley.

Both me and my Mum tried to talk them out of this, suggesting that perhaps going through Central London across Tower Bridge, or the Dartford Tunnel might be better, but no, they were determined to go all the way around the North Circular, across Kew Bridge, and halfway round the South Circular to get there. They were then surprised that we got stuck in a massive jam in Finchley, despite the fact that they'd seen traffic was snarled up on this insane route when they'd taken it towards my Mum's house. Once 1530 passed, they said they'd have to store it at theirs and put it all in tomorrow, so I said I'd get out the van and make my own way home.

As I got off, it became clear that they plan on charging me a lot extra for fucking up my plans for tomorrow. I rushed away, saying "we'll talk about it tomorrow", but I'm worried about it.

I am not paying extra for their time when it's entirely their fault that we didn't make it to the place in time. I don't think it's reasonable to go all around the houses and then charge me for the extra time it costs, especially when I asked them several times not to. But I don't know how to resolve it - they've got my stuff, and I suspect that they know I don't want to pay extra, so I suspect that they'll insist on being paid before we start unloading tomorrow. In cash.

What the hell am I going to do about it?

My route (recommended by AA website)	Their route

Comments

[redcountess]

Removals companies will always pull stunts to try to get more money. Diva looked over my shoulder just now and suggested documenting everything that's been said between you, should they try charging you more.

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

I texted them to say what the arrangement was and got them to acknowledge it, so I have some record of what we agreed.

[d-floorlandmine.livejournal.com]

Good move. Does sound highly dodgy. I might be tempted to mention the storage facility's recommendation to trading standards. Would mention it to the storage company, but I'm guessing they know how dodgy these guys are, and there's possibly a cut involved.

For future reference ('cause it's way late now), I've always found hiring a van and getting some mates to help out to be better value, although it depends how freakable your mother is ... [grin]

[valkyriekaren.livejournal.com]

Paul's mother was a guest speaker at last year's BiCon. She's not particularly freakable!

[d-floorlandmine.livejournal.com]

[grin] Sounds fairly unfreakable!

[nickys.livejournal.com]

Turn up looking scary in the company of a couple of scary looking friends and then be very nice and polite about everything but flatly refuse to pay any extra.

Oh, and if they refuse to let you have your stuff back unless you pay up I think that's extortion so you could threaten to call the police.

[deliberateblank.livejournal.com]

Pay it under protest and make a small claims action against them?

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

Tricky, since I only know their first names and mobile numbers...

[vampwillow]

... and presumable the registration number of their vehicle (or did they plan to keep hold of it overnight so that they can take it to a bootsale first thing in the morning and flog it all for cash?[1]

As noted above, document everything. Ensure any payments made have receipts, if they want to charge you more then sign anything as 'pro tem'. In terms of the route, if I was doing that trip with a van I'd probably have gone the north circular route, especially with the various events that usuall block up central London on a saturday. 6 of one, half-dozen ... etc though, and given you made an explicit request for a different route they should have followed that request. (was this a fixed-fee deal or a time & materials[aka petrol] one?)


[1] I am sure this is my usual imagination running away with itself, but I seem to always think of the worst before the best

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

Looking at the map, I'd probably have gone for the other side of the circle... the roads aren't as good as I recall, but they're also a lot less popular.

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

And registration plate. I'm not sure if you can use that to your advantage, the police obviously aren't keen on sharing their data, but it's worth considering - a court could presumably get a name and address, if they felt like it.

[lovingboth]

What's the contract say? I'd hope it says 'collect from X, deliver to Y by 3:30 on the 13th March'. If so, they've broken it. And it certainly wasn't your fault. You're right about the route - I'd have checked the traffic reports and gone via Dartford or straight through if that had problems.

If they don't ask for the money before unloading it, obviously you're not going to pay the extra, so you're probably right.

I do quite like the idea of having some friends there. You know some scary people :)

Don't even think about paying by cheque and stopping it. It's very naughty and there's basically no defence should they 'sue on the cheque' - your complaints about their service won't be listened to.

[vampwillow]

Dartford is w-a-y further out; Blackwall tunnel might have been a bit logical but the south circular is very much slower than the north circular (usually!).

Send in the heavies (I haev a couple of softball bats ...;-)

[lovingboth]

Did I say Dartford? Oops, what's the one downstream from Rotherhithe. Blackwall? That's it...

IME, no it isn't, and you've got more alternative choices if it is.

[princealbert.livejournal.com]

two words:
Trading Standards

[conflux.livejournal.com]

I expect it will be fine and they won't ask for extra. Never attribute to malice what could be stupidity. Might be worth taking some friends to be on the safe side. Also if they ask for money before unloading say you will pay after it is unloaded. Then tell them you only have as much money as originally agreed on with you if they try and ask for more.

To be fair the fist time I did this journey I went the route they picked. When I found out how bad it was I switched to the other route which is about 2 hours faster.

[purplerabbits.livejournal.com]

You may be surprised that I find myself agreeing with this.

Even if it does turn out to be malice it will help if you ditch the majority of your suspiciousness and anger before dealing with them. An angry and arrogant attitude will Not Help in these circs.

[reddragdiva]

As well as Trading Standards (memorise that site! it's wonderful!), you may consider cameraphone photos of them and their van.

[gnomatron.livejournal.com]

Do you have a list of what went in the van? I think the best option is to calm down, and meet their demands in the short term. You're being ripped off, either deliberately or through their incompetence, but you have to weigh that against the possibility of loss or damage to your stuff. After you have everything back safely you can start thinking about what to do.

[devilgate.livejournal.com]

That's the dumbfuckest route I've ever seen, and I live in Hackney and work in Wimbledon. On the odd occasions when I drive that route (which have only ever been weekends or strange hours of the day) I've gone through Central London. For all other purposes driving south of the river I go through the Blackwall Tunnel.

Which isn't much help to you, and when I catch up on my Friends page I'll probably find out what happened. ;-)