Superior Moving & Storage moved household goods and furniture from our Port St. Lucie FL Home to our Huntersville, NC home between July 14th and July 17th. The moving crew damaged approximately 20% of a full household truck load including a granite and marble table which was delivered in 18 pieces instead of 1 - totally destroyed. Most of this furniture was less than 3 years old, purchased new and in new condition.
The granite and marble table was broken right after it was loaded on the truck in FL. We called their main office right there that day and were told they would pay for the table since we purchased the replacement cost insurance. The driver also called them and admitted he broke the table on the truck by accident.
After two month of filing claims forms with pictures and receipts and never hearing back from them despite numerous phone calls to their 'claims' dept. And a letter to their President, they finally contacted us in Sept. 2006 denying the claim based on what I would call an attempt to 'get over' on a technicality. We paid an additional $1,043.00 for replacement cost insurance - a total waste of money. The only service received from their staff was smoke and mirrors including total mis-information.
After delivery in NC, with very little sleep for my wife and I, she sat down with the driver going over the inventory sheets while I examined the status of the furniture. I brought her a list I made of the damages and the driver gave her another sheet to fill out depicting all the damages, which she did. He told her the inventory sheet was not that important and the other form was. He also told us that we would have 60 days to file a formal claim. We filed the formal claim within 3 weeks providing before and after photos of every item damaged. Copies of original receipts for every item damaged. Then had to have the claim form notarized.
I believe all this was an attempt to discourage a claim being filed at all, and I further believe they had no intention of honoring the claim in the first place. Especially since they just admitted they did not have a seperate insurance carrier for this type of coverage but were 'self-insured'. If we had known they were self-insured we would have selected another moving company.
We are now in a position to take legal action against this company and perhaps some of the employees. Their practices are deceptive, misleading and totally oblivious to the consumer. The house in FL also sustained damage to the interior walls by the rough handling of one of the moving crew.
5 years ago my family moved from NJ to Florida, this was a time when the media was spinning many negative stories about moving scams and we decided to move ourselves. We rented the largest Penske truck (about 28' or 30') we could get. Myself, brother, and a few friends loaded the truck very carefully wrapping each item in furniture blankets. One of my friends accompanied me in the truck to FL. We unloaded the truck ourselves and not one item was broken or scratched, and we are not professional movers but all tax Accountants and IT Systems Analyst. Apparantly there are not many professional movers out there anyway.
The moral to the story for us is: We will never use another moving company again especially not Superior Moving & Storage. We will rent a truck, show up on time, carefully package and wrap every item. We will never again deal with the incompetance and deceipt which is apparantly rampant in the industry.
Our next course of action is to hire a competant Attorney that deals with this type of case and we are fully prepared and willing to pursue this through the Court system. Although, I think it is a shame to waste a Courts time with an open and shut case such as this.
My personal advice to people comtemplating a move is to rent a truck, get some friends and relatives together or hire some men from 'manpower' and do the move themselves. There are enough free booklets on how to do this including how to pack a truck correctly and protectively of belongings against damage.
If one still insists or has no choice than to hire a moving company go over every piece of furniture, open every box and note all damage - even if it takes hours to do. Do not sign anything without being absolutely sure it is the correct form - no matter what the driver tells you or insists that you hurry. Once the furniture is located in your new place let them wait as long as it takes you to completely inventory and note every single item damaged. If they try to give you another form - do fill it out, but also fill out any other form which calls for noting the damages.
Remember... It's your 'stuff', not the moving companies, their only interest is to turn a profit as quickly as possible. No matter what they promise or how nice they treat you - they are NOT your friends, nor do they care about you or your belongings.
Raymond
Huntersville, North Carolina
U.S.A.
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