American Knights Moving

I am disappointed. I inherited a midcentury modern couch and a Haywood Wakefield bedroom set from my parents, which is very special to me. It was their first furniture set, bought in 1956. I needed to move them from Louisiana to California. My sister recommended American Knights Moving (AKM). Unfortunately, I did not do much research. Their website said they were not a broker and owned a truck fleet. Their pictures on Google showed two men in AKM shirts carrying a mattress into an AKM truck via a ramp.

If I had done the research, I would have discovered that AKM earned an "F" rating from the Better Business Bureau. With a consumer alert because they require any negative reviews to be removed before they pay a claim.

If I had done the research, I would have discovered that many claims, including deceptive business practices, had been filed with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration against AKM.

The pickup went flawlessly. Four movers showed up, expertly wrapping and protecting the furniture. They then loaded it into an American Knights' truck without a hitch.

The problem began at the delivery. The furniture had to be moved to the basement via a set of stairs with a 90-degree turn through an entryway with a ceiling height of only 6 feet 9 inches. By the way, the couch is almost 9 feet long, and the dresser, I would guess, weighs over 300 lbs. An 18-wheeler from a moving company other than AKM showed up for delivery. There was only one person in the truck, the driver. I asked him where his help was. He said he was alone. I could not believe that American Knights would send someone alone for delivery when four movers were sent for pickup. After some back-and-forth conversation about the delivery, I figured I did not have much choice.

I gave him the money. He then opened the truck door. I could see that the dresser had no protection on. What had happened to all the blankets that were wrapped and taped nicely around it? I asked the driver about this. He said he had to unwrap the dresser and take the drawers out because it was too heavy to load by himself. The dresser had been damaged, scratched on top and one side. The damage was not caused by an accident while the mover was careful, but by negligence, moving it unprotected and leaving it unprotected. I said, "Don't they give you help?" He said that he has to do deliveries alone.

He halfway wrapped the dresser back up, threw some folded packing blankets on the ground in front of the trailer door opening, and pushed the dresser to the edge.

I said, "Hey, what are you doing?" It looked to me like he was preparing to drop the dresser onto the packing blankets, about a four-foot drop. Where is the ramp like in the pictures? I thought.

He looked at me and said nothing.

I said, "I'm not going to let you drop that thing down. You will destroy it."

He said, "Don't worry, I got it."

At that moment, I was in a panic. I felt as though the driver's only goal was to get the furniture down in the basement, no matter what its condition was in the end, if it was delivered as a pile of sticks, job done.

I ran over to the truck, put my hand on the dresser, and said, "I will help you lower this thing." I did. I helped him move all the furniture, ensuring each piece stayed safe. I helped him move the couch, which was a struggle for the two of us.

In the end, a piece of custom-cut glass for the night stand was missing, the dresser was damaged, and the dolly damaged one of the steps to the basement.

I feel like I got baited with a white glove professional moving company, then switched to a one-man show.

I asked for a partial refund of the delivery. They refused because the driver said he didn't need help, but AKM wrote the driver up because he should have had help. They offered me $100 for the steps and around $180 for the dresser. I have an estimate to repair the dresser for $1200 to $1400, and I will have to pay movers to bring it to the shop and back. I will not be using American Knights for that one.

Move size: Partial Move Service cost: $2500

Exhausting and completely unacceptable behavior on multiple fronts but let's go through this.

1: On pick-up they were a full day late and we were not given advanced warning of it until several hours after they were to arrive.

2: Following day were told they'd arrive at 8:00, didn't arrive until 11

3: Didn't write down the "latest delivery date" on contract while claiming it verbally, presumably to prevent liabilities.

4: No attempt to deliver by the specified date, waited 6 weeks for drop-off. Boxes were just put into a local storage unit and untouched for over a month while movers kept saying they needed to find a truck. Delivery time estimate was between 9-11 am and they didn't arrive until noon.

5: Entire boxes and all large furniture (couches, desks) were contaminated with rat droppings and urine which were also tracked throughout the whole house. Biohazard cleanup company advised clothes should be unpacked outside in case dead rats fall out and every item from boxes should be sanitized or discarded. Entire household requires cleaning as well.

6: Ignoring the biohazards for a moment (what a statement) some other boxes showed severe physical damage as if tossed around or jammed into hard objects and many boxes were crushed at the top as if from dropping on top of one another.

