Skaleski Moving & Storage, Inc.

Review: Skaleski was contracted to deliver my shipment by [redacted]. I was given a delivery window of January 02 - 09. A representative of the company, [redacted], called me on Thursday January 02 to ask if I could receive my shipment and I said no because I was just starting my drive from Tallahassee, FL to Madison, WI and did not know anyone in Madison to receive the shipment on my behalf. [redacted] and I discussed the possibility of receiving the shipment on Monday January 06 but fearful of the impeding winter storm, insisted that the company call me before sending a team out just in case I was caught up enrolee to Madison. I did not receive this call, which I reasonably expected based on previous communication from the company. I called the company Monday morning just to confirm that I was still away from Madison only to be informed that a truck had already been hired and sent out to deliver, with no communication, and since I was unavailable to receive the shipment I had to pay for the attempted delivery. The company went ahead to bill me $390 for this and withheld my belongings till I was able to scrounge for money to pay this.Desired Settlement: I neither confirmed nor asked the company to deliver my shipment on January 06, and they reneged on their promise to check with me before sending a truck out and regardless of all this, they pressed me to pay for a mistake that they made. I would like to get this money back.

Business

Response:

Good Afternoon [redacted] / Revdex.com of Wisconsin-

Thank you for bringing this complaint to our company’s attention and I do regret the circumstances behind Ms. [redacted]’s relocation service. Obviously no legitimate company takes comfort in seeing a customer of theirs unsatisfied and disgruntled. I would hope our company’s existence over the years dating back as far as 1935 would serve as some indication to the Revdex.com of Wisconsin that this type of outcome is not the norm for our operation. The “preservation of consumer goodwill” always has been, and always will be, our first & foremost concern.I have reviewed the [redacted]’s formal complaint and I do appreciate you and the Revdex.com of Wisconsin giving me the opportunity to provide a slightly different perspective in this matter. As you stated there are always two sides to any given story and I do appreciate your interest in hearing our side.

First, a little quick background: Ms. [redacted] entered into an interstate household goods relocation agreement with Amerimove Moving & Storage, Inc-[redacted] out of Tallahassee, Florida. Ms. [redacted]’s relocation was from Tallahassee, FL to Madison, WI. Customer’s requested & agreed upon deliver schedule, which I am seeing in her Allied registration information and file, consisted of a DELIVERY WINDOW ranging from 12-31-2013 to 1-9-2014 (The delivery seems to be the main point of contention in this particular customer’s complaint. That will be my focus and emphasis from this point forward).

Our company, Skaleski Moving & Storage, Inc-[redacted] here in Green Bay accepted this shipment from [redacted] and subsequently provided the load/transport/unload services for [redacted]. Her shipment became a back-haul/return trip to Wisconsin for one of my driver’s who just so happened to be in Florida. That is the “basic” background as to how this client and our company crossed paths.

With some degree of detail to the background in hand I’d like to present aspects to Ms. [redacted]’s relocation CONTRACT/S…. The initial agreement between Ms. [redacted] and [redacted] required that the carrier provide, and the customer sign/date, a formal [redacted] Bill of Lading & Freight Bill. The Bill of Lading was signed/dated by customer and the agreement was secured. Specifically, I would like to reference SECTION 3, part (a) and SECTION 4 of that signed/dated Bill of Lading as it relates directly to details in [redacted]’s “Customer’s Statement of the Problem” to the Revdex.com of Wisconsin:

-SECTION 3, PART (A): The shipper, upon tender of the shipment to carrier, and the consignee, upon acceptance of delivery of shipment from carrier, shall be liable, jointly and severally, for all unpaid charges payable on account of a shipment in accordance with applicable tariffs…….

-SECTION 4: If for any reason other than the fault of the carrier, delivery cannot be made at address shown on the face hereof, or at any changed address of which carrier has been notified, carrier, at its option, may cause articles contained in shipment to be stored in a warehouse selected by it at the point of delivery or at other available points, at the cost of the owner, and subject to a lien for all accrued tariff charges.

Now, as you move forward while reading my response please keep in mind the above terms/conditions. In her complaint [redacted] states & confirms that “ A representative of the company, [redacted] is & has been our company’s [redacted] for over **+ years. He is not in sales), called me on Thursday January 2nd (This date is not correct. [redacted] did not call customer on January 2nd to schedule a delivery date for January 2nd It was actually Tuesday 12-31-2013 that [redacted] called to set a January 2nd delivery date. All delivery notices are given 72 hours to 24 hours in advance in every case) to ask if I could receive my shipment and I said NO….” [redacted] continues on in her statement revealing her reasons as to why she could not make herself available to receive her shipment and her inability to be on site to receive her household goods per the pre-assigned, customer requested & customer agreed upon DELIVEY WINDOW of 12-31-2013 TO 1-9-2014.

