After my husband died suddenly while moving me back to Naperville, IL, I was left to sell our home in NC in a depressed market. Having lost approximate $50,000 on the home, I contacted several movers to move our home furnishings to IL. I needed storage time and contacted the major van lines and also Advanced listed on the internet. Advanced gave me a quote in line with the major van lines and included 30-days free storage. The original quote was $3,200.
The movers were four hours late arriving at my NC home. They added on costs for packing materials, althought I had packed everything on the previous three weekends, flying to NC each weekend. They said it appeared I had more furniture than they had planned on and the price would probably be a little higher.By the time they finished loading the van to capacity, they said the remainder of the items would have to be left behind. They did not ask me which items I would prefer to be left. The new bill was $7,000. I was told they would accept a gratuity for how hard they worked. Fearing for my furniture, I tipped each worker.
They asked me when I wanted the furniture delivered. When I stated I didn't have an exact date because my new residence was being completed, they said to call and give 48 hours notice. When I did call they said I would have to give them a "window" of 4-5 days. When they finally arrived, seven hours late, they unloaded my furniture in the dark until midnight when I finally ordered them out of my home when they couldn't find the legs to my dining room table. (They had been shoved into a box with garen shovels and fishing poles with no padding or protection.) They were half-way through unloading with they said there would be an additional charged for the stairs to the second level. I told them "no way".
When they were "attempting" to reassembling the bed (four poster, canopy) they were at a complete loss and had no idea where to begin. I discovered later that when it was disassembled in NC the men literally ripped the pieces apart without unscrewing them. They wood pieces were broken in two in many of the parts.
The bookshelves had the shelves ripped off the top and bottom. All four had to be thrown out with many more pieces of furniture that were no longer usable.
The worst of the damage was to the larger wood pieces, for example, the buffet, hutch, and dining room table; the chest of drawers and dresser to the master bedroom; the wood desk; all of these suffered large gouges and scrapes. One chair to the dining room set had the "wing" of the back broken in half.
Of the pieces left behind were the coffee table that matched the end tables, my son's black-belt karate trophy (my son is now gone and this was of specific sentimental value to me), chairs.
As I had a flight out the next day and the house was due to close four days later, I had no choice in disposing of the items left.in fact, my realtor charged me a fee on closing to remove my own items for trash.
When I reported the damage to Advanced Moving, I was told to submit the claim with pictures. I did. Whenever I called, which was continuously for over a month, I was hung-up on; put on hold up to 45 minutes and then hung-up on; told it was someone else's department; told to send my claim — which I had done. Under the stress of losing my husband, I gave up on the money rather than my sanity and my life.
If there is ANY way I can help put these people out of business, PLEASE let me know, and I will assist in any way I can. They are crooks, criminals, dishonest, and all the other adjectives used to descibe evil persons.
Pamela
Naperville, Illinois
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