50% more than quoted, Broken 65' TV, Police Called, drivers almost took off with my stuff. Yea, that bad. Read on.
This is the second time I have used to Move Square. Last time wasn't a great experience either and I should have learned my lesson, but my hope was I just got a bad crew last time. I am trying to support small businesses in this time of need and wanted to use a company with decent reviews that were local and I paid for it dearly, it got really bad.
I was moving approximately 2 1/2 miles to our new home my pregnant wife and I purchased (we also have a 2.5-year-old). I filled out the questionnaire, spoke to Allen from move Square, explained the size of the home and rooms and he quoted me about $650 for the job weeks before.
On moving day, the truck arrives, and I meet Hugo (The foremen). As I experienced last time, there was a language barrier, but we got passed that initially.
The move seemed to be going ok for about an hour, then Hugo comes to me and says we should add a 4th guy, it would be more cost-effective, and it begins. An hour later, 4th guy shows up. I am directing them telling them what items are delicate. These guys like to wrap everything, they say it is to keep everything safe, but I watched them burn 2 hours wrapping ridiculous things in plastic-like garden equipment. Seeing this scamish move go down last time, I pre-wrapped the stuff that matters but that didn't seem to speed up the process, in fact, they ended up breaking stuff anyway.
Next, about 3 hours in. Hugo tells me the truck is not big enough, and they will need to make 2 trips because if he tries to pack the truck to tight, things may break while driving. I begrudgingly accepted and called the manager Allen and expressed my discontent with the fact that I was paying attention to the time, and now with the additional trip, it's looking like it is going to be more than double what I was quoted. Allen said that "I had a lot of stuff" and they are doing the best they can. I told him the top of my budget for the move was $1,000 ($450 more than I was quoted) and he needed to figure out how to make it work for that price.
Once we finished the two trips, the movers started unloading and the new place and destroyed my carpet, I left booties out becuase the carpet was cleaned a 2 days earlier, they walked right past them, finally, I had to lay down towels and moving blankets to try and stop the damage.
Shortly after that, I noticed the TV leaning again a dresser, shocked I put it again the wall, unwrapped it and as suspected, completely broken! I quickly got Hugo to see it, he looked, asked to call his boss, he did, and then told me that they would not be responsible for it.
So I get on the phone with Allen, (The Boss) and he proceeds to tell me that because they did not wrap it that they are not responsible. I was like "are you kidding me" after some a heated conversation, he threatened to have the movers stop moving, close the truck and leave. I told him if he did that, I am calling the police as it would be theft at that point. The movers proceeded to stop moving, closed the truck, and I called the Oceanside Police Dept.
Police came 15 minutes later and explained to the movers that if they left with my property they would be committing a crime, and they would need to unload the rest of my property before we left. So they quickly moved it in the garage in a pile, not in the rooms where I needed it leaving me by myself to carry furniture up the stairs and into the specified rooms. Obviously, this cannot be done with the help of my wife because she is pregnant and now I will have to recruit a friend or two in the middle of the pandemic to finish the move. So frustrating.
At this point, Allen kept calling me to try and resolve, slapped me with a $1,200 invoice, and said if I sign and pay the money we could resolve the TV situation later. I was like "nope, we will go ahead and take care of that now or I am not paying you anything and I'll see you in court buddy."
I offered for him to claim it on his insurance, he changed the subject. Then the moving foremen Hugo said I only paid for the "basic insurance" and would only cover $.60 per lb - I never had a choice to choose a basic or full coverage premium.
Long story short, I told Allen, that I would give him $600 to just leave and not one red cent more. He tried to get $700 out of me and I explained that I would rather go to court over the civil dispute as I suspect they didn't have insurance and or shady labor practices. He accepted the $600 and I signed the final contract document all of this (I wrote it in by hand).
So, buyer beware, If you don't sign the final contract once the move is complete, you have some recourse, I am lucky I discovered this before the move was complete, otherwise, I would have been totally at a loss of about $750. So choose a different company. Good luck! read more