Crowning Touch Senior Moving Services

Review: Crowning Touch moved me on May 24, 2013, and on May 23 two ladies packed my dining room and kitchen. On May 25 I discovered 7 pieces of jewelry missing valued at approximatgely $7,000. I filed a complaint with the police department and at first it was only being investigated by an officer in his spare time from his normal duties. However, I recently had a detective call me and she and another detective are working on my case as they have another case that overlaps my case. I am 100% sure that it was someone(s) from Crowning Touch!! There is no other possibility!! I gave it a lot of thought as to what else could have happened before I even contacted the owner, Linda Balentine. She is adamant that her people didn't do it even thought I was told by the police that two people from the group that moved me were caught with drugs stolen from a move right after mine and had drugs in their system when tested by Crowning Touch and were fired. Also I was unaware of the fact that she hires people who have spent time in jail which I learned from the officer working my case. He was as shocked as I was mainly because going into people's homes on a daily basis is not the venue for this practice. I believe in giving people a second chance but I think she should be upfront about this giving the client a choice. I very well may have chosen to use them, but I certainly would have done things differently like not leaving the women packing alone in my home which I did because I had to take my daughter to work. Also, when talking to another officer who is a supervisor he made the statement "this is a very interesting company and I'll just leave it at that".Desired Settlement: Discredit her A+ rating with the Revdex.com and get the word out to others that what happened to me is a possibility when using them and the fact that they hire ex-cons.

Business

Response:

The complaint from [redacted]. is addressed below: Moving is a very confusing and stressful time. It is not unusual for movers to be blamed when something cannot be found. I recently took a call from a man we had moved 2 1/2 years ago who was sure that someone on my team had taken his gold jewelry that he left in a bag in his room. He called me to report that his basement had flooded and in the process of cleaning up he had found the bag with the jewelry in it and he wanted to apologize for accusing us. This is not uncommon. We were hired to move [redacted] but we did no packing in her bedroom at all, nor did we go upstairs at any time without her. The jewelry in question was inside a built-in cabinet drawer in a closet in the master bedroom upstairs. No one went in the closet, nor did we have any way of knowing that the jewelry was there. The very employees she is accusing have been working with me for between 6-8 years, two are managers, and none have criminal records. We have on occasion given people a second chance who have had a conviction in the distant past (25 years ago for instance, when they were 19). In no instance have we compromised the safety of our clients in the course of helping lives get reestablished. We do random drug testing, and in the course of testing we did fire 2 employees who failed a drug test. We hold to a more stringent standard than most moving companies and do frequent testing, with or without cause. No employees were actually charged with stealing drugs. In fact, in 17 years no employee at Crowning Touch has ever been charged with stealing anything. One of the packers under suspicion by [redacted] actually brought $2,000 in cash and a gold and diamond pin into my office that she found in a discarded purse that someone had thrown away. When [redacted] originally contacted me with her complaint I was anxious to help in any way that I could. I returned several phone calls and each time it seemed more jewelry was missing. I offered my employees up for lie detector tests anytime. I requested, but have never been given, a list of the missing jewelry. I did speak with a detective on the phone and indicated my willingness to cooperate fully but no request was made of me or my team. [redacted] requested information from me regarding my bonding and insurance policies and I not only made them available to her but I arranged a meeting between my insurance agent and her proxy in my office. My agent assured her that I would assume full responsibility if it was proven that we were at fault. He represents other moving companies and told her that we have a superior record to any of the other moving companies he represents - that the other companies are constantly charged with stealing etc. and it comes with the territory. I do not believe that we deserve to have our A + rating downgraded due to unsubstantiated allegations. Before almost any move countless strangers, prospective buyers, realtors, repairmen, home inspectors etc. have access to every corner of a home and every movement is not observed. It is not to[redacted].’ s benefit to continue to make baseless, slanderous statements. If she continues to do so I will have to respond according to my attorney's directive. Please also see the attached letter written by my consignment shop manager who had the opportunity to speak with [redacted] when she visited my office. I sincerely hope the mystery of the jewelry is eventually resolved. Best regards, Linda Balentine, President

