Movers screwed up badly, now threating us after making a complaint and a negative review.

MoonbowDerby · 30 May 2021 at 6:30PM

I paid movers for a packing service, unplugging and reconnecting washing machine, disassembly and reassembly of furniture by VISA debit - they required final payment before they unloaded.

They damaged the piping while reconnecting the washing machine causing a leak. They 'fixed' it by turning the water off. When we turned it back on, using any water in the house caused a leak under the sink. They said they'd come back to fix it, but hours later we'd heard nothing so got in an emergency plumber.

They left behind several items, including my sons' mattresses. They said they'd run back for those, then they said they'd replace them as they had some spare (I think my spouse might have mentioned we were planning to soon anyways), then it was 'oh I've gone home, can I come tomorrow with them'. There are also some items damaged and they never returned the key to the old house.

I wanted the cost of the emergency plumber and the extra we paid for that service paid back, plus a discount though I've considered trying charge back as recommended by someone I talked to about this as so many of the services didn't happen.

My spouse, annoyed at this, particularly the calls where he was promised one thing and nothing happening and basically getting no response (phone numbers we were given going to voice mail), left a negative review on trustpilot, and a voice mail listing out the above and saying he'd consider changing the review if this was rectified.

We then got a response email basically saying that our old home was so manky and terrible, the dish drainer made someone ill, worst job ever and they felt so unsafe, and that they're not only not budging on this, but if we push for it, they'll contact social services with photos they took (I have four children, ages 9-16, the youngest of which has a habit of hiding sweetie wrappers). There was no mention of any issues on the Friday when they were packing or on the Saturday when I came to check if things were okay at the old property or when they were at the new property or when they emailed on Saturday mid-morning discussing how they were finishing our move and the payment requirements. It feels like they knew they did a pisspoor job and got what they view as blackmail material.

I'm the first to admit the old house was in poor repair - it's why we've worked so hard to move and take on the risks of homeownership after years of a landlord only doing what he could be legally pushed to do, always doing it himself or a relative and would leave things, like the hole he put in a ceiling, which the letting agency was well aware of. Living next to a takeaway with an outlet pipe close to our kitchen windows, it was an uphill battle against grease (the dish drainer seemed a magnet for it) and there was some water damage in places and yes, some dust and rubbish and moving chaos. Our plan was to move and then do a deep clean (we've a month left in the tenancy), and if they'd told us on the Friday it was as bad as all that, we'd have rearranged.

My spouse has already deleted the review and is wavering on the risks of pushing it further. He has gone back around to take video of the place as it is now for his own peace of mind. I'm considering how or if to reply to the email at all. I still want at least the plumbing reimbursed, but don't know how to respond to something like this - not used to a negative review escalating at all, let alone this fast after such radio silence.

tacpot12 · 30 May 2021 at 10:45PM

If you leave a negative review, you have to expect to be challenged on it. You are publicly defaming them. Given the nature of their work, they may not have be in a position to respond to you quickly. I think you reached for the social media 'gun' too quickly.

That said, they have clearly done a bad job. What was your son supposed to sleep on if they left his mattress behind? They should cover the cost of repairing the damage to the pipes in your new house, and this should be cost of the emergency plumber as they had the opportunity to return but didn't. Whether they are liable for the damage to your possession will be in the contract. If someone tries to blackmail you, it is always worth calling their bluff. It sounds like you are entitled to some money back, but you are now in a sticky situation. If I were you, I would be robust in asking for some money back, and say you will apologise for the review if they have a reasonable discussion with you about a refund. If they won't put even discuss it, a factual review of their service back up on social media, but only if you are prepared for them to trash you.

Don't be threatened that one of their employees became ill. It is the employer's job to protect their employees, NOT yours. If the job wasn't safe, the time to refuse to do it was before accepting a contract to do it, not afterwards.

Jenni_D · 31 May 2021 at 8:05AM

tacpot12 said:

If you leave a negative review, you have to expect to be challenged on it. You are publicly defaming them.

