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Review 3/22/2010
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I got three estimates from Angie's list movers. They ranged from $2,500 to $4,200 for the move. Brian from Weston Moving came out to do the estimate. I told him what the other two came in at and he beat the lowest one. He also made the best impression of the three companies. He described the way the move would happen with all the packing and furniture wrapping being completed in the house (days 1 and 2) before the truck was loaded (day three). He also described how his men were trained to pack the boxes with enough padding to sustain a "three foot drop" with no breakage. He described how he had full time guys working for him, not "day labor" guys who aren't trained movers and lastly he described his excellent reputation and low breakage/damage history.
However, the move was not performed as planned and there were numerous issues.
-The men arrived at the house on time and proceeded to look over the contents. The team leader announced that I did not have enough boxes and began pressuring me to buy more moving boxes from them, before they even began packing the house.
-Move was not performed as promised; packing that was done on day one was fine.
-I was expecting to have the same 4 man team through the entire move, but on day two, there were two new team members. One of which was vulgar, unprofessional and was dismissed from the job and later replaced. On day three, there were only three men (I had been promised 4 for the entire move), one of which was new.
-Packing was to continue on day two, but the guys were in a panic to get the entire job finished on day two and they started taking shortcuts. When I told them that loading wasn't scheduled until day three, they told me that they were already booked for another job on day three and they were told by Brian to get my move completed on day two. They proceeded to start loading the truck before the packing and wrapping was finished.
-On day two, a second (partially full) truck was brought in. I happened to be outside when the truck arrived and they opened up the back. It was already about 2/3 loaded. The contents (household goods in storage that were being transported to a "new" warehouse) had not been secured or wrapped in the truck. Lots of nice wood furniture and household goods that were knocked over and piled up with no regard for its care or condition. The men assured me that my goods would not be treated that way.
-Furniture was not wrapped completely and in some cases, not at all, before being carried to the truck. When I asked them why they weren't wrapping the furniture in the house as promised, they told me repeatedly "we are wrapping it on the truck". Later I observed that these pieces had not been wrapped (they were carried off the truck in the same unwrapped condition that they went onto the truck and some were damaged as a result).
-Heavy furniture was pushed across our ceramic tile and pergo wood flooring causing scratches to the floors and knocking off some of the protective hardware on the bottom of our furniture.
-Full bookcases were loaded on the truck without being emptied of their books and contents. This caused structural damage to pieces of wood furniture as well as some weaker IKEA pieces.
-An office cabinet was loaded on the truck without its contents being packed or secured. This resulted in significant damage to the contents of the cabinet.
-Assembly hardware, screws, nuts, etc. were not secured to the pieces that they came from so reassembling some pieces of furniture at the new house was not able to be completed.
-Many broken items that were not packed properly in boxes. -Despite the pressure on the men to finish the move on day two, it was not completed. On day three, the men were stressed and understaffed (they no longer had the full four man team and they were running late for another job).
-On day three, they loaded much our remaining household goods into "speedbins" instead of moving boxes (which we still had plenty of) with no padding or protection whatsoever. Several items were broken or scratched. Because they did not label the bins (by room), they did not know where to put the items when they got to the new house and they insisted that the "bins" be unloaded so they could take them back with them.
-We had quite a few leftover moving boxes that I later returned to Costco. I was disappointed that they used "speedbins" and even wardrobe boxes (theirs) to toss our stuff into with no padding or protection. -When it came time to move our potted plants, I was told that they could not guarantee that the pots would not crack on the ride over. When I explained to them that they would need to either use our moving pads or cardboard to pad in between the large pots, the men became confrontational and difficult saying that they are not supposed to have plants on their trucks to begin with. I assured them that Brian and I had discussed the plants and that they were to be padded (with the materials I was providing) and transported in a covered truck, but they kept saying "no guarantees that the pots are going make it". -Many boxes were not labeled or were left with "previous move label" on them resulting in many boxes being left in the garage with us having no idea where they went or what they contained. Many boxes placed in the wrong rooms. We were hunting for certain items for weeks after the move because of the mislabeling/non-labeling of the boxes. -Numerous broken items as a result of actions of the movers. Crushed lampshade, broken ceramic statuary, broken hand carved stone statuary, damaged and crushed kitchen goods, scratched and broken solid wood furniture, broken and damaged office furniture, scratched finishes and paint, damaged flooring, etc. We noticed many of the damaged items right away while the movers were still working and each time, we pointed the items out to them and they would say, "we will take care of it, just submit a claim". We were having our house painted and partially remodeled before we unpacked most of our stuff so i asked Brittany at Weston moving if we could wait until we were done completely unpacking before we submitted our claim and she assured me it was no problem, even if we submitted the claim a couple months after the move (which we did). Brian, the owner refused to pay for any of the items they damaged, citing that we waited too long and the statute of limitations had passed. He also refused to come to our home to inspect the damaged items or view the videos and pictures we shot during the move itself. Awful, just awful.
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