TLDR: consistently and excessively late, rough handling of boxes, and egregious biohazard contamination from rodents.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $8943

Go to BBB to see reviews if you are doing an interstate move! I was quoted a 7 day delivery that turned into a 14 das My stuff was picked up on 12.15.2023 and it is now 1.03.2024. Now I am being told 21 business days but I am high priority. High priority to who? I have no bed or anything to cook with! My life is in disarray and may continue for another 2 plus week like this. Also upon pickup they placed tape directly on my furniture and literally dragged my furniture down the stairs which I said do not do that as it will damage my furniture. Clearly their movers are not professional and across state lines takes a month or longer to deliver.

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $33300

Do not use American Knights nor International Van Lines if you value your belongings. This company was subcontracted by IVL without our knowledge. It was an in state move with 3 months of what was supposed to be climate controlled storage. Twenty eight pieces of furniture were delivered damaged in transit and/or storage. Items were water damaged, heat damaged, functionally damaged, scratched, torn or totally destroyed. The claims process took two months and resulted in a payment offer of $404 based on $.60 per pound per item. It's going to cost me in the neighborhood of $10,000 to repair or replace the damaged items.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $18638

So many issues with this company.
They showed up and were seeking more money for the move. No packing material. Next they did $500.00 dollars worth of damage to my wood floor and to this date the owner Max has yet to live up to his promise to pay for the floor repairs. Next upon delivery only the driver showed to move my things into my place. Dragged things on the side walk which caused things to be soled. Next missing item. Driver called a few days later saying he found my item and it is in Ohio. In a week it will be delivered. It has now been two months and still no item to be delivered. Please don't trust this company. Pay more cheap is definitely is not better. You get what you pay for. You want cheap and terrible choose American Knights Moving & Storage. If you want better choose a reputable company.

Service cost: $2000

I hired this company for a move between Ohio and Nevada.  They were very friendly and courteous over the phone and showed up on time to pick up everything.  They warpped up everything quickly, but not in a hurry.  They did break an alarm system wire, due to carelessness.  They told me it would only take 10 business days to deliver everything as they had a bunch of shipments going out West this week.  As it turns out they lied.  I called at the two week interval to inquire about my belongings, only to be told it was still sitting in a warehouse in Cleveland.  I called the following week, and still nothing had been moved.  They never contacted me to inform me of the progress or lack thereof, I had to continuously talk to dispatch to find out what was going on.  Finally, after 30 days they get the furniture here.  The driver told me when he reached the apartment complex that no one told him it was this small parking lot and that the 18 wheeler would not fit through the tight parking area.  I referred him to the paperwork I filled out when they picked up my stuff that the parking lot required a smaller truck.  They wanted to charge me $275 extra, but since the paperwork indicated otherwise, they had no choice but to cease and desist.  Make sure you contact your new place and find out if an 18 wheeler will fit. Keep a copy of your papaerwork,  The guy who picked up the furniture did not inform me that if a truck could not fit they would charge you extra.  He said simply it was no big deal. They did a decent job, but I ended up with one broken lamp. Except for the two damages above and the lies by the guys who picked up the furniture about the amount of time to deliver, it was done fairly well.  We will see if they refund the money for the damage they caused.  I would not recommend American Knights moving.  They were cheap, but you get what you pay for in the end.

Service cost: $1610

This is the first time I had used an actual moving company. I don't recommend it. If you can rent a truck, save yourself a lot of grief and move yourself. I went through a booking agent, they did not take down the inventory I was listing to them. I tried getting the list corrected three times. They were more interested in getting their payment, instead of listing my inventory. The person I talked to said that the driver will just charge me if the inventory she was taking didn't match what was on the paper work. They told me I would owe the driver 1737$ on pickup and 1737$ on delivery. I had to pay the booking agent a third upfront before I could get a confirmed date. American Knight cancelled from arriving on the date because they could not get me on the phone the day before. I work and they don't want us to do cell phones on work time. They left one message at 3:30 the day before saying they couldn't reach me so they were rescheduling it for the next week. If they would have called 48 hours ahead a time and left a message then I would have called them back. I thought the deposit meant I was confirmed for the moving date. American Knight didn't see it that way. I spent the next week waiting for the movers to arrive. Every day their office would send an email saying they were scheduled for xx day. On the newest scheduled day I would call in the morning to confirm and they would confirm it. However when no one showed up I would call again and would get the run around. Finally when they showed up the driver told me I had more things then were listed. I explained about trying to get them to correct it. He demanded an additional 2245.50$ in cash be paid. When they left with my things I found one of the bathrooms they had locked the door and closed it so I had to have someone come in and get it opened. Once I arrived in Maine and leased an apartment, I contacted them for delivery. They would not give me a specific date. They just kept saying they would let me know. I ended up having to go buy basics as I sat in my empty apartment for 5 weeks. The truck arrived 2 hours later then he said and one of his helpers did not show up at all. They were unloading past 10:30 pm. He pointed out one chair they had broken. In the next days as I unpacked I found all the things they did not bother pointing out. Because I had signed the papers the driver shoved at me upon pickup where he had said if I didn't ship by weight it would cost me about 5000$ more I agreed to ship by weight. So that meant they are only obligated to pay damages based on weight. As I read the claim process where it explained what ship by weight really meant, I realized that there was no point in listing most of the things that they had damaged. I listed my chair just to see what they would end up offering me. For my ruined chair they offered me 35$.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $7416

F you want to pay someone to break, steal, lose, and damage MOST of your things AND you like the idea of mice/rats building a nest in your boxes while in the care of said movers, then use this company. They found me through some internet form I filled out. After speaking with Dwayne Lockett several times about my specific needs and getting his assurance,l contracted with AKMS to move me from Cincinnati to Houston on 9/27/13. I needed them to pack my things, two months of storage in Houston, and was pretty set on my delivery date (new job).  NOTHING That the sales rep told me turned out to be true. The first issue was that after they loaded truck, they changed the price by more than $1k! Second, unbeknownst to me, they took my things 4 hours north to Cleveland to store it. After that, I never heard from them. They failed to answer calls or emails for the entire two months. I called and called and called to confirm my delivery date. I eventually made my way over to their office in Houston. I was horrified by how crowded and dilapidated it was and suspected then, my things were not in good hands. 5 days late, my things arrived. When they opened the truck, my things started falling off the truck. I watched in horror as my piano came off missing its front two legs. That was only the beginning. They lost the legs and screws to MOST of my furniture. My canopy was in pieces. The supports for my beds were missing. I had tables without legs. All of my wall pictures were broken. Plastic bins were simply in pieces. The worst part was that I opened one of my wardrobers and noticed a horrible smell--like rodents. My leather bags had holes and my blankets were in tatters. When I got to the bottom of the box, I found a rodents nest!! Instead of being the least bit apologetic or sympathetic to my staggering losses, this company's managers have threatened to "come to my home," and even dared me to call the police. I have yet heard from one person from this company apologizing for what happened to me. They act as if I inconvenienced THEM when I reported them to the Attorney General, BBB, and DOT.  I have countless video and picture evidence. I doubt that "extra insurance" I paid for is even legitimate. They even tried to get me to sign a liability form BEFORE MY Stuff was unloaded releasing them from future litigation..NOT!!

Service cost: $4254

We just moved from San Antonio Tx. to Franklin Tn. We were provided an estimate from International Van Lines. It was 1 of 3 we received from various companies. All of the quotes were similar in price. We chose International Van Lines because we had a previous experience that went pretty well. American Knights Moving out of Houston performed the physical move.
It was agreed that our belongings would be transported in one semi trailer. Our quote was for $11,132.00.. similar to the other quotes we received to be completed over 2 days. On moving day, American Knights showed up 3 hours late and with 2 smaller moving trucks. They said our belongings would be transferred in Houston. My wife argued with dispatch but to no avail. Needless to say, this was just the beginning..

To add insult to injury, after having loaded 3/4's of the first truck, the foreman told my wife the price was going up an additional $3,800.00. They wanted her to sign the bill of lading agreeing to the charge and she declined. She was ultimately strong armed into signing the final paperwork to acknowledge the $4,100.00 check she wrote them. I find it impossible in 2019, that an estimator (or estimators from 3 companies) could misquote a job by 34% when all 3 inspected the home and took inventory. They continued loading their trucks until just after 1:00am. I'm appalled that they kept my wife there that late and forced her find a hotel room at that time.

Upon delivery of our furniture, they demanded the additional $3,800.00 or they would not deliver our belongings. The manager actually had the balls to call me and say "call the police or the department of transportation your wife signed a contract". It was a bill of lading moron. He was rude and totally unprofessional and I'll just leave it there. To throw some additional salt in the wound, they had just 2 movers with 1 smaller truck show up with the first load. They had to go back for a second load with the same truck. It took them until early the following morning to unload our belongings.

We have had the ability to unpack approximately 70% of our boxes. We have damage to the master bed footboard, damaged fragile items like plates, dishes, ornamental vases and a television. In addition we had 3 wardrobe boxes delivered water damaged and still soaking wet!
This conduct should be prosecuted! Stay away from these crooks!

By the way, International Van Lines, who had been in constant contact prior to the move became invisible in the aftermath. They won't even return phone calls.

Move size: 4 Bedroom Home Service cost: $14932