Work Completed Date: December 20
Hire Again: No
Approximate Cost: $3,000.00
Description Of Work: We bought a new home and were preparing for the move. We have a 6 year old who is terminally-ill and had to ensure that our move was orchestrated carefully. We engaged 4 moving companies to do a walkthrough of our existing home and contents so that we could obtain a quote that was as accurate as possible. The companies came and we received quotes that varied greatly. We chose Neighbors Moving and Storage based on price (because they were right in the middle of the quotes from a price perspective), and many positive reviews on Angie's List, and several other websites. We needed packing and loading of contents in our existing home, then transporting and unloading at our new home. Again, this had to be carefully orchestrated due to our specific needs. We were assured that our needs would be met.
We were also assured that mattresses would be placed in mattress boxes, and paintings and artwork would be packed carefully in flat-packs. We were also informed that our furniture would be covered/wrapped in moving blankets. The gentleman who performed our walkthrough was thorough, professional and very friendly. We were assured that our daughters medical equipment, our heirlooms, fragile items and glassware, and antiques would be treated with as much care as if they were our own the representative said.
Three days for moving were identified: Wednesday for pack, Thursday for loading the original location, transporting and unloading at the new home. Friday was for unpacking assistance if required. We felt confident that our move would be a great one. That perspective would soon be shattered. Member Comments: We bought a new home and were preparing for the move. We have a 6 year old who is terminally-ill and had to ensure that our move was orchestrated carefully. We engaged 4 moving companies to do a walkthrough of our existing home and contents so that we could obtain a quote that was as accurate as possible. The companies came and we received quotes that varied greatly. We chose Neighbors Moving and Storage based on price (because they were right in the middle of the quotes from a price perspective), and many positive reviews on multiple websites. We needed packing and loading of contents in our existing home, then transporting and unloading at our new home. Again, this had to be carefully orchestrated due to our specific needs. We were assured that our needs would be met.
The gentleman who performed our walkthrough was thorough, professional and very friendly. We were assured that our daughters medical equipment, our heirlooms, fragile items and glassware, and antiques would be treated with as much care as if they were our own the representative said. We were also assured that mattresses would be placed in mattress boxes, and paintings and artwork would be packed carefully in flat-packs. We were also informed that our furniture would be covered/wrapped in moving blankets. Sounded great to us!
Our deposit was paid and our move scheduled, as well as the details we needed to coordinate with regard to our daughter. Three days for moving were identified: Wednesday for pack, Thursday for loading the original location, transporting and unloading at the new home. Friday was for unpacking assistance if required. We felt confident that our move would be a great one. That perspective would soon be shattered.
As part of the quote, we were informed that the packing material cost would be about $1000, but that we could save a large portion of that amount by providing our own boxes and packing as much of our items as we could. We obtained hundreds of boxes and over a dozen bubble wrap rolls thinking that as informed, we would save most of the materials cost. We were sadly mistaken.initially we were quoted for 6 movers to be onsite, but after we packed many of our items, and discussed with our Neighbors consultant, we were told that we would have two individuals on-site to perform our pack. Two days before our move, we received a call confirming the move date, and confirming that there would be two, instead of 6 individuals arriving on pack day. I was given the name of the lead to expect. Imagine our surprise when the morning of pack day, not two, but 6 crew members showed up for packing.
I walked through every room in the house, indicating what should definitely be packed, and identifying any items that SHOULD NOT be packed. There were two leads identified for that day, however neither were the lead identified on the call two days before.in fact, one of the leads was quite agitated that he got pulled out of bed to come to our job. You would expect that the leads would split up, with one covering the upstairs crew, and one covering the downstairs crew. This did not happen, and total chaos ensued.