Only if what was said was untrue. If everything was true then it wasn't defamation.

olgadapolga · 31 May 2021 at 8:13AM

I wouldn't overly worry about the threat of social services either. Even if they did ring SS and SS decided to do an assessment, things would have to be a lot worse than a dirty drainer and hidden sweet wrappers for them to intervene. The children would have to be suffering serious neglect and even then SS would prefer to work with a family to get things sorted rather than splitting a family up.

As for their employee getting sick, how can they prove it was down to your dish drainer?

MoonbowDerby · 31 May 2021 at 4:00PM

Thank you all.

I didn't reach for social media, my spouse posted on trustpilot - I agree that it was too soon and that has been removed. I expected some challenge, even to be trashed on him being too quick off the mark or my spouse not being the actual client (I was), but not this. What they sent me, which they said they were going to post as a counter claim, was vicious.

I've reviewed the contract as best I can. There are varying rules about item damage depending on value of item which I'm probably not going to pursue at this point to focus mainly on the expensive plumbing issue and broken agreements around the reassembly of furniture and the mattresses. It states that we have to make a complaint or claim within 24 hours of move with evidence to the head office. My spouse left a voice mail and I emailed with the receipt from the emergency plumber, but the only response we had was to the review. I'm not even sure if either of those were to the head office, but it's the only ones we have or are on their site beyond a physical address.

There are multiple things within the contract about how they can refuse or postpone jobs if there is an event that makes it unsafe or an event happens that can cause a postponement or cancelation. They brought nothing up to me on that. That's the big part of my frustration - I was the client, my name is on the contract, they have my contact details, but nothing was brought to my attention beyond the need for a longer washing machine hose, which I went out for, even when I directly asked if there were any issues or any questions. On Saturday morning, I was told my spouse had answered all their questions & there was no problems, given an ETA and sent away, the email says the instructions given on Friday were too vague and careless (we'd given more of them in the video tour that we thought was being passed on as, due to COVID, they used that to adjust their quote and we were expecting them to want to limit time with us in the old property, but asking him then or contacting me was an option they didn't use) and all these issues. They've even made a complaint that they had to get in PPE because of the filth - but when I was at the property, no one was wearing the masks they claimed to have needed because they were so disgusted, and all but one person was wearing work gloves.

On the plumbing: the old property had water damage due to the landlord having not put in flooring suitable for kitchens by his own admittance nor to last 12 years of high use. They're using photos of that to claim it was the machine and not their people. The new house isn't that big (in fact, they complained in the email it's too small for the amount of stuff), we heard them talking about the pipes, we all saw, heard, and cleaned up the aftermath of the spraying water, I saw the man yank on the hose while it was still attached to the pipes because it wasn't long enough and trying to turn the machine with it attached with the too short pipe repeatedly even after saying it's too short, but we're told he didn't touch any of the pipes so it can't be his fault.

I agree the SS threat isn't that much of a concern and on reading through their complaint email when I was trying to respond to it, it comes across as nonsense (not that I said that in my response, I remained as factual as possible, but it's the feeling I got). It discusses their concerns about our "unusual elderly "care" arrangement" and their moral duty around that. The oldest person in our house is 37. There is mobility equipment - some they brought, some we brought ourselves - and a machine for sleep apnea which was brought ourselves but they saw, but none of it is for an elderly person. There is still that niggle that they're going to bring down more stress than its' worth, but it's lessening as I've gone through their response & we've gone back and forth between the properties and finished getting through the boxes to assess the situation.

steampowered · 31 May 2021 at 7:57PM

Personally, if a business tried threating me like that after a bad review, I would issue a court claim against them the same day seeking damages for their negligence and breach of contract. Easy for someone familiar with the legal process to say that though!

In fact, you may even be able to sue this business for blackmail under s21 of the Theft Act 1968. Threatening you with complaints to SS or care for elders because you issued a bad review about them is ridiculous and likely meets the threshold for blackmail. There is an article about that here: https://www.brabners.com/blogs/warning-shots-running-risk-blackmail.

I wouldn't worry about it. They are idiots to commit those threats to writing. Unless you receive something from an actual qualifier lawyer I'd be tempted to ignore it - or simply respond confirming that the review is factually accurate.