<p>binx, In the dinosaur age, I sent all of my things home via UPS. It was a pleasure. I boxed it, and UPS picked everything up from my apartment, which was great, since I did not have a car. It was relatively painless.</p>
<p>Northstarmom,
you are soo right, not sure if they are still doing it, but in the past, Bowdoin has had a huge tent sale at the end of the year... and what is left is either donated to charities, prisions etc or ultimately thrown away..... </p>
<p>Yale lets each student store 6 boxes in the basement of their college.... and the guys let the student from the farthest away have some of their "boxes" if needed. We brought home a few items (fridge, etc) for some of my S's 'mates cause we had the room.... </p>
<p>I think the post office will sell you big $$$ insurance, but their fine print will only reimburse for actual documented value of what is in the lost package?? So, not reasonable to overbuy insurance....rather more important to document what is inside...</p>
<p>Has anyone checked the charges for Roadway Express vs UPS?</p>
<p>We were thinking of storing with them, but now I like the idea of getting a few kids together, renting a storage unit for the 3 months and a truck for the day. They can do the work themselves just like I did during the stone age when I was in college :)</p>
<p>I was about to ask about storage units. We had to store all our stuff--a whole house's worth of stuff--for three months when we moved eight years ago. I want to say that the storage was about $1500 for those three months. Aren't small storage lockers pretty inexpensive, even in Boston? I see ads around here saying "Rates as low as $29 per month!" Plus you get to keep the key. </p>
<p>At $100 a box, less whatever your insurance pays, the movers don't have much incentive to NOT lose things.</p>
<p>I just wanted to add some thoughts about the suggestions to contact the Better Business Bureau. In my years as the consumer attorney for a legal aid office in NC, I never found our local BBB to be very effective in resolving disputes. They were best at resolving little things like misunderstandings. It would certainly be worth filing a complaint with them, because it may help future consumers to know there have been problems, but I wouldn't count on them for any real assistance in resolving this particular problem. You never know, but I wouldn't be too optimistic. (The one in the Boston area may be much better than the one here, so they may be more helpful, but I wouldn't expect it.) For consumer problems here in NC, I always found a complaint to the state attorney general's office consumer protection division to be more effective. They certainly have more authority to take legal action against an offending company than the BBB does, and we have seen them do so when there are repeated complaints. </p>
<p>And just as a caveat, this is not intended as legal advice. I'm not licensed to practice in MA, so I am not familiar with MA consumer law. There may well be remedies in MA that I'm not aware of, so it may be worth the OP's while to seek advice from someone in MA.</p>
<p>You might consider two things:</p>
<p>First, the loss is probably covered under your homeowners policy.</p>
<p>Second, consider small claims court. I say this for a number of reasons. Given the abiguities others pointed out regarding the "insurance", you might argue for higher reimbursement. Without reading the contract carefully, I don't know if the "insurance" is a liability cap, or just and easy way to deflect the problem. Small claims court has many advantages from your point of view, among them being that companies often ignore small claims proceedings and the rules of evidence are looser, so ambiguous web stuff may work to your favor. Remember, if the other side does not show up, you win. </p>
<p>Massachusetts, if that's where the loss occurred, has a decent small claims court, although it does allow either party to have an attorney. Your kid could press the claim.</p>
<p>Regarding storage units, beware that when I lived in Brookline a few years ago, there was an interesting story in the local paper about a local storage company. Seems they had a pipe break or some other kind of water problem that soaked a number of units. Not only were they not prompt in contacting the renters of those units (week or more in the report), they denied any liability, and pointed to contract claims.</p>
<p>my point is to make sure you have insurance coverage for the contents. Don't take insurance from the storage co. The coverage is expensive and limited to a few thousand. Either make sure your homeowners covers it or get a separate renters policy that covers offsite storage. Renters policies are cheap, and well worth it IMHO - just think of the cost of replacing one PC and the music collection on it.</p>
<p>The Boston University newspaper has been reporting wide-spread student problems with this company. The Crimson doesn't seem to be covering it, although the BU paper mentions Harvard cases, including a Harvard student and her roommate who lost 41 boxes between them.</p>
<p>It's the front-page story on today's BU newspaper:
<a href="http://www.dailyfreepress.com/%5B/url%5D">http://www.dailyfreepress.com/</a>
(free registration required)</p>
<p>They've also run several pieces about it starting back in early September.</p>
<p>We rented a small storage unit for the summer and it cost us around $200 with insurance, etc.</p>
<p>
[quote]
First, the loss is probably covered under your homeowners policy.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I'd be reluctant to file a small claim on my homeowners insurance policy, since it could well result in a future rate increase. The cost of handling small claims is sufficiently high that there are good reasons for having a signficant deductible on your homeowner's policy. (We have a thousand dollar deductible on ours.)</p>
<p>Small claims court is not always practical. You can often win a judgment, but collecting that judgment is an entirely different matter--you have to track down the assets of the other party and that can be hard.</p>
<p>No really great answers here, I'm afraid.</p>
<p>Given how widespread problems with this particular company seem to be, I really do think it might be worth a complaint to the Massachusetts AG's office. <a href="http://www.ago.state.ma.us/sp.cfm?pageid=967%5B/url%5D">http://www.ago.state.ma.us/sp.cfm?pageid=967</a> </p>