No care whatsoever was taken to ensure or limit outside dirt and debris from being tracked into the original house. I have an heirloom mission-style china cabinet that is over 100 years old with glass doors, and the crew was going to move it without removing the wooden shelves. I had to stop them and insist that the shelves be removed. The leads had to constantly remind the packing crew not to tape screws to items, but instead to put them in a ziplock bag and attach that to the item instead. Many boxes werent labeled with location information (what room the items/box came from) or what they contained. Curtain rods that were supposed to stay were removed. Shelving units that were supposed to stay were removed. Trash wasnt organized and no cleanup was done at the end of the day. Its like someone shouted STOP and everyone froze in place and disappeared. Additionally, instead of this being strictly a packing day, several items were loaded onto the truck in a haphazard and disorganized manner. Holes were knocked in walls and had to be repaired before our final inspection with our current landlord, and carpets had to be professionally cleaned from all the dirt and debris tracked throughout the original house.
I placed calls to Neighbors office and voiced our concerns and relayed our experiences throughout the day. We were assured that a call would be placed to the crew leads to address/correct the issues. The calls did no good.
The morning of the second day was as disorganized and chaotic as the first. Remaining items were being hurriedly packed by the crew, and other items were being loaded onto the first and second truck. Finally around noon, everything was ready for transport. We had discussed many times the need for coordination and were ensured that on the second day there would not be an issue having our items unloaded by the end of the day.
Then an hour and a half before time to leave, we were informed by the crew lead that they wouldnt be able to finish unpacking everything, and that the beds wouldnt be put together, etc. As promised and discussed. If we wanted that we would have to pay overtime for them to stay. I placed calls to the Neighbors Moving offices and had to insist on completion as discussed. We had to have the unload completed as discussed numerous times, because of medical and care needs for our daughter. We wound up paying overtime, and the crew got our items unloaded, but it came at a cost, emotionally, physically and financially.
Unloading was chaotic, and we had numerous holes, scrapes and dings placed on our new walls by the crew. I had created a carefully crafted floor plan of the house, with diagrams and descriptions of items and locations that were placed on each floor in the new house, so that there would be no confusion from the crew regarding placement of furniture in the correct rooms. Furniture was delivered into the incorrect rooms, and had to be shuffled many times.
Beds were not correctly put together, with box springs and mattresses from different beds being mixed and placed incorrectly. Boxes clearly labeled Fragile China Dining Room or Kitchen or Master Bedroom or Girls Room being placed in the garage under boxes labeled tools. Come on, china under tools! What gives? Items labeled Office were placed in other rooms, you get the picture. Unpacking we found tons of broken and carelessly packed items. You dont place an LCD TV or monitor in a box with a metal wall-mount. We had lamps where, instead of unscrewing the bulb and unscrewing the shade, the lamps were broken trying to pull the shade off. We had sofas and loveseats that were damaged from the way they were placed on the trucks. Stereo equipment was broken (how do you break feet off a stereo receiver?). Many of my daughters special needs items were misplaced and still have not been found five weeks later.
We were promised on more than one occasion by the operations manager that someone would be out to help us sort boxes that were placed in the garage in hopes of finding missing items. We were also promised that someone would come and pick up the boxes. We waited on two separate occasions on different days and no one showed. We didnt even receive the courtesy of a phone call informing us that they wouldnt be able to make it. Finally after days of calls, we were offered a refund of $100 which never came. Considering we paid roughly $3000.00 for our move, this wasnt much of a concession anyways. Additionally, forget filing a claim. Ive tried and emailed a list of items and damages with no response.
I have dealt with the Operations Manager, Randy until I am thoroughly disappointed. Today (1/2) I finally placed a call to the owner Joseph (Joe) Tranisi. No one would give me his contact information, so I spent three weeks tracking it down. I called Mr. Tranisi, who promptly informed me that he was on vacation with his family, this was a Sunday, and he promptly hung up on me. I was trying to explain that I have a terminally-ill child for whom we have missing items, and was abruptly cut-off.in my opinion, Neighbors Moving and Storage doesnt care.
The Neighbors Moving and Storage that moved us, must be from a completely different planet than those of the great reviews. The Better Business Bureau shows 10 complaints in 2011 with issues ranging from Problems with Product/Service, to Delivery Issues.
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