internet neg reviews

[huggytree]

i hired 2 men and a truck to move a 500lb cast iron tub....they showed up with 4 men in a compact car....no blankets, dolly or straps....all they had was 4 bodies.....they told me that they would be unable to get it to the 2nd floor of the house....it was a difficult move.....i asked for my $136 downpayment back and they agreed....i signed a form that says MINUS $136 on it...all the hand writing on this form was poor and hard to read...now looking at it its hard to see if its a minus or a chicken scratch...its a grey area now....

i hired a 2nd moving company and they were able to move it with 3 men...they actually showed up with a truck with moving equipment

3 weeks later my credit card statement showed up and its been charged anyways....i have gone through 2 rounds with my credit card company and they are taking the side of the movers.....the manager now says he never told me i was due a refund.....

since my credit card company hasnt done anything for me ive moved on to the BBB

if that gets me no where im moving on to Angies List (i can review w/o being a member)

im not letting this go...ive decided to make it my hobby to neg review them everywhere i can

if i went to repair a customers faucet and couldnt i cant charge them for the repair anyways....they showed up and did nothing due to poor planning and lack of experienced movers...why should i pay?

it makes me LIVID! .....ill end up spending hours to get my $136 back....i dont like being screwed

any other idea's or thoughts?

[Watchdog]

Just remember, what goes around comes around. Maybe you didn't give them enough information? What's the difference what they showed up in - when you did side jobs did you always have a truck? Did you use a company van that wasn't yours?

Most contractors get paid for showing up at the job regardless. If someone calls you for service and the leak is in a very hard to get place, do you walk away after spending any length of time telling them how much work it would be and how expensive? Do plumbers have a trip charge or a minimum fee. I don't know too many plumbers that show up and not at least have a "___" trip charge.

Do you really want to go there for 136 dollars when it was maybe just a misunderstanding.


Someone I know just had gas pipe ran to his new gas stove? The outside wall sits on 25 inches of stone. A plumber doesn't see this and say "no problem" but soon realizes that it's not just sticking through the floor but has to come through the floor around a cabinet and around to the back of the new stove...

Would it be my the fault of the customer because the plumber jumped at a job or would the plumber eat it?

Maybe that's why my dad put some pipe wrenches in my hands when I was young :) and I thought we'd only do boilers with them...little did I know that them pipe wrenches work on plumbing too :)

[huggytree]

if i quote a job incorrectly its my fault....i eat it

if i show up on a job and cant do the repair i dont charge

if i do a repair and 1 week later they have a problem i go back and fix it for free....or in one case where i didnt know what to do i refunded her money

if you cant do the job you dont charge to do nothing....showing up means nothing

there was no grey area at the time of service...i was told no charge by 2 different people...the onsite supervisor and the manager over the phone...

is it worth it for $136....in reality no.....but ive been cheated....and i have the free time to report it every where i can

the question should be rephrased ....is it worth their time to keep my $136 and have be bad mouth them to the BBB and Angies list???

i see it as they stole $136 from me......im most likely going to cancel my credit card also and change companies...i feel they werent standing up for me correctly

they were told that it was a difficult situation and that the tub weighed 500lbs....ive never heard of a mover who showed up w/o equipment

[MyITGuy]

im most likely going to cancel my credit card also and change companies...i feel they werent standing up for me correctly

That would be my course of action.

In addition to that, do you have any documentation that states what the down payment is for and under what terms it is refundable? You may want to share this with your financial institution as well.

Personally, if you have the free time I would suggest pursuing it further...but just know that your efforts may not yield any results. Otherwise consider it a loss and learning experience.

[Steve B]

Why not go to small claims court?

The BBB has absolutely no authority to do anything. And, it is my understanding is that you DO have to be a member of Angie's list to write a review. Giving them bad reviews is certainly one approach, but it likely won't get your money back. This isn't the kind of company that cares about bad reviews or they wouldn't have stolen the money from you in the first place.

"Most contractors get paid for showing up at the job regardless." - I want to move to Wisconsin!

[huggytree]

ive never heard of anyone getting paid for something they didnt do

i want to cause them some pain...i do think they will settle.....i would!

my Angies list salesperson (who calls me weekly) has told me ANYONE can put a review on Angies list...i have blank forms now and i am planning on handing them out to my repeat customers

so if the BBB doesnt help ill go to Angies List

i know the BBB is a total scam.....i wouldnt want any neg. reviews on their website though....if it costs me 1 or 2 jobs its not worth it...a neg. review on angies list will hurt them even more.

[Watchdog]

if i show up on a job and cant do the repair i don't charge

Very Good!

[Watchdog]

i want to cause them some pain...i do think they will settle.....i would!

Serious? I wouldn't hire your Waukesha Plumbing company just because of this one statement above! Anyone can do the same to you. I find it hard to believe you'd be so "public" about this over 136.00 dollars. Let it go, lick your wounds and move on to building your business. Way to much negative energy being wasted on this, turn it into something positive.

[Blessed]

Serious? I wouldn't hire your Waukesha Plumbing company just because of this one statement above! Anyone can do the same to you. I find it hard to believe you'd be so "public" about this over 136.00 dollars. Let it go, lick your wounds and move on to building your business. Way to much negative energy being wasted on this, turn it into something positive.

