Aug 08, 2007 01:50 PM
4248 Views
I used their services to move from Lucknow to the UK simply because there were very few alternatives in Lucknow and everybody told me that Agarwal are the best. I don't know how they have managed to create this hype around themselves. They were my worst nightmare come true. They did not want to come over to my house to give a quote and gave me a quote on the phone but couldn't explain the break-up which I had to get by calling up their Delhi number. On D-day they failed to turn up at the agreed 12 noon. Since I had to vacate my house at 5 pm, I kept on calling them and each time they lied saying that the men are on the way and their vehicle must have broken down. Finally at 6 pm a band of boys arrived.
Now these were some sub-contractors(and not Agarwal's employees) who couldn't even speak hindi(they were south indian boys) and communicated to us mostly in sign language. They'said' that they were instructed to come only a few minutes back as they were packing elsewhere till then! Finally these amateurs got down to the job and soon started arguing and fighting among themselves as there was no leader among them to give instructions! They started dumping glass cutlery into their boxes till we requested them to atleast wrap the stuff in newspapers(forget bubble wrap) which we had to then provide. Then they made a farce about counting each item for packing as per their rules.
They wanted to count each book they packed but it emerged(and I am not making this up I swear) that they could not count beyond ten or fifteen. Being an academician, I obvioiusly had more than ten books to pack, so we had to do the counting for them and since things were getting slowed down, we did most of the packing as well(while at the same time appealing to them to stop fighting with each other)! They then wrote down the number of items on each box and made me seal and sign(wow!). Finally they finished late in the evening and my employers were kind enough to let me have the house till then. While leaving they asked me to sign on a bill stating that so much kilograms of stuff is being moved, based on which I would have to pay.
When I asked how did they arrive at the weight as they did not have any weighing machine, they said(I swear again that this is true!) they can make out the weight by lifting the stuff with their hands! I refused to buy that argument and called up their Delhi office and agreed with them to weigh the goods at their Gurgaon godown myself before paying. Off I went to Gurgaon to get the stuff weighed and finally I left for UK praying that the stuff reaches me. After 2 weeks(since I paid for the stuff to be flown to UK) it arrived where it was simply dumped at my building entrance and I had to carry it upstairs by myself. Forget the stuff that was broken and lost(other reviewers have already written about that) I found that they had redistributed all my stuff into smaller boxes on their own(including the books) which means that all the tall talk of counting the number of items(wasting hours in the process) had been a farce! In sum, after this entire experience, my advise is please stay away from this so-called best packers in India.
Wiser after this, my wife(who joined me a bit later from a different location) employed some smaller and cheaper company during her move and it was much smoother. I don't want to mention the name of this nicer company as it would appear as a promotion in their favour and against Agarwal. But trust me if you can - stay away from this company. Don't say later that you weren't warned!
