8 Feb 2021 · MoveAdvisor
1.0 out of 51.0
My move with Moving Nation cost me 46% more than their estimate, an additional $3400. In addition, it was the worst move I have experienced. I have moved 6 times in the past 12 years, so I am familiar with the routine things that can go wrong, but this was much worse. There was bait and switch pricing, horrible packing, and poor communication. The support team doesn’t work on weekends.
I attempted resolve the issues after the move, with detailed documentation. After repeated attempts to contact them, I was told to work with a 3rd party to resolve it. When I completed that process, I was told Moving Nation no longer had a contract with them. I notified Moving Name several times, with no response.
Move
This was a full pack move of a two bedroom house from California to Washington state in early Oct 2020. I spent early Nov to January trying to get a resolution with Moving Nation.
Cost
The original estimate was based on a verbal walkthrough. I keep a list of furniture and the furniture sizes because I’ve moved so much. I gave accurate list of items and pointed out that we had more books and art than most households, giving details.
• Five days before the move, a person from The Moving Nation reviewed the items to be moved, and “discovered” that many items I had listed previously weren’t included in the estimate. The price was raised by $1600. On the day of the move, after packing, we were told we exceeded cubic feet limits, and the price would be additional $1800.
Packing
The packing was very bad. Here’s a small sample of packing issues.
• Part of the reason the cubic feet increased is that furniture wasn’t disassembled, and that there were boxes contained one lamp shade, or one power cord and small umbrella. In addition, the team used a lot of wardrobe boxes, and did things like put a microwave oven on top of a Roomba docking station, and a sewing machine on top of leather shoes.
• Despite the fact I’d called out that I had a lot of art, they didn’t pack it properly, stuffing framed pictures into boxes with Christmas ornaments. The pictures weren’t even wrapped in paper. I pulled an oil painting out of a box that also had laundry supplies.
• Packing tape was applied directly to an antique desk, and it was put in a wardrobe box.
Communication
• Move out was supposed to be Day 1 to pack, Day 2 to load the truck. Instead, pack team arrived in the afternoon of Day 1, and said they were going pack and load in one day. They didn’t finish til 9 PM. Rushing to do two days’ work in one day probably contributed to bad packing and increase of cubic feet, leading to my additional cost.
• No useful information on move-in date. The tentative move-in date was Oct 10. On the Oct 8 I contacted The Moving Nation to see if that was the date. The next day I was told “I haven't heard anything yet”. Later the same day I asked again and got no response. Oct 10 was a Saturday. I called and emailed repeatedly asking if the move-in was happening. I was unable to contact anyone from the Moving Nation from Oct 9 til Oct 12 to get a status on move-in date. I was told “We don’t work weekends”. Not getting an update on the status of the move-in date is completely unacceptable. I understand the date can shift, but to not tell me what the status is completely unacceptable. We waited for the movers all day on the original date and had to scramble to get lodgings each day when we had no additional information.
Summary
I could go on for a long time about the issues, but the takeaway is to avoid this company. They do a poor job at a high cost.
Sorry about the useless photos, couldn't figure out how to delete.
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