Any experience with claiming money from movers?

[Penguin_ie 5,997]

We got our stuff from Ireland today, the things that went in a container by boat. Most of it is alright, but we have three issues:

- we paid for a full service move, which was supposed to include packing (it did) and unpacking. The movers at this end refused to unpack, saying they only put stuff inside our front door, not in individual rooms and no unpacking. This is annoying because I am alone with twins here a lot and have no time to unpack, plus in our area we have a limit of how much stuff the refuse collectors will take away each week, so we'll have wrapping paper and cartons in our garage for weeks now.

- My husband's PS 3 is broken; the hard drive cover is damaged and it will no longer power on. It is out of warranty, but worked perfectly when shipped

- Several paintings had the glass broken, damaging some baby photos (fortunately I have them on CD so can re-print), and my university graduation certificate is scratched. The pictures were packed badly, only in a flat carton without any bubble wrap, soft paper or some such.

I sent an initial email to our movers back in Ireland, as they are responsible for the contract and I took out insurance with them, but of course won't hear from them till at least Monday. I was wondering if any of you had issues with your moving companies services/ damages by the movers, and how you dealt with it? Any tips? I hear they tend to be very hard headed and difficult to get money out of, but we specifically didn't go with the cheapest option and paid insurance because we wanted full service and no damages, so I do want money back.

[damulag 26]

I do not have any experience with damages but our last move was "full service" and when I had unpacked everything and stacked the boxes in the garage I called them and they came to pick up all the papers and boxes. So give them a call and see what they say.

[Reba 2]

When I moved down they dropped my TV, I sent a claim to the moving company and they sent me a cheque with no argument.

[MrsCat 6]

We got screwed by the "insurance" with our movers. We were supposed to have a full service move as well. When our stuff got here in Hawaii the BBQ was broken, a $6000 painting (professionally packaged for shipping) was dented and box supposed to be shipped in was missing and a few glass items were broken.

My husband's employer paid for the move, so we never checked to ensure that the insurance was good. We just assumed since they paid $20,000 for the move we had good insurance.

Sadly we found out that they only pay $0.75/lb for damaged property. Meaning my 10 lb painting was worth $7.50, teapot they valuated at 20lbs so that was $15.00 (double the painting) and the BBQ was 100lbs and worth $75.00. We didn't even cash the cheque. It was just too insulting.

Fortunately we were able to bring the painting back to a repair place and they re-stretched the canvas and the dent is mostly gone.

[Penguin_ie 5,997]

Reba- can I ask how you determined how much the TV was worth? My husband went out today and bought a second hand PS 3 as he really wanted to play, and it was quite cheap. Am wondering if they'll only pay us for that, or if they pay for a new one and if so, at US or Irish value (we insured in Euro in Ireland, and PS3s are much more expensive there than here). That is of course if I can get them to pay at all...

We insured the whole shipment for 5000 euro, but it is hard to determine what is worth how much, as there is no itemised list, just a list of boxes ("3 boxes of clothes, 4 boxes of books, 1 small box of glass vases" etc).

[aidan80 9]

Sorry to hear some of the move went bad!.. I'd expect since you paid in Euro and insured in Euro for a Irish PS3 they'd cover the cost of an Irish PS3 then again I suppose all the fine details will be in the very fine print!

Luckily we didn't need any help moving over as it was just myself and two bags. I still remember the drive to our first "house"... everything we owned in the whole world was crammed into a 98 Saturn! Even our "TV" was in there

Good luck I hope you extract some compensation form them. Sounds like you paid good money for 1st class service and they only did half a job.

[Reba 2]

I read my insurance policy very well before I submitted my claim. The policy said they would repay it at current market value for replacement IIRC. And since my TV was a few years old at the time, curent value was calculated a lot lower than it would have been had the TV been new.

Every insurance policy will be different. I don't know if they'll pay you in Euro equivalent for a new one, or US equivalent for a used one. Check your policy.