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

[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.