Paul Arpin Van Lines Movers Insurance

Paul Arpin Van Lines Movers Insurance

I sent the following letter to Paul Arpin last year. I had been working with their insurance group "MOVERS SETTLEMENT Group, LLT." I had many conversations with a Sandi Lombardi and various other people in the department. I supplied all required documents to them with estimates of repairs and invoices for actual replacements I had to make do their representatives negligence. I finally recieved a check from them dated 12/29/04 in the amount of $474.00 I was shocked! my claim had been for closer to $4000.00 in damages and stolen property. I have tried to get someone to talk to me repeatedly. As of now no one has responded. I'm going to take this further since they leave me no choice. September 3, 2004

Quality Assurance Department PAUL ARPIN VAN LINES PO Box 1302 East Greenwich, RI 02818-9985 Attn: Joe Kubiskey This letter is a follow-up of my husband’s phone calls to your Southern California agent, WESTERN RELOCATIONS, INC. Anaheim, CA and the corporate office in West Warwick, RI. In April of this year we found it necessary to relocate. This occasion was to be a relatively short hop from Murrieta, California to Surprise, Arizona. As we have numerous times in past, we contacted the local PAUL ARPIN VAN LINES representatives. In this case, you were represented by WESTERN RELOCATIONS out of Anaheim. Joseph Martin came out to our home and gave us the estimate for the move and the various services we needed such as boxes, packing, disconnecting appliances and reconnecting them at the final destination. He also told us we could save some money by packing some items ourselves and marking them as “CP” for customer pack (we were told later that this incorrect). The move and delivery dates (pack 4/28/04, load 4/29/04 and deliver 5/5/04) were agreed upon and we proceeded to prepare for our trip. I am a 57 year old woman, disabled and limited in what physical tasks I can perform. My mother is 81 and flew out from Rhode Island specifically to help me move. She is an “Arpin Customer for Life” who lives around the corner from your offices in Quaker Valley Condominiums. My husband worked for Bostitch/Textron (Stanley-Bostitch) for more then twenty years and we had used Paul Arpin numerous times without incident. We continued to use Arpin even when we were paying for the moves ourselves, as we did this time. ArpinVan Lines has always been our first choice because of your history of always treating us and our possessions with great care and respect. So I speak from experience when I say that this move was nothing short of a disaster! April 28th, 2004 –Wed. Packing day The packers were headed by a very experienced man and two younger men who made his job quite difficult because they really needed constant supervision. They did rather well, all things considered, and I only attribute the damage to the crystal and the stained glass lamp shades to their inexperience. April 29th, 2004 – Thu. Loading day The real problems began on the next day when the first driver and his truck arrived to load us. The morning proceeded normally until I mentioned when we were going to receive our delivery at our new home. All work stopped immediately because the driver said he would be delivering us on Saturday May 1st. We quickly explained that that was not what we had arranged with Mr. Martin of Western Relocation and that we would not have the keys to the new house until late Monday May 4th. The driver stated that he would have to unload all of our belongings and send for another truck to start all over again. This problem was due to a scheduling conflict with another delivery he already had been assigned for Tucson. Several phone calls later to Western Relocation and the Paul Arpin offices it was decided that the loading would continue and the trailer with all our property would be stored at the Western Relocation secure warehousing facility then driven to us on Tuesday May 5th as originally contracted with Mr. Martin. May 5th, 2004 6:00am- Delivery Day We received a call at our hotel from a new driver who informed us that he is at the Arizona border on route 10 and will be at our new house at 9am. Equipped with this information my mother and I set out for house to meet the truck at the appointed time. Ten o’clock comes and goes and we still don’t hear a thing from the driver. By 11am we are starting to worry. Finally at 11:30 the driver calls and says he on his way now and should be here in two hours. Where he went and why he is late is not explained. He starts making a lot of wise cracks about delays and insinuating that we are making a big deal out of nothing. We are now hot, drained, frustrated and hungry from sitting in an empty house since 8:30 am. One thirty passes with no sign of our moving truck. Finally the driver and his two assistants (one of whom is a woman who has never done this before in her life) pull up after 3pm. We now realized we would have to spend at least one more night in the hotel and it would be dark before they got everything unloaded, much less put together as agreed. The driver starts complaining right away about how difficult it was to get our stuff reloaded from the original (?) trailer and onto the truck he was driving because it was blocked in at the warehouse and they had to drag it all over the parking lot to get it moved to his truck. I was shocked and very upset that our valuables had been manhandled in such a way and I told him of my worries. His attitude then became incredibly cavalier and extremely rude. I decided at that point to not address my concerns to this man who was obviously trying to intimidate me by invading my personal space and using his much larger size to make me feel threatened. Things now took on an air of frenzy and boxes, tables, and chairs started to pile up in the main room. The driver started calling out numbers like we were at a Bingo Game. My mother and I followed along trying to find and check-off each number until I realized that many items had no inventory number attached at all. They had either fallen off and lost or picked up and been thrown on anything. The driver was just making them up because they didn’t even come close to the description on the sheet. It was then that we started to really look at the condition of the furniture that had been brought in, dropped haphazardly, and covered over with boxes. We had many pieces of furniture damaged and some destroyed. Large footprints soiled the upholstery. Broken glass could be heard in the boxes. The large entertainment unit could even stand up. A television rattled and the casters were gone from my leather living room chair. When this was pointed out to the driver he became insulting and abusive. He then proceeded to criticize our belongings and said it wasn’t as if we were moving priceless antiques! These were my possessions, some were new and some were old but they were good quality and in good condition when they were picked up. We were appalled with the lack of professionalism, the careless disregard for our property and the disrespect with which we were treated by your company’s representative. I felt so helpless; all I wanted was for them to leave my home as soon as possible. The trouble continued when we told him that he needed to setup the beds and connect the washer, dryer and refrigerator. He refused unless he got more money in cash. Then my husband called his home office and got someone there to tell him we had already paid for it. Now it was beginning to look like a scam! They left just before midnight. I never felt so violated in my life. We went back to the hotel and started next morning to try and assess the damage. We requested a claim form for the damages and didn’t get one until we called Arpin direct and requested it a second time. It’s been very distressing as the weeks have gone by and more breakage and damage has been uncovered. I’ve replaced some of the pieces, such as the entertainment unit and end tables. But some can never be replaced; the kitchen set that is no longer made by Thomasville, the knick knack shelf handmade by my husband as a gift for his late mother and left to me. What I’m really sick about is the service we received. Paul Arpin Van Lines service and reliability were the most important factors in hiring your company. I’m so disappointed. We have been loyal and repeat customers for many years and this is the first claim I have ever submitted. Until now we have had nothing but good things to say about Paul Arpin Van Lines. I hope you take steps to expedite our claim and let us resolve the whole matter. Sincerely,

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