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response offer made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.I would like to point out the objections I have to the response from Crowning Touch regarding their response to my complaint: I am not “blaming the movers”, I know it was the movers who took my jewelry. There were no “countless strangers” in my home. I still had my jewelry after my home was sold. “We did no packing in her bedroom at all” is totally untrue…they moved all the bedroom furniture. Also they were upstairs without me as I did not stay up there the whole time they were packing the furniture. How does she know that no one went in the closet…she wasn’t there. There were times when her people were in the house and I wasn’t there. I took my daughter to work the day the ladies were packing my dining room and kitchen AND they forgot my washer/dryer and two men went back to my house ALONE to get them!! The letter from her consignment shop manager is way off. I DID NOT locate some jewelry and state that they were mine. If that would have been the case I would have called the police right then and there as they should not have had my jewelry as I did not give them jewelry for consignment. What she said doesn’t even make sense.[redacted]

Business

Response:

I am astounded and at a loss of how to proceed with a consumer that will not remember or admit that she came into my establishment; and while waiting to meet with me, absolutely cruised the front portion of our estate shop and positively identified jewelry and silver plate as belonging to her. She didn't call the police because my manager patiently showed her the attached, printed labels that proved that not only had the jewelry been taken in for consignment months before her move, but that the codes on both items she identified as belonging to her were distinctly coded to other families. My manager felt compelled to write another message to you which is attached. We should not be under suspicion just because she can't figure out what happened, if anything happened at all. This same woman, who KNOWS she never interacted with my manager in our consignment shop over items she claimed were hers, is the same woman who KNOWS that it was our movers who stole her jewelry. It is a baseless claim, since she has no evidence at all, and is obviously prone to false charges, as my manager will testify. The only time we were in her bedroom was when we were prepping furniture to go on the truck and she was in the room the entire time. She spoke to one of my employees about someone else she was expecting to come, perhaps a repairman, so it is not true that other people were not coming into the house while we were there. I recently upgraded our Quickbooks program because in the last 17 years we have served over 14,500 clients and we exhausted the ability of that program to handle any more client entries. It is of no little significance that Not One of those clients, for whom we have handled not only their moves, but dispensed with their valuable assets, has ever complained about a theft. I can only stand on that record, of which we are very proud. Sincerely, Linda BalentinePresident I will state again that a conversation took place in the Estate shop, per my previous statement. The two ladies came in and one went to the jewelry case and stated to the other that it looked like her jewelry. I told them it belonged to another vendor and had been here a while. She walked though to the next room where silver plate items were displayed for sale. She then stated with certainty that some of the displayed items were hers. I showed her the tag and the vendor number and date to prove they belonged to another vendor. This was how it happened! [redacted] Crowning Touch Manager

