8 Feb 2025 · MoveAdvisor
1.0 out of 51.0
I wrote previously about the horrendous experience we had moving from Long Island to Richmond, Va. It was a disaster in nearly every way. Almost all of the furniture was damaged or broken (a lot of chafing against other items, poorly wrapped, glass and marble broken, concrete statuary all broken, paintings punctured or completely missing, CASH AND JEWELRY MISSING (they started stealing things as they were "packing" items they were told to leave alone). The movers camehours late -- stinking of dope -- were disorganized, haphazard, and eventually physically threatening when we started raising objections.
Delivery was late, and incomplete! We waited three weeks for delivery of all our goods--they attempted to deliver the wrong things on one occasion, and when the final truck came, it was still missing items AND THEY HAD ACTUALLY SWAPPED-OUT NICE MATTRESSES FOR CRAP ONES.
AND - to add insult to injury, they hold your items hostage until you pay the "new, adjusted fee" according to either space, or weight, or hours, or whatever new metric they're introducing to justify the dramatically-increased charge inflate the charges which, in our case, was over 150% or original quote
So, we paid extra for insurance, because shit happens. When we tried to exercise that insurance, TRI STATE'S OWNER, GABRIEL (GAVRIEL) AVGI ADMITTED THAT THEY ARE SELF-INSURED AND DON'T PROCURE THE ACTUAL "COVERAGE" YOU PAY FOR. They pay to fix the damage themselves (despite you paying for coverage), EXCEPT THAT THEY DON'T PAY, FOR ANYTHING.
When you are able to track down Mr. Avgi, he's "in the middle of something" and will call back. Never does.
Mr. Avgi provides an a-mail address for proof of claims, you send them, he is silent, then in a few days, tells you they haven't been received (probably 3x in our experience). Then, silence.
We recovered nothing despite damage to/destruction of over half the furniture shipped (nearly everything was damaged, it was just a question of how severely).
Avgi and TriState hide behind the Carmak Amendment, a 1920s law insulating interstate movers from most common law Tort claims, and limiting the types and amounts of damages recoverable. Knowing how difficult it is to bring a successful claim, Mr. Avgi operates with total disregard for the law and the customer, and with total immunity. When the truth gets out about who he is and what he does, he changes the name of the business and/or declares bankruptcty and moves.
Gabriel Avgi is a crook, plain and simple, and TriState Movers -- the one run by Gabriel Avgi, not the poor guy Joe M. who looks to go by a very similar name and gets dragged-in to these assessments -- is essentially a criminal operation.
Since writing my original review, I have received communications from 5 other individuals who had been victimized; retirees, a doctor, a rabbi, the list goes on. And you can see the other reviews - they tell much the same story.
What are also clearly frauds are the shining positive reviews Tri State received/s. They are incredible, as in you won't believe it, as in non-credible - they aren'[t to be believed because they're fake.
Do yourself a huge favor and stay the hell away from Gabriel Avgi and TriState Movers, or whatever name is now over the front door.
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