A comedy of errors and poor service

I know that most people have a great experience of using Execumove, and the overwhelmingly positive reviews were the reason we chose to work with them for our relocation. This was not me experience though.

Everything started off so well. Execumove were efficient and professional and all went incredibly smoothly with the collection of our items from a storage unit and then sending these off in a groupage shipment (the shipment was dispatched sooner than we'd anticipated which we were incredibly pleased about). All was arranged with the delivery date in Ireland, but when delivery took place, everything started going wrong. Only half the items were delivered, and some had also been damaged.

We immediately contacted Execumove to find out what had happened but no one could work this out. It also took a number of follow-ups before we received any response. From here on, the level communication was wholly unacceptable and incredibly frustrating (at complete odds with how we had experienced it when all was going according to plan). I frequently had to follow up before I received any further information, and when I did receive a reply, it often only responded to a portion of what was required (for example, I would ask several questions and only one or two would be responded to).

I understand that errors happen, but since this was clearly an error on the part of Execumove I expected that at least some effort would be made to rectify the situation. After weeks of endless emails and phone calls in which no explanation was provided, and initially no apology offered (it took 3 rounds of communication before I even received the cursory 'apologies for any inconvenience caused' - which didn't begin to cover it). The solution that was eventually arrived at was that Execumove would compensate us for the items not delivered (due to Covid-19, it was unclear when these might be able to be shipped and they recommended that this was the simplest solution which we accepted). However, there were a few boxes included in the 'missed shipment' that were of sentimental value and it was agreed that these would be delivered to a family member in Cape Town.

As with many situations where things haven't worked out as planned, the descriptions and explanations of what transpired can be lengthy so I have outlined my complaints in bullet point below, however, I am very happy to elaborate if this would be helpful for anyone.

Shipment Issues: - Only half the items that were mandated to be sent, arrived at the destination (this included a 3-seater couch) - One of the items (a dining room table) was broken - A coffee table that was sent as a separate shipment (this was sent to a family member within South Africa) was also damaged despite the fact that we had indicated it was fragile and needed to be handled with extra care - The items of sentimental value that had not been shipped were delivered to a family member, however this collection was not complete (a stack of photographic artworks were not delivered and are yet to be located), plus one item was broken despite these boxes never have left the Execumove warehouse.

Service Issues: - Considering we were inconvenienced and the error was clearly Execumove's, the level of support and communication was completely unacceptable - We had paid customs for the full shipment despite only half the items being imported - this was never mentioned by Execumove and I had to make sure this was dealt with. When it was dealt with, the calculations were done incorrectly (despite me having to submit additional documents to show the correct value). I then had to recalculate and supply this information in order for the compensation to be taken care of correctly. - No offer was made to adjust the payment which we had made to Execumove for the shipment (only half the items were in fact shipped). I had to raise this issue and request this to be considered. - When I was making a claim for the missing items, not all were included and again I had to correct this and request confirmation that this would be processed correctly. - Responses were regularly delayed and I had to follow up before receiving a response - Responses were also often unsatisfactory and did not address all issues or queries raised - I realise that Covid-19 caused unforeseen issues and challenges for everyone - however this is not an excuse for poor service and this was not a factor in the original error.

I am furious at the outcome of this experience. Not only do we not get to have our original items which we chose to ship from South Africa to Ireland, some items are still unaccounted for. In addition, the boxes of items now in storage with a family member will need to be brought across to Ireland at a later date, at our own cost and inconvenience. Compensation was received for items not received, however, this is the bare minimum that would be expected and no effort was made to acknowledge or ameliorate the negative experience.

I know that Execumove is highly rated, and initially my experience made me feel like I knew why. But surely part of a business providing a good service has to be based on how things are dealt with when things go wrong - we know that mistakes are going to happen, but the way we were dealt with in this situation was unacceptable.