Universal Relocations

Wish I could give rating in minus. Their people are approachable and responsive and that's the reason I kept following up with them for almost an year.

They are fraud and cheaters. I had my shipment from Dallas to Pune with them. While booking for shipment the representative was very nice, she just asked me to put basic details in all the forms on 8th Dec. Later I got call that there is container leaving on 11th Dec so if I ship I get get my shipment within 60-90 days in India. I trusted them and got everything packed. The person who came for pick up was very good and helping. Then story of India is horrible

1. My shipment didn't arrive till Mid of March and then there was lockdown. I understood the situation and was calm. 8 was asked to sent passport and then custom charges. I did everything to support them

2. Shipment arrived mid of June one Sunday morning, since that was covid time delivery boys agreed that we should not open the packages before sanitization. We did that and opened the boxes. My son was happy, he was expecting toys, tv, his new games I bought for him with my hard earned money but everything turned into dark story. Tv had scratches, complete xbox set was missing. Crockery was broken. One box was opened, xbox was taken out and then box was wrapped and sealed. I still have that box with me.

3. I immediately sent pictures and insruance claim form to them. I also got repair invoice from Samsung and local tv repair shop. It took time to get tv connected, get the step down tranformer and see the real damage..

4. No one from Universal came for inspection and they offered me only $250 for the total loss of $1750

5. I am still following up with them, it will almost be an year qnd whatever I shipped I wasn't and I won't be able to use.

Lesson Learnt

1. Better to buy in India so that you get good support and warranty. We all work hard to give good life to our kids but companies like Universal are fooling us

2. If you ship, please make sure you take pictures and keep all the invoices

3. All important, new, expensive things should be packed by universal person and opened by them.

4. If you see any boc, package is not packed in same way as u did, do not accept the shipment, open it in front of delivery person and immediately report to Universal

5. Well, they have all the clauses to protect themselves..for example anything missing from inside the box or partially lost item won't be covered in the insurance

I will suggest first of all, not to ship anything via sea..if you do then do not choose Universal and if you still choose Universal be ready for big loss and facing dishonesty still keeping all my lesson learnt in your mind. Stay safe everyone.

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $1200

Used their services in 2018 when I moved from US to India. Without a doubt, worst people I have ever dealt with. The amout of stress and uncertainty that i had to deal with was unimaginable. things that you can expect from them:

1. No clarity on charges upfront. The final bill they will give will be higher by 25-50% from estimate. Its amazing that the estimate is given after verification of goods, so how can they claim that the volume is higher than estimate. Do they expect that the customer would know the volume at the start? if thats the expectation, why would we ask them to come and verify the amount of stuff we had and provide quotation accordingly. However, you cant fight or do anything with them once they have taken the goods as you are at their mercy. They will directly blackmail you that goods will not be given to you if you dont pay the full money upfront.

2. Be aware of dealing with these three people specifically: Sai Dattani, Geetha Rajaram/Singh and Pallavi. I dealt with them and got an experience of lifetime (rhetoric). They knew that I have a 1.5 year old and a pregnant wife and used this to pyschologically create pressure at every step. They will promise the world to you, but true colors will come out once they have packed your goods (as you will be helpless after that)

3. The india team who handles the clearance of goods also loves sending the bills. I included all costs that I need to pay (barring a few nominal ones) in my initial quote from the US team, but India team kept sending me bills for payment for things which were already included in the bill that I had already paid to the US entity. I had to send multiple emails and call multiple people to get the same waived.

3. Delivery was late by a month even coompared to their max estimate provided to me.

4. Most of my furniture was damaged.

5. They generally put very less stuff in boxes quoting that the boxes cannot hold more. This is very untrue and done so that you end up using more boxes and pay more in terms of space (in shipping, charge is not based on weight but on space occupied). So even if u hire them, make sure that you dont allow their packaging professionals to get your billings increased by using this loop hole. My first advice would be to not hire them

6. The people who come to deliver and unpack your goods are so petty that they will force you to give them back all boxes and packaging material. They kept on saying that I am suppose to return it and this is a general norm. I told them that the bill specifically charges me packaging charges, so why should I return this, but in interest of getting everything properly unpacked and set up, I had to give up. Afterwards, I came to know that the people who come sell those boxes to local bhangarwala and put the money into their own pockets.

There are a lot many other things which I am avoiding to mention here (cant keep writing)

Move size: Partial Move Service cost: $3000