I wouldn't take as strong of a stand about not hiring you because of the one statement that Watchdog is taking - but I will join in with him in cautioning you on how much bad press you give this company publicly. If I'm a consumer shopping for moving companies and I see your bad review on 2 Guys and a truck I may well not hire them but then when I move into my new house and I'm ready to remodel the bathroom I might shy away from your name because I recognize it in a negative connotation - even if I can't directly recall what that negative connotation is. I don't want to be perceived as a push-over, but likewise I also don't want to be perceived as a complainer and/or a bully. You start posting negative comments and reviews in public forums and you'll get a reputation for being hard-to-please, which could turn into a reputation for being hard-to-work-with.

Just my two cents - my background is more in public relations than anything so maybe I tend to err on the overly-cautious side in situations like this one, but my personal experience is the quicker you can let something like this go and move on the better off you are!

[Business Attorney]

I'm behind huggy 100% on this one, although his choice of language about causing pain isn't very good.

The whole reason I am a member of Angie's List myself is because I expect people to report their bad experiences. Maybe huggy's experience was an exception for this particular company but if one or two other people reported that this company sent people out with no appropriate tools to do the job, would you ever hire them? If everyone shies away from reporting problems with service providers, you will continue to have subpar companies that stay in business to serve the unlucky souls who randomly select them.

[Blessed]

I think it's all in how it's handled. If the complaint is given succinctly and professionally then I think it's completely appropriate but if the valid complaint morphes into name-calling, exaggeration of the offense or simply a rambling run-on sentence crying about how wrongly you were treated then it gives me a negative feeling toward not only the service provider the complaint is lodged against but also the one complaining.

[huggytree]

since they are fighting me what choices do i have

do nothing or do something...

i chose to do something....the only thing i can do is complain somewhere where it hurts them (cause pain)....if i complain enough ill most likely get my $ back

if i get it from through the BBB process it will end....if i dont then i go onto the next one (angies list)....if it doesnt work ill go a few web reviews and call it quits

then ill have to find a new hobby....

a company shouldnt be able to charge you when they cant provide you service.......when they couldnt do the job i hired them to do i had to find someone else...the $4,500 tub had to sit in the homeowners yard(outside) for 5 days......it has electronics(sitting in the rain) and the neighborhood is not the best...they had a corner lot, so it was exposed....the 500 lbs stopped anyone from stealing it too....they inconvenienced me by failing to perform the work i hired them to do.........then they charge me for something they said was 'no charge'.....

[GreaterVisibility]

All of this negativity and angst isn't worth $136. Chalk it up to one of those things that happens in life and move on. The internal turmoil isn't worth it. I bet that this hanging in your spirit will cost you far more money than this as you go out to bid your own jobs with this chip on your shoulder. Let it go, move on, and go make something positive happen for yourself instead of something negative for someone else. If you need to, leave a bad review or whatever because that's the truth, but then just move on.

[huggytree]

ive been keeping an eye on my chi and its great right now

i actually dont think about it that much...my home is about to start a major renovation and i just unwrapped my boat for the summer...ill have my boating sandals on in a few hours and ill be out fishing with the family.......i always get negative when work slows down (like it is right now), but the moving company has nothing to do with it....it actually brings me joy knowing that i may be taking a customer or 2 away from them with my negative reviews...they deserve it

[Watchdog]

Well, what can I say huggybear. Sounds like you'll have a lot of time to fish. Enjoy the family time. :)

[Russ in Vancouver]

Huggy,

If I were in your shoes and had a reputation to protect. I would not pursue payback. For $136 its not worth it. What would you pay to have some fake slanderous BS that was posted online about you and your business removed from BBB or Angies list etc. Probably alot more than $136.

They may come back at you the same way you went at them. The difference is, its 100% BS but the prospective consumer will have a tainted image of your business if they read the negative review of your plumbing business.
The movers were scammers who probably picked up 2 or 3 $8 buck an hour guys at the welfare line up. Movers are one type of business I will never refer anyone to, even if I had a good experience with them. They can really ruin your day, month or year.

Have a great summer bro and thanks for that plumbing tip last month it was dead on.

[BNB]

I know we take our online reputation and reviews VERY seriously. I can't speak for the moving company though - do they have any existing online reviews?

If you truly believe you are in the right, take it to small claims court. If you win, they'll have to pay all the fees and return your money. They may even settle before it goes that far if they know they are wrong.

[Dan Furman]

Folks, you can talk to Huggy about this until you are blue in the face. Huggy is great about taking advice and looking for new and better ways to do things (and his success is a result of that), but man, don't screw the guy. He will (happily) spend a grand to get back $100.

[huggytree]

im suddenly very busy and over booked......i got the letter back from the BBB/ 2 men and a truck.....now that im busy and have too many other things on my mind i decided to let it go....i did give them some bad reviews on various websites and the BBB will give them a black mark on their record for 3 years

im letting it go.....when im back to making thousands= $136 doesnt matter anymore....

thanks to all for their advice....i have already thought about the fact that THEY could give me a fake bad review in retaliation.....i could also sue them for it since they would have never been my customer....all in all...not worth it anymore for $136