Moving house and ending up with a damaged sofa

Sabrina123

My boyfriend and I moved home from a house to an apartment around a month ago.

Previous to the house we lived in another apartment on the third floor and they had no trouble at all moving our king size bed frame and mattress, and two sofas into the house. However, when it came to moving out of the house and into our current apartment, they damaged our sofa and it is now destroyed. My boyfriend suggested to use the side gate as one sofa is quite large but they said it would be fine, and if they got it in then surely they can get it out. It's a good time to point out that I used Any Van, which are a reputable company with many great reviews, bar this one. The guys that moved our belongings are under a company called Mitchel Moves, based in the North East, but Any Van use them as in local areas, different removal companies are used.

Anyway, the sofa got stuck and the two men refused to touch it and therefore said to my boyfriend 'we can't move this until you have', which I think is atrocious. So he had to use a saw which eventually broke, and had to kick the sofa to get it out. At this point, one of the two men was recording this and made out my boyfriend was beiing aggressive, but how else was he going to get the sofa out? Our sofa was basically brand new and from DFS and cost hundreds. Also, as we were renting, the PVC door frame got damaged, which the removal men caused but are refusing to accept liability for. Surely it is their fault and we shouldn't lose out on out deposit and pay for the door, and I also think it is unfair how our sofa had to go to the tip as it was deemed a sofa anymore.


I'm just looking for some advice as my boyfriend doesn't want to deal with it anymore but I think it's far too much money to just be done with it and for the fact we are not at fault here.
Thanks in advance.

Dazed_and_confused

You might struggle to get many responses from one absolutely enormous paragraph. Puts people off reading it all.

Sabrina123

This is the review my boyfriend posted on the website after the service was carried out and he had spoke to someone about it. Note, I was not there and I wish I was as I doubt they would just leave me there with the sofa, and I would have complained about the recording as correct me if I'm wrong but isn't it illegal to record someone on video without their consent?

'I've used anyvan a few times before. The second most recent time was to move two 3-seater sofas and a kingsize bed from my 2nd floor apartment into a small terraced house, the move went very well, I only paid for 1 person as I was willing to help but 3 guys turned up and shifted my stuff carefully and efficiently within about 15 mins.
One of the sofas was a little larger than the other but they had no issue getting it through the narrow PVC doorframe of the new house.

Unfortunately 6 months later I needed to move again. As the last time I used anyvan was so great, I of course, got back in touch and booked another collection for the same 3 items.

They arrived on time(different guys), and got to work, the big sofa was first to go and they proceeded to move it through the door. It became clear quite early on that the sofa was quite difficult to get through, despite last time being so easy for the previous team.
After some difficulty the moved told me that if they continued, it would rip the Sofa. I'm not a fussy man and the sofa was only a 2nd hand thing I'd had for a year, I still had 2 more items to go and they looked like they we're getting stressed out, I said I didn't mind if the sofa got damaged and offered to sign to say that was okay.

At this point they continued to try and move the sofa through the door, the door frame was now accumulating some damage. I had suggested a good amount of times that the back door is wider, and theres a side gate which looks wider too, however they kept saying, no its the same width. I mentioned it a few times in fact but they insisted that it wasn't any wider.

I just want to point out that I accept full responsibility for the damage to my sofa, I didn't understand what was so difficult at the time and just wanted to get the job done, we were about 20 mins in to the job now and the first sofa was still in the door frame. It soon became clear that the sofa wasn't going through, so attempts were made to remove the sofa from the frame. This is where things got worse. During the removal of the sofa from the door, which I was at this point trying to assist with, the door frame was quite heavily damaged, to the point that it now needs to be replaced.

The sofa then got SO stuck, that it was unable to move at all. The movers at this point refused to touch the sofa and contiunue with the job until it was removed, by myself, putting my in a very difficult situation. I made the decision to go home and get a saw, in an attempted to cut the sofa so they could continue to move my items, the blade snapped and we were back to square one. They provided me with a sheet of paper asking me to list what damage had been done and to then sign for it accepting liability, which I did due to the fact I'd paid £80 for the job, my sofa was stuck in a door frame, and I had 2 items left to go, I didn't really know what option I had. My only option at this point was to attempt to kick the sofa to pieces, I had been living in my new place for about a week already and I had no sofas and no bed, so I had some motive to get at least some of the job done. I began to kick the sofa beams in order to remove it from the door. The movers recorded me doing this and provided it to anyvan as evidence that I was being "aggressive" as you can imagine, I big bloke kicking a sofa in a door door appear to show signs of aggression, but I was just doing what I had to in order to try and get some of the job done, as I mentioned earlier the movers refused to touch anything else until I had done so.

