Container shipped! Another frustrated customer!!!
We chose Crown in NZ, to ship our belongings. They in turn contracted
Mitchell Moving & Storage, a WA state moving company, for the U.S.
part of the move.
Before the shipment, Mitchell did a walk-through and said that our
things will fit in a 20 foot container. Crown quoted us based on their
estimate, we said yes and signed an acceptance form for the quoted
amount.
They packed the house on Thursday and loaded the container the next day.
There was a problem though: NOT EVERYTHING FIT INSIDE! About 15-20
boxes were left out.
They told us everything that was left aside will be shipped in a
separate crate and that both the container and the crate will leave at
the same time.
On Monday, Mitchell Moving & Storage sent all the paperwork to Crown.
On Tuesday, they also sent the pricing for the crate. We assumed that
if there was going to be a change in the terms of our agreement due to
the 'overflow' situation, Crown was going to contact us immediately
and discuss the options. Wrong assumption!
On Thursday of the following week we sent an email to Crown asking
about the next steps. They replied, and we almost fell off the chair:
they wanted an additional $NZ 4,300 to ship the crate, a 33% increase
in their quoted number.
We then realized why Crown didn't respond until then: they wanted the
container shipped already, so they have leverage in dealing with us
on this price increase!!!
We found the nonchalant attitude in their reply email about such a
huge increase in price especially appalling. This whole situation has
bait-and-switch written all over it! The more appalling thing is that
this is coming from supposedly the most prestigious moving company in
NZ!!! This weighed heavily in our decision to move forward with them,
even though their quoted price was not exactly the cheapest!
Did this happen to anybody else? I would like to know how you handled
the situation!!
I am so frustrated right now … This is a complete surprise especially
since we chose Crown based on their reputation to make the moving
experience as smooth as possible and avoid such scenarios.
Please comment.
Thank you