Got a bid from Budget as well as several other companies to move my family from the East coast to the Midwest. Needed a full service company that could handle everything as I was being deployed to the Middle East (again).
Because I was paying for the move myself I tried to find the best price available. Budget came in nearly $4K lower than everyone else.
You get what you pay for, or in this case you get much less than you pay for.
Spent nearly 2hrs on the phone with the rep "Max White" (have cell phone call log to prove this) going over everything in great detail to include pickup and delivery dates and locations. Even walked around the house with a tape measure so I could give him exact details descriptions and weights on the items being shipped.
Got the binding estimate which states the dates for pickup, the dates for delivery, the agreement that they would take care of disassembly where necessary, packaging, packing, shipping, unpacking and reassembling of everything and how much everything would cost. I trusted that Max knew what he was doing as far as estimating weight (all of our previous moving companies did just fine). He even told me that all my wife would have to do is sit back and watch it all happen. That was my first mistake.
Budget took my deposit of almost $3K then turned it over to "Preferred Moving Group" for the actual work. Second mistake
The moving crew showed up 3 days early and consisted of one Middle Eastern guy who acted like he was superior to my wife even after she bought Pizza for everyone just to be nice (big mistake) and 3 or 4 illegals that didnt speak english.
They worked hard but they packed everything as if it was being delivered to a landfill. Then they ran out of room on the truck and said we were over our weight limit. I had to call all the way from Bagram Afghanistan to talk to their boss Alex who acted as if this were my fault. Apparently Max way under stated the move and has no idea as to how to estimate weight. Seems more like a scam to extort more money from people than anything. Then Budget told Alex that he wasnt liable to pick up the rest (keep in mind we have a written itemized list of items to be picked up a third of which was still sitting in the house).
But now they had our stuff hostage and with me 7000 miles away, I had no choice but to pay an additional $2300 to have the rest of my things picked up. Also spoke to Amy at Budget who told me that it was not their fault that I should have done a better job working with Max. I argued with her and even made the point that I had spent 2hrs on the phone with Max going over everything and in the end she agreed that Id have done better to have used a different company. When I told her I was NOT ok with having a bunch of illegals roaming through my home she said ya so he (Alex) hires illegals, who doesnt these days.
The crew caused all sorts of damage to my house that we moved out of. Carpets are filthy, holes in the walls, broken items and to top it off they didnt come with any tools to take apart the furniture and ended up rifling through my sons stuff until they found a tool then they broke it!
They were contracted to ship my firearm collection, over 56 items which are fully itemized and fully cataloged. All of these are heirlooms which have been collected from all over the world, many pre-date the civil war and are extremely valuable. The crew simply put them in a box without adequate packaging and didnt even seal the box. Havent had time to have that part inventoried yet but will report anything missing to ATF and seek damages for any and all items missing or damaged.
But the worst part was when my wife found some of her jewelry on the ground outside in the driveway. Now we have missing high value items! Good thing I have proof of ownership.
My wife took pictures of everything! And got statements from all of the people there who witnessed what happened.
Then Alex told my wife who was driving our car across the country that his driver would be at the destination in 4 days in spite of what the paperwork said. So my wife drove 900 miles a day to try to make it there in time. After 3 exhausting days, she got a call from Alex saying that he didnt send the truck and wouldnt for a few more days. No excuse.
The truck arrived late and only had two people to unload everything. My wife had to hire 5 more guys to help out (at our own expense). Most of our fragile things were destroyed. Pictures, picture frames, glass, at least one TV, a wood filing cabinet and we havent even finished looking though everything. Even the driver had to admit that it had been poorly packed and there was no excuse.
Again took pictures of EVERYTHING including the truck and its driver.
The driver and his helper worked hard but in the end they didnt fulfill their end of the contract and left the furniture in piles instead of assembling them (which I clearly paid extra for). Again my wife took pictures.
If you use these guys, either Budget or Preferred Moving Group you will regret it. I took a chance with a low bid but in the end, ended up paying as much as I would have with our former moving company plus now I have a bunch of stuff missing and or damaged.
Had never heard of Preferred Moving Group until they showed up at my house and I called my wife. Had I been there, I would have done some background checking before they started. Even a quick Google search will reveal nothing but bad claims about these people.in fact I cant find a single credible comment that is favorable.
Going to seek compensation for damages and intend to report everything to DOT, BBB, ICE, FBI, ATF if necessary and every website I can find.
Stay away from either company dont give them the chance to keep doing this to people.
They can deny what Im saying all they want and I expect they will but its hard to argue against phone logs, photographs, written witness statements and written contract agreements. Again I imagine they will and we will probably have to have a Judge decide who is in the right here.
The only reason they were able to do this is they knew I was away on a deployment so they intimidated my wife and forced her into a bad spot. Never would have happened if I had been there (would have fired them the day they showed up) and they know it. But we're not going to let them get away with it.
You work hard for your money. I know I do. $16K may not be a lot to some people but it is to me. I risk my life every day in a filthy 3rd world country for a living and have been doing it without complaint since right after 9-11! Dont let these guys rip you off like they did me and my family.
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