BoxMyDorm delays irk students

College sophomore Andrea Herrera almost missed her flight home in May because BoxMyDorm was late picking up her summer storage. Moving back in this September, upon receiving her items, found one of her boxes to be “completely crushed.”

Most students who had negative experiences with BoxMyDorm and Penn Move Out — both under the same umbrella organization, MadTravelers.com — complained of problems of timeliness, incommunicability and damage to their possessions.

College sophomore Isabel Oliveres, who had similar grievances, was upset that BoxMyDorm charges an “exorbitant” amount of money for poor service. She allegedly spent around $850 for her anti-back pain bed to be delivered two days late, while a key component of the bed is still missing.

Herrera added that the experience was exacerbated by the stresses surrounding the move-in and move-out processes.

Despite some students’ reported horror stories — both this fall and last year — BoxMyDorm claimed that, for the most part, deliveries have run smoothly this September.

BoxMyDorm Vice President of Operations Dan Abrahamsen explained that “with the exception of the weather and a few isolated cases, we are pretty pleased with the way things went this year.”

Because “issues like the weather are unavoidable,” the rain slowed down delivery efficiency and caused damage to some items. Keeping all packages “as dry as possible” was challenging. Sept. 6, he claimed, was one of the “biggest returned delivery days” ever because of the rain.

Abrahamsen explained that for all potentially misplaced or missing items, customers will be reimbursed “the replacement value” given at time of order. He commented that at this time he did not believe any items to be lost, but rather located in some “unlabeled” boxes whose owners had yet to be identified. These issues are being resolved as soon as possible, he wrote in an email, though at this point “all normally scheduled deliveries” have been made.

Although this policy is clearly described on the BoxMyDorm website, Oliveres claimed to not have been reimbursed as of press time.

Many students were disappointed with BoxMyDorm’s customer service, notably their inability to be contacted by phone. Herrera was upset that “you can’t talk to anyone to voice your complaints.”

Abrahamsen explained that the company switched from phone service to email service to be more “efficient” and to create a “paper trail” to facilitate tracking.

He added that BoxMyDorm “continues to improve all the time” and that they are focusing on customer service this year. Their Penn customer base grew by 150 people from last year to a total of 600, he said.

Herrera wished BoxMyDorm could be more “transparent” as an organization and was disappointed with the “disorganization” and seeming “carelessness” with which her belongings were handled.

However, because of their negative experiences, some students claimed they would not be using BoxMyDorm’s services again.

Vice President of Marketing for BoxMyDorm Brian Altomare stressed that the company would be “reviewing their final data” and working “to increase customer satisfaction” for the next season.

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