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response offer made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.This is a response to Linda Balentine's most recent reply. For the last time, I did not come into the consignment shop looking for my jewelry. I did however come to see my consignment items as I wanted to see what she priced them at. I didn't understand why I didn't see ANYTHING that belonged to me. Then I saw the silver-plated items and thought they could possibly me mine, but I was told they weren't mine and that was fine ...I was just trying to figure out where all of my things were. However, I NEVER saw a piece of jewelry and insisted that it belonged to me. That just never happened. I wasn't even looking to find my jewelry as I didn't think the movers would be stupid enough to steal it then put it in consignment and I didn't have any jewelry for consignment. I have no idea what that manager was referring to. Also for the last time ... she said I was in the bedroom the entire time which is completely untrue. I packed a couple wardrobe boxes then went downstairs and there were several men upstairs packing. Again, how would she know ... she wasn't there. If she is saying this because that is what her men told her, they are lying to her. I DID NOT have any workmen scheduled to come while I was moving and before I moved the only workmen that came to the house were there to do outside work. There is no way my jewelry was taken by a repairman or anyone else that was in my house. Also she is forgetting that two of her men went back to my house ALONE as they forgot my washer/dryer. She keeps referring to previous clients that have called to say they are missing something only to have them call back later and say they found it. This is not going to happen in my case as there are too many pieces of jewelry missing for me to have just mislaid them or to have lost them. [redacted] Ms. [redacted]: I would like to address the Message From Business in response to the above referenced complaint involving Crowning Touch, a Roanoke County business. More specifically, I would like to correct the factual inaccuracies contained in Ms. [redacted] recount of events. Ms. [redacted] and I entered Crowning Touch and walked around the premises. We went into a room that contained furniture and various other items that were for sale. Ms. [redacted] commented to me that none of what we saw belonged to her, although some were similar. We then walked into an adjoining room which contained glass showcases wherein jewelry was displayed. At no time did Ms. [redacted] indicate that any of the jewelry items were hers. In fact, while we were looking at the jewelry, I asked a female employee of Crowning Touch how she knew where each piece of jewelry came from and how Crowning Touch kept it's records. She was kind enough to show Ms. [redacted] and me how items were tagged and recorded. We had previously been made aware that Linda Balentine was the owner of Crowning Touch. So after speaking with the employee, Ms. [redacted] asked if Ms. Balentine was available. We were directed to her office area and spoke with her. During the conversation, Ms. [redacted] explained that she was missing several specific pieces of jewelry after the Crowning Touch move. Ms. [redacted] commented that she suspected the Crowning Touch employees may have taken her jewelry. At this point, Ms. Balentine insisted that a theft by any of her staff would be impossible and she stated that she was proud giving a second chance to people with criminal convictions. Thank you for your attention to this matter. Sincerely, [redacted] Regards,[redacted]

Business

Response:

In response to complaint ID [redacted] I noticed in her last response that Mrs.* admitted to seeing some silver plated items in our shop that she thought might be hers. That is strange as well, because after reviewing her inventory list I noticed that she never consigned any silver plated items to us. There is a big discrepancy between what Mrs. * is saying about looking at the jewelry as well. Her friend called her over to look at the jewelry and she indicated that "this could be mine" and that was when my manager told her that they belonged to a different person. Then Mrs. * when in to another room and identified the silver plate that she thought was hers. At that point, we picked up the piece in question and actually showed her the dated price tag with someone else's identifier on it. My observation is that she is an easily confused person and not very credible. For all I know she could have gone overnight somewhere and left the jewelry in question. We come back to the same issue that my lawyer pointed out to me and that is the claim is baseless without any factual evidence at all. It is all supposition on her part. I am asking a former client that was sure we stole his jewelry until he found it after 2 and 1/2 years to write his experience down and forward it to me. I am hoping it will help put this in perspective for Mrs. * who is as convinced now as he was then that we stole the jewelry. She may find it yet although she is sure now that it is gone forever. Anyway, there is no way we can assume responsibility for the missing jewelry just because she has a hunch we might be responsible somehow. Kind regards,Linda BalentineCrowning Touch Senior Moving

I am a senior (65 yrs. old) and during the most recent auction I was the victim of deceptive sales and rude unprofessionalism. I think that if I were not an older person and female I might have gotten a better response from the person in charge of the auction house. The young men who work on the sales floor were helpful, polite and professional but I would not return to this business and would recommend others not buy here because of the response from [redacted] when I returned with a defective product that I had purchased. The purchase was substantial and I was told on 2 occasions prior to buying that testing the electrical items was not something that was done during the auction because I could return a defective item and receive a full refund with no problems. When I returned the item, [redacted] refused to give a refund saying "We know this was working" and "You need to call me late in the day tomorrow." Even when other staff supported/confirmed that the item was defective and had not been tested and I had been promised a refund. [redacted] in front of her staff argued with me indicating that I was lying and she absolutely refused with no reason other than the business had made other purchases from the original owner and she did not believe me. She would not listen or consider information about the product from me or the staff working there. I was forced to spend 2 days and drove around 80 to 90 miles to and from my home and made a concerted effort to get this business to honor their claims and promises to get a refund for this product that was defective when it was sold.

