I first contacted Advanced Moving System on 20th June. I had entered my details into www.getamover.com and waited for interested movers to contact me.
Advanced Moving sent an estimate. I called the company and spoke to a sales representative called Suzanne Schwedhelm. She said that she could arrange the move, that they were very experienced. I sent Suzanne a detailed list of all the furniture that had to be moved, and she re-quoted based on the itemized list saying that we would require 1,508 cu. Ft. Of space, and this included a generous allocation of space for boxes. If you look at their website, it shows a big moving truck clearly marked with Advanced Moving Systems on the side, just what you would expect to see from a professional moving company.
The rate per cu. Ft. Was higher than other quotes, so when I told her this, she quickly reduced the cost to remain competitive. I accepted this quote and paid a deposit by credit card. I spoke to Suzanne a number of times, asking questions about the move and she kept stating that the movers were very experienced, and that the people chosen to undertake our move had 10 years of experience. I arranged with Suzanne that the move should take place on 18th July and that the furniture would be delivered to the new location at approximately 11:00 pm the same day. Suzanne assured me that the movers could pack everything up quickly and would be ready to start the drive to North Carolina by 1:00 pm.
The movers arrived on the morning of 18th July in a small Ryder rental truck. There were three men, all young Israeli's who where traveling the world after finishing their national service in the Israeli army. I estimate their age to be between 21 and 25, certainly not likely to have the 10 years experience claimed. Most items had been packed into boxes, with the exception of the furniture. The packing of the furniture had been included in the quote supplied. They started loading the van, and said that they hadn't been told that delivery had been arranged for the same day. They said that they would not be finished loading until late afternoon.
I had to pay 50% of the moving quote by credit card before the loading started. I saw the movers start to list all the furniture and the boxes. I thought it strange that on their inventory they noted that every piece of furniture was scratched'.
Because they would not be finished until late in the day, they advised me to leave for North Carolina. I had to drive down to the new house to meet my wife and children, and be ready for the furniture to arrive. The movers assured me that everything was ok, they would load up and then drive down.
I started the 10 hour drive to North Carolina. At about 5:00 pm, the movers called to say that they were unable to disconnect the gas clothes dryer. I told them to leave it and get on with the rest of the packing. They called back later to say that they had loaded everything onto the van and told me that they would be requiring a total of $8,100. When I complained that I didn't have that amount as their quote had been for $3,770, the movers said Pay $8,100 or you don't get your belongings back.
I spoke to Jonathon Rokah at their head office and eventually they agreed to reduce the cost to $7,100. It was basically a case of How much money can you get together and that is what we will charge you.
It now became clear as to why they were so quick to reduce their cost per cu. Ft. Quote. They knew that they had deliberately underestimated their quote, but the small print in their contract, which was first, supplied on the day of moving states that excess cu. Ft. Are charged at a much higher rate, in our case, $4.55 per cu. Ft. Against the original charge of $2.50 per cu. Ft. The original estimate is meaningless, and from their point of view should be as low as possible. They know that they will make their money from the excess that they know they can make from the move. Also take a look at the boxes as they are unpacked. We found boxes that were half full, and the empty part of the box was filled with bubble wrap, bubble wrap that you have been charged for at $2 per foot. You pay for the bubble wrap and you pay for the empty space that they move for you. A great little moneymaker for them. Look at the charges for tape that they use. We were charged $200 for sticky tape. This tape was used to destroy the finish on our furniture, so we pay for the tape, and we then have to discard the furniture destroyed by the indiscriminate use of the tape. Each roll of tape contains about 50 meters of tape. We were charged for about 1.5 miles of tape!
The movers arrived at the new house at 9:30 am on 19th July. The hired Ryder truck had our bikes strapped to the cab roof, and our bed mattresses were strapped to the outside of the tailgate.
They parked the van and refused to unload anything until their manager had confirmed to them that they had received all of the money, which had to be supplied in a mixture of cash, credit cards and a Western Union money transfer. They also insisted that we sign a new contract with the new amount before they would unload anything.
Once they had their money, they started to unload and bring the furniture in. It was soon apparent that damage had been caused to our furniture because it was not wrapped as stated in their original quote. One desk was broken beyond repair, although they had tried to tape it back together again, obviously hoping that we wouldn't notice. Another desk had deep gouges in the surfaces, and was ruined by the movers taping all the drawers shut. This meant that when the tape was removed, the surface of the desk came off with the tape. The microwave oven had large dents in the sides and the case is so distorted that the unit rocks. The large TV unit had one leg broken off, a shelf pushed through the side and the tape used to keep the doors closed once again took the surface off the unit. The large king size bed headboard has a deep gouge in the middle of it. The dining table has a cut about one inch long on the edge of the top, and all six chairs suffered differing amounts of damage. When the movers were asked about the broken and damaged furniture, they said that the NJ Turnpike was very bumpy and there was nothing they could do about it. The fact that most of the furniture wasn't wrapped and protected as the company had promised was the reason why the damage occurred.
The mover dropped the furniture in the rooms, unloaded the boxes in the garage, left the inventory list and left hurriedly. When I looked at the inventory list, all the furniture that had been damaged in transit had mysteriously been noted as broken. They had actually changed the inventory list AFTER delivery to reflect the damage that they had caused. This was presumably an attempt to avoid having to pay an insurance claim by alleging that the furniture was broken before they loaded it. Now that really makes sense doesn't it, to pay to move broken furniture to a new house!
Worse was to come when we realized that some items were missing. What happened to them became clear when the landlord of our old apartment called to say that he had taken all the items left behind and thrown them out for garbage collection. This included a floor lamp and some plastic items, but we don't know for sure what was left behind. The landlord also told us that the movers had caused $600 of damage to the apartment walls in the stairwell. The landlord knew that this damage was not there before we moved out as he had inspected the property the day before. The landlord kept our security deposit to cover the damage to the walls and to cover the cost of removing the items left behind. We are still not sure if the landlord will pursue us for any further damage.
An insurance claim was sent to Advanced Moving on 6th August for a total of $2549.14. Many hours were spent on hold trying to speak to someone about the problems. Most of the time was spent on hold, but occasionally a person asked what the problem was and was rude. I remember a man saying that I was wrong for trying to speak to Jonathon because You don't ask to speak to Bill Gates because you computer isn't working, in the end, this rude man put me through to Jonathan anyway. Jonathon is no Bill Gates, just a small time crook. Repeated phone calls and messages about the claim went unanswered until a response was finally received on 2nd October. Their offer in response to the claim was $60. When I replied and rejected the offer, this was their response.
Well, that really would be your opinion now wouldn't it? This is our offer, if you're not willing to accept, take us to small claims court. Have a great day:)!
Someone called Odelia Vale seems to be employed to dismiss all insurance claims with a remarkable lack of customer service skills and ability to do simple mathematics.
A search for Advanced Moving shows that we are not the only one's to be conned, look at the Better Business Bureau. You will see that the BBS have received numerous complaints about this company, but the company refuses to respond to the BBS's questions.
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