Tuesday, January 29, 2008

For Fuck's Sake (AKA VIP Relocation Sucks)

Liz gets a call today that there might be a problem with the stuff we shipped over, including my Xbox 360. The original quoted timeframe of "one month" has long since come and gone, but supposedly our stuff was supposed to be in Essex this week for delivery on Friday.

Except it isn't. They popped open the container with our stuff in it, and... our stuff wasn't there. Some stuff that was supposed to be in Germany was there, but not our stuff. It's not "lost," they just "don't know where it is."

I told Liz to tell them that when they find the box with my hiking boots in it that they can save themselves some time and put the boots up their own asses so I don't have to.

In case you're wondering, the name of the company is VIP Relocation. Or V.I.P. Relocation. VIP Relocation is based out of Los Angeles. VIP Relocation are now almost a month late and VIP Relocation have "misplaced" our stuff (not "lost" it.) And I wager when you Google search for VIP Relocation (that's VIP Relocation kids), this post will come up.

VIP Relocation. VIP Relocation. VIP Relocation. VIP Relocation. VIP Relocation.

Update: Carlo from VIP Relocation contacted me about this post (see the comments below.) He informed me VIP is under new management and that problems like this should be fixed. Since this happened a year ago, I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.

11 comments:

Leah in Chicago said...

I feel like I should link to you, to help out VIP Relocation's SEO.

Jason said...

You are my hero. Thanks! :)

Wolfgang Lünenbürger-Reidenbach said...

for there was sth for Germany in your container - I just asked my German followers via twitter if someone might have your stuff ;-)

Jendeis said...

Heard about your plight from Leah's post - that just sucks. I hope you guys get your stuff from VIP Relocation at some point.

Brandon said...

That sucks about your stuff but I couldn't helping LOL'ing at the post!

cvg86 said...

I just got hired by VIP Relocation and when I came on board, a new owner just took over the company. I'm terribly sorry about what happened to you, but it is not fair to us, or the new owner to have this page floating around the internet. I don't know exactly if the old management tried to contact you, or tried to at least give you some type of compensation. We have a new management now and this is unfair because every time you type VIP Relocation on any search engine, this posting seems to be almost number one on the results.
My name is Carlo Guray and I am the new office manager, any questions or any way for this posting to be closed I will gladly cooperate with you.

Jason said...

Hi Carlo,

Since digital PR (including online brand reputation management) is what I do professionally I thought I might offer you some advice. First, it's good that VIP is looking at its online rep - a lot of companies still aren't, and consumers will make purchase decisions based on what they see online. You are in fact the first person from VIP Relocation to contact me about my experience, a year later, but that's a good place to start. :)

People will rarely take down negative reviews, and I admit that my first instinct was to make a new post about how inappropriate it was to ask me to take this down. Rather than doing that, I want to share some options that I tell my clients when they are facing something like this. The best thing to do is to engage the blogger in some kind of dialogue - find out exactly how bad their experience was, and then genuinely try to fix it. Emailing is OK, but so is posting in the comments section like you did.

What then happens is that I either revise my post to indicate the new information, or direct my readers to the comments section where they can see the back-and-forth between us (which is what I'm about to do.) That way, even though this post comes up top on Google results, potential customers will see that you guys are making an honest effort to fix things and make them right.

It sounds like the new management at VIP Relocation will help ensure stuff like this doesn't happen again, which is good. I hope you don't have to do this to many other blogs because I certainly don't envy you if you do. :) But thank you very much for contacting me. I will amend my original post to direct readers down here, and it sounds like VIP is taking steps to become a much better business. Thanks for stopping by Carlo!

cvg86 said...

Thank you for responding Jason. I don't know actually what the old VIP management did to have this rep floating around. It sucks because we have to deal with the old management mistakes, but other than that I am willing to work with any customer to show that we are a totally different management. Here is a link to customer reviews that we have been getting. http://www.trustlink.org/BusinessProfile.aspx?ID=qibcY%20LxLWOBKz710lp3tA==&EmailReviewID=O1tuBnzcv0M=

Unknown said...

Great informative blog, having such a nice information of relocation.I really liked it ,keep it up.
removal company londonn

Unknown said...

Many moving companies don't' know how to reach their auditorium. I think that a useful step for them is to find an online platform like moving calculator which will display their services.

SILK Logistics Shipping said...

Nice article and best post
Furniture packers & movers Islamabad door to door cargo services Home movers & Packers Islamabad