One of the worst experiences of my life.
1 star is too generous.
I engaged Mathers for our move from Hobart to Sydney earlier this year. I chose them because I thought small local company would have a stronger focus on customer service and be more accessible than a larger more corporate company.
I could not have been more wrong. This has absolutely been one of the most horrendous experiences. I'm so glad to say it's now over and I never have to communicate with anyone from that underhanded, disreputable company again.
Everything was fine until the day of our uplift, when I witnessed one of the mathers removalists taking some of our items (which he had taken out of clear plastic snap lock tubs I had them stored in) to the cabin of the truck.
I immediately reported what I had witnessed to the general manager, who said he would search the removalists when they returned to the depot. He called 30 mins later to say he hadn't found anything, and that it's most likely I had been mistaken in what I saw.
I was less than 10m away, and very clearly saw the removalist stealing from my consignment.
I said I would wait till everything was delivered then check to see if anything was missing.
When everything arrived, I checked and found that FAR MORE than I had witnessed being stolen had gone missing between uplift and delivery.
I again called the general manager and was told I was a 'liar' that I must have a 'criminal mind' to think that one of their staff members could remove items without detection, that i had 'seen things' and so on.
I was told that the right number of boxes had been delivered, and that I had signed to say they were delivered, so they had no more duty of care. I tried again and again to explain that the write number of boxes had been delivered - but there was a significant amount missing from WITHIN the boxes.
When I asked for escalation and an insurance claim, I was told that because the claim was for less than $2,000 they had reviewed it in house and that it had been denied.
I tried to argue that they were biased in their decision making, but they refused to escalate the matter to the insurer Cowden.
I submitted a police report, and am very grateful to the Bellerive station for investigating and holding Mathers accountable.
I also connected with Cowden Insurance independently. They were phenomenal. They rapidly processed my claim, keeping me in the loop the whole way through.
They accepted the full claim and forced Mathers to pay it out - even though Mathers refused to pay without a gag clause, banning me from sharing this story online (which I refused to, and Cowden backed me up). Mathers had one final stab by "accidentally" paying my insurance claim to the wrong account details, so it took an extra week for them to pay me out.
I can't stress enough how horrible the entire process was. The staff showed no empathy, were insulting, and I can only guess completely corrupt. Given that they refused to investigate the theft I witnessed, I can only assume they have a culture of deviance.
Do yourself a favor and pay for a company that will actually take care of you. read more
