My wife and I recently moved from Monterey, CA to San Antonio, TX. Since I am in the military, I had to move with almost no notice. Still, my wife and I researched several companies. We needed our things put into storage, and then moved to TX.
When we originally called to get an estimate for this company, we were told it would cost roughly $1700.00. We found that to be the best deal. As this company is located near L.A., it is a long drive to Monterey, but the movers showed up 3 hours later than they told us. When they arrived and we started to put the numbers down on paper, the total balooned to $3500.00! Since my wife and I were in a hurry (we had to leave the next day), we had no choice but to accept. We contracted out the move and 4 months of storage. We paid $2000 up front, and agreed to pay the other $1500 upon delivery. The lead mover, who incidentally is also the man running the buisness, said they only take cash or postal money orders for the last payment. Nothing else.
Three months into the storage, another charge shoed up on my credit card. Though we had authorized the first $ we did not authorize this, and when we called, we were also told that we had only paid for three months of storage and the time was up, so they had already loaded our things onto the truck in preparation of shipping it then. I had to tell them to unload it, and they charged us for another month. As I was sent somewhere else for 4 months by the military, I couldn't really argue with him too much then.
When we finally had the things delivered, there were two guys who showed up. They told us that they were hired by this company to simply drive the truck, unload the stuff and collect the money. When we opened the truck, we found our things to be packe horrendously. As we unpacked we found more. Every box we had was crushed, and ripped. Some had obviously been opened and looked through, and some no longer had lids, or there were loose items (clothing) just thrown into the truck without a box. Our brand-new futon ($700) was destroyed—it was rusted, dented, scratched, there were bolts missing and pieces broken. It was brand-new when they took it, now it is trash. My wife's bicycle and my own (totalling over $800) were gone. Our computer desk was broken, and is no longer usable. Our dresser, also brand-new ($250) had all the legs broken off, and serious damage to the piece so that it is not even usable. Our washer-dryer combo ($500) has a large dent on the front and one of the dials doesn't work anymore. Our two endtables are missing. Not to mention, picture frames, dishes and other things damaged or destroyed.
The drivers were very friendly and helpful. They gave me their contact information and agreed to make a statement about the condition of our things when they arrived. They told me that this was the first (and last) time they would work for this guy; he had cheated them out of some money. They let me see the inventory list of our things, and what I found is that the inventory list (we weren't given a copy at the beginning) was incomplete. It was a different inventory list than was made 4 months prior. All of our missing items were not on the list!
I called the company, and they gave me the number to some claims office in Arizona who handles all of their claims. As my things were delivered on a Saturday, the office was not open until Monday. I did not pay the drivers the remaining money, since not all of my belongings had arrived. Only after two days (without payment) did the man running the company tell me that there was a break-in 3 weeks prior and that the missing items had been stolen. He claimed there was a police report filed. I mentioned nothing to that point about the inventory list.
I will update this as soon as I hear from them, and I hope that they can resolve my problem, but until they do, I would urge everyone to not use this company, lest this happen to you.
Trevor
San Antonio, Texas
U.S.A.
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