Now, at this immediate “rejection point” on our 1st attempt to deliver by Ms. [redacted] she is already in conflict with the terms/conditions of the [redacted] Bill of Lading agreement. Under the Bill of Lading terms/conditions our company has the option to start attaching tariff related storage charges to customer’s price being unable to deliver her household goods. An additional charge would have been completely within our province. The “tariff” related storage charge came to a total charge of $848.83 under the tariff rates per the terms/conditions of her “pricing contract”. However, as an act of good faith & goodwill, my [redacted] did not exercise that option. Instead, [redacted] stated that he started working with Ms. [redacted] to set a new delivery date that worked with both her schedule and the schedule of Skaleski-[redacted]. Since the shipment had not yet been loaded onto the shuttle delivery truck it gave him a window of opportunity to help [redacted] without having her incur any additional costs from our company (At least initially).

So, after our 1st delivery attempt was rejected with an emphatic “NO” by the shipper, my [redacted] continued moving forward by speaking with [redacted] on Thursday January 2nd, 2014 in the afternoon. Both [redacted] & [redacted] set Monday January 6th, 2014 as her newly, mutually agreed upon delivery date. Our driver/delivery crews ETA was also set for a 10:00AM to Noon arrival.

Subsequent to the 2nd delivery date by Ms. [redacted] our company did not receive any calls relating to another 2nd cancellation from [redacted]. No calls were received later that Thursday afternoon when the date 2nd delivery date was initially set, nothing from her on that Friday, Saturday nor on Sunday. Instead, Ms. [redacted] put her untimely 2nd cancellation call in to our office in the early morning on the actual delivery date of Monday January 6th at about 7:30AM to 8:00AM. I know the exact date/time because I am the one who fielded her call.

Ms. [redacted] stated that she could not make it to Wisconsin now due to an impending storm. I told [redacted] that our driver/delivery crew had already loaded her household goods onto the truck & the crew was on their way (It is a 3 hour drive by truck from Green Bay to Madison, WI and we had an ETA time of arrival to satisfy in addition to bad weather here, forcing our crew having to get an earlier start that morning). Knowing the status of her shipment I informed [redacted], directly, that if she cancelled her delivery for a 2nd time, along with the fact that her household goods had already been physically loaded onto our truck, that she would incur an additional charge.

I provided [redacted] suggestions as to how she could still have her household good delivered even in her absence. Historically, past customer’s of mine have gotten hung up due to weather, flight delays, vehicle break-downs, family matters, work related matters, etc, etc that simply prevent them from being available to receive delivery on their household goods. Since people can’t be in two (2) places at one time customer’s traditionally designate a “receiving agent” (i.e. family member, friend, property manager, business cohort, etc etc) to act as their consignee and to receive the shipment in the shipper’s behalf. I made these “alternative solutions” available to [redacted] in order to get the delivery completed, avoid having a 2nd cancellation go into effect and to assist her in avoiding the inevitable additional service charges she would incur (Again, especially considering that her household goods had already been loaded onto the truck). After informing her on the prospect of additional cost I asked her not once, not twice but three times if she truly needed to cancel her delivery. She basically told me to go ahead with the cancellation because she had no other options. Our 2nd attempt to deliver was suspended. She did not have anyone that could function as her receiving agent. I then told her I would have to get back to her later with the add-on cost because my immediate attention at that moment went into stopping our crew from getting any closer to Madison/any further from Green Bay (The further along the crew was on their delivery run the MORE MONEY it would cost the customer).

In addition to working with [redacted]’s requested cancellation and getting our crew back I also contacted Jesse and James at Amerimove-[redacted] in Tallahassee, Florida that same morning at 9:02 AM (Again, this Allied agent was Ms. [redacted]’s initial primary contact/Booking Agent in Florida and protocol required me to contact them should any unforeseen services &/or pricing changes be required). I informed both Jesse and James of the circumstances. They asked me to forward them an Addendum &/or a Change Order Form showing the dollar amount for the add-on storage service costs which they would then pass on to the customer. In putting those “add-on charges” together I did NOT charge Ms. [redacted] the full storage related charge under the tariff of her “pricing contract” which, again, would have been $848.83. Instead, I simply charged [redacted] $390.00 which in my mind was a fair and an agreeable amount to cover our expenses for that day. That is where the additional $390.00 stemmed from which [redacted] is referring to in her complaint.

I would like to address Ms. [redacted]’s claim where she states that she “insisted that the company call me before sending a team out just in case I was caught up getting to Madison”. She continues by stating “I did not receive this call”. I showed this aspect of Ms. [redacted]’s complaint to my [redacted] and he dismisses and rejects this sequence of events by [redacted]. Apparently the customer told [redacted] to have our driver/crew call her when they were about 1 hour out from arriving at her destination residence in Madison. According to [redacted] she told him that she wanted to make sure she knew when to expect the truck so she could flag down our crew so they knew where to go when they arrived (Again, it is a 3 hour drive from Green Bay to Madison, WI.. In order to accommodate customer’s “1 hour call ahead ” request it stands to reason that our crew would have already loaded her shipment and left Green Bay to meet the agreed upon time of arrival of 10:00 AM to Noon). [redacted] also noted that it is completely illogical to think that he would schedule a crew to come into work on the “possibility” that there might be work or there might not be work for that Monday morning. In the 30+ years [redacted] has never scheduled crews to come to our shop on the “possibility of work”. Customer setting & confirming service dates & times = Crews being scheduled.

