Dear Fixer: We hired Advanced Moving & Storage to move our household on Nov. 4 last year. The closing date on the sale of our home was the next day, Nov. 5.
All went well until the last load. The moving truck hit my PVC fence and broke it. The mover acknowledged in writing that he damaged my fence.
I had to get the fence fixed by the closing date. It cost over $700 to fix.
I mailed the moving company all my receipts and pictures and requested reimbursement. Since then, they have been giving me the runaround. I have been more than patient. Please help.
Dora Gonzalez, Homewood
Four months after that — and heading into the one-year anniversary of the accident involving your former fence — we still don’t have an answer.
When we first contacted Advanced Moving & Storage of Glendale Heights at the end of June, sending them your letter and photos of the damage, they responded promptly, saying they wanted to work on your claim but couldn’t because they only had an estimate, not an invoice.
We hoped for a quick resolution, but we probably should have saved our optimism. Over the next several weeks, this dragged on and on. After you sent the invoice for the repair to them in July, the moving company replied that their driver told them he didn’t believe he hit the fence. They also claimed he didn’t write anything to that effect on your paperwork.
By now it was eight months after the accident. The moving company was also claiming you hadn’t followed their protocol for such claims, though you said no one ever gave you a protocol. We laid out your case once again. The fence obviously hadn’t been damaged earlier, we reasoned. If it had been, it would be the new buyer’s problem. You said the driver never denied hitting the fence. Your main problem was getting it fixed before the real estate closing the next day. And though you did call around to get a good price, time was of the essence in making the repair.
Still, we couldn’t get a resolution.
Finally, on Sept. 16, Advanced Moving & Storage offered to pay 50 percent of the cost of the $764 cost, saying again that they weren’t able to investigate it before it was repaired. You’ve opted to decline this offer, saying that after all this time, you’re not in the mood for halfsies.
Small claims court in DuPage County may be your next stop. You can find details about this process at dcba.org. If you take this step, keep us posted on what happens.
Please, no calls
Dear Fixer: Whenever our local Salvation Army is having a sale at their store, we receive a recorded call telling us of the event. I am a big supporter of the Salvation Army, but I do not appreciate their calls. All of our phone numbers are already registered with the National Do Not Call Registry, but they still call.
How do I stop this? I’m not sure where the call is coming from because it shows up as “private” on the caller ID.
Cari Hemmerling, Mundelein
As for why you got these calls despite being on the Do Not Call Registry, there are exceptions for charities, telephone surveyors and (surprise, surprise) political organizations. You also can get calls from companies with whom you already have an existing business relationship. However, if you ask such a company to put you on their own “do not call” list, they must honor your request.
For those who aren’t signed up for the Do Not Call Registry, it won’t stop all calls but it will stop a lot of them. You can sign up at DoNotCall.gov.
Getting the runaround over a consumer problem? Tell it to The Fixer at suntimes.com./Fixer.
Source: http://www.suntimes.com/business/8346365-420/theres-no-moving-movers-on-764-damage-claim.html
No comments:
Post a Comment