A Bellhop customer has gone viral on TikTok for sharing her “traumatic experience” with hiring the company for her cross-country move.
In a video posted on Sept. 7, TikTok user Shohreh Davoodi (@shohrehdavoodi) alleges the moving company’s employees damaged almost all of her furniture, made misogynistic jokes, and tried to silence her with a non-disparagement clause.
She warns others not to use the company and later explains how she managed to get a full refund through her bank.
In the video, Davoodi notes that she chose Bellhop because they had a modern website, reasonable rates, great reviews, and a guarantee that her stuff would be delivered within two days.
@shohrehdavoodi Rest in pieces, beautiful furniture. 😭 This negative review is very much outside of my usual content realm, but we had such a horrendous experience with Bellhop that I felt like it was important to use my platform to warn other people away from this company. If you had a positive experience with them, lucky you! That was not the case for us, and future moves will forever dredge up for us how horrible this one was. And yes, I can back up everything in this video with receipts. Seeing as my bank awarded me a full refund, I think the validity of our experience is not in question here. If you want to know how you can support me, you can sign up for my newsletter, The Queer Agenda, or send me something from my Amazon Wishlist (both are 🔗ed in my bio). #MovingHorrorStory #MovingHorrorStories #CrossCountryMove #NegativeReview ♬ original sound – Shohreh Davoodi 🏳️🌈
However, she soon realized that the company was not as professional as it seemed. She claims the team in Austin, Texas, where she was moving from, was inexperienced and careless with her furniture, even breaking her bedside table. “The doors fell out onto the concrete and literally cracked in front of me,” Davoodi remarks in the video.
On-screen, she showed photos of how poorly the trucks were packed, noting heavy items were on top of fragile ones, and some items were not wrapped or padded at all.
“My partner’s heavy guitar amp is placed on top of my padded keyboard case which has the keyboard inside and had pieces of tape all over it that said fragile,” she adds.
Davoodi says she begged the movers to wrap her furniture properly, but they reportedly ignored her requests.
When she arrived in Denver, her destination, she faced additional issues with Bellhop. Davoodi says only two of the six movers she hired showed up. Two more eventually came, but Davoodi alleges one of them was “so high it was like he wasn’t there at all.”
She continues to say: “The trucks were packed so poorly that when the crew in Denver opened them, they immediately started taking pictures of how badly everything was laid out so that they wouldn’t be held responsible for any damage.”
Davoodi claims about 90% of her furniture was damaged in some way, and showed examples of scratches, dents, holes, and rips on various items.
The TikToker also says one of the truck drivers made sexist jokes to her and her partner, and that a valuable item was stolen from her partner’s backpack. She reportedly filed a police report for the theft.
Davoodi says she contacted Bellhop to complain about the service and demand a discount after her experience in Austin. The company reportedly apologized and said they would wait until the end of the move to assess the damage and offer a refund.
However, Davoodi alleges that the company charged her the full amount without her consent and tried to make her sign an agreement with a non-disparagement clause that would prevent her from speaking about the company negatively. She refused to sign it and decided to dispute the charge with her bank instead. She says she provided all the documentation she had and got a full refund after six weeks.
“Overall our move was an extremely traumatic experience for us. It still sucks to walk throughout the house and see all the damage to our furniture. If this video can stop even one person from hiring Bellhop for their move, it will have been worth it to make so please, please do not use Bellhop if you want to move,” Davoodi concluded the video.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Bellhop and Davoodi via email for comment, but was not met with a reply in time for publication.
