Boston University students who stored their belongings with SmartMovers, a storage and shipping company endorsed by BU, were left in the lurch last weekend when a glitch in the company’s new computer system left “thousands and thousands of packages” unmoved at the company’s warehouse.
Housing Director Marc Robillard said university officials were told SmartMovers’ computer system did not record orders correctly and the company had also encountered a labor problem, leaving it short-staffed.
“We didn’t like hearing either of those things,” he said.
Robillard said the university opted to contract other moving companies to go to the SmartMovers warehouse, retrieve the belongings of BU students and bring the boxes back to campus.
“We have them on campus at 1019 Comm. Ave.,” he said. “We’re notifying students as we get them. We’ve got everything here. We’ve organized this as best we can.”
SmartMovers owner Larry Byron said the university will be compensated for moving expenses incurred as a result of the glitch.
“We implemented a new automated system this year, and we found very late in the process that there were some errors occurring,” he said. “Dates people selected were defaulting to other dates. When you have an error like that, it just magnifies..”
Byron said most of the deliveries are completed, although there are still some packages at 1019 Commonwealth Ave.
“Obviously, we’ve worked with the university for a long time, and they worked with us to move it all around,” he said. “It’s a very stressful time for people moving in, so I think it added to the stress. I think there was a lot of frustration, but we caught up and everybody’s getting their stuff.”
Byron sent an email Sept. 2 to students who had used the SmartMovers service apologizing for the new computer system that “was incorrectly recording delivery dates.” Byron said it has “caused a tremendous backup and less than stellar servivce [sic].”
College of Arts and Sciences junior Ashley Aguilar picked up her boxes at Warren Towers on Monday, six days after she was scheduled to receive the packages. Aguilar said she had to buy toiletries and other items while waiting for the boxes to arrive.
“This entire year has been screwy with them,” she said. “I used SmartMovers to store [my things] last year because they were cheaper … but this year was complete chaos.”
Byron said the shipping problem is the first major issue the 11-year old company has faced.
“It’s an unfortunate situation that obviously we’re never going to let happen again,” he said. “Personally, I feel terrible.”
The company has not formally announced any means of compensating affected students, but Byron said students are welcome to call the number listed on the company’s website, SmartMovers.com, to request compensation.
However, Daily Free Press reporters were unable to reach anyone at the number after several attempts. The company voice mail would not accept messages.
“Our reputation is very important and we try to do everything we can,” Byron said. “People were very gracious and understanding. Students were just fabulous, very understanding. The school was fantastic. They’re a fabulous organization–BU. And everybody pitched in.”
BU spokesman Colin Riley said SmartMovers has been providing services to BU students for more than five years and has had a positive track record. He said university officials have not decided whether to continue endorsing SmartMovers. The university receives no compensation for the endorsement.
“We’ll evaluate this situation before deciding how we proceed,” he said. “It may be that we will not endorse or recommend any particular business in the future. It was unfortunate that any student was adversely affected and not able to receive the service they expected.”