I contacted Madison at Tri State Van Lines within a few weeks of our move on 7/23/20 to report our terrible experience and give the company a chance to make it right. After an initial apologetic email, she stopped responding entirely. We never got a cent back.
We were expecting a crew of 3 movers to arrive at our 2BR apt by 11AM last July. At 11:26 AM we got a call telling us they were running late because their truck broke down. Several hours passed with no communication. The next call we received was at 2 PM telling us they were otw. They finally arrived 2.5 hours late and started loading.
Madison had assured us that the crew would wear masks and practice social distancing. They didn't. The masks stayed down around their necks at the start and later disappeared entirely.
Luis, the apparent crew leader, had us sign our paperwork when he arrived. He did not provide us with a copy. I want to point out that the name of the company on the contract, the name online and the name we ultimately Zelle'ed our final payment to were all different. Our emails came from madisone.tristatevanlines@gmail.com and Tri State Van Lines appeared on our quote. The name on the contract was Mirit - Great American. We sent our final payment to Mega Moving Inc. The crew was not in uniform or anything that might ID them from the company we called and the truck was a generic Penske. In hindsight that should have been a red flag.
15 minutes into the load, a carelessly stacked tower of boxes on a hand truck fell over and we lost the first of the China. Not an great start.
Not long after, Luis explained glass items were not covered for damage if they were not properly wrapped and we could opt to have them wrap stuff for an extra cost. We paid an extra $75 to have our 40 gal fish tank wrapped. It was a waste of money. The tank came off the truck in pieces. Our $75 was not returned and the insurance included in our contract offered us just $24 as reimbursement.
This wasn't the only furniture that was damaged. We found dozens of gouges, scratches, scraped paint and other evidence of rough handling on almost every piece of furniture we own. We saw the rough handling first hand. We watched one mover push a bookcase, top down across a concrete floor. We watched others stack boxes marked fragile under boxes marked heavy. Boxes and furniture were stacked precariously high on carts and hand trucks so that our stuff hit the ground multiple times during the day. At one point, a guy tried to carry a floor lamp with a glass shade dangling by the lamp cord up four flights of stairs.
When it was time to settle up, Luis tried to charge us $150 for stairs and long carry even though the contract and our quote clearly says there is no extra charge for either. He told us we should pay that money directly to him since "his crew were the ones doing the work." We knew it was a scam but we had planned to tip the men anyway so we paid. Not long after, my husband found Luis smoking weed behind the truck. At this point, any confidence we had left evaporated.
It gets worse. The only elevator broke down with a chest of drawers and 30+ boxes on the ground floor. Our unit was on the fourth floor. It was late and still over 90 degrees outside. We were legitimately afraid this careless, unprofessional crew would drive off and leave us so we paid them an extra $200 cash to carry the last items up four flights of stairs.
3 days after our move, our landlord called to tell us we would have to repair the flooring or lose our security deposit. The movers had gouged several deep gashes in the hardwood.
This was a nightmare experience. The crew was careless, dishonest and unprofessional. In the end, my husband and I helped carry dozens of boxes up 4 flights of stairs which defeated the purpose of hiring movers. We handed over $400 in cash on top of what we paid the moving company directly. When we asked for a portion of our fee back, our emails were ignored.
We got burned. Save yourself and run far, far away from this company. read more
