Agarwal Packers & Movers - NEVER NEVER USE THEM. Review on Agarwal Packers and Movers Ltd

This review may appear longer and boring to read but it is time truly well spent on an experince poured from the heart. Spend 7-9 minutes to read this and I assure you it is worth it. If you read this and decide to not use Agarwal(or otherwise) leave a comment!

I recently shifted from Pune to Mumbai. I zeroed in on Agarwal Packers and Movers for reasons below:

• They estimated 10-12 hours overall for packing and loading, using 3 people to pack and 7 to load

  
  




• They recommended a 20ft container against the 15ft and 17 ft regular EICHER vans other packers estimated

  
  




• When I moved from Chennai to Pune I used Adarsh packers and they never did good packing unless you chase them every minute. So thought Agarwal would be good.

  
  




• I see so many Agarwal vehicles on the road!

  
  

Having made a move from New York to Chennai and Chennai to Pune before I know very well the time it takes to pack all stuff at my home. And also that it will fill a 20ft container completely. When Agarwal gave these estimates it impressed me so though the rate was 50% higher than other companies I moved with these guys not knowing they are 3rd rate.

Anyways – On New Year Day they came home at Pune. The Supervisor and another guy were packing the larger items. The large items packing was decent. Corrugated sheets and plastic film lining. One lean lambu called Narayan was packing the smaller items. He was putting items directly into the boxes. We had to stop him several times from doing this. Then for used bottles he used to just cover them in paper and dump inside. We had to tell him to seal the cover with tape and proceed. It takes a hell lot of a time to chase these guys around. They brings kilos of bubble wrap but are very sparing in using them. Until I yelled!

So the packing gets over and then the supervisor starts making a list himself. He writes the item numbers on the packing list without numbering the actual items. Imagine the confusion. I again had to yell to stop him from doing that. Then he started numbering 4 items at a time then write it to the packing list. All of a sudden the labors started taking the items outside and I had to make a loud cry to stop it. They said as long as the number of items match why I should worry. They were even trying to load items without numbers. hat use is a packing list then for. The supervisor then said one of us could tick mark items getting inside the container. This was his job and we had to do this to ensure all items are numbered. There were 2 or 3 items that were duplicates. With the ensuing confusion the super said he will make those item numbers as+1 in the list. I agreed, badly wanting the loading to get over. Then eventually the container was full. I provided them an AT PAR Chennai cheque and they refused to accept it. After a long argument with Super, his manager Abhay Shankar and his manager one Sharma(all in Pune) I finally had to agree to pay 22, 000 cash in advance with 7000 due on delivery. Such thugs they are. Then when I asked the Super to add+1 to the duplicate item list he refused saying he is not sure if duplicates went inside. A job that he has to do – we did- and then he fights there are no dups. I asked him in front of all the labours that he himself had agreed to add+1 and why he is now backing out. He then had the guts to say lets unload and reload the entire 140+ items in the truck. He did not even admit it was his fault that duplicate items were added by him, so sick. Finally everyone lost patience and insisted that he writes the duplicate items explicitly in there and thus the vehicle left Pune.

It reached Thane the next morning with their seemingly inept octroi agent saying it will take 2500 to clear octroi while the driver confided to me later in the evening all they paid was hardly Rs.100. I mean charge a little more than that but charging 2500 saying my items will be opened and checked etc. – this is greed to the core. The vehicle reached my society. The supervisor was one third rate guy called Mir Singh. He demanded 7000+ Octroi right away to deliver the items. Since they has to assemble my bed, wardrobe and dining table I insisted I will pay only half the amount and the rest on final finish. I spoke to his manager Narendra who was of no use. Meanwhile I forgot to mention this – to ascertain where the truck is and when the delivery will be made I had to make calls - several – literally 12-15 of them – between their Pune and Mumbai offices to get hold of them.

So coming back to the delivery – the Narendra guy finally asked me to pay 5000 and remaining later and the mir singh guy said he has different instructions from his office and needs all money. I called Narendra again and agreed to part with INR 7000- all the money they charged me for the transpost and insurance. Meanwhile I asked for a carpenter to be available as the IKEA wardrobe is not easy to assemble. He said he will ‘try’(while it was his job) and then said carpenter will be available the next day. I said I will not pay until I see the carpenter and he threatened he will drive the vehicle away w/o delivery and charge me for storage. I had to cede to those third rate guys. No choice at that point in time!:(

This mir singh guy then slipped away not supervising the unloading. Only good thing in all this is though the labours were never talking properly and had an attitude like mir they soft landed all the luggage without dumping them or throwing them. That was the only silver lining. Finally they unloaded all items and assembled all but the wardrobe. I refused to pay the octroi unless the wardrobe was assembled. He demanded I pay that amount. With 4-5 labors around and some of my prized possession now unpacked I did not risk a verbal/fight with these guys. They left their plastic containers behind(20 of them) – which was my only hold on them to assemble the wardrobe. I went downstairs to the ATM with mir and said that Agarwal has made life hell for me last 2 days and I see no difference between them and other packers n movers and the additional cost I pay is unjustified. He boasted they run 5000 trucks across India. I said if they had had good customer service they will be running 15000 trucks today and their growth would have been much higher. Little minds cant think of customer service! I said people in my office keep shifting regularly and that I will recommend against using Agarwal. He was like – hamare paas bahut saare customers aathe hain. – means - We have so many customers who cares if you tell in your office. That when I said his business growth will be stunted due to such attitudes and time will catch up with such business models. He perhaps could not understand!

The next day he brought a carpenter and finished the job. When he left with the plastic boxes I asked how long.