Pullen Moving Company

Review: During the delivery of the household goods to our residence, one or more of the movers stole money (cash) from my wallet and from my wife's purse. We had just returned from the ATM, wherein, my wife withdrew $400 dollars in $20 bills. After the movers left, we realized the theft and reported this to the company and police. $40 was missing from my wallet and $260 from my wife's purse.

After reporting to the company's Owner, Denise, she has refused to take ownership of the matter, claiming that a family member could have taken the money?!? With only my wife and I in the house during this time, this is not possible and the only persons with access to the home were the movers.Desired Settlement: I would like the money returned to me ($300) and an apology issued by the company.

Since this was a U.S. government move, we are also working with the government and the contract to ensure that this company is not used for future contracts with our agency.

Business

Response:

October 30, 2014Dear [redacted]:Thank you for the opportunity to respond to the complaint placed against our agency. This is a very unfortunate circumstance that the customer alleges our crew stole money from both his wallet (he states was in the living room – morning event} and his wife's purse (he states was on the kitchen counter — afternoon event) during delivery services of their household effects being made to their residence. We instructed [redacted] to call the police immediately. We seized the truck promptly upon its return to (myself and our Vice President of Operations met the truck at the moment it was placed in the park position with the crew still in the cab) our lot and searched each crew member's persons, personal bags, cab of truck and body of truck. Nothing over a $20 bill was discovered. We have no reason to believe our crew is guilty of this accusation.85% of our agency's business is moving Department of State personnel and the other 15% is moving Department of Defense personnel. We have held a contract with the Department of State for 22 years and the Department of Defense for over 30 years. We are responsible for moving Ambassadors, Dignitaries, Flag Officers and other high profile government personnel. Our hiring practices require a background and driving record check. Any criminal offenses and reckless driving charges prohibit employment at our agency. Background checks and driving records are reviewed at least annually with all staff. Proven misconduct that directly involves the service rendered to our customers is cause for immediate dismissal from our agency. Given the elite clientele we serve daily, we cannot tolerate conduct that compromises our customer or the contracts under which we serve as this directly impacts our ability to provide Service in the future. We do not experience thievery or missing items - zero. Damage caused to household contents or to the dwelling by our crew during service is immediately brought to our customer's attention by the crew as this is a required policy of our agency. We have to perform our services with open communication between the customer, our management team and our crew to render the best possible service. Misconduct or hiding the truth clouds our Company's integrity and is not tolerated.[redacted] spoke to me 3 - 4 times and Tom M[redacted], our Vice President of Operations, probably 5 times regarding his accusation against our crew. He did not place this complaint with your agency until after his last phone call to me being sure I wasn't going to make restitution for his verbal claim. I told him until there was proof or evidence of a/the crew member's guilt that I had no proof of claim to pay from. He is of the position that because he's a federal officer that his accusation should be received as factual information and acted upon. A customer can't just call and make a claim or accusation and expect restitution. The ease of making a verbal claim against a mover that results in immediate payment due to the customer's say—so would lead to multiple occurrences. The accusation must be substantiated and proven. He filed a report with the police, but an immediate investigation did not occur as it should have. We left 2 messages with the reporting officer (at [redacted]' request) and never received a return phone call.We have an on board electronic monitoring devices on our equipment, so we know our crew arrived to residence at 9:10am the morning of 9/18/2014. Our crew of 3 rendered defivery services placing household effects in the home and arranging and unpacking as the customer directed. Our crew of 3 left the residence at 3:47pm having each received a $20 tip from [redacted].[redacted] explains his wallet was in the living room of which $40 of $60 within the wallet was stolen. He states this happened in the morning as he went to his wallet either later in the morning or early afternoon to begin assembling the tip money he desired to provide the crew and could only account for $20 of the $60 he thought to have in his wallet. [redacted] did not assume this to be thievery at this time. He assumed thievery of his wallet after their presumption of money taken from his wife's purse. That afternoon he explains that his wife went to the bank and withdrew $400 from which he wanted to give the crew a tip. He explains that he pooled $20 from his wallet and $40 from the money his wife withdrew and gave it to the crew preceding their departure at 3:47pm. After our crew left his wife and their teenage daughter went to [redacted]'s to get something to eat and she couldn't account for $260 of the $400 withdrawn. The customer immediately presumes our crew extracted $260 of the $400 his wife withdrew from her purse.He is stating the bank withdrawal slip showing how much his wife withdrew from the ATM is evidence of the money they had. I don't know what time that withdrawal is said to have occurred, but as the story has been explained, it was sometime in the afternoon. Given our crew left the residence at 3:47pm this leaves a very minimal window of opportunity for someone to extract some money and not all from his wife's purse before the crew left. There were 3 crew members in the residence, **. and [redacted] and their teenage daughter.[redacted] made numerous phone calls into me and Mr. M[redacted] expecting immediate resolution, Because we personally searched the crew's pockets, clothing, personal bags and equipment, we were not assuming responsibility awaiting additional evidence. [redacted] believed his credentials were enough to substantiate his claim against our agency. His last phone call to me | indicated he or his wife could have miscounted for the money, misplaced it or even his daughter had opportunity to extract the money. This response was not my position of response until the last phone call. My response to him every conversation preceding was we needed evidence of the crew's misconduct. [redacted] kept insisting our crew was at fault and his determination of this was evidence enough.I've worked for this agency for 30 years and take great pride in the service we render, the staff we employ and the clientele we service. To state an employee has acted negligently is taken seriously. We responded immediately assuming the customer to be correct doing a complete search of the contents of our crew and equipment expecting to terminate employment of someone that evening, only to find no evidence to substantiate the claim. To state my response to him was a family member could have taken the money is skewed. My repeated statement to him was I needed evidence and proof that it was our crew. I, too, am offended to continue to receive verbal accusations every phone call of our crew's misconduct when we could not isolate evidence.We cannot afford to have a staff member conducting themselves in this way, if ever someone is said to have conducted themselves inappropriately we respond immediately and if gross misconduct is evident, we terminate employment. Our crew is very aware of our position and knows they are jeopardizing their employment to act irresponsibly as this. We have a superb team of folks who pride themselves in rendering nothing less than excellent service. To permit a customer to make an unsubstantiated claim and render restitution undermines the integrity of our crew and opens a window of opportunity for all customers to make a verbal claim of accusation in seeking cash restitution. We can't afford either. Had we found measureable cash on any staff member, a refund would have been made and employment of that individual would have been terminated.The crew admitted to having received a $60 tip - $20 each. I am reimbursing [redacted] the $60 he gave the crew. The evidence brought forth is circumstantial:The effort we put forth to identify the crew member immediately upon their return. The amount he's quoting missing from his wife's purse being exactly $40 less equaling the amount he said he extracted from her withdrawn money to pay the crew.• The minimal window of opportunity between his wife's return and our crew's departure to accomplish these alleged acts.• Why was only some money taken from each location and not all.• Why is a wallet and purse left in open view in different locations with strangers in the home.• The crew has no performance history giving indication of such behavior.I did apologize to him for his loss, but he's not satisfied because I didn't provide immediate settlement from his verbal claim.We appreciate your role in mediating resolutions. We value the Better Business Organization's ability to provide consumers with a means of considering a company's integrity, trust and ethical performance. We will certainly regard any recommendation you provide. Thank you for considering our position of this matter. Please advise how this claim against us will be posted or used in our grade of performance with your agency.Sincerely,Denise MPresident