16 Jul 2019 · MoveAdvisor
1.0 out of 51.0
I've made 6 major interstate long distance moves with various companies and have never had so much damage to my furniture with such a short move! I chose Fry-Wagner because it's a national company with a recognized name. My mistake. It would have better to go with a smaller company with good reviews.
The guy who provided the estimate came to my home and looked at and recorded all I had, most of which was already boxed up and neatly organized, and he was about $600 lower than the final charge. He was also a week late in providing the in-home assessment. He told me on the phone he would call and come by the next week, but he came two weeks later, after I called to inquire why he hadn't called or come by the week before.
The movers arrived at the scheduled time. There were three of them for a small house and less than 6,000 lbs. Everything was boxed and ready to go. They were generally polite and seemed efficient, but I didn't see much of what happened outside.
An hour into the move, the lead guy asked if he could use my restroom. I said yes and he used my guest bathroom. I checked later to see if he'd flushed the toilet and he had not. I tried to flush it and it didn't flush so I asked him if he'd noticed the toilet didn't flush. He said he thought the water was turned off. I told him it was not and the toilet had flushed yesterday. After I brought this to his attention he went with me into the bathroom and lifted the tank lid to flush the toilet that way. Had I not checked, it would have remained unflushed at the time of my vacating the premises!
The movers drove to my destination city of Springfield, MO, an 85-90-mile drive. They supposedly took the truck to weigh it and also took their lunch break, but during the unpacking, which took about 2 hours, same as the loading, one of the workers asked to use my toilet. I don't know why they can't use the restroom on their breaks, rather than those of their customers.
I watched my belongings being wrapped and removed from my home before the move, and watched them being brought into my new home at my destination, but I saw little of the truck loading or unloading, which I think is where most of the damage must have occurred.
In addition to chipping the new paint on the walls in at least two places by placing bookcases right up against the wall at my new home, I discovered damage to my commercial 4-drawer filing cabinet that prior to this move had no scratches, dents, or other damage, and had been moved several times before.
They also crushed the back of my solid oak bookcase that had no prior damage and was moved a number of times before, and damaged one of my dining room chairs. They must have packed it into the truck in some way to totally displace the rungs on the chair, jamming an end of one rung, even bending a screw. I couldn't push the rungs back into place!
These movers were quick to unload, push the furniture up against walls and get me to sign there was no damage. The lead guy even had me sign there was no damage after I'd already seen the huge dent in my file cabinet. He didn't tell me what I was signing!
They only allow 10 days to file a claim, which is a third of the time allowed for every other move I've ever made in my life. That's not enough time to inspect everything and unpack when starting a new job and everything else that's involved in a move.
I also question whether these movers used clean, new boxes for my mattress and box springs, where these boxes were stored and whether the moving truck is routinely cleaned and sprayed with pesticides. I've had numerous bug bites after sleeping in my bed since I arrived in my new home.
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