Gulf Moving Systems Inc

If you use Bekins Van Lines, or it related company Wheaton Van Lines (represented in the Rio Grande Valley by Gulf Moving systems) to move you, you are nuts. We contracted with Bekins to move us from Mission, TX, to Indianapolis, IN, a moved that we took delivery on on Oct. 3, 2017. We have been married for 40 years and in that time have made eight "major" cross-country moves. This was our first with Bekins and has been the most horrible moving experience we have ever had .... PERIOD. Over all the move -- including a full pack by Bekins employees -- cost us $11,600+ which likely is where our troubles began since it appear that the incompetent *** from Gulf Coast Moving Systems in San Benito, TX, the local agency representing Bekins in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, way under estimated the weight of our move and the number of days it would take a crew of competent packers to pack our belongings. From the outset this had the makings of a disaster. We were to be packed on Sept. 26-27 and loaded on Sept. 28. We were told that a highly experience crew of six packers would tackle the job beginning each morning by 8 to 9 a.m. and finishing each day after 6 p.m. and we were assured that all of the packers would be fluent in English. As it turrned out, we only have three packers, only one spoke broken English, one seemed to be brand new to the job and the crew did not show up on the first day until after 10:30 a.m., worked until noon, took off tor lunch an did not return until 1:30 p.m. and then knocked off for the day at 4:30 p.m. because of the long drive back to San Benito. Of course, it didn't matter because the didn't bring enough packing paper and boxes anyway. The next day, they didn't show up until after 11 a.m. for God knows what reason. I contact Eddie Rio, our job estimator and my contact person and raised **** since at that point the house was barely 1/3 packed. He made them stay until 7 that evening and when the left at least 1/3 of the house still remained to be packed with the moving van schedule to arrive and begin loading at 8 a.m. the next day. Again, in a panic, i contacted Rios who told me the packers would continue their work while the driver and another crew of workers loaded the van. The next morning, the packer showed up at 9 a.m. and we to work not packing our stuff, but merely cramming it into boxes with total reckless abandon. The result was boxes crammed with stuff from different rooms, framed pictures not wrapped at all being shoved unprotected into boxes, and boxes being isanely labelled by people who could neither speak not write English and who, apparently, could not even write in Spanish which we could have translated. As it turns out, the moving van was late, not showing up until well after noon and when it arrived, there was no additional crew of loaders, just the driver and his brother who where shocked when the discovered that packers had not inventoried and tagged anything -- not a single box nor a single piece of furniture. So, the drived and his brother set about doing that while the packers continued there frantic and careless effort to cram our remaining items in boxes. Finally, using the crew of packers also as loaders the van driver and his brother began loading the van about 3 or 4 pm. a process that continue until nearly 11 p.m. and was characterized by our stuff literally being tossed, willy-nilly, into the van as opposed to be organized by rooms which would have facilitated the unloading at our destination in Indianapolis. While the packing and loading were a dreadful experience, the circus did not stop there, The arrival of our stuff in Indianapolis was also a frigging disaster. The van was supposed to arrive by 9 a.m. on Oct. 3. A crew of two very nice young men who were to do the unloading (again half the number I would have expected) showed up about 8:30 a.m. and the wait began. About 10:30 I got a call from the driver saying that he has over slept and was still "about 45 minutes out." This was an apparently lie since, as it turned out, the van did not arrive for another more than four hours. When it did arrive, the two unloaders and the drive and his brother began pulling stuff out of the van and piling it into the house which whas alll a very random process since the box were not marking in anyway by the packers that any of us could understand. As with the loading, the unloading was careless, haphazard and showed little regard for the well being of our belongings -- that seemed to be the very last thing that anyone involved with this move appeared to be in the least bit concerned about. We ended up with random boxes in random rooms, many pieces of fine would furniture that were nicked and scared from carely, thoughtless, hurried handling and boxes everywhere that we would have to later move and reorganize ourselves not an easy chore for us as senior -- I am 72 and have had recent back surgery am in need of right arm rotator cuff surgery and my wife is 67. We were fortunate that the unloading crew at least set up our bed in the master bedroom because the left the guest bedroom mattress and box spring leaning against a wall still in boxes. The unloading was not finished until about 11 p.m, and he driver finally left. I was trying inventory things an discovered that two piece of valueable antique furniture were not in the house I call the driver. He checked and found that they have been left on the truck. He returned with them and a midnight, everything was finished. We have been unpacking now for three week and have gotten through most of the boxes that were crammed into the house, but still have an enter garage full still to go. As we unpack, we keep being more and more horrified at the damage done to our belongs by uncaring, incompetent packers on the beginning end each new box a suprise not only for what it contain because nothing intelligible is marked on the boxes to indicate what's in them. Example: There was one box marked "Gail (my wife's name) SENDOS." We had no clue what "sendos" were as it turned out, it was a box containing Gail's SANDALS. Through the unloading process, I made several calls to Ryan Greer, our Bekins moving counselor on this end to express my concerns all he did was tell me he send a damage claim form I was rather hoping he would come to the house the try to do what he could to straighten out the mess this entier move had become -- no such luck since that would have required someone who actually understood and cared about this disaster. All and all, Bekins did not seem to get one single thing right even something so seemingly simple as properly setting up our washer and dryer. There should have been a third party contractor here to do that but, as it turned out, Eddie Rios on the Texas end did not note on the paperwork that there would be a washer and dryer coming on the truck even though I made a careful point to tell him we were bringing them. The driver detached them on the Texas end and then (in voilation of the rules) reattached then on this end but failed to turn on the water so when we tried to was clothes they didn't work. I tried to call Ryan Greer but he was "not available." So I demanded to talk to his boss -- apparently the corporate customer service manager -- who after considerable argument agreed to send a third party person to properly install the washer and dryer. As for carrying about any of our other issues, he merely emailed me a damage form and told be to fill it out, politely thanked me for my business and summarily hung up. After saying Ryan would call me. He did but did not come to the house in any sort of attempt to resolve our issues. This has been one of THE worst experiences of our lives. We would not recommend Bekins even to our worst enemy. I suspect that this posting will be removed by the folks at Bekins, but I am also posting it as a Google review and as an Angie's list review.