Filing Moving Claims Part II

     My last post about filing claims talked about the process up until submitting the final claim. Here is what needs to happen next! Once that final red “submit claim” button is pushed you will receive an email stating that the moving company has received it, this may take a few days. If you have not received a response about your submitted claim call your moving company to confirm whether or not they received it. The moving company will then make an appointment with you to send someone out to look at and take pictures of all the damaged items. For some reason they need their own photos even after you spent all that time submitting them yourself

     For our claims process, after the guy came to look at our items I believe it took about 2 weeks to receive notice that the moving company had given us an offer on our items. The offer can be seen on the DPS website where you submitted the claim. On each item it will show how much you asked for it and how much the moving company is willing to offer. Now it’s up to you to decide if you think you got what you wanted. The next step is VERY important! You have to accept EACH offer individually. So if you have 15 items you have to click on all 15 items one at a time and click “accept offer.” If you don’t accept the offer on one item you will not get the money for it. Lucky for us the money we were offered was reasonable so I did not have to counter offer anything so I don’t have much information on that. I do know that if you do counter offer an item you’ll need to provide well written explanation as to why you should get more money for that particular item.

     The items that can be repaired will have an offer of a repair price. This is their estimate on how much it would cost to fix/repair your item. If you accept the offer it does not mean you have to repair it. We had 2 chips in our living room TV stand but you can’t see it unless I point it out. The TV stand was 100 dollars. They offered us 75 dollars to have it repaired. It was not worth the haste of finding a repair person. So we accepted the offer and ended up pocketing 75% of the original value. Now is the right thing to do? Some would say no and that that money if given to you for a repair. But honestly, that TV stand is going to go through another overseas move and could get damaged again. So when looking at the amount you are offered take into consideration how much you paid for it and what percentage they’re actually offering you.

     Now once you’ve accepted the offer on EACH ITEM you will again get another response from the moving company. We got an email around 5 days after accepting our offer asking for our address. About 2 weeks later we received a check in the mail. Our claims process if finally 100% over and I can finally throw out our old broken couch that is hogging up the garage space! 

Here is a small recap of the process. 

This is actually taken directly from the claims page! 

1)      You should notify the Transportation Service Provider (TSP) [the Moving Company] of any loss or damage to your personal property within 75 days of the delivery of your shipment. 

2)      There are two ways to notify the Moving Company of any loss or damage to your personal property, but only one way to file your claim. 

               A.  Loss and Damage Report. Using forms provided by the Moving Company, you can notify them of your loss or damage at the time of delivery and/or after the delivery. You can also file a loss/damage report in the DPS claims module. NOTE: You do not have to file a loss/damage report as long as you file your claim within 75 days of the delivery of your shipment. Submitting a loss/damage report does not constitute filing a claim. 

              B.  Filing your claim. You must file your claim in the DPS claims module. TO prepare to file your claim, you will need to know what items were lost or damaged to include the inventory number, year of purchase and purchase cost. Pictures of damaged items can be uploaded into the DPS claims module. Once your claim has been submitted, your Moving Company will contact you with an email within 30 days to complete the claims process. 

3)       Step by Step instructions for both loss/damage report notification and how to file your claim are located at www.move.mil

Traveling with Kids

     I recently had a fellow Army wife send me a message stating that it's much easier and less expensive for my husband and I to travel here in Europe because we don't have children. That is very true! I don't know what it's like and it doesn't usually cross my mind. I don't think about paying for each child, or where a good restaurant is that will have kid friendly food. I don't think about the extra bags and luggage needed or needing to find a restroom to change diapers. So although I don't have any personal experience traveling with children I did find some great websites with some "traveling with kids" tips. 

