Empire Moving and Storage

Do NOT use Empire. They gave us a low quote - then when I gave them an exact list of what we had, they more than doubled the cost. Then when the company they hired showed up - 4 hours late (8 pm!) they raised the price another $4000! We felt stuck! It took two guys 9 hours to pack our truck so we had to stay up all night. :( The Empire sales people said it would take 5-8 days to deliver our stuff. But hidden in the fine print was a section that said they had up to 6 weeks - and they took 7 weeks to bring our stuff! So annoying. Overcharged, lied, and gave poor service and broke a couple items. Do NOT use them.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $13500

I've moved seven times and used five different moving companies. Empire Moving and Storage is not only the worst moving company I've experienced, but also, arguably, the worst company of any kind. The comments posted by Murali Ramesh are spot on.

Before posting a review, I waited until I received my claims check ($153) for the furniture Empire broke or damaged, including my grandfather's antique hat rack, which was snapped like a toothpick and had to be thrown away. (I posted, below, a photo of a company worker holding the bottom of the broken hatrack. He wore a T-shirt that read: "I'd help but I don't want to," which should be the company slogan. (I was, by the way, reimbursed $6 for that antique hat rack.)

Altogether, five pieces of furniture were destroyed or damaged. It's not only that they were damaged, but the manner in which they were damaged. A handmade maple bookshelf, pictured below, looked as though it were smashed with a sledgehammer. Even one of Empire's movers remarked that it looked like someone intentionally kicked it.

The company bid $4,000 on my job, and charged me nearly $8,000. I don't know exactly how moving companies calculate charges. But I do know that I provided exactly the same information to two other moving companies that bid roughly $6,0000, which was $2,000 closer to the real cost than Empire's bid. I hired Empire based on its low bid. HUGE MISTAKE.

At the pick-up, when the movers told me the price, I almost told them to unload my stuff and leave. But the employee talking to me told me I would lose my deposit if I did. Two days later, however, another Empire employee told me that I would not have lost my deposit if I had told them to unload the truck and leave.

The worst aspect, however, was the customer service. I could not get my moving coordinator, Allen Kingman, to call me back, respond to my concerns, or give me updates. The only time the company got back to me was to tell me when the rest of the money was due. My moving coordinator, and anyone else I spoke to at Empire, seemed indifferent to what I was going through. I finally found out my delivery date when a driver called me from Dallas and said he would be there in two hours, which I wasn't prepared for.

I'm a grown man, but on two occasions this company practically reduced me to tears. That's how frustrated I was, with no recourse. On delivery, one of the movers even complained about putting my bed together, until I told him the bed was assembled when they started the job. STEER CLEAR OF THIS COMPANY.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $7900

We moved with this company. I wish there were more stars. My husband and I have moved across the country twice and have had subsequent moves within the midwest. I wish we could say we know nothing about moving, but it is quite the opposite, we know far too much.

In the past movers have over promised and under delivered. We were told exactly what to expect before we agreed on a price and reserved our date for pick up. Isaac and his team were hardworking and made something stressful fun and easy. Reyna and Vanessa were patient and helpful. Overall this company exceeded our expectations. The positive attitude of everyone involved made for an experience unlike any other movers we've ever used. Their speed in expediting the move impressed me. I plan on recommending the entire coordinating team and company to any of my friends.

I am truly grateful.

Service cost: $3650

We have never used professional movers for any move in the past. This experience was our first. We had Empire Moving & Storage come out to give us a visual inspection of all of our property that would need to be moved and we received a quote based on that in-person visual inspection. The visual inspection lasted over an hour. The initial quote we were given was for $7,638.34. Our understanding was that this was for everything in our home. We knew that it was an estimate so I personally budgeted for approximately 20% overage as their sales person told me that they guaranteed not to go over 10% above their estimate.
We had two other companies give us estimates and Empire’s quote was the best. Before final selection I called to discuss our pick-up and delivery schedule. We needed a fairly tight delivery window based on a personal family scheduling issue. At that point, we were told that in order to guarantee a 3-day window for delivery, we would need a dedicated truck and that for that level of service would cost an extra $1,500. That used up my budget buffer, but the 3-day delivery window was very important to us so we agreed. Just prior to signing our agreement, as I looked through the details of the estimate we received, I noticed some items that seemed to be missing from the inventory and so I called Empire to discuss that, as I was concerned that they would charge me even more, above the initial quote, 10% potential overage, and $1,500 dedicated truck for guaranteed delivery. I was told at that point, that since we were getting a dedicated truck, so long as everything fit on the truck, that the pricing wouldn’t change and not to worry. Additionally, I asked if we need to have all of the furniture wrapped with furniture blankets or if those were provided with their service and was told that they included providing all the blankets for all wood, fabric and metal furniture and that they would provide both disassembling and re-assembling of all furniture at no additional cost.

