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Hopkins and Sons, Inc. Assured Price Estimate (!) is increased by $1,700 before delivery!! Newark Delaware
Our move from Delaware to Utah involved picking up our stuff in May, storing them in Delaware for two months and then moving them to Utah. The agent that provided the service on the Delaware side was Hopkins and Sons, Inc, an agent of Atlas Van Lines. This move was my worst nightmarish moving experience. I would not recommend Hopkins and Sons to anyone. The office staff, including the owner of the company was terrible from start to end. They tried to take advantage of us and charge us significantly more than the agreed upon price. In the end, I had to pay about $700 more than the agreed upon price, just to get my items back from their hands.
We had agreed before the move that the price (for the long-distance part) was going to be fixed (Assured price estimate), no matter how much the items weigh. The guy named Tom Montgomery came to our house to determine the estimate. I showed him everything that will be moved in detail. I showed him every cabinet, closet and drawer that had items in it. I showed him everything in detail. We had several furniture items that we would decide to move or get rid of (depending on the difference in price). I wanted a separate estimate with and without those items. A few days later I was given an estimate with all items except those undecided items. Then I had several phone conversations with a woman named Amber Garnesky about including several different combinations of those undecided items. This resulted in several different estimates. We finally decided what we will move and what we will keep out of those undecided items, after considering the incremental price changes for those items. At this point, I wanted to sign an Assured price estimate, because I heard about so many horror stories from people that were hit by huge price increases once items are on the hands of the movers. I and the woman called Amber Garnesky signed this Assured Price Estimate. The estimate was for $4600, for the long distance part of the move. Tom Montgomery had estimated our items as 9,000 something pounds. When the time came for us to move items from the storage, I contacted Amber Garnesky. She all of a sudden changed the estimate from $4,600 to $6,300!!! And despite the fact that I called her on Wednesday to tell her about the date that we want the items and the destination address, it took her to get back to me 2 days and she conveniently sent an e-mail several minutes before she leaves work on Friday so that I would not be able to ask her about the rip-off that they had in store for me. I immediately sent a reply message but she answered on Monday that our items weighed 12,000 pounds and the price difference was due to that and they can't do anything about it, despite my constant re-iteration that the estimate was "Assured Price Estimate." Apparently there was nothing assured about it.
I then called the company and demanded to talk to the top manager. The owner is a woman by the name of Cathy Grieco. She looked at my file and in the end said she could do nothing, as the estimate was based on the original weight estimate, and she further claimed that we moved additional items from the estimate and accused me of being a liar. Apparently Garnesky did put all of the intermediate estimates in the file in a disorganized fashion so that it was difficult to prove what was what. The detailed inventory list that was created on the day of the move was very cryptic and it accounted for the many separate pieces of the disassembled furniture whereas the inventory list that was attached to the Assured Price Estimate did not list the furniture as separate pieces. Grieco said I would be welcome to move the items by another mover but there would be an additional charge of $400 for that. She was very rude, unprofessional, and just out there to take advantage of me because they had my items in their possession. I was fed up and I said I would be willing to go with the highest of those estimates, which was about $5,300. Even at that point they tried to squeeze additional money from me, by adding a fictitious charge (with a cryptic description) to the estimate for about $40. I of course objected to that, and she had to backtrack on it.
They were out to hit me with additional charges at every stage of the move. The local part (into storage in Delaware) was based on a time estimate. I kept track of their arrival and departure times and they charged me 2.5 hours more than the actual time to inflate the price by close to a couple hundred dollars. Then when I objected, they said it was travel time (!!!) which I know that could only be -at most- 40 minutes round trip (more likely 30 minutes). They only reduced this by half an hour and I had to pay for most of this overcharge.
They had given me 2 months of free storage, but during those two months, I received statements a couple of times that charged me for storage. I objected to those, and they removed those charges. However, all of these experiences together shows that they are the kind of company that take advantage of the fact that they have your items in their possession and you have no choice but pay the exorbitantly high overcharges that they hit you with, just to get your items back.
In short, I would never recommend this company to anyone. The A+ rating on BBB mislead me to believe that this was an honest and serious company but then I learned that Cathy Grieco was on the board of the local BBB. The fact that they are in this business for 60+ years is because there are no repeat customers in this business. They rip you off, and then you are forever gone from that area.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Cathy Grieco
New Castle,Delaware,
United States of America
Rebuttal to Cenk Report #48319
#2REBUTTAL Owner of company
Thu, November 05, 2009
Hopkins and Sons, Inc., agent for Atlas Van Lines is a 4th generation, full service relocation company that was started in 1946. Hopkins and Sons, Inc. has been an accredited business with the BBB of DE for 30 years with an A+ score. In addition to that, we earned the Best Family Owned Business Award for DE in 2002 (awarded by the BBB), I was selected as Delaware's 2004 Woman Entrepreneur of the year by the Chamber of Commerce and Hopkins and Sons, Inc. has been consistently recognized as a quality agent for the van line we represent for the past 12 years consecutively. Hopkins and Sons, Inc. is also a member of the American Moving and Storage Association (AMSA) which only allows quality relocation companies as members. This is just a small glimpse of Hopkins and Sons, Inc. recognitions, however, I feel that you need to know this information so you realize that we are not the type of company described in the report by Cenk, #483419.
Mr. Caliskan is a very difficult individual to provide services to. In fact, I offered for him to PLEASE have another company come in to pick up his belongings and transport them to wherever he wanted,he would not do that, instead he felt comsumed with distributing verbal abuse to everyone he contacted within my staff. This is one customer we should have NEVER offered assured pricing to because as it turns out, he is an individual that hears what he wants to hear and interprets how he wants to interpret. Assured pricing is a Not to Exceed quote provided that the items on the survey are the ONLY items shipped. This was not the case with Mr. Caliskan's move as many more items shipped. For one example, this estimate included 122 boxes to be shipped, in fact there were 218 boxes that shipped.
We did in fact provide 2 months of FREE storage and he was sent an invoice in error for the storage, however, as soon as it was brought to our attention his account was credited (we have emails to the customer to prove this) We also gave him the highest discount that our van line allows for household goods transportation.
From the start of this business relationship Hopkins and Sons had been more than fair, honest and upfront with the customer. The assured price quote that the customer signed was for $5679.09 which inlcluded his cost for valuation, it was NOT $4600.00 as Mr. Caliskan quoted, yet another incorrect statement.
In regards to Amber not responding promptly to Mr. Caliskan's email, Mr. Caliskan emailed her at 4:57pm on Friday, 7/24/09 since we close our office at 4:30pm Amber was unable to respond until Monday morning (we are closed on the weekend). Amber did respond to Mr. Caliskan on Monday, 7/27/09 at 10:45am (I have emails to prove). Again, a clear incorrect statement. Yes, Mr. Caliskan did DEMAND to speak with me as he states, however, when I took his call (several times) he was yelling, inappropriate and unprofessional. At this time I explained that I was not yelling at him and appreciated if he would not yell at me. He refused to do so and continued acting in this manner, I explained I would disconnect the call unless he calmed down. He did not and I asked him to please contact another company to pick up his items from our warehouse and deliver them to Utah, he refused and continued yelling, I then disconnected the call. The end result was he shipped more than the assured pricing quote and he only paid the $5679.09 clearly taking advantage of my company.
One statement Mr. Caliskan did make that was correct is that I am on the executive board of the BBB effective 2009. However, that is not why we have an A+ rating. We have held that rating for many years prior to me being a member of the board (this can be verified on the BBB website). Hopkins and Sons, Inc. has been in business for 63 years and most of our customers are repeat customers just the opposite of Mr. Caliskan's statement. Fortunately, Hopkins and Sons, Inc. has many very satisfied customers which is how our business has been built by repeat customers and referrals of previous customers.
Cathy Hopkins Grieco - President
info@hopkinsandsons.com