29 Jul 2016 · MoveAdvisor
2.0 out of 52.0
This month (July 2016) I moved from 2 bedroom townhouse in Pennsylvania to a 2 bedroom apartment in Colorado. I had moved within the Northeast before but never across the country so this was my first cross-country moving experience. I used MyMovingReviews.com to get some estimates from different companies in early June.
I was contacted by maybe 10 companies. One of the reasons I selected Key Moving and Storage was that in their first email to me they claim “We offer in-home estimate for FREE – that’s the most accurate way to estimate a move and that way you can get a ‘not to exceed’ quote.” They followed up the same day with another email stating:
“My name is David, and I just received your request for a moving quote and would like to offer you a Free In-Home Estimate.
“Here at Key Moving & Storage, we pride ourselves on the quality and accuracy of our in-home estimates. Our estimators are professionals who will take the time to explain the moving process and walk through your home in order to truly understand what it is you plan to move. This opportunity will allow you not only to receive an accurate not to exceed quote, but to also spend time face to face with a specialist who represents our company, and will be directly involved with all aspects of your move.”
Therefore I emailed them and asked for an in-home estimate. The emailed reply from “Senior Relocation Specialist” David Carter was “We routinely provide binding quotes for moves less than 3 bedrooms without an in-home estimate.”
He also called and left a voicemail stating “Most of the quotes that we give, they are binding quotes, meaning they’re not going to change on moving day, and we do them over the phone without an in-home estimate and our system really is that good. We have an A rating with the Better Business Bureau and you won’t find any complaints regarding our quotes not being accurate.”
Red flag #1: bait and switch marketing tactic (disappearing offer of in-home estimate).
I made the poor decision to proceed with this company and go over my inventory by phone. David Carter was pleasant enough and gave a quote around $2000. I wanted to ship one car and asked about car shipping. David Carter gave me a quote and told me I would be contacted by the car movers. Then I received a voicemail from Ely from United Freight of America stating “We’re the auto division for Key Moving and Storage.”
Red flag #2: Referral to United Freight of America, a brokerage-type car moving company based out of Florida that was a horrific experience as I will describe in a separate review of their company. UFA’s salesman Ely’s claim to be calling from “the auto division for Key Moving and Storage” appears to be fraudulent, although that is not so much a complaint about Key Moving and Storage as it is about UFA. However Key Moving and Storage bears some responsibility for what companies they choose to refer to (and I would suspect receive a referral fee from).
Several days before moving: emailed David Carter an updated inventory and quote was increased by about $300.
Moving day: 3 men arrived in a truck labeled Key Moving and Storage. They did a good job of moving my things carefully and putting padding on the larger items. However the foreman was rude, and among the first things he said upon walking into my house and looking at the kitchen and living room was “this is more than what’s on your inventory and the price is going to go up.” This is before looking at the upstairs 2 bedrooms so how he determined this, I do not know. Ultimately he increased my quote by about $1800 on moving day. He did use the same fee per cubic foot but the cubic footage he quoted me was about double the phone estimate.
Red flag #3: price increased by almost 100% on moving day.
As I said, they did a good job moving stuff out of the house, but the foreman was rude and at the end he requested a tip (I was planning on tipping anyway). When I handed over the tip, he made a disgusted face and did not thank me, just walked out of my house.
Red flag #4: unprofessional to solicit a tip. Foreman rude in general. (I was going to tip anyway.)
He stated to me “they gave you a bad estimate” in defense of raising the price from $2200 to $4000 on moving day.
Red flag #5: foreman badmouthed other divisions of his company (sales). Unprofessional in any circumstance even though obviously I did receive a “bad estimate.”
They claim a 7-21 “business day” window for them to deliver your items from East Coast to West Coast which they consider Colorado to be a part of. Several days after my stuff was picked up, I was called by the driver of the truck taking my stuff across the country. He told me that his truck broke down in Pennsylvania and the delivery would be delayed. They were still within the agreed upon time window so I was not particularly upset. He estimated he would arrive on “Monday or Tuesday.” Over the next several days I received several more calls about how the truck broke down again, etc. etc. and the delivery date was pushed back by another 7 days.
The truck driver repeatedly told me he would give me 24 hour notice before dropping off my stuff. On a Sunday, he called to give 24 hour notice and said he would arrive 4-6p.m. the next day. On Monday morning around 7:30 a.m., he called and said now he would be coming 10a.m.-noon, thus giving me 2 ½ hours’ notice and requiring me to change some plans.
He also asked me whether I owned a motorcycle. I said no and he said yeah he thought that went with the other shipment. I guess if I had said yes I could have gotten someone else’s motorcycle for free.
