We sincerely hope this would not be happening to anyone in Charlottesville, or, more broadly, anyone, period!
When searching for moving companies online, we found a seemingly-reasonably-priced company called Always Moving INC (DOT License number 3110074). We booked them on October 1, 2019 for a full packing service from Pasadena, CA to Charlottesville VA, scheduled to be picked up on December 14, 2019. The sales person Brendan Martin was very enthusiastic, and told us they charge by cubic footage on the truck. We went over our room by room all our furniture, and he estimated that we would need 871cf for the move, and would cost around $4645. He also mentioned that the trip would take 7-17 actual days. My family were very happy that this huge task was booked, and payed the $1625 deposit. We even planned a trip for a week to Hawaii right after the moving date so that we can have a relaxing vacation waiting for our furniture and clothing to arrive in our new home. Little did we know that it was the beginning of a long long nightmare!
Three days before the moving day of Dec 14, 2019, their "Quality Assurance Team" called us to confirm our moving volume, and we went through everything again, confirming it to be around the same amount. My wife was worried that she needed a few more boxes for clothing, but it shouldn't change the actual volume by that much. Then come moving day, and the movers came in and told us we have 1475 cf of items, almost doubling our initial estimate! We were shocked and stressed, but had to agree to pay $4000 more, totaling $8995! In any case, we had no choice but to accept their terms, as it's impossible to find anther moving company right before we leave town.
Our family went on with the Hawaii vacation the next day, and came back to our house in Charlottesville on Dec 22, 2019, expecting our furniture to arrive soon before the New Year. We called Always Moving up, and their customer service people told us it hasn't even been shipped from California yet! They would only ship after the New Years when they could find a driver to do so! With a toddler at home, we all slept on a floor mattress until after the New Years, when a new bed we ordered from a store arrived. We waited patiently until after New Years to call them again, and they confirmed that it would be shipped on the next truck to the east coast on Jan 6, which we would be the first delivery destination. Two days later, when we ringed them up again, they changed that we would be the second on that truck, right after a delivery in Colorado. The driver would be calling us a few days after that. We waited for another week, and were starting to get very anxious. They told us it would be delivered during the weekend of Jan 11-12, but there was no call from the driver. We started calling the customer service everyday, wanting to make sure that it arrives before my mother-in-law leaving for China (she kindly came over to help us taking care of the baby and moving) on Jan 19. Always Moving started pushing back the dates further and further every day, and finally, the estimated date went beyond Jan 19 and we had to change my mother-in-law's ticket back to China. As it was near lunar new year in China, the tickets were very expensive, and Always Moving said they would only cover the changing fee of about $250, but would do nothing about the difference in old and new ticket prices! After many arguments with them, the driver finally scheduled to deliver our stuff on the afternoon of Jan 19, more than a full month after the moving date! We had to foot the bill of thousands of dollars of changing my mother-in-law's ticket.
Recently, an online search shows that this company is doing this overcharging and cheating again and again. I hope the DOT can regulate and punish such bad behavior, as it ruins the market for honest movers by cheating customers into their business, and disrupts people's lives so badly. This should never be allowed happen to any other family every again. read more