We contacted several movers over the phone and by internet in the weeks before our move. We received an estimate from Nationwide Relocation services for 6,700 lbs. They had the best price per pound so we secured their services. Big mistake.
The day before the move, "Bobby" from Ferarri Movers was frantically attempting to contact us using only our emergency numbers. Very clever since the emergency numbers we provided were our parents. They scared our parents and consequently us into believing they had to move our stuff a day early. We were unprepared for them to come a day early and my husband lost a day of work to come and help get the house ready for the movers.
Nationwide had contracted with Ferarri Movers to relocate our belongings from Kentucky to Maine. Two men from Ferarri showed up on our doorstep hours after they told us they would in a Penske truck with their company information scrawled on notebook paper masking taped to the door of the truck.
They walked through the house once and said they could already tell that we had "way more" than the 6,700 lbs. We had been quoted. They proceeded to give us a certified sale slip to verify the weight of the empty truck. The slip had no information on it that indicated the truck they were currently driving was the truck that had been weighed. (It simply said "truck 3" - there was no VIN or license plate number.)
The professional move we had been promised turned out to be throwing our belongings haphazardly into boxes. When we walked through the house to make sure they had packed up everything they had left items all over the house in drawers and in closets.
During the move we were repeatedly called by the owner of Ferarri movers (not Nationwide - who had promised that all aspects of coordinating the move would go through them to save us the hassle). Again, "Bobby" used strong-armed tactics to manipulate us into allowing them to deliver our belongings several days earlier than we had contractually agreed to.
Ordinarily, having our things early would have been great except that my husband had planned to work until Friday, drive up Saturday and Sunday and be available to receive our things as early as Monday. The movers had showed up on Wednesday and wanted to deliver our things Friday except that we weren't planning to be there until the following Monday (again, several days earlier than we had agreed).
We ended up having to make arrangements with my husbands parents to arrive at our new home to let the movers in and supervise the unloading of the truck.
My "favorite" part about this whole debacle was when they took our loaded truck to the weigh station to give us the final amount. Surprise! They had underestimated how much we had by almost half! Instead of the 6,700 lbs. They quoted over the phone, we had 12,000 lbs.
We had a difficult time believing that they could have underestimated that badly so we requested that after the movers unloaded our truck, they allow us to follow them to another weigh station to weigh the truck empty. Hard to believe they wouldn't agree.
While still at the weigh station in Kentucky, we called "Bobby" to express our dismay that our belongings really weighed twice what they had estimated. At this point Bobby told us he would give us a discount on the additional amount if we could give his drivers a couple hundred dollars in cash to make it to Maine. You have got to be kidding (we politely refused).
When we arrived in Maine we discovered all sorts of damage. Furniture that should have been blanket wrapped was scratched and dinged. Glass was broken. Brand new towels were bleached (they had used them to wrap a bottle of bleach - nice). The worst was a broken dining room table which had been a wedding gift that my father made by hand.
Not surprisingly, we couldn't get anyone on the phone from Nationwide when we started having problems. When we called to get a reimbursement for repairs to the table they sent us a form loaded with typos and no place or person to mail it back to. (Why bother since no one appears interested in helping us anyway?)
I firmly believe that the only reason that things weren't missing when they unloaded the truck was because we had thought to make a detailed list of the number of boxes from each room and a list of the un-boxed items they moved.
Do not do business with this company.
Kelly
Portland, Maine
U.S.A.
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