<p>As you can see from the website, they offer all sorts of consumer advisories, so even if a complaint didn't yield a favorable result in your case, you may well be helping other consumers avoid being similarly taken.</p>
<p>I also wonder how they can be losing so many boxes. For 41 boxes belonging to two students to be lost is outrageous. It almost makes me wonder whether they're selling the contents of the boxes on ebay and then, if pressed and pressured, paying out $100 per box. Of course, that may be giving them too much credit; they may just be incompetent.</p>
<p>All of the companies who provide this service (and there are A LOT of them now) are terrible. BU also had a problem with smartmovers after recommending them and ended up sending their own truck to pick up students' belongings.</p>
<p>I used them a couple times. The first two times my things came, although usually a week after scheduled. I used to just before graduation because I desperately needed someplace to throw my stuff for the summer and hadn't found a storage facility that was reasonable (although I eventually did and ended up not needing the company).</p>
<p>My boxes were scheduled to come on Sept. 4th (the holiday). I think I finally got them on the 20th or 21st. I ended up having to go to Houston for two weeks for my new job and spent most of the time going back and forth with the company, asking when the boxes will come. They eventually gave them to another company to bring to me, but that company's truck broke down. When I called them to reschedule, the guy at the "other company" refused, saying that the firm has to tell him when to come, not me. It took another week of calling the company every day, trying to get them to do just that. Every day I would get a new customer service person--all were pretty nice, but unhelpful--and had to re-explain my situation (I even did this in the airport on my way back to Massachusetts). I eventually got them. Boxes were in terrible condition, but nothing was broken. Fortunately, I never have to move into or out of a college dorm again.</p>
<p>They should insure boxes at a rate of $100 per 10 pounds. I believe that's fair.</p>
<p>You could probably buy extra insurance (if you read the fine print & for extra charge). Business is not necessarily about FAIR, it's about making & keeping $$$$, unfortunately.</p>
<p>Bandit,</p>
<p>Is your daughter a student at Harvard or some other college with a law school? If so, I would suggest she contact the law school. Most law schools sponsor clinics to help students with landlord/tenant and similar disputes since they are often the victims of property problems. A clinic might help her understand her rights and obtain the best remedy.</p>
<p>In line with Marite's comment, we stored our son's items in a moving company vault during his first summer break. It cost less than renting storage and it was more secure, especially from water damage. The downside was we couldn't get access to his items until they were delivered when school resumed but our son didn't need access during the summer. </p>
<p>In our son's college town, storage rental costs about $55-$75 per month but the vault cost $45 per month. The moving company also picked up and delivered the stored items for an extra fee. Look for a moving company that has been in the area for awhile and is bonded and insured.</p>
<p>I'm sorry-- this company didn't make me too happy at the end of Spring Semester when I used them to ship home and to store. I thought it'd be the most convenient thing ever -- after my freshman year at Duke, I had gotten a storage facility with friends over a half hour away in an area of NC that we had no idea about b/c it was advertised in the Chronicle as being 'close to campus' (so in getting lost, a one way trip took about an hour). Picking up from storage at the end of the summer was even more of a nightmare.</p>
<p>This summer I decided I'd pay the extra fee for the convenience, have them pick up after exams and before the traditional Duke trip to Myrtle Beach. They said they'd pick up at 1:30/2pm -- they didn't arrive until 6:30pm -- everyone I was going with had to sit around and wait for me all day long. it was miserable.</p>
<p>THEN they "lost" half of my best friend's stuff in storage, but after the facility cleared out, they found it all. For me, the delivery from storage in my dorm this year was the most convenient, easiest thing in the entire world, which made up for the company's overall inefficiency (I also think they gave my friend a discount for her hassle).</p>
<p>I'm so sorry for the inconvenience -- I haven't thought of whether I'll be using the firm again to store, since much of that depends on my house/apartment situation for next school year... but it's an expensive service that does cause some headaches..</p>
<p>I agree that BBB is often not helpful. Several years ago, I contacted them to ask about various contractors I was thinking of hiring to do some work. Something didn't seem right when BBB said they had no complaints about any of the contractors, so I inquired further about how they reported complaints. BBB said they only reported outstanding complaints. They considered complaints closed when they decided the company had satisfied the customer, not necessarily when the customer was satisfied. So, if you called to complain about a company, but that company sent the $100 insurance payment, BBB would likely consider the case closed and not report it to anyone who called to inquire whether there were problems with this company. </p>
<p>BBB may have changed its policies; I haven't contacted them since I talked with them about the contractors. However back then, I wanted to complain to someone about BBB!</p>
<p>Wow, has anyone had a completely satisfactory experience with this company? My daughter used it last summer. They didn't lose anything BUT instead of delivering everything to her room at the specified time they deposited the boxes in the lobby of another dorm and left. They had my daughter's phone number and were supposed to call, but never did. Fortunately, she had a friend in that other building who happened to see the boxes and called her. It was tough to lug everything over to her room, though. I guess if her friend wasn't around and someone took the boxes, we would be in the same situation.</p>
<p>How complicated is it? Yeesh.</p>
<p>Another friend of my daughter's used them and had his boxes broken into. I'll have to ask her if she knows of anyone who had everything work out right ...</p>