Removals Company Issues!!

Liffi

I’m not sure where I stand on this one from a legal perspective and where to take the matter from here, so I’m really hoping that you can help and provide some advice.

I hired a removals company to come and move my belongings from my old home into storage for a few months. Once I had found a new home, the removals company were to bring my belongings to my new home.

Upfront, I paid for the whole moving service and for storage for one month. I was then to pay £205 per additional month for storage, which I would do on time as requested.

When the first storage payment was due, I made the payment to the same account which I made the original payment to. Looking back through the text message exchange between myself and the owner of the company, he did say please make the payment to xxx and provided details. He didn’t however state that it was a different account to the account where I made the first payment, so in a rush I made the payment to the original account without checking the details. My mistake I know, however if it was a different account to the previous one, I personally would have made this very clear.

The owner of the company advised that I had made the payment into a closed account and he therefore hadn’t received it and I would have to pay the money again. I checked with my bank and they advised that the money had gone into his alternative bank account. When I asked the owner of the removals company, he advised that the money hadn’t reached an alternative account. As his company’s reputation was on the line, I didn’t even question that he may be lying and I made the payment again.

I continued to look into the situation with the bank as I knew that the £205 must have been somewhere.

When it came to the removals company brining my belongings to my new home, I was asked for additional money as “bringing my belongings back hadn’t been included in the original quote due to a mistake by an employee”. I was very frustrated with this, however I felt like I didn’t have a choice other than to make the additional payment (£150) as I just wanted my belongings back.

When the team brought my belongings back, my bed which had been in storage for 5 months was in terrible condition. It was filthy and they had broken one of the handles of the mattress. I asked them to take it away as I didn’t want something so dirty in my home where I had freshly painted and had new carpet. It was a £1400 bed.

After I had settled into my new home, I finally heard back from the bank who were able to provide an account number and sort code where the missing £205 had been paid. I went back to the owner of the company and asked him to check said account to see if the money had in fact reached him those months ago. He finally admitted that he did receive the money but was very keen to point out that it was my fault and didn’t seem like he wanted to give the money back to me. He finally agreed to pay the £205 back but within 28 days. 28 days came and went and I hadn’t received the money. I chased and chased him via email, text and phone calls. He came back and said he would pay the money the week later. Nothing came through so I chased and chased again via email, text and phone calls. He then said he would pay the money back after the Easter holiday. I still haven’t received the money back. I have emailed, text, called and left voicemails.

I am now sick of chasing him and wondering what I can do from here. I do understand that it was my mistake to make the payment to the incorrect account, however the money did reach him, so I don’t feel like he had a right to ask for the payment again. If he hadn’t asked me to pay it again, I wouldn’t be in this situation constantly chasing him to make the payment back to me. I feel like I have been robbed with this, along with the fact that he destroyed my bed and also asking for more money when bringing my belongings back to me due to a mistake their end.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Many thanks!!

Cakeguts

How much research did you do into this company before you used them?

ThePants999

Check what you signed with the removals company to see whether they could actually ask you for additional money.

Small claims court (MCOL) for the money he's not paying you back.

Slinky

ThePants999 wrote: »

Small claims court (MCOL) for the money he's not paying you back.

This. You can fill out the forms online and print them off without paying anything to the court at this point, send them to him and tell him if he doesn't pay in ten days you'll submit them to the court and he'll owe you the court fees as well.

saajan_12

£205 accidentally paid:
They were right to demand you repay to the account specified in the contract (e.g. maybe the closed account is harder to access) but if they have eventually received the original £205 they should return this. Write a LBA and then file a money claim.

£150 to deliver possessions
Check you original quote / contract to see whether the delivery to the new place was explicitly included. If it was, then their employee's mistake is their problem. You may be able to get this back through a LBA and Money Claim if you can show you paid the £150 under protest to get your belongings back and mitigate costs (else storage would rack up, what would you do without furniture..)

Damaged bed
What does your contract say about the type / conditions of the storage area? Also what does it say about their liability for damages? If you can get a couple of estimates to clean the bed and fix the handle, you may be able to claim the lowest of these from the company (limited by any clauses about damage liability in the contract).


For the monies above you are due, write a Letter Before Action asking for the money within 10working days. Don't bother with further chasing, the LBA will show him you're serious and show the courts you tried everything to avoid court fees but he still wouldn't return the money. If you don't receive the money after 10 days then file a Money Claim for the return.

Liffi

A lot. They have 22 x 5 * ratings on facebook and had good reviews elsewhere. I do genuinely think my experience has been a one off and they are overall a good company. I just think it's unacceptable to make a customer wait this long to make the payment back. I'd be willing to let everything else go if they just made that payment back.

always_sunny

28 days is long but not unusual. I once booked a car service online from a large/known company and paid by card. The morning after I got a call to tell me that they couldn't honour the service (wonder why I could book the timeslot) and it'd take them that long to refund me the money.

Do you have anything in writing that they'd return the money? Do you have a written contract with this company? What are the T&C?