Might I add that a large amount of damage had already been done to the door frame at this point. And the fact that the movers claimed all the damage had been done when "I" removed the sofa is ludicrous.
Anyvan have said to me that with the evidence, that being photos of the sofa jammed in the door, they must trust their their tranporter would not have attempted to move the sofa. Which is absolutely insane! And the fact the transporter recorded me trying to remove the sofa then using it to say I was aggressive. Whats worse is that I didn't realise I was being recored and that has now been shared to a 3rd party without my consent, which is illegal.

Overall, the whole situation has been a complete stitch up.
The transporter did not inform anyvan of what had gone on, I made the claim after 5 days of silence. I made my points clear to anyvan around what has gone on. They have contacted the transporter and due to the fact he has a video of me attempting to remove my door, they have said all damage to the door was done by me in this instance.

I'd definiately think twice about using the company who will take the side of their transporters over their customers based on a video which was titled "angry man destroys sofa and damages door frame", rather than "frustrated customer left with sofa in door frame after movers put it there and refused to move it".

What an absolute shambles.'

Sabrina123

Okay, thank you I don't know how to shorten there was a lot of things that happened

boo_star

I don't think anyone is going to bother reading that review. I understand you want to explain everything but it's far too wordy.

AdrianC

So short version...
You hired a man+van to move your stuff - but only paid for one person, since your boyfriend was willing to be involved in the moving.
They got the sofa stuck in the doorway... and handed over responsibility for it back to you.
Your boyfriend then took a saw to either the sofa or doorway, and started trying to kick the sofa free...

And you think they're responsible?

Well, hand it to their insurers, and let them decide.

Sabrina123

No, we paid for two men. At no point was he meant to be helping them, but as the sofa got stuck and they still had to get the bed out so he had no choice. Do you think they're responsible? This is the thing, they aren't accepting liability but they have tried to use the recording as a way out I guess. They didn't even tell Any Van anything about the incident at all, the first time Any Van knew of it was when my boyfriend complained. He wrote the review and they said it's being dealt with but it's been nearly a month since it happened.
Thank you for your reponse by the way, much appreciated

Sabrina123

Now the door frame is damaged and because of this, we may lose our deposit. My other half isn't that bothered but to me it's a lot of money and I don't think we are in the wrong at all.

[Deleted User]

Hi, I'm afraid you may not be at fault but you didn't protect yourself either.

Anyvan is a subcontracting company. You hired one set of movers the first time, another set the second time. Did you realise one set of movers had nothing to do with the second? You can't take it for granted under these conditions that one high quality service will be repeated a second time. You could have googled the company to see if any complaints. Asked about insurance, experience etc considering the cost of damage to property and sofa.

One minute you seem to be claiming sofa bought from new (worth hundreds), but in the review, it says second hand. This will drastically lower the cost to yourself. Not the pain, but the cost.

Some people are resourceful, can think their way out of things, some of us can't. Plainly your partner is not one of the ones to be left in charge of something like this just because he's male. He made some bad decisions, it was a very stressful situation and he didn't cope too well. Learn from this, go for a better quality removal company next time. its one of those things you learn from.

I'm afraid the time at which you lost all chance of compensation was when your partner signed that form. Yes, it was stressful, it had taken too long etc but its cost you a fair amount of money (replacing the sofa and door frame).

i have bought large sofas three times. I always made sure the sofas would come apart, wheels come off, cushions could be removed, anything to make removal through sometimes small doorways easier. I asked the people I was buying it from, and googled for instructions with the model of the sofa to double check. Again, I'm afraid its a learning experience.

I am sorry there is no help to remedy this situation right now. The removal men knew they were at fault, but made sure it wouldn't seem so. Its not really worth chasing them over it. Its not right but you didn't cover yourself, they did. Legally, that will determine the outcome.

Making sure you have home contents insurance and insurance to cover the removal is always a good idea with expensive items.

If it helps, I bought a two seater and three seater leather reclining sofa for £300 (the 3 seater was £2k new). Some very slight fading to the leather. £100 on leather dye, refinisher etc, and its looks even better than it did new. The back seperates from the base, and its very comfortable. Definitely my best buy from Ebay. I hope you are able to source something similar. But always keep your thinking head on and ask questions to make sure its worth it.

burtbot1

Any van aren’t a moving company. They’re just a site where anyone with a can can advertise their services. It could literally be any man (or woman) with access to any old van.

For moving you really should use a proper moving company, plus they would have insurance.

But anyway, sorry this happened to you. Must be so upsetting. Assuming the movers didn’t have insurance, then can you claim on your own?!

ACG

Send them a letter explaining what you want or you will take it to court. Give them 7 days to respond.

Then send them a letter before action giving them 14 days.

Then file it online with MCOL.

See what the judge decides, but be prepared that the video is going to get played.