Terrible Experience
I don’t think I’ve ever left a terrible review for anyone but feel I have to warn others in this situation.
My family and I had a horrible experience with America
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I don’t think I’ve ever left a terrible review for anyone but feel I have to warn others in this situation.
My family and I had a horrible experience with America’s Moving and Storage. I DO NOT recommend working with them. Their prices are not set and are not reliable. They use the word “estimate” as a loophole to change prices on you. Some of the items I listed at the time of the contract were missed (partly my fault for not catching it at the time). A few items were added at their check in call prior to pick up, and a few were removed. This caused the price to spike by $449.82.
No one called me in the few days leading up to my pick up to let me know how much would be due at pick up. I had to call them. The guy that answered tried to find his boss and hung up on me at least twice (which I do think was an accident). Finally he got back to me and said James, who seems to the boss, wasn’t in and advised that I call back later as he did not know the amount due at pick up for sure. When I called back later, I got a text from a different number saying i”ll call right back on a call.” I didn’t get a call back so I texted back an hour later and asked to get an exact amount owed at pick up as I needed to get the postal money order (per their requirements) the next day (Monday) to have it ready for pickup on Tuesday. The guy the texts back in all caps “I HAVE NO IDEA JUST CALL BACK IN HE SHOULD PICK UP.” I call the main line (which has a static connection and requires a couple tries) and finally speak with James and get an answer on the amount due at pick up ($625.41).
The day of pickup, the mover gets there and tells us that the quote that American’s Moving and Storage gave them was only for (roughly) 320 cubic feet (which is after they had already added more space when we were charged extra at the time of the pre-pick up call, meaning they originally allotted even less space than that at the time of the original quote) and that the new total is over $3,200. We call America’s Moving and Storage. They tell my dad James isn’t in and to call back later. Mind you the mover is there waiting on us to tell him what we want to do. When I call, there’s no answer at all. I email James and he directs me to their customer service line. When I call customer service, they tell me that their company provides an “estimate” for space to the best of their ability and that we are locked in. Our options are to cancel and lose any money already paid ($1,119), to have the movers take only what fits in the space we have already paid for (leaving us with tons of things still left to move from Texas to Florida), or to “negotiate with the movers” to take the rest. Basically they won’t help us even though the “estimate” they provided to the movers was grossly under estimated.
At that point, we can’t afford not to move forward as we would just be out $1,119 and still have to move everything. We then have to get with the mover’s company directly (America’s Moving and Storage contracts with moving companies and is not the actual mover) and pay the difference (half due now and half due at pick up.
Lastly, we assumed the 5-10 business day window started from pick up. We made it clear we wanted delivery by 5/15 and they advised we do pick up on 5/5 as it would take 5-10 business days. After not receiving a call for delivery, I check in on 5/11 and am told to email the delivery address in. I do. Then, I call on 5/14 to check in and am told the delivery window does not start until I email the address. Now after everything else, my items won’t be in until 1-2 weeks from 5/11.
I truly feel America’s Moving and Storage went in with a low estimate just to make it sound good and get the contract signed and to lock us in. They initially told us that the only way we’d have to pay more would be if we added items to our move. They never explained that we may have to pay more if the square feet they estimated for the move was off. It was their estimate. I feel they were responsible. If they do this all of the time, they should have a better idea of how much space is required to move all of the items we listed. They are either incompetent or intentionally sneaky. Probably both. I will never work with them again and recommend you don’t either. Please see the breakdowns below:
- Original Quote on contract date of 4/8: $1,820
- Deposit Paid on 4/8: $698
- New Quote at Pre-pickup check in call: $2,269.82
- Deposit Difference Paid on 4/29: $321
- New Quote at Pick up: $3,287.44 (with other company’s discount of $200 included)
- Paid at Pick up 5/5: $1,134.22
- Paid at delivery: $1,134.22
Items listed on original quote:
- Queen bed
- 1 chair
- 1 desk
- 1 desk chair
- 1 dresser
- 1 night stand
- 2 ottomans
- 1 three-seater sofa
- 1 end table
- 1 coffee table
- 19 boxes
Items added to original item list at pre-pick up check in call:
- 1 bookshelf
- 1 corner shelf
- 1 chair
- TV stand
- TV
- REMOVED 4 boxes
Items picked up:
- Everything listed between the two lists MINUS 7 more boxes (down from original quote of 19 boxes to be moved to 8) and it was still not enough. I can’t imagine how much more we would have had to pay if we did end up with 19 boxes.
Move size: 1 Bedroom Home
Service cost:
$3287