The driver arrived with his-18 wheeler around 11:45 (a different driver than the people who picked up my stuff in Pennsylvania). His truck was unmarked and I am unsure whether he was an employee of Key Moving and Storage, or a contractor. He had 1 other guy with him who later told me that he lives in Colorado and had been hired by the driver off of craigslist as he is a “freelance mover.” The driver said he was unable to park on my street so I would need a shuttle service (they rented a UHaul and moved my stuff into that, then came back with the UHaul). This would cost $450. This was stipulated in the contract so I was aware of this possibility of extra expense. I wasn't sure whether an 18-wheeler would work out on my street, which it almost did but unfortunately there were a couple of parked cars in the way.
Red flag #6: An email they had sent me stated “Our employees are all background checked, drug tested and have a minimum of 3 years of experience in the moving industry.” Yet one of the movers who came to my house told me he was a “freelance mover” hired off of craigslist. Another mismatch of promises versus delivered services.
Anyway, the movers came back about 4 hours later in a UHaul they had rented. The driver was unprofessional, yelling at his partner the whole time. They locked themselves out of their UHaul cab by mistake (the back, with my stuff in it, was open). The first thing the driver did was take my cash payment of the full balance, a couple thousand dollars. They then moved about 2 small items into my house, then took a break to argue about what to do about getting into the truck cab. About 20 minutes went by, then they requested that I drive them in my personal vehicle to UHaul, 25 minutes away. I said I would be willing to do this but not until they unloaded my stuff.
They unloaded my stuff, had to take my hinges off the front door (which they later re-hung inadequately so that now my door doesn’t close very well), made a lot of noise so that my neighbors were poking their heads in and wondering what was going on. The driver was yelling at his craigslist “freelance mover” (who seemed less competent at moving, but was more pleasant, than the driver). They had a lot of trouble getting one of my couches in the door.
One of my tables was broken, about which they commented “they didn’t pack your stuff right in Pennsylvania, this table wasn’t meant to hold that much weight but they piled boxes on top of it.”
Red flag #7: Again, workers insulting/blaming another branch of their own company.
My mattress was folded in half and now (a few weeks later) has a big crease in it that is probably permanent.
To be fair, and the only reason I am giving a 2 star review instead of 1 star, the majority of my stuff was not broken including a large mirror that I was worried would break. The movers in Pennsylvania did a good job of packing my stuff.
The Colorado end movers were not that careful and they scratched up my hardwood floors.
The Key Moving contract specifically states that “Disassembling, reassembling, and placement of all furniture upon delivery” is included in the fee. The Colorado end mover asked me “whether I needed anything reassembled.” I said yes, since this was in the contract and I had already payed for it. They did a really, really terrible job of reassembling the furniture (I just asked that 3 things be put back together, not even everything that had been disassembled). Our bed frame had 2 wheels missing that they were unable to locate. They assembled it anyway but it was clearly wrong, with a random spare metal beam that they left laying on the floor, and put together completely crookedly and looking ridiculous. They didn’t have a wrench to tighten the bolts on our table – they explained that they had forgotten their tools in the 18-wheeler. While they were trying to get my couch in the door they repeatedly asked me whether I had a hammer, which I told them was in the boxes they were moving in.
Oh, and they asked my wife which way she wanted the bed frame facing. She told them, then they told her that putting it the other way is better and proceeded to do it that way. They called her "hon." We ended up having to just disassemble the bed frame and put our mattress/box spring on the floor, because the frame is still missing wheels that we’ve never located, and they did such a comically bad job of putting it together.
Red flag #8: They did not satisfactorily reassemble my stuff, which it says they would in the contract.
(Of course, if you want them to leave your house at the end, you have to sign a form that says something along the lines of you’re totally satisfied and they delivered everything and everything is great.)
At the end, I noticed that a small desk we own with sentimental value (it was a wedding gift) was not there. I asked about this and the truck driver said oh yeah, was it a green table? – Yes. – That’s still in the 18-wheeler. So they asked me to come pick it up in my car (at this point they had hired a locksmith who had let them back in to the UHaul cab). It would have been well within my rights to tell them they needed to bring my table to my address, but I just wanted it over-with so I drove 25 minutes to UHaul (where the 18-wheeler was parked) to get my table and 25 minutes back. If I hadn’t noticed it was missing, it likely would have been gone forever, or maybe in someone else’s house like someone else’s motorcycle almost became my property (see above).
Red flag #9: They’re not too sure what items are yours and what are someone else’s.
In the end, the quoted price was about $2300. The final price I paid was about $4500 plus tips.
This has been a long review. I hope that by writing it I can save maybe one or two people the aggravation of dealing with this company. You won’t save any money and you’ll get bad service.
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