I hired Astro Movers to move my family from one home to another, 3 miles away. I had already moved nearly every box and small item prior to moving day. All that remained was furniture, and last-minute boxed items. Despite the preparation, it was a disaster from start to finish.
Instead of showing up in their own "clean" trucks (I had inquired about how they take precautions for things like bedbugs), they showed up in unmarked rental trucks (one they claimed was their own, the other they admitted was a rental) and the movers were in street clothes with no Astro Movers identification. As they started, it seemed very chaotic and clumsy, then got progressively worse.
In chronological order, here's how what happened:
- As one of the movers was driving the trucks into position in front of the house, he was texting on his phone.
- They took our dining room chairs out of the house and placed them on the wet front lawn for an extended time until I asked that they be moved to avoid water damage.
- They removed the lampshades from the living room lamps, but didn't move the lamps. Instead, they put a table lamp with its bulb exposed onto the floor next to the couch. When they moved our bookcase, they moved the couch so that its arm made contact with the bare bulb. It sat that way unnoticed until a silver-dollar-sized hole was burned through the upholstery and into the padding on the arm.
- One of the movers dropped an air conditioner out of a second-floor bedroom window, completely breaking it.
- The movers had no idea that they were also supposed to go to a storage facility in a neighboring town to pick up items we had there, even though their dispatcher had called us the previous day to confirm that.
After letting two of the movers into that storage facility, I received a call from my wife that the two other movers at our new house had punched a hole into our newly-painted dining room ceiling when lifting our hutch onto the buffet.
After they were gone, I discovered that I hadn't seen the full extent of the damage they'd caused. They had turned a $1600 armoire that was at the storage facility end-over-end to get it on a dolly and on and off the truck, but they hadn't taken out the loose shelves inside of it. When those heavy shelves moved inside they armoire, the force drove the two metal shelf support pins on each side straight out through the sides of the armoire. There are now four holes with metal pins embedded in them torn through the sides of the armoire. And I discovered a few days later than another air conditioner had 3 dents in the back and no longer worked.
As this damage was being done, I kept calling their office and was told that a supervisor would call me back. That never happened. I had to keep calling throughout the day, demanding that a supervisor or someone in charge come to our house to assess the damages.
Only after the second truck came back loaded with items from the storage unit did I get a call back from Tom (the owner), who had already told his men to stop working and not unload the truck until he and I had worked out what I would pay for this move. I believed they'd done so much damage that I expected to pay nothing until I worked out what repairs and replacments would amount to. Instead, the movers held our belongings hostage on the truck while Tom explained how little his actual liability was and said, "I'm not coming away from this with no money."
So there I stood with a rain storm starting, with my wife and kids in the house, a commitment to be return to our old house to turn the keys over to its new owner, and my property held for ransom on the truck. My choice was either strike a completely unfair bargain, or call the cops and create a scene outside our new home in the pouring rain.
The total cost of the move, had all things gone smoothly, would have worked out to $880. Tom kept asking me what I thought was "fair." I said that I expected the necessary repairs and replacements to exceed that entire amount. We went back and forth, then he proposed cutting the bill in half. I paid $435 in the end just to get the truck unloaded and to get the remaining two incompetent movers to leave.
Throughout it all, the response and comments from both the movers and their supervisors were unacceptable. Robert, the mover who was in charge of the crew said each of the following things to me: "I can't be in the truck and watch everything they do," and "I could have been at my son's softball game instead of here," and "They're grown men, I can't watch them like babies." Another mover laughed and said, "Hey, buddy...we're doing the best we can."
These movers ruined property, put extraordinary stress on me and my family, acted and responded unprofessionally and extorted money from me. Any one of these things would be cause for complaint, and they did them all.
Never, ever hire this company. If you hear of someone considering them, warn them. They shouldn't even be in business. read more
