WePro careless movers

I hired WePro moving to move me from one apartment to another. They sounded somewhat casual in the initial phone conversation, answering the phone with something similar to "what's up". I don't remember the exact wording, but that was the general level. AS it turns out, that was a cell phone of one of the people in the company I think, but still an odd way to answer a company phone.

I was cautios so I made sure to ask about insurance etc. up front. We discussed it and I was assured they were appropriately covered. I followed the movers up and down the stairs with some of my more expensive stuff and noted when they were damaging things. They tended to use the "push harder" mentality rather than try another approach. At times moving in I outright asked them to stop doing things that were clearly damaging my property. They responded by temporarily being more careful and then returned to their old ways. Sometimes it was too late to stop them when they did something (e.g., decide to rest a boxspring on a railing using the thin sheet at the bottom as a support. Of course it ripped right through immediately). I was concerened, but the damages were realtively minor thanks to me following them up and down the stairs. A few rips and paint stains (from wedging against walls) on the couch/chair, damage to my matress, a rip in the box spring, etc. I also had damage to a coffee table that I don't blame them for at all, it was already not doing well. The other stuff was realtively new though.

Anyway, I pointed it out at the end of the move (of course, I was pointing it out as we went too as you can tell from my writing above) and one of the workers seemed shocked. He replied something like "those stairs are tight". After a brief conversation the other guy, who was quieter and seemed to recognize more that they had damaged things, offered to let me talk to head office. I had pointed out the damage to the guys doing the moving but they seemed dissinterested. Clearly this was not part of their job to note it, but I wanted to clearly point out that it was there. I talked to head office and said I wanted to discuss how we handled the damages. They said to call Sean the next week and he'd handle it. I was reluctant to sign but they told me to sign anyway, and I had been assured Sean would deal with the damages.

So I call Sean this week and his response is basically that he won't do anything. He claims the guys warned me the stairway was tight and I approved them to damage my stuff by taking it up. The conversation never happened. There is no way I would say go ahead and damage it and I forfeit insurance. Anyway, Sean told me the company policy is to have the customer get their insurance company to sue WePro (also called "Office Furniture Liquidation" - http://www.oflfurniture.com/ - and WeHaulPro, WeStorePro, and WeCleanPro, several names for what appears to be the same people) and he seemed disinterested in talking about it. He refused to give me the name of someone higher than him and just kept saying it was company policy to have all these matters dealt with in court. I was shocked how that could be a long-term company policy.

Now I am stuck trying to have my damages covered and they are likely goign to be worth less than the time it takes for me to get it. Regardless, it's worth following through on just to make a point. All I really wanted was to discuss it and figure out what was acceptable for both WePro and I. It's going to cost both them and I more to settle it than the damages are worth. What a waste. There's more to the story about how they nickel and dime you and how careless they are (like taking out the exit sign on the way out of my old building etc.) but I'm sure you get the point. These guys are really cheap to hire, but in the end you might be better off to go with a company that cares, especially if you have anything you would prefer to not hav damaged. Not sure who made up the story about the conversation where I supposedly said 'sure, wreck my stuff' but someone there is into ass covering mode. In my view, I'd go with a reputible company next time and I'd never hire these guys again. They don't seem to have much in the way of accountability that I can see and they didn't seem too concerened about it.