Posting some pictures and screenshots of what we have been dealing with in our move to Bristol. We hired Move-Rite Transfer and Storage for a recent move to Bristol, TN. We hired them twice before: in 2016 to move us from our apartment to our first house and in 2024 to move from our first house to our second. The 2016 move was utterly painless. The 2024 was fine as well. This move was a different story.
Since this was a longer move and I would be starting a new job so soon after moving, I hired Move-Rite to do a full pack and unpack to make the transition as seamless as possible. The pack entailed a few long days and most of the packers were fine and personable, aside from one who consistently threw things, moved boxes before they were inventoried, complained, and yelled at other workers. It made an already stressful process needlessly more challenging. But that was just the hint of more horrible things to come.
Upon getting here and almost having the truck unloaded, one of the movers asked me how long I thought it would take to unpack all of our boxes. I told them that's what I paid them for. He then told me they were never told this would be an unpack and that they were under the impression it was just an unload. I showed him in the paperwork where I had paid for a full unpack and he called his supervisor to confirm. Upon hearing that, I was then told that an unpack only meant placing things on flat surfaces not putting them away. I agreed thinking it would save us the work of emptying boxes and hauling away packing materials.
The next morning, the movers arrived to begin their "unpack." We asked them to start in my two year old son's room so we could get it set up and have a safe place for him to play. I also had to go that morning to put the water bill in my name, so I left my wife to supervise the movers, while I took our son with me. When I came back an hour or so later, these pictures document what I found. I walked into find the room we asked to be our son's safe haven looking like a forgotten room on Hoarders. My wife was understandably on the verge of a panic attack. I immediately stopped the movers, asked what they were doing and was told that "company policy is to just place things on a flat surface, in this case the floor." I kicked them out of the house before they caused anymore chaos. We expected to be cleaning up this mess for weeks. Thankfully, an angel in the form a former student of mine agreed to come help us after she got off work. My parents also immediately jumped in the car and stayed for a week to help clean up and reorganize.
I sent the same photos I'm posting here to the owner of Move-Rite. His response is found in the screenshots. I ended up getting a $1000 refund on a $13000 bill, which I don't feel adequately reflects the carelessness and frustration that we had to deal with from our new home basically being trashed the day we moved in.
I'm posting this to simply tell my side of what happened. I could go into the anger, betrayal and frustration that I felt and give everyone who reads this suggestions about how to respond but I think this story, the way our belongings were treated, and especially the way my request to make a safe place for my two year old son was answered, all speak for themselves. So, here's a light shown on how Move-Rite does business. I would love to know if this is indicative of how all United Van Lines affiliates are run, especially since I was told by multiple employees that the way my belongings were treated was because of corporate policy. Regardless, I will certainly not be using their services again. Do with this information what you will. read more