Damage Caused by Removal Firm

Last Friday was spent photographing all the items that received damage during our move.  There are deep gouges out of our bikes that we had had newly serviced ready to move.  The person who did this had commented about what good condition our bikes were in.  Sadly no more!  Even my lovely Pashley that I got for Christmas didn't survive the trip unscathed. 

Our beautiful Swamp Kauri Tables have been badly damaged, the larger one actually had the table top ripped from the base, despite me telling them not to lift it from the top, in my opinion they clearly did so when they unloaded it and brought it into the house in two pieces as there is no other way it could have been broken.  Both tables have numerous chunks, chips and scratches on them.  Other pieces of furniture have been marked and scratched as well.  The removal guys seemed friendly, even if a little slap dash at times, and it wasn't until in the light of the following day that I discovered just how much had been damaged and when I turned the table top over as they had put it down on the floor with the damage to the floor, that the top didn't just 'come off' but had actually been ripped off the table. 

Not at all happy!  This is all very disappointing as I thought that I was getting a very good reputable company according to the reviews I had read.    It has since turned out that any bad reviews get removed from the groups I had read these on! The owner of the removal business is denying any responsibility for the damage to these items and said they didn't cause any damage. This is blatantly false.  Do they think I haven't got anything better to do with my time than to make something like this up.  The whole point of moving was to move to a stress free environment to try and help my pain issues, and they are just lumbering me and us with a load more stress.  

My beautiful table...prior to the move.

It only had two marks on it which were caused twenty years ago, and they are on the base at the front which I pointed out to the removal guy.  I actually showed him what lovely condition it was in. 

Well sadly no more as will be seen by the photos below.

The top has been 'ripped/torn' off the base, despite me telling them not to lift it from the top due to the weight of the whole item.

You can see that it was torn out as there is a hollow in the underneath of the table top where the wood has torn out.  Now this couldn't just happen on its own.

The ripped/torn wood is stuck on the support structure of the 'trunk' of the table.

You can see numerous chips on the table.

Absolutely NONE of these were on the table prior to the move.  

When they brought the table into the house in two pieces they even had the cheek to make a joke about it along the lines if I didn't want it anymore now that is broken.

Our smaller table also didn't make the journey unscathed. 

It now has an approximately 15 inch crack running around the base of it.

This crack has also caused fractures in the resin as you can see.  Now these resin is extremely strong and doesn't just 'crack'.

Again numerous chips.

and cracks.

Our teak table has a deep gouge in it.

A scratch on the top.  Now this table has always been protected with a special heat protector cloth as well as a table cloth and was unmarked.

Our teak dresser unit has damage on the drawer handle.  This wasn't there either before the move.  Now I jolly well know this as I emptied all the unit out prior to the move.

My antique bureau was scratched.

One of the chair vinyls was ripped.

Our bikes - well!  You can see the damage below.

This is extremely upsetting to say the least.  Especially when the so called reputable firm who should know how to move furniture professionally are completely denying responsibility.

They unloaded when it was dark, in the early evening.  I didn't expect to have to watch them unload everything as I trusted them to do a good job.  The guys seemed like good guys, so I trusted them.  I clearly shouldn't have.  I actually DID see the bikes prior to them being unloaded and they were all lying on top of each other, which I was rather surprised about and as it turns out I should have made a comment at the time as clearly being all 'tangled' together lying on top each other for the journey clearly damaged them significantly.  Damage to the metal work like this isn't easy to fix and will leave them prone to rusting now.

What upsets me the most is the damage to our Swamp Kauri tables.  We have looked after these two pieces of furniture with great care over the years as they were our pride and joy.  To get them fixed won't be easy as they are original pieces of furniture and unique to New Zealand.  It is not like we can just take them back to the guy who made them to get them repaired.  

I feel like we have been kicked in the teeth big time.  I wanted to support an Island firm as that was where we were moving.  I had read 'reviews' from people that had used them and thought I was getting a company who knew what they were doing.  (I have to admit I was surprised when talking to the guys how some of them had only been doing it a couple of months!).  Sadly I have since learned that others HAVE had bad experiences, but either haven't reported it online or left a review, or if they have have had it removed.  They seemed responsive all the way up to the move, there was good communication until I reported the damage.  It took them a week to send someone out to look at the tables, and he agreed that the table wouldn't have just come apart, and was badly damaged and it was beyond his capabilities to repair.  I also showed him the damage to the drawer handle on the teak dresser, and he agreed that it was recent damage.  He did say that he could repair that but had only been sent out to look at the tables. We then didn't hear anything until this evening (after having sent the email with documented damage and photos on Friday) claiming he will not accept responsibility for the damage to the items.  VERY DISAPPOINTING.  HE OUGHT TO BE ASHAMED OF HIMSELF AND HIS BUSINESS.

We will not be letting this rest.

I would like to hope to be able to update this and say that the removal company came up trumps, acknowledged their responsibility and put it right.  That would at least make it a little better.  We will see.  So far nothing.