Exploring Bavaria, Germany

Traveling to Europe 

Traveling with Kids: Facing my fears in Europe

Europe with Kids: The Ultimate Guide 

Europe with Kids

Filing Moving Claims Process

       If you received anything that was broken, damaged or lost through the moving process you can claim those items to either have them repaired or replaced. This process can take a while so once your HHG are delivered unpack everything as soon as you can. You have 70 days from day of delivery to start the initial claims process. Make a list of all items that are broken, damaged or lost. Write a small description about what happened to it. For example, if your kitchen table in scratched you would write "kitchen table scratched on tabletop, left end of the table." While you are going through each item be sure to take pictures of the damage and write down the inventory number. You know, those annoying little stickers on every piece of furniture that you find years after your move... You will later use these when finishing the claim. 
       Call the claims office, usually where JAG is located (legal office), to see if you need an appointment. The first time you go in be sure you have ALL paperwork from the move. Inventory of all items, POA's, orders and the paper you signed from the movers on the day of delivery. Now the next step may vary depending on where you are located. Some places will help you get started so you understand how the website for filing claims works. Other locations may not help at all or they may do every step for you. 
        Here at Vilseck, the claims office showed me how to work the website so I could then finish the claim on my own. The DPS website can be a little frustrating so be sure you ask questions to make sure you understand the process. I have heard the DPS website will not work on a Mac but I do know someone who had theirs work. Also, on a PC you will need to open everything in Internet Explorer, it will not work in Firefox or Chrome. 
       Now the first step is going to be adding all the items that were broken, damaged or lost. At this time you'll only be filling out the item name, description of what happened and the inventory number. The claims office at Vilseck does all of this with you. Once all items are entered then you have finally started the claims process. Remember to get this done within 70 days of delivery!

          After that list is turned in you have 9 months to complete the claims process. All of this has to be completed through the DPS website. A spouse can file the claim but the claims people will not contact the spouse/dependent because the move was done under the sponsor’s name. So all emails regarding the claim will be sent to the sponsor. In this next part of the claim you will be adding detail to each item such as serial numbers, pictures, and copies of receipts. You will also add in the year the item was purchased and what amount you are claiming. For example, we had a desk broken into pieces. I looked up the desk online and found the exact same one. I claimed the exact amount of what the desk was being sold for. If you are unsure of how much an item is research it to find the value of what it’s worth. If you don’t tell them what the item was worth or what it looked like they will research the cheapest one and pay you for that. I had hand painted wine glasses broken. They were a gift so I don't know how much they were. I went onto Etsy and found some that were similar and claimed a price that they were being sold for. 

         You will fill all of this info out for each item (don't forget to attach those pictures). Once every item has been completed you will submit the final claim. DO NOT click the red "submit claim" button until you are 100% sure everything is done. You can not go back to fix it. Once you have submitted the final claim you should get an email stating that the moving company has received it (it may take a few days). They will then send someone to your house to look at all your items. They will be looking to see if the item can be repaired. Depending on what happened to the item you will either get a replacement amount or a small amount to get it repaired.
       Once the claims person takes a look at all the items they will send you an offer of how much you should get back to either replace or repair your items. You CAN counter offer this! If you don’t agree with the amount, argue it!

Reminder: Do not throw away any items until the claims process is complete. All items will need to be looked at before sending an offer.

And this is where the claims process has stopped for me. We are currently waiting on an offer!  

Receiving your POV

Once you arrive in Germany one of the first things on your mind is probably "where is my car?" It can be very frustrating wondering where it is when you’re sitting in the hotel with nowhere to go. You can track your car from status from www.whereismypov.com. You will need to enter the sponsors last name and his/her social or order# given to you by the VPC when you dropped it off. When your car has arrived you will receive an email that it’s ready for pick up. If you call asking for updates they will ask "have you received an email yet?"  Also, once your car has arrived in Germany and is on a truck to your location it will not tell you where it is. It will only tell you it arrived at the port.