Crowning Touch just helped us organize a somewhat complicated 2-stop move to Columbus, Ohio, with a last-minute small shipment of furniture to Florida, as part of closing an estate. As moving day approached, the Ohio heirs changed their minds several times about which items were going where. Crowning Touch responded to the changes without problem in terms of loading the truck and even set up an area where I could re-pack boxes. Crowning Touch worked to develop solutions to help as our needs changed. The move occurred in January, and as one might imagine, snow and an artic cold blast threatened to impede the move. Crowning Touch's truck crew worked all day to finish packing the truck and then drove through the night to beat the snow. They worked with good cheer in extremely difficult conditions, and best of all, I am not aware of any damage to the property.

Review: Had an agreement to sell furniture.According to conversation with Crowning Touch they say that all of the furniture has been sold. According to my records there is no record of a drop leaf dining room table with six chairs and some other items in question. There have been conversations with Crowning Touch about the items in question but no returned promised phone calls.Desired Settlement: Any due money!!!

Business

Response:

Dear Revdex.com, I called the client and apologized immediately. My staff was in the process of resolving her issue but they had run into a problem and dropped the ball by not calling her back. They also neglected a protocol about putting a tracking request on my desk so that I was not aware of the problem and I should have been notified so that I could assist when they are so busy. We handle hundreds of thousands of items on an annual basis for thousands of clients and I believe that her customer code got transposed with someone else's and they were inadvertently paid instead of her. I told her that I would personally research her account today and get back to her by the end of business on Monday and she was fine with that. I assured her that she would be paid in full for anything that we sold on her behalf. Sincerely, Linda Balentine

Business

Response:

But I kept forgetting to notify you in writing that we have resolved that complaint to the customer's satisfaction. I was able to identify the problem on 10/28 and we called her to explain what happened. We immediately sent her a check for the missing items that we had located (funds had inadvertently been sent to someone else with a similar code). This happens a few times a year in our business and I regret that we did not give her the timely attention she deserved. My employee has been reprimanded and apologies extended to the customer. Kind regards,Linda BalentineCrowning Touch Senior Moving###-###-####

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response offer made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.Today I received a check from Crowning Touch in the amount of $240. This amount supposedly represents the balance owed for the items sold by Crowning Touch from my sister's home. I'm a little frustrated by the amount representing half of the amount the items sold for in that it took me from April to just a couple weeks ago to get Crowning Touch to pay me what was owed for the remaining items. If I had not made numerous phone calls with promises of call backs that did not occur and insisted that there was a grave error in Crowning Touch's book keeping as to what was owed me for the sold items then I suppose the $240 check would be sufficient. But I feel that the $240 check does not represent the amount of time and effort that I went through to correct their errors in accounting for the lost items. I feel that Crowning Touch should make restitution by paying the full amount for which the items sold for in the amount of $ 480 to represent all of the time and investigative work that it took to complete the contractual agreement I had with Crowning Touch. [redacted] P.S, I would have appreciated a call from Mrs. Balantine after I talked to [redacted] to see if I was satisfied, which I was not.

Business

Response:

We respectfully sent the client a full fund reimbursement, even though we had a signed contract that said she was only due 50% of the proceeds resulting from the sale of her items. We understand her frustration at not getting a call back from our manager in a timely way as promised. Hopefully this final check will relieve her stress and allow her to put this all behind her. She indicated that this payment would finalize it for her. So at the final conclusion we ended up selling her items and forfeiting any money due Crowning Touch, paying all the proceeds to her. I spoke with the client today and told her a check would be going out immediately. Signed, Linda Balentine

Consumer

Response:

I do not wish to beat a "dead horse to death" but I would like to clarify a sentence in the last response by Linda Balentine from Crowning Touch. In the next to last sentence the impression is that because of some lack of communication on the part of Crowning Touch, Crowning Touch refunded all proceeds for the sale of the items sold for [redacted]. This is not the case in that because of the misappropriation of funds for about the last ten items sold that Crowning Touch paid the full amount for which the items sold for to correct the misappropriation of funds for those last items. I trust this clarifies the transaction.