A1 Moving and Storage

I had moving last week and received my stuff yesterday. First of all, they try to hustle you and charge you in different ways. There were supposed to charge based on cf but started charging based on number of items.

When I received my stuff, almost everything was broken or damaged. It is clear that they throw out stuff from truck , and did not move them.

They did not inform you about delivery time and they intentionally give you short notice that they will be at your home in 30 minutes during work. Then, they will charge you for waiting time, or storage.

Please do not use their service, someone should sue them and stop their service.

Move size: Studio Service cost: $2000

A1 Moving & Storage initially quoted us for our long distance move from Massachusetts to Kansas at $6379.75. I sent them a box count, box sizes, a very detailed inventory, and pictures of all of our items. I took pictures of each room and every single thing in it.

The night before our scheduled move, we ended up having 20 more boxes, but I notified our moving coordinator, and he updated the system, and it brought our total up to $7104.72. We also paid them $204.00 to pack our 3 flat screen TVs and our 2 floor lamps.

The entire move was a complete nightmare. First of all, they couldn't fit our stuff in the truck they showed up with, and ended up having to call another one to come help. They had no idea that they were supposed to pack our TVs and lamps, and didn't bring any materials to do so. I was told that the $204 I paid was for special materials. The forman took our extra UHaul boxes and cut them up to to pack our TVs, claiming that he knew what he was doing, and it was better than the boxes they were supposed to bring anyway. They also never packed our lamps. They just taped the cords. We didn't find this out until our stuff was unpacked.

Then, they charged us an extra $3440. We were told our cost would not change as long as our inventory didn't, which it didn't. However, at that point, they had everything we owned in their trucks, and we had to vacate our apartment as our lease was ending, so we had no choice but to pay it.

The guys who came to pack up our stuff seemed nice enough, but when I went outside, I saw that they had left all kinds of garbage all over our front yard. One guy even left an open soda can on top my neighbor's car. I even made sure to ask them to to take their garbage with them beforehand because my husband and I were paying for garbage pickup. So, we had to pay extra because of them.

Also, the coordinator I worked with swore up and down that A1 is a carrier, meaning the company that picks up your stuff is the same company that delivers it. This was a lie. They contracted some guy to handle our stuff after they packed it up as well as two local guys to come and help him unload everything.

When we saw our items being unloaded, our mouths literally dropped open. Our items had been manhandled. Several things were broken. Several boxes had gotten wet. Boxes were smashed. My box of CDs had been riffled through, and lots were missing. I have pictures to back all this up with as well.

And, the worst part of all is that they broke our $1200 flat screen TV that we PAID them to pack. I was told anything we paid them to pack would be covered. But, when we filed the claim, we only received $108. They also broke our couch. One of the guys who was hired to unload our stuff actually told us it looked as if someone had dragged our couch across the pavement.

I went with these guys because they had some good reviews on Google and Yelp, and I liked the coordinator I was working with. I am truly sad that we were treated the way we were and that A1 had so little regard for our items. My husband had just bought that TV as a treat to himself for finishing his schooling. He was crushed they broke it and only gave us $108 for it.

Please, unless you want to be overcharged and your items broken and manhandled, DO NOT hire these guys.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $10544

When researching movers for a big move from Pittsburgh to Los Angeles, I spoke to several companies over the phone. Andy, the general manager, called me to give me a quote and it was a couple of thousand dollars cheaper than the others. I should have known by his fast talking sales pitch that I was setting myself up for disaster. I went through and gave him an inventory of the items in my home and number of bedrooms and he estimated the square footage I would need. Then to win me over he says that he's throwing in all of these discounts and will send free boxes, etc. The original quote was just under $5000.

Moving day arrives and the driver tells us his truck broke down so they can't come until the next day between 6-7am. Fine, that happens. The next day we are up waiting and they don't show until almost 10am. My whole house was completely packed except for 3 cabinets in my kitchen, but I was told they were going to pack my house too so I didn't think that 3 cabinets was a big deal. One of the guys ends up sleeping in the truck ALL DAY. The lead mover slowly packs my kitchen stuff but is on his phone and chatting in the back yard every time I go in to check. The third mover was working his tail off trying to get my furniture disassembled and our stuff packed on to the truck. It ended up taking these guys until 8pm. If they had to pack my stuff too, there's no way this would have been a one-day job.

First MAJOR problem, they alerted me when I used up my allotted space but my house was only half empty. Which means, that I could either pay for the additional space or leave whatever they hadn't packed behind. They ended up filling the truck to the brim, using over double the allotted space. If I would have known that it was going to be so much, I would have sold or gotten rid of half of it. I feel completely bamboozled by Andy and his "very high tech computer software" that estimated my cubic feet. I can understand if it went over a little but my total bill was almost $11,000! He severely underestimated and scammed me into going with this company. Not only that, but instead of the 50% of $5000 that I was told I would be needing to pay up front, I was now being required to pay 70% of $11,000.

The second MAJOR problem, my hardwood floors were very damaged in the move and the movers refused to take responsibility. They claimed that it wasn't them (it was) and when we tried to figure out what to do (we're trying to sell this house) all of the sudden the main guy couldn't spare 10 more minutes for us to make some phone calls and needed to get on the road. He said that we were just mad that the move was so expensive so we were blaming them. Darn right we were mad but even more so that now we'd have to have the floors fixed in order to sell our home. We spoke to Ray, the owner, several times and he said they would send over claim forms but after numerous attempts to get them, he still refuses to send them. In an attempt to appease me, Andy promised me that our stuff would meet us in California and we wouldn't have to wait for it. We were driving and it took us 6 days. Well, 2 weeks later our stuff finally arrives. Which leads me to..

Third MAJOR problem is that many of our belongings are missing! The movers on this end were actually great. They were quick, friendly and moved everything into the correct rooms. I did notice right away that our coffee table was not delivered. The guys assured me that if it turned up that they'd let me know. After unpacking, we realized that 3 tool chests filled with tools were also not delivered, including a table saw and work bench. Also, one of our chests was opened and someone decided it would be cool to help themselves to our DSLR camera with lens, an antique camera from my husband's late grandfather, and a pair of Bose headphones. We know this stuff was in there and everything else that was not expensive is still securely in the chest so it was deliberately opened and rifled through! Some items are scratched, most of my boxes looked like they were kicked down the stairs, 3 bowls were broken (from the box that the mover packed), and there was a random box filled with some of our things covered in paint. Really I'm more concerned about getting some kind of retribution for my scratched floors and lost/stolen items. There's no reason I should be paying 11 grand and not get every single item I own in pristine condition.

I'm now trying to file a claim but their insurance is garbage and I'll likely need a lawyer to see a penny from these thieves.

BEWARE of this company! BEWARE of Andy's sweet-talking, he is going to screw you too!

Move size: 4 Bedroom Home Service cost: $11000