29 Mar 2022 · MoveAdvisor
1.0 out of 51.0
The first thing that was odd was that the two person truck crew said they were waiting for two more Atlas employees to arrive before they would begin unloading the truck. Within a very short time, they said the two extra workers were not going to come, because they were stopped by police and would not be joining the moving crew.
So, the moving crew manager started going door to door in my neighborhood in an effort to find a couple of young men who might be interested in earning $200 for the day to help unload the truck. Nobody responded to her efforts.
Next, the two person crew discovered were not given the keys for the truck's storage bins, which contained the truck ramps. We had to borrow a hammer from a neighbor, and one of the Atlas movers had to beat the lock off the bin in order to retrieve and set up the ramps.
Meanwhile, a high school age young woman and a college age young man who live in the town and had responded to a posting on Facebook for help.
Unloading a truckload of furniture ourselves was not what we foresaw when we scheduled with Fallon Moving/Atlas to undertake our interstate move. But the truck manager’s concerns about unloading with just herself and another young man, and her request for us to assist in securing temporary employees, made it clear that we needed to help finish unloading the truck if it were to be done in one day or to successfully move the heaviest furniture.
I called Fallon Moving explained that we needed to secure our own movers and help unload the moving truck ourselves in order to complete the move. I stated that I thought a reduction in the fee for this move seemed like a fair request. Jesse, the administrative assistant at Fallon, told me in no uncertain terms that helping to unpack the truck was purely a matter of choice, and it was no different than bagging one’s own groceries at a grocery store.
Assisting in unloading the truck was definitely NOT a choice, it was an absolute necessity. Nobody in their right mind pays for a moving service, only to unpack the truck themselves in the extreme heat and humidity - and rain - of August. It was both physically and mentally exhausting. We helped to unpack the moving truck because it was necessary.
But we did it all – in the truck, out of the truck, loading and wheeling the hand trucks, moving furniture, organizing boxes to be taken out of the truck, unwrapping furniture, and so on.
I would guess this is not what the Atlas corporate offices expect of their franchises.
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