In short, the movewas a terrible experience full of headaches; the staff could not have cared anyless. I deeply regret doing business with them and I would never recommend themto anyone. All of this is based on my experience of course.
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I worked with Mr.Madhusudhan. He seemed like the most professional and knowledgeable sales repassuring me that they will make my move as smooth as possible. Well that wasuntil I paid my first dollar, that's when the trouble started. Later I realizedthe hard way that it's the trick they use to lure you in - hook, line andsinker.
The packers whoshowed up to pack the stuff were the most unprofessional packers I've seen. Theguys waiting outside Home Deport for work do a better job. All though I hadsegregated different items in different boxes (bathroom, kitchen, bedroom, livingroom etc) and placed them in different groups, the guys just dumped everythingrandomly into the boxes.
If I were to packthe stuff myself I was recommended to use heavy duty (double walled) boxes. Ihad them pack instead and they ended up using regular boxes (single walled)which don't hold up well to rough use. Of course they charged me for the heavy dutyboxes. It wouldn't have mattered if half the boxes delivered after 4 monthswere not squashed and mangled resulting in the stuff inside them being broken.
They suggest thatyou have to use their special TV boxes ($100) to be able to claim insurance andthey put the box through a battery of tests. That's a lie to make you pay more.It is the same adjustable box you could find at U-haul or Home Depot for under$30.
My shipment washeld up in the destination port (Chennai) for almost 3 weeks and that resultedin port storage charges. Universal dumped all of that on me. I later found outother companies that do the right thing by absorbing part of the fee and havingthe customer pay the remaining.
The way thecustoms and port discharge was handled was very unprofessional. I got requeststo pay all dues (customs, port charges etc) which I did, but there was nofollow up to inform me of the status or provide me with the paper work to backthe charges. I had to make several call and follow ups to obtain these. Againevery time I called I heard the standard excuse "Sorry sir weforgot". They kept forgetting for almost 2-3 weeks.
Finally when theshipment made it to Pune, there was more trouble from the Mathadi union.Maharashtra has a union of workers who do loading and unloading, and movershave to use these workers - that's the state law (well the union is run by youknow who, which is a different issue). But universal (for a company that claimsto operate across the globe ironically) does not employ them and had mecompensate the union instead. Universal rudely declined they'd have anything todo with the compensations, while it was their responsibility to know about thestate rules and employ the right folks as the state rule mandates. Therepresentative quoted different clauses in the agreement (which were of courseopen to interpretation) to shake off their responsibility. This is exactly whatthey quoted from the 'exclusions' - "Difficult access charges to the door,Shuttle Service" -> interpreted as the union was causing themdifficulty to access the customer's door. Cunning!
On unpacking andchecking several of the items were found broken and damaged, including someexpensive ones. As always universal disowns any accountability - it's theinsurance company's responsibility they said. Of course the insurance companyhad their own way to deny the claim. Universal did zilch to help with theclaim. The items would have made it safe if universal used professional packersand the right packing materials to pack the stuff in the first place. But no,they cut every possible corner to make more money at the customer's expense.
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And by the way, I haven't been able to get a hold of Mr. Madhusudhan ever since the shipment leftthe door in Sunnyvale.
Admin Comments:
Comments indicating Universal Relocations are deleted.
Universal Relocations and Universal Relocations are not same company. They were partners earlier and now they are separate. Universal relocations has been acquired by another company few months back. There is another thread in this forum announcing that.