My experience (thus far) with Bravo Moving.

Moving is, obviously, a stressful time. And as a business professional myself, I did my due diligence in choosing a moving company that promised to make the move as easy as possible.

My due diligence needs to be reworked.

When I chose Bravo Moving, I was told the dispatcher would call me 48 hours in advance of my move date to let me know when the movers would be there. When I never heard from him, I got his phone number from my sales rep, Josh, and began calling him. His voice mailbox was full for two days, making it impossible for me to get in touch with him. But because of my experience in past moves, I assumed the would be there on the morning of the 22nd. When I still hadn’t heard anything at 8 am, and the dispatcher’s voicemail was still full, I texted him to ask when I might expect the movers. One hour later, I received a text saying, “Around 5-6pm”. I was disappointed, but at least I had a time to hold onto. When 6:30 pm rolled around, I texted him again, asking for a more definitive ETA. I didn’t hear back for 20 minutes, so I called him. His response was “between 9 and 10 pm” because the movers decided to make another pick up near my area. I told Louie, the dispatcher, that I was upset about how this entire process was being handled, that he didn’t contact me 48 hours in advance, he made himself impossible to be contacted, and now he was telling me my things wouldn’t be packed until it was dark outside (as well as inside, since most of the lighting in my house relied on lamps, which were now packed). I told him that I was going to need to be compensated in some way for this, and that I would call the office first thing on Monday morning. His response was, “That fine. Do you want them to come or not?”

Once the movers got to my house, they loaded up all the major furniture. Around 10:30 pm, once all of my belongings were on the truck, they came in and told me they couldn’t take any of the boxes (Josh, my sales rep, had sent me a quote including 38 medium sized boxes. I had a total of 43) because they weren’t on the inventory list. I told them Josh had figured the boxes into the quote, but the inventory only included the major items that couldn’t be boxed. Apparently that wasn’t how the process worked, so the movers called Louie, the dispatcher. Louie told me I owed an additional $800.50 if I wanted them to take the boxes. By this time it was late, I was completely worn down, and I trusted the company enough to believe it would all be worked out on Monday.

I couldn’t have been more wrong.

I began calling on Monday morning (at 8am EST) every two minutes. An hour into my calls, I finally got the receptionist, Noreen, on the phone. I told her part of my story, and she told me there was nothing they could do. I asked her to have Josh call me back anyway. Another hour passed and I didn’t hear anything. So I began calling again. Noreen picked up again and said there was nothing that could be done if I had already signed the new paperwork. I told her I was in the process of calling the Better Business Bureau, taking them to small claims court and driving down to Atlanta myself to get this sorted out in person. Shortly after that, Josh called me back.

Josh assured me he would get this all taken care of, that the boxes would be taken off of my charge and that I would be compensated for how late the movers were. He just needed me to talk to his boss, the office manager (whose name is Chad). I waited on hold for awhile, and finally Josh returned and told me he’d have to call me back. Half an hour to 45 minutes passed and I hadn’t heard anything. So I began calling again, and finally got Josh on the phone. Josh apologized and put me on hold, telling me Chad would be with me in a moment. I sat on hold for 25 minutes until I hung up and called back. Then Josh promised me Chad would get back to me later in the afternoon, that it was just a busy day there in the office. I called throughout the afternoon when I hadn’t heard anything back, but was never able to get in touch with a real person again.

The same thing began on Tuesday morning. I called and called and called, until I finally got Chad on the phone. I explained my story, and that Josh had told me Chad would be expecting me. I suppose it’s my years of working in professional environments, but I assumed Chad would be a helpful, understanding and calm gentleman. Instead, I was met with anger and disdain. He began to yell at me, told me I would never see a cent of the money I’ve given them, and that I should call the Better Business Bureau and tell them to call Chad. Then he hung up on me.

There are so many little parts to this story…confusing details…like why did Josh’s email change from josh@bravomoving.us to josh@bravomoving.com, and why did he never respond to my emails begging for his help in this. The story is only continuing, and at this point, I have no assurance that I’ll ever see my belongings again (or that I’m even done paying what they say I owe…I imagine that number will continue to change).

So that’s where things lie now. Prayers and advice would be much appreciated. : )

Tags: bad customer service, Bravo Moving

This entry was posted on Friday, September 4th, 2009 at 11:07 am and is filed under Sucks.. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.