Boston University is not endorsing a moving company this summer but is instead suggesting multiple moving services on its website, following a delivery debacle last fall in which SmartMovers, then endorsed by BU, failed to deliver thousands of boxes to students because of a computer glitch.
“We’re not going to endorse any company, because there is no need to,” said BU spokesman Colin Riley, who said BU had a good relationship with SmartMovers until last September. “Students should be able to make the decision of choosing a company themselves.”
After delivery problems with the SmartMovers storage company in the fall, SmartMovers was bought by MadPackers, a national student storage and shipping company.
On the BU Info Center website, BU recommends several companies, but not MadPackers.
While BU will not endorse a company, the Boston College Student Agencies Storage Division is sponsoring Collegeboxes as its primary service provider this year.
BCSA member Chris Thompson said students can use other companies if they choose to do so, but only Collegeboxes is allowed to bring their moving trucks and supplies onto the BC campus.
BC had officially sponsored SmartMovers but switched to Collegeboxes after having similar troubles as BU last fall.
The main purpose of acquiring the contract was to get SmartMovers contacts, said MadPackers President Brian Altomare, who said SmartMovers’ former management essentially dissolved.
“The issues SmartMovers had have nothing to do with us,” Altomare said.
The problems SmartMovers faced last year were primarily technological, Altomare said. The computer systems did not process orders in the correct way, so the company could not manage its clients properly, he said.
StoreUrDorm, a company started less than a year ago by three Tufts University Dental School students who worked for SmartMovers during the summer glitch, has been advertising at BU since February. The company has around 100 BU students signed up.
Rob Schiller, a co-founder of StoreUrDorm, said the company’s trucks go to each client’s door instead of designating service locations around campus. It does not require a deposit or a minimum number of boxes bought.
“Students should dictate the terms of when and where their stuff is picked up and delivered,” Schiller said.