A Friend With A Truck Movers

We contracted A Friend With a Truck for a local move to be completed on July 10th. A partial list of items was provided in advance to obtain a quote, which we agreed to, and then followed up with a complete inventory, as well as photos of the space to be moved. The movers arrived 15 minutes late on July 10th and we started the walkthrough. I explained everything that was to be moved, the foreman acknowledged, and they set to work. Initially they started with a first in, first out approach, then started randomly taking things outside. They did not seem to have a good approach or plan to get things done in an organized fashion. After about two hours, the foreman came to me and said the truck was halfway full, listed out what he thought they could get, and asked me what they should do. I said I didn’t know – I was paying them to handle the move. He called the owner, who agreed to get a second truck. The second truck and owner showed up about an hour later, and we did another walkthrough, as the first foreman had to leave due to injury. We discussed the best approach to go forward, and the owner asked if I could accompany the first truck to the destination so they could start unloading it while finishing the second truck. I agreed, and my wife stayed behind for them to finish up. After the second truck was unloaded, we realized there were several items that we had asked to be moved that were not moved – our grills, our deck furniture, items from my workshop – and the movers had little to no explanation as to why. Once everything was unloaded, we found damages – they broke a leaf from the dining room table, ripped a hinge off a desk, broke the casters off of a cart, and knocked wheels off of several pieces of furniture. I pointed out the damage to the dining room table to the owner and he offered no solutions or reimbursement. When we returned to the old house, we found considerable damage to the walls by the stairs as well as an 8-foot-long scratch on the hardwood floor in the dining room. I reported all the damage to the owner of the company via email, along with photographs and didn’t receive a reply. I called him several days later and asked if he’d reviewed it – he said no. I emailed him several more times and never received a response. I attempted to call him multiple times after that and he’s refused to answer my calls or return my voicemails. In the interest of fairness, I attempted to resolve this with him before filing a claim with the insurance company, but had to do so prior to the 2-week deadline. I filed the claim with the documentation I had and received feedback that they needed the bill of lading to proceed, which was not provided to me. I requested it twice from the moving company – the owner again failed to respond. The insurance company kept notifying me they were going to close my claim due to lack of documentation, and I kept asking them what could be done considering the moving company was not responding to me. They indicated that they would reach out to the movers, and I was eventually told the owner provided them with the bill of lading – a document I have not seen. I received notification that I could file the claim, attempted to do so, and the website didn’t work. I contacted the insurance company again and they indicated they would have to check with their support. The following morning, I received notification that my claim was closed. To say we are not happy is an understatement. We understand that things happen during a move, but we did expect ethical behavior from the moving company. Failing to respond, failing to address the issues, and refusing to answer phone calls is inexcusable. Failing to make any attempt to make things right is inexcusable. They were either poorly organized or failed to estimate properly, leaving us having to go back to our old house, rent another truck, and move ALL the items that the movers left behind. Avoid at all costs.