Master Movers, Disaster.

Master Movers quoted, packaged, moved and stored all our household goods, for 3 years. It was a disaster for us. They grossly underquoted originally, failed to do a complete inventory thereby losing us well over a hundred thousand Rand in goods, and broke/damaged dozens of items also worth thousands. On 2/11/20, the original quote we accepted for removal and storage fees was R33010.75 They ADDED a quote dated 19/02/21, almost a month after taking away and storing our goods on the 25-27th January 2021, a three day move. We have a lot of furniture and goods. The representative shown in additional quote (Mark Holden) phoned us in February after all was settled, and begged us to allow him to add the additional removal and storage fees on 19/02/21 He said he misquoted too low, and will possibly lose his job. We also considered the massive costs involved should we choose to hire a different company to go and collect all our goods from them and put into storage again. We therefore agreed to this very large increase, keeping in mind that it works out to tens of thousands of Rands over three years in storage. The dated evidence clearly shows they changed their costing dramatically, after taking our goods away, and putting it into storage. Hence our complaint that they cannot be trusted to quote accurately. Furthermore, they increased the monthly instalments every year, resulting in payments of R6889.22 per month. In total we paid them over R300 000.00 On day three of the move, they said they were taking too long, and requested us to allow them to do the inventory at their warehouse. (Curious though, my thoughts wondered why they would come fairly late in the day to collect and three years later, they came to our home to deliver after four pm?) We agreed.

Master Movers therefore did not do the completed inventory on day 3, as per contract. This is very important.

The owner, Carla Rodrigues, has never disputed that they failed to do the complete inventory on day 3. Carla is now insisting that we signed for all the goods. How could we when they did not list them all? We initialled some of the inventory pages when they delivered the goods, under chaotic conditions, not realising that so much was missing. Everything was packed and sealed in boxes. How could we sign for goods received that were not inspected? We mentioned this at the time to the supervisor. We started noticing goods missing, and noted it all on the inventory. Examples attached. When we approached Master Movers, it took Carla 6 months to come see us to address it, she insists we got it all, and signed for it. We did not. At the delivery time we noticed a bicycle missing, worth a great deal of money. Master Movers offered us R2500 for this lost item. An insult compared to its purchase price, which we refused. We also immediately noted that a very large and imported Moroccan mirror was missing, bought for R25000.00 many years ago. They say it is delivered, because there are so many mirrors listed on the inventory. I have an old Facebook post showing the mirror in question. Master Movers claims this was not on inventory and therefore not lost! Furthermore, they lost two expensive woven pool loungers, portraits of my two daughters, my kitchen island leg broken off and her manager Mathew said they would repair, they didn’t, glass in my cupboard cracked, three broken lamps, two crushed lamp shades etc etc. the list goes on. Furthermore, the inventory items that are listed as 'box of goods' or simply 'picture' and other very ambiguous labels. It is meaningless. When we unpacked, we noted it, as stated. To this day, Carla of Master Movers refuses to acknowledge this. I have a simple yet plausible reason for why or how Master Movers lost such large items, and so many. They did not inventory all the goods on day 3, it thus stands to reason that they did not put my name labels on the goods, as per standard procedure. When they moved all our goods from Pinetown to Ballito (without our permission or consent) they would not have known who it belonged to, and likely disposed of it one way or another. Master Movers has a high staff turnover, and we are therefore not sure who was responsible for this. Lastly, at the meeting Carla held with us 6 months later, she told both my husband and myself that they were remiss not to do the full inventory on day 3, that the project was poorly managed, and that she should have 'project managed' such a large move. She apologised for a mismanaged project, directly to us! However, an apology is not compensation for tens of thousands of Rands of lost missing goods, not to mention all the broken and damaged goods. A priceless and extremely valuable antique was irreparably damaged. High end fishing rod and reel worth about R30 000.00 was replaced with 2 broken worthless rods that are not ours. Expensive electronic goods rendered worthless due to missing components. A new fridge dented and damaged. The list goes on and on. The amount of goods broken and damaged is substantial, she said we must claim from our insurance. We trusted them to take care of our goods! This is what we paid them for. To look after our goods. There were no fires nor floods, it is purely their fault. As for them losing our goods, that is purely on them. It is a matter of public record that they moved all our goods from Pinetown to another warehouse in Ballito, without our permission! We had no request from them of any sort, which we mentioned, and for which she apologised at the meeting, saying they should have notified us and got permission.

In conclusion: 1. Did Master Movers grossly misquote then upwardly revise its quote weeks after taking our goods into storage? YES 2. Did Master Movers move all our goods from one warehouse to another in a different town without our knowledge or permission? YES 3. Did Master Movers fail to do a complete inventory, for which they were paid? YES 4. Did Master Movers lose our goods, many of which were not inventoried? YES 5. Did Master Movers break and damage many of our goods? YES

Master Movers moved us to Tears. Use them at your own peril.