Before I moved from my studio to a two bedroom, I contacted Alpine Moving and Storage in New York City. I was quoted a price of $260 for the first three hours and $69 dollars for each hour after the first three. Alpine's advertisement in the Yellow Pages also promises two wardrobe boxes and ten book boxes free with the move. They confirmed this promise when I set up my moving date. I had expected to pay around $400 at the most since I had packed almost everything and was only moving 7 miles away from my studio. The movers arrived late and began repacking boxes that were already packed. I put a stop to that, but they still repacked some items and used quite a bit of bubble wrap and tape for the unpacked items. The three men took their time and complained about having to go out the back entrance of my building (co-op rule).
I first expected problems when I saw that they had left a huge amount of used packing tape in the street behind their truck. When we arrived at my new apt., they refused to move anything out of the truck until I had paid them in full. They charged me $3.00 for every item that was moved and additional charges for bubble wrap, tape, and each box that they had used. The total was $900!!! I didn't have enough cash with me (they only accept cash or certified check) and had to go to an ATM. They moved half of my belongings into my apt. And stopped until I paid them in full.
To increase the time the job took, they began to unpack my boxes. I stopped them from unpacking and demanded they move the rest of my items in the apt. After they left, I found some items that didn't belong to me in some of the boxes they had packed... No doubt belonging to another sucker in this moving scam. Don't get taken by these scam artists.
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