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STAY FAR AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY!!!
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My experience with Peace of Mind RELOCATION, NOT to be confused with Peace of Mind MOVING co. is as follows...
I just recently moved from Los Angeles, California to Rochester, New York. Being that I had limited time on my hands, my fiancée, Simon, made the call to Peace of Mind Relocation and obtained a quote. Sounding like a reasonable quote, I called the company back and set a date to have my belongings picked up. I have since forgotten the name of the representative I talked to but, during the phone call, I gave her a more accurate description of my belongings, including two couches, obtained a new quote, and had her save my number as the primary number to call.
The day arrived (which was also the day before my flight) for my belongings to be picked up. The time grew later and later and still nobody showed up (you can imagine how frantic I was!) Finally, almost an hour later than the scheduled pick up time, the movers called my fiancée to tell him they would be late and my fiancée called me to relay the message. I was immediately disappointed that A) the movers waited so long before calling, instead of calling the moment they knew they would be late and B) my phone number had somehow not been saved as the primary number.
When the movers finally did arrive, I was handed a copy of the quote. Imagine my surprise when I found myself looking at the original quote, instead of the updated one! So apparently, not only had my number not been saved, but also the revised quote had not been saved either. Quite a disappointment, but easily gotten over... until I was told that my two couches would not, in fact be able to fit in the truck without me paying an extra $600. As you can probably understand, it was not easy, in fact it was quite heartbreaking, to have to leave my Victorian couch behind. But I hadn't the money, and so there you have it.
My misfortunes did not end there. As I was not sure where I would end up permanently residing, I had my belongings put into Peace of Mind Relocation storage for a month. During that time, I found a cozy apartment and called up Natalie (who, from then on, was the one I held most conversation with) to give her the new address. The day before my free month of storage was to end, I called up and left a message that I was ready to have my belongings delivered. I was called up a couple of days later and was told my belongings were on their way.
A week went by, a week and a half went by, and still no sign of the moving truck. I called up Peace of Mind Relocation and was told that my belongings would be to me by the following week. The following week came, and still no sign of my belongings. So I called Natalie, who told me that the truck would be arriving late and would be to me by the week after. This whole situation confused me, as I wondered why I had to call more than once about my belongings, instead of the other way around? I have been advised that it is the moving company's responsibility to notify the customer of late arrival as soon as the delay is discovered. I had planned my schedule around the estimated days I was given. I could have been saved a lot of grief if I had just been notified of the delay, rather than having to call multiple times myself.
Finally, the day came when the movers arrived (Of course it was on Valentine's Day, when I was supposed to be entertaining, but I realize that can't be helped. Just a side note.) One of the movers called my phone (I believe his name was Alex) and told me he was outside my house. I looked outside and did not see him. I asked if he had the right address. It turns out he was given the old address. And so, once again, information had not been saved. It baffles me how this mistake could have been made more than once.
As Alex was not willing to park the truck in front of the house (and, although I do believe it would have worked, I am not complaining about this particular issue), we agreed to meet at a Wal-Mart, about twenty minutes away from my house, the next day. Next day came and I arrived at the meeting spot with a pickup truck. It took two trips to transfer everything from the moving truck to my house, all belongings of which I unloaded completely by myself. After the second truckload was filled, Alex handed me a form to sign, stating that I had received everything. Now remember, half of my belongings were in the pickup truck, but the other half were twenty minutes away, at my apartment. As you can see, I had no way of checking over all the boxes, unless I was to make a total of a forty minute drive, there and back. Alex had a schedule and I didn't wish to fluster him, so I decided to just sign the form in good faith (and of course I am now beating myself for it).
When I finally got home and started unpacking everything, I realized I was missing my bamboo blinds, my very expensive guitar, and all of my stem wear. The bamboo blinds I had already seen with the movers (I thought they had loaded them in the pickup truck) and, since then, Alex has called to inform me that they have my guitar as well. As for my box of Frank Sinatra stem wear, it is either completely lost, or was accidentally unloaded with another customer's belongings. As you can imagine, I feel like pulling out my hair.
Now, during the down time while I was waiting for my belongings to arrive, I called Natalie and expressed my concerns and asked if there was some way she could extend the hand of good customer service and either provide a discount, or think of some other way to rectify the matter. She said there was nothing she could do but, as I was very flustered and quite insistent, she eventually agreed to a $50 discount. Now, $50 is a slap in the face when one is paying over $1000, but I graciously accepted anyway. That is... until I received the discount form, which clearly stated that, by accepting my $50 discount, and signing the form, I released all liability and gave up the right of any further complaints. Now remember, at this point I had not even received my possessions yet. I was advised not to sign any papers releasing liability, informed Natalie of the situation, and asked for the contact information of the woman in charge. She became very defensive, told me she would no longer be offering me the discount, and did NOT provide me with the contact information. I asked again for the contact information. At which time she ignored my email completely.
Throughout the entirety of my conversations with Natalie she has been rude, defensive, and has caused me extreme amounts of exasperation. I have never in my life experienced such offensive customer service. When I finally asked her over the phone for the contact information of the woman in charge, she replied by saying that she wasn’t in the office at the moment. I hadn't asked if she was in the office, I had asked for a way to contact her, so I repeated the question again. Her response was to tell me that I could email her, and she would forward it to her boss. Can you imagine how I felt like throwing the phone across the room? But instead I maintained my calm and said no, I would like to contact her boss personally, at which point she FINALLY gave me an email address. I wrote an email, containing all my concerns… the email was never answered.
Throughout the course of four and a half months, I have called Peace of Mind Relocation repeatedly. I’d be generous in saying they might have called me back once. At one point in time, I received a call from the moving company that Peace of Mind hired out, stating that they had my guitar and it would be to me the next week. The company didn’t leave a call back number, and my guitar never arrived. I called Peace of Mind again and again and they kept assuring me that the guitar was just taking a little longer than expected to arrive. Finally they flat out told me that they haven’t heard anything back from the moving company they hired out and that I would have to file a claim, I asked for the phone number of the moving company so that I could contact them myself, but the information was denied me. I do not own much. My guitar is the dearest and most expensive item I own, as it is also my livelihood. I cannot afford to buy another one and, even if I could, that particular Martin is not even produced anymore.
I beg anyone who comes across this company to turn in the opposite direction. The customer service was repulsive and I pray that no one else will go through the experience I went through.
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