There are certain times in business when rendering services to the general public/consumers where things become skewed, problematic and complicated and this is one of those cases. Unfortunately, Ms [redacted]’s obligations fell short. I would like to inform you/Revdex.com of Wisconsin, and remind Ms. [redacted], that her household goods were physically loaded from her origin residence in Florida then delivered to a storage facility in Tallahassee, Florida by Amerimove-[redacted] on October 15th, 2013. Her household goods were then picked-up by Skaleski-[redacted] out of Green Bay, Wisconsin from her designated storage location in Florida on December 21st, 2013. Ms. [redacted] agreed to, confirmed & set a DELIVERY WINDOW of 12-31-2013 TO 1-9-2014. My question is how many more days did Ms. [redacted] need in order to make her drive up to Wisconsin to meet our driver/crew in order to complete her delivery? By my calculations Ms. [redacted] had anywhere from 74 days (high side) to 10 days (low side) to coordinate her personal schedule, make all necessary arrangements in such a manner, to make herself, or someone else, readily available to knowingly receive those household goods scheduled to arrive as early as December 31st, 2013.

Due to the delivery difficulties we had with this client the initial price quoted simply fell short of what services were provided. Falling short in meeting the minimal obligation of making oneself available to the carrier for delivery, unfortunately, has some consequences. We are just looking to re-coop our minimal expenses due to this client’s unavailability. Ms. [redacted] might be under the false impression that a “consumer” gets to choose which day the truck should arrive within the designated delivery window, which is not the case. The delivery window is for the “carrier” to decide which date of delivery is best for the driver. If “consumers” had control of dictating exact delivery dates to the “carrier” then scheduling & dispatch would be an absolute nightmare for every trucking company (As previously mentioned customer’s receive a 24 to 72 hour notice prior to our arrival). In addition, if “consumers” did have that authority to set their own delivery date the outcome that would ultimately result would be consumer’s setting there own delivery date then canceling, setting another delivery date then canceling, then setting another 3rd delivery date then canceling, so on & so forth, this case being the perfect example. It simply just does not work that way. The Delivery Window is for the “carrier” use & “carrier” discretion only, not the consumers. Ms. [redacted] may have had some false impressions on that front.

To conclude: Delivery finally did take place on Wednesday January 8th, 2013; Our [redacted] confirmed our crews arrival time between 11:00 AM and NOON on this 3rd day of attempted delivery; Our crew contacted Ms. [redacted] 1 hour prior to their arrival, as was requested by customer in the 2nd prior delivery attempt; All household goods were delivered; All household good items were present and accounted for; Outside this Revdex.com complaint to the best of my knowledge there are no other claims filed as far as missing items, damaged goods, In-Home claims, etc by this customer.

I believe that our company, Skaleski Moving & Storage Inc-[redacted] has exercised appropriate measures in the name goodwill, good faith, fairness and good business in accommodating Ms. [redacted]’s service needs and requests (both expected and unexpected). Thank you for affording me this opportunity to respond and present our side of the story. Make it a great day J

Business

Response:

In speaking with my [redacted] the customer might be correct that 12-31-2014 was not the date they spoke about a January 2nd , 2014 delivery that of which was rejected/refused by the customer. [redacted] over 30+ years is stating that it would have been 12-30-2013 or 12-31-2013. Again, as previously mentioned in my initial response, our company ALWAYS gives a 24 to 72 hour notice “minimum” before arriving for any loads &/or any delivery’s. We contest her claim that she spoke with our company on the morning of January 2nd, 2014. I agree with my [redacted] in the fact that we have never called in our delivery service crews the day of a delivery (let alone on a delivery that is 3 ½ hours away from Green Bay), called a client in the early morning to arrange for delivery on the day of delivery, only to have a customer refuse/reject our intended delivery service within the pre-arranged delivery window, then send our crew home instead of working. There is no logical basis for her claim as to receiving our call on January 2nd, 2014. Calls to our client base have always & will always be 24 to 72 hours “minimum” prior to our arrivals. Not the day of a load or delivery. I’m not 100% sure what company’s schedule their notice of arrival the day of an arrival… On a second note, I am looking at a time & date stamped REMARKS notation from the customers initial Allied contact, Amerimove-[redacted], showing that the “The shipper is requesting the 2nd for delivery” dated 12/18/2013 @ 14:37:17 hours. There is also a 2nd REMARKS notation from Amerimove-[redacted] stating “The shipper is advising she will not be able to accept her shipment before the 2nd “ dated 12/19/2013 @ 08:45:16 hours. If the Revdex.com of Wisconsin needs a COPY of this & all date/time stamped REMARKS surrounding this project please let me know. I will be more than happy to make the accommodation.

The Delivery Window in the [redacted] system is currently and is still showing a delivery window of 12-31-2013 TO 1-9-2014. If the Revdex.com of Wisconsin needs a COPY of this as well please let me know.

Consumer

Response: