Poor Moving Service

We used American Moving Services to move my one bedroom apartment and my girlfriends 1 bedroom into a new apartment. They took 4 1/2 hours to move my one bedroom, ground floor apartment. I can appreciate the fact that they wanted to plastic wrap everything and re-tape my boxes, but there really wasn't a need since we were only moving 10 minutes away. Once they finished my apartment we drove to my roommates apartment and moved her bed, night stand, dresser and 10 boxes that took only about 30 minutes.

Once we got to the new apartment it took them another 4 hours to unpack. I will give them a little extra time here because the new apartment is 3 levels. Regardless, they finished and I was told I could only pay with cash. Reluctantly I went to the ATM and paid them and immediately called the main office only to get a voice mail.

Once we started removing all the excess plastic wrap we realized that many items were broken! A bookshelf, a small cabinet, plates, and an entire box of serving platters.

I have called more than 30 times and left a couple of messages and not a single person has returned my call(keep in mind I have used more than one phone and an analog phone line). I did get through to someone on Monday and when I asked for a manager or supervisor I was hung up on.

I looked up the business address online and it is a home address. Does anyone know of any recourse or another option I can go to persue getting my money refunded or at least getting reimbursed for the broken items?

Comment On This

We provided a very fair priced service to theses young ladies because they stated over the phone that they were on a budget. our men had to load two appartments and a storage. They were not ready at all, most boxes were open, the men were stepping on clutter as they walked. Moving takes time espically if you have to go to three seperate places to load items. our 26ft truck was full. Please call and ask any other moving comany how long it would take them to load a full truck espically if they had three stops. Most respectable businesses will estimate between 8-12 hours with 3 men. Our men worked really hard and they even got a TIP. Its simple you don't tip if your unhappy with the service.

Comment On This

In response to the moving companies post. I did notify them in the initial email dated 9/10/09:

My girlfriend and I are looking for movers on October 10. We are moving from 20147 (Ashburn) to 20171 (Herndon). Only caveat to this is that we live in two separate locations, but only a couple of miles apart.

The first bedroom is in Belmont Ridge and she has 1 bed, a dresser, 1 night stand and 10 boxes and only 1 flight of stairs.

The second location is a 1 bedroom apartment. I have a king bed, 2 nightstands, a hope chest, two small bookshelves, a small dresser, a coffee table, a couch and chair, a side table, antique wash stand, china cabinet, 2 floor lamps, 3 tvs, a stand up freezer and about 30 boxes. There are no stairs at this location.

Thanks for prompt attention to this email.

Their response was (dated 9/10/09:

your hourly rate would be $59hr for 2 men and a truck

1 hour service fee with no minimum hours

There was absolutely NO false information given by myself and my roommate!

I have followed up with this with the BBB and local chambers.