Bigger Better Movers lost our boxes and smashed what they did move, then left to go to their next scheduled job before our move was finished. We had them come back, and they did it again!
Instead of experienced professional movers, two 20-year olds unfamiliar with how to move people's belongings turned up. One called saying someone else was moving out at the same time. When I asked what he meant, he inhaled a sudden sharp quick breath and hung up.
Company policy is no move can begin without a walk-through. They never even came into our apartment. They moved a few boxes from our storeroom, and because there was only one elevator in the building and the other party was using it, stood around waiting, at $250 and $100 per hour. No one guarded our things, and anyone could have taken anything while our stuff sat outside. They spent several hours moving a few boxes, then left to go to their next job. They never even entered our apartment.
I called Bigger Better Movers to get them to come back and finish the move, but they couldn't schedule us until three days later. It was the busiest moving time of the year and too late to hire other movers. I asked if they would just charge us the $100 hourly rate for a continuation instead of the $250 initial rate. He said they would, but they charged us the initial rate.
The movers came back, moved a few more boxes from our storeroom, not even all of it, and once again left to go to their next job! I called to speak to someone in charge and get the movers back, but she said she was the only one in the office. I asked for a manager, and she told me there was no one available. I asked to leave a message. She told me the managers would not call me back, and they would not talk to me anyway. I finally got her to take a message saying with luck maybe they would call me back. She was right. They didn't.
We planned on bringing only curated new and irreplaceable vintage items we had collected to sell. We ended up with lots of boxes of junk. We found weird stuff like a box of old broken star wars toys and other garbage that we had to pay to move just to throw away. Many of our belongings were lost, missing, stolen, or mixed up with the other party's boxes. I don't know what belongings of ours the other people ended up with, or what was simply left unprotected and stolen, but we were missing a lot.
Our boxes were so junked, smashed and disorganized that we couldn't possibly inventory everything lost or damaged, especially not within the 24 hours allowed. It's stated on their website, "Unfortunately, damage may occasionally occur. If any items are broken or damaged during your move please submit them to our claims team within 24 hours."
It was the busiest time of the year and everyone was booked, so now we had no choice but to try and move as much as we could by ourselves in a midsized car. We had to leave many of our valuable possessions and expensive furniture, including custom-made hardwood shelving which could not be moved by two older people in a midsized car. I had told them specifically when I made the reservation about the shelving, but no one even came inside our apartment to move them.
We couldn't move much or quickly under the circumstances, especially without a truck, so we were still moving out a week past the end of our lease while paying rent on our new apartment. My spouse partially wrecked our car driving back and forth in very narrow garage levels with little sleep. He even damaged his feet by being constantly on them without any rest. Now he can barely drive a car and has difficulty walking because of damage done to his feet after Bigger Better Movers abandoned us.
We scheduled our move well in advance of the last day of our lease so we would have time to move any remaining items and expected the movers to move anything left. When they didn't, we were held responsible for the extended stay along with exorbitant fees and charges to move the remaining furniture. The beautiful custom-made hardwood shelves and the rest of our nice furniture were gone.
They charged hundreds to move a few boxes and even told us a tip was expected, so we thought a tip was required, as part of the cost. Their website states, "How much should I tip?" "Industry standard is generally 10-20% per crew for local moves. For example, if your move totals $500 then $50 or $100 tip is customary for the crew to split."
We were fooled by all of the great reviews, but I know companies have employees, families and friends or themselves write fake reviews using one-time Gmail addresses, or even purchase reviews from overseas countries such as India or local writers who advertise these services.
Don't make the terrible mistake we made. Hire anybody except Bigger Better Movers. read more