According to the contract, DLH were suppose to arrive for collection at 7:00am on 23rd December 2024. They arrived at 9:45am and there was no sense of urgency. I asked the supervisor what time they were going to arrive at the destination the following morning, he then informed me that the truck would only arrive on 26th December 2024. I then had to scramble to get a booking for 2 nights which costed me R1620.00. In the very beginning I stressed to the supervisor that we had a long journey ahead and we didn't want to leave late because we were two old people and we didn't want to travel through the night! After 4 hours of taking my goods to the truck, I reached a stage of severe anger. Almost the whole time, one man was collecting my goods and taking them to the truck. One man was playing on cellphone when I went out to check what was happening. The supervisor was no where to be seen! I must mention that they were only interested in taking goods that were broken and I was leaving behind like my microwave, one garden chair and ice machine. The one man wanted a zinc basin, a lounge chair and garden table; which my husband and myself both said no to after many requests. I in fact gave The supervisor a garden table for his wife! I mentioned that it was going to rain, but nothing happened. In fact the last item was my bed, it was pouring with rain, so I asked for a mattress cover and I was told it would be R100.00 cash. I had no choice, as my mattress would have soaked. The two men who moved the bed decided it was raining to hard and I then lost my temper, I call the supervisor and told him to get my bed on the truck before I called the MD, he agreed and it was done. They finally left at 13:45pm. I was instructed by the supervisor not to put a time on the your official goods collection form when I signed it. After a very dangerous journey, it was raining, misty, foggy and roads slippery, we arrived at our destination at 21:45pm. I received a call from the supervisor on 24th December 2024 at 17:36pm, wanting to deliver my goods on 25th December 2024, I told him no, as I had paid for accommodation for two nights and I was not going to lose my money I spent. Then on 26th December 2024, at 5:12am on WhatsApp he informed me that he had a breakdown in Pinetown this is after he wanted to arrive at the destination at 6:00am in the morning, I told him this would not be possible. He left Durban at 10:20am and arrived at 12:30pm at my final destination. He then informed me there was a problem with offloading, I lost it and told I didn't care about his problem, but I wanted my goods offloaded and put in my place of residence. It then happened and after being asked for cold drinks which I explained, "I didn't have" they got on the job. My furniture was damaged, one umbrella was not in the black drum and some of clothing rails pipes. were missing. After spending R26950.00 for my goods to be collected and delivered, I would not recommend DLH for any work. They are not professional, don't care about your goods, lack punctuality and don't know the meaning of word communication.'
Michele
Response from DLH Removals
Hi Michele
My sincere apologies for the issue regarding the loading of the goods, but sometimes unfortunately, traffic delays affected our punctuality on that day and this is out of our control as crew needed to travel from Midrand to Tarlton ,
Normally loading the volume of your move does take between 3 - 4h30 hours to load,
I will also bring under Operations Manager that the crew asked for items and this is unacceptable and not allowed.
On the damages/missing items nothing was brought to our attention and really sorry to hear that some items were damaged during your move. This is not the standard of service we aim for.
By having trucks on the road breakdowns can happen at any time and we always try to get fixed quickly so the driver can commence with this deliveries.
It's disappointing to learn that our service did not meet your expectations, especially regarding the courtesy and efficiency.
We will sure take the comments to hart and strive to fix and re-train crews to ensure better service in the future , apologies if we fell short in keeping you updated during your move and are working hard to keep our communication open and efficient as possible, and there might have been some delays during the festive season as some staff was on leave
Again our apologies and All best in your new home and Happy New year
Regards Debbie