Once you receive the email you will need to take ALL your POV paperwork from shipping it with you to pick it up (especially the POA). You cannot pick up your car unless you have your German drivers license so be sure you have that. The VPC to pick up your car may not be at your exact location. For example, if you're stationed at Vilseck, your car will be at the Grafenwoher VPC. When you go to pick it up you will need to go to the registration office first (expect to wait a little bit, the earlier the better) and tell them your car is ready to be picked up. They have to issue you temporary license plates first just so you can drive it out of the parking lot. They will look at your paperwork, drivers license and you must pay either 15 or 30 dollars (sorry, I can't remember) and then they will issue you a new German registration. Make sure you have both the soldier and spouse name on the registration. You need both names on it so both names can be on the gas ration card. Once you have the registration you can go to the actual VPC office and show them you have the registration and temporary plates. This is where they will need your POA if you have one. They will take you to your car where you personally look it over to make sure there are no scratches or dents that weren't previously there. If there are, be sure to tell them and they will document it (this will later be taken to the claims office). Their paper to document dents and scratches is carbon copy paper, be sure to write hard enough to copy through. If the claims office can't read it they will have to go through a process to get the original. After you inspect the car they will place the temporary places on. You then have 30 days to get your car inspected on post by the German inspection center. The inspection itself will only take about 15 minutes but the line to get the inspection could be very long so prepare to wait. Once your car has been inspected and passed you will then go back to the registration office, the first place, and they will issue you the official license plates. Once you have those you have freedom! Enjoy exploring!

German drivers license

If you want to drive in Germany you must first have a valid stateside drivers license. If you are stateside right now and your license is close to expiring get it renewed! Once you get here you will need to go to the drivers class, which is about 2 hours long. Immediately after the class they give you the test. Good old fashion pencil and paper test! The class goes over or reviews about 98% of what is on the test but it’s important you study before the class. You can go by the drivers test office and ask for a book to study. The signs are one of the most important parts of the test. If you don’t like to study the least you should do is learn the signs. You will not be able to learn them all in the 2 hour class. Once you pass your test they give you a 90 day temporary license (which is good to drive on) and they will mail you an official German license in about 2 weeks.

Depending on your location, the times available to take the drivers test will vary. At Vileck they say civilians take them only on Thursdays. The other days are for soldiers and in-processing groups. The sooner you get your license the better! Once your car arrives you want to be able to pick it up! 

Don't stress about the test. It's not that hard. Most of it is common sense and very similar the driving in the states. Just learn those signs and you'll be fine!

 

        Hubs and I after we passed our driving test (horrible picture). 

                      We were excited to get out and explore!

  

Receiving HHG and UB

Receiving your HHG and UB in Germany can be a little overwhelming. All these boxes coming into the house and people that don't speak English constantly asking "where does this go?" If you don’t know any German you might want to try to learn these words: bedroom, kitchen, living room, office, bathroom, 1^st floor, 2^nd floor, one, two , three and four. Most Germans speak English but if they don’t speak it they usually understand it. But that is not the case for all of them. You may have movers that can’t understand anything and you will have boxes in all the wrong rooms.  They might offer to unpack everything, mine did not, meaning they will take everything out of a box and lay it on the floor leaving you with a huge mess! Take your time unpacking your items. You can schedule a time later for the moving company to come back and pick up the boxes and paper. 

Once they unload everything it's time to sign away! Be sure to read all the paperwork before signing it. If you have a high value item list make sure you have physically seen all those items before you sign for it. When my movers came they helped me unpack a few boxes to find those high value items. Make sure you ask the movers to also put tables, chairs, and beds together. They may not do it unless you ask. If you have broken furniture do not throw it away. You have to keep all broken and damaged items for the claims process. Unfortunately you have to keep it until the claims process is finished.  

My HHG and UB were delivered on the same day. They should unload one shipment and have you sign papers for it then unload the second shipment. It's important to keep the 2 shipments separate in case something is damaged. You'll need to know if it came from HHG or UB. Also, just a small tip or reminder, make sure you unwrap everything in the box. I accidentally threw out my spoon rest that was tightly wrapped in the bottom of a box. 

Tipping the movers is not necessary but is often done. Providing water and maybe a snack is a good way to go!