These businesses are shoddily operated by John and Stuart Organ in Helensburgh, NSW. A look at the facilities at their office (209 Parkes Street, Helensburgh) and storage is a reflection of what to expect. This business treats its customers as it does your furniture – with contempt. The conduct of the businesses is brutish, thuggish, and incompetent. Despite having been in the business for decades, the operation is amateurish at best.

These businesses transported my furniture in June 2011. Many items of my property was damaged (some photos representative of the damage are included below) and some items lost.

There has been an ongoing dispute regarding damages to my property and the remainder of their fees – which were withheld by myself until the dispute was resolved.

The result so far is that the police have had to be contacted regarding the aggressive behaviour, and a complaint lodged with the NSW Department of Fair Trading.

1. Aggressive, brutish, intimidating, and insulting behaviour towards customers.
2. Poor interpersonal and communication skills
3. Unprofessional standards of furniture removal practices – irresponsible, incompetence, negligence, laziness, indifference. Poor planning and organisation. Poor training of staff.
4. Damaged or missing items

On Wednesday 30^th November, one or more of the Organ brothers came to my home, to ‘discuss’ the outstanding account. What this amounted to was a thuggish and clumsy attempt to intimidate me at my own home. Presumably it was John Organ who bashed on my front door demanding payment. Eventually, John Organ ended his ‘discussion’ by:

Shouting at me:

He even managed to call my gentle 6 months old Border Collie puppy a coward:

He then challenged me to a physical confrontation with intent to assault me.

He was asked to leave the property before the police were called:

It was only after I produced a video camera and filmed him that he stopped his brutish tirade and left my property.

After turning his vehicle around, he blasted the horn and he and his associate jeered and yelled as they passed my home.

John Organ has clumsy communication skills there is only one way – his way. In discussions by telephone regarding balance of payment, John Organ talks to and over you. He cannot hold an intelligent conversation by listening and responding to the client’s point of view – he behaves like a rude and childish bully. For example, he insulted my intelligence during one ‘discussion’ about damaged caused by the incompetent treatment of my furniture. Regarding a deep gouge in the leg of a dining chair he said:

"Maybe your dog [my 10-week old puppy] scratched it when he was walking past"

After some time I ended the conversation, having felt very insulted.

Although not a removalist myself, I had worked as a labourer during summer vacations whilst studying at university for one of the largest companies in the business. The management and workers had high standards of care of the customers and their property, and was a pleasant place to work as we had pride in our work. So I have some experience of high professional standards and practices used in the industry.

Due to incompetence and negligence, many items were damaged, and some items went missing. Photos of some of the damaged items are shown below. For example, a son of one of the Organs’ packed my sofa cushions so that they were stained and had to be professionally cleaned. The cushions should clearly have been wrapped. Apparently he has been working at this occupation for some 11 years.

On the day of delivery to my new home, only two labourers were present to unload the truck, so I helped out by carrying many items myself. I had to supervise both the Organs’ son and the labourer to prevent damage. I had to note to both of them on a number of occasions improper practices like placing furniture on concrete and against a brick wall, furniture placed on muddy soil, etcetera.

Also, there was no packing list made when my property was packed, no previous damage noted, and no listing of each item. No list was used on delivery.

Also, when speaking with Mr. Stuart Organ he said that one of the responsibilities to be performed by the labourers was to assemble beds – however, I was left to do this alone.

Incidentally, while packing my property one of the labourers had a telephone conversation regarding his being the subject of an Apprehended Violence Order.

Birds of a feather…?

Photos of some of the damage are shown below. Offers were made by John Organ for him to personally repair the damaged items. He said that he would visit on a future trip to look at the furniture and discuss the matter but never showed.

My instincts were to have professional tradesman inspect the damaged items, or sent photos of the detail of the nature of the damage and then provide quotes.

The cost to replace missing items and items not repairable was estimated by me by looking for similar items on the Internet, and for what I had originally paid.