Moving with Bekins was a great experience until the final minutes when it came to tracking hours worked and billing accurately.
Bekins was one of the only companies we could find to give us a quote/estimate for a local move. We really wanted to have a ballpark of what we should expect to pay.
Ashley, a moving consultant, came and looked at our stuff and gave us an estimate. She was very pleasant to deal with and answered all of our questions and handled our change requests up to the move date. It was very reassuring to have one point of contact leading up to, during and after the move. The other companies we considered for our move didn't instil much confidence that they were on top of our moving dates, requests, and items being agreed to.
Moving dates and times were confirmed for us a few days in advance which was appreciated.
Day 1, Kevin and Adam arrived to pack. They were very pleasant to deal with and were very quick and efficient.
Day 2,, Jodi, Matt and Kevin arrived to move us. We were supposed to have 4 guys move us out but we were only given 3, with no explanation as to why the change and how it would affect our final bill. They were all very pleasant to work with and wrapped every piece of furniture diligently and were very careful not to damage the house.
Day 3, unloading day at the new house. Floor runners were placed all throughout the house and everything was unloaded carefully and placed in the proper rooms. The guys were even pleasant when we changed our mind and asked them to move something somewhere else.
The turn in our experience came when we were presented with the final bill. We were overcharged on the hourly rate $10/hr for the loading and unloading rates and we overcharged actual hours by 2.5 hours. At the end of the unload, they wanted me to sign off on the final charges. I said the hours weren't accurate and I wouldn't sign anything until it was sorted out. They said someone from their office would call me on Monday to sort it out before my credit card was charged. Monday morning I receive a notification from my bank that a charge was made by Bekins without my credit card present for the full amount. After speaking with Tyler in Dispatch at Bekins, the 2.5hrs and the extra $10/hr rate was reversed from my credit card.
Even after rolling back the erroneous charges, we were still charged a lot for driving. I had documented the following arrival and departure times and have put in brackets the times that their GPS in their trucks said they left and returned to the warehouse:
Packing Day: 8:20 - 1:00 (7:20 - 1:50 i.e. 1hr 50 min of driving)
Loading Day: 8:20-3:50 (7:28 - 4:54 i.e. 1 hr 52 min of driving)
Unloading Day:8:20 - 2:00 (7:20 - 2:35 i.e. 1hr 35 min of driving)
I'm not sure where exactly their warehouse is but 1 hr of driving each way for a local move seems excessive. This resulted in paying for 5 hrs and 15 min of driving at between $120-$170/hr (>$800 total!!). I don't think the customer should be penalized on a "local move" because the moving company's warehouse isn't located within Kelowna city limits. It also doesn't seem reasonable to charge out the movers driving time at the same rate as their moving rates, especially when someone like us is paying for over 5 hours of driving time for a local move.
Constructive feedback for the company: What could you have done to receive a 5 star review?
-Be more upfront and transparent with logged times - It's clear you have GPS reports for each truck. Providing a copy of this to the customer so they can see exactly when the truck left the warehouse and returned would be valuable, help them to understand their final bill and result in less disputes.
-Charge out your movers at a more reasonable rate during driving time vs charging them out at the full moving rate, or charge a flat driving time for local moves
-Better dispute resolution. My credit card shouldn't have been charged when there were errors on the final invoice.
-Follow-up to enquire how the experience was!