They did a number of things that bothered me (like showing up half an hour early and charging me from there; breaking 2 pieces of my furniture, not paying attention to - or, perhaps because their English was limited, not being able to understand - the words "fragile - stack nothing on" about 5 of my boxes), but the kicker was that when they arrived, my laptop, in its case, was accounted for, and when they left the place they'd moved me to, it was not. I called the head mover, whose cellphone number I had, and he said they didn't have it. They reminded me that I'd checked the back of the moving truck before they left. I said yes, but they didn't give me the chance to check the cab of the truck. He said, "we don't do that, ma'am." He suggested I check the apartment they'd moved me out of. I raced over there and checked thoroughly. It was nowhere to be seen.
I called the company's office, and it was obvious they didn't care. They were actually kind of hostile and defensive about it. The woman I spoke with told me that (a) I should have taken the laptop with me in my car; (b) that the movers wouldn't steal anything; and (c) that I was welcome to go over to where they were and check out the truck again. She did not offer to look in the truck herself. (And come on - if you steal something, are you going to leave it in a visible place?) I told her I was going to call the police. She clearly wasn't happy about this, and offered again to let me come out and look in the truck, but I just said no.
The police officer who came to talk to me was very nice, and kind of laughed when I told him what the woman on the phone said about taking the laptop in my car. (Um, everything I have is valuable. The entire point of hiring movers is to have them move all of your things. If something would be a liability on their part to move, they should let you know up front that they can't/won't move it.)
There's really no way I can prove that they took the computer, which was in a carrying case on the floor of the livingroom of the place I was moving out of. The officer said he would contact the company and the movers, but I don't have a lot of hope that he'll get a confession out of any of them.
It is my hope that in writing this, I can help prevent others from going through this. It is extremely upsetting. I've lost all my music and pictures, along with important documents and sensitive information. I will get another computer, and life will go on, but no one should have to worry about a mover stealing from them.
One other seemingly dishonest thing: they claim to be Better Business Bureau accredited ("with an A rating" - ha), but when I looked them up on the BBB site, as I'm going to file a complaint there too, it said that the business was NOT accredited by them. Hm... False advertising much?
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