On moving day, the movers showed up and asked to do an initial walk through. Upon completion of that walk through, we were told that this was way more stuff than they were prepared for and that it would cost us significantly more money. I explained what I had been told by the sales person and that I did not expect to pay any more. The individual that was in charge of the on-site move called and spoke to some people and said that they would need to charge me about double what they had initially quoted me, so I told them to go ahead and leave and I would try and figure something else out. Shortly after they left, the sales person called me back to find out what had happened and I explained what I had been told and explained why I asked the movers to leave. He told me that I must have misunderstood and that there wouldn’t be any additional charges other than about $700-$800 for some additional packing materials, because although the moving blankets were included all of the tape and additional cardboard that would be needed was not included. I reluctantly agreed to have them come back with the understanding that I was only looking at an additional $700-$800 and because I had not been able to find another viable option with the very short timeframe that we now had.

The moving truck and movers returned and began loading the truck. After they had loaded about one quarter of our belongings we were told that there would indeed be an additional charge for the items that they had initial “inadvertently” not included in our estimate and that we would not be getting a dedicated truck. They also claimed that they never promised a dedicated truck. Because we were completely out of time, we very reluctantly agreed to let them complete the move.
After they had completed packing the trucks and had left, we began cleaning the empty house and found that there were many items that the movers had not taken, but had just hidden the items by sticking them in closets and attic spaces. The boxed up the most important items that were small enough to ship and paid to ship them to our new address. On the other larger items, like a desk and a small Wardrobe Armoire, we were forced to donate them to a charity in order to get them out of the house. On top of that, there was quite a bit of damage to the house including large gouges, scrapes, and holes in walls, flooring, and the stairway. Additionally, we found a large amount of broken glass in the basement.
Then, weeks later when the movers showed up at our new location, we were forced to pay in cash and charged an additional $900 on top of what we had reluctantly agreed to, before the movers would even begin to empty the truck. Upon the completion of the unload, the truck driver told me that they were really in a hurry and did not have time to re-assemble any of our furniture or other items that had been disassembled and they left. Our contract clearly states that the movers would disassemble and reassemble all furniture.
This is where the real disturbing problems began to become evident. These movers, had destroyed much of our belongings. This was not the normal scrapes and small dents from moving (we have moved ourselves many times and know that there is always some small damage that occurs), but significant damage to furniture, appliances, boxes, and more. Additionally, we determined that there were multiple items that were just missing. The amount of damage and overall disregard for our belongings seems to move well beyond minor moving damage to a level that I would regard as gross negligence. When they disassembled items, like our air hockey table, they just ripped things apart instead of removing screws etc.

Move size: 4+ Bedroom Home Service cost: $14000

Empire Moving and Storage Inc.
6547 N Academy Blvd #1066
Colorado Springs CO 80918
Phone: 1-888-558-8752 Fax: 719-960-4065
DOT #: 1044554 MC #: 436581

When you hire a professional moving company you expect, professionals. Deposit made 9/16/2016 of $1,650.

Pick up date10/01/2016
Truck with 4 men who used a Budget rental truck to pick up the items. The driver indicated the items would arrive 10/8/2016. Once the items were picked up, communication was very little as to the status of the household items.

On 10/04/2016, the company said they wanted full payment but didn't have an ETA. I said I wouldn't pay any more until I had an ETA.

On 10/17/2016, several attempts made to Allen by cell phone, email, and voicemail but no communication as to where my household items were.

Then, 10/25/2016, an email was sent asking for the remainder of the payment. After trying to call Allen, he finally indicated to me that my stuff was in route. The driver should be calling. I only heard from the driver after I made the final payment to which he gave 12 hours notice.

Then, I come to find out that Empire hired random people from a Craigslist advertisement and random guys just showed up at my house. This really freaked me out that unprofessional, unchecked random dudes were hired to look at all my stuff and be in my house. It felt like a seedy drug deal with cash being exchanged and random moving practices in the back of a semi-truck.

There were several damaged items such as a bookcase, box spring, and wood furniture with scrapes so large the piece was completely damaged. Specifically, a wood table in my family for decades. Also, the way they treated the stuff in the semi-truck was completely awful. They pulled on bicycles as if they were just branches from a tree. These bicycles are Trek bikes and not cheap.

They could care less and provided no opportunity for reimbursing of these items. Total bill was $6,780. They even added $80 on the spot for steps, regardless of the damaged furniture.

I expect much more from a professional moving company.

Service cost: $6780

I put down a deposit for a cross country move that I am making because of a new job. The problem was that I didn't have a start date yet, and knew that it could be a few months before all the paperwork was in place. We made a trip to my new city and looked at some apartments and a few furnished homes but didn't have a date yet. Then, when the date came I decided to go with a furnished place to rent so I don't need to move anything until next summer. I e-mailed Allen K and within a few minutes I had an automated e-mail saying my entire amount of the deposit had been refunded. It showed up on my credit card statement within 48 hours. Next summer when I do have to move my things, I will be calling Empire Moving and Storage for sure! Thanks Allen!

Service cost: $2400

My husband and I are teachers. We moved to Germany two years ago to teach overseas, and while we sold most of our things, we kept a little bit of stuff that we held dear (family heirlooms and things like that). Upon our return, we decided to move to Oregon, but we needed to get our things from Colorