BungoBox

If you have flexibility in your moving schedule, BungoBox is fine. The boxes are much better than cardboard and they force you to pack and unpack on a schedule. However, if you expect the BungoBox workers to have a basic understanding of customer service, you might be disappointed.

I ordered my boxes from BungoBox and set my delivery time a month in advance–I picked the Monday before a small Thursday move and a massive Friday move. On the website, I indicated my first preference for the 8-10 a.m. window and my second preference for a 10 a.m.-12 p.m. window. I picked those windows on purpose–I had a lot going on, and needed all day Monday to pack. I was a little nervous, so I called the corporate offices to ask a bunch of questions about the deliveries and cancellation policy. The rep told me that my delivery window would be confirmed a day or two before the delivery date, and assured me that everything would go as planned. I didn’t hear anything from them after I confirmed my order.

At 9:47 p.m. on the Sunday before the delivery (about 10 hours before my requested 8-10 a.m. window), I received an email from their admin asking if I “had any flexibility” because “[u]nfortunately, we will not be in your area tomorrow until 1-3 p.m.” The email went on to say, “I just learned that we are out of wardrobes until Tuesday/Wednesday of this week. As soon as the wardrobes come in we will schedule another delivery for the wardrobes.” The email ended, “Please let me know if this new time frame works for you.” I was livid. There was no apology for or effort to compensate for the gross inconvenience, and because the notice came so late, there was no way for me to make alternate arrangements.

I fired back an email noting that her proposal didn’t “work for me,” pointing out that if I had wanted an afternoon delivery and no wardrobe boxes until Tuesday/Wednesday, I would have scheduled it that way in the first place. I asked that a manager contact me immediately. The admin “apologize[d] for the lateness” in her terse reply email 15 minutes later, but complained, “I have had to coordinate 17 stops for tomorrow. I was merely asking if you had any flexibility with your schedule. As you do not, I can put you as the first delivery tomorrow morning.Our driver can be at your location between 7:30am – 9:30am. I just found out about the shortage of the wardrobes. What I can do is offer them to you at half-off.” This effectively made me out to be the bad guy because I wanted them to honor their contractual obligations after I had paid in advance. And how is it my fault you have to work?!? This was even more offensive than the first email.

I was in the middle of writing a frustrated reply when I received a call from the manager. He explained that another customer had the wardrobes designated for me, and he would need to go to their distribution center in Pennsylvania to fulfill my order. He apologized for his admin’s behavior and for the late notice, explaining that he was at an important family function when the issue with the wardrobes became apparent, and that they had sent notification as soon as they could. He was very sympathetic when I pointed out that moving was stressful enough even when everything goes right, and their customer service approach regarding service interruptions should account for that. To his credit, he scheduled us for our preferred early morning window for the boxes. He personally went to Pennsylvania and delivered our wardrobe boxes separately on Monday afternoon.

Return delivery was a different fiasco. The website let us schedule pickup for Memorial Day, but we were told later that the company would be closed that day, so we needed to reschedule that. The person they sent to pick up the boxes arrived on time and was cordial and professional, but he neglected to pick up the troublesome wardrobe boxes. (In his defense, the garage was pretty messy because of our move, but he didn’t have any inventory or a list to ensure he had all of the items. In retrospect, considering this lax business practice, it is unsurprising that there were no wardrobes available for my initial order.) I immediately emailed the admin to let her know about the situation and schedule a pickup. I never heard from her. A week later, I texted the manager saying that I would discard the boxes because I had not heard back, and he scheduled the pickup.

I like the convenience and durability of ready-to-go moving containers rather than flimsy cardboard boxes that need to be assembled and carefully stacked. The product is just fine; the problem was the logistics. We needed four deliveries instead of the expected two. I recognize that the manager did his level best to fix things, but all of these problems should have and could have been handled better before it got to his level. There are other companies that offer this service, and I will be trying one (or all) of them before even thinking about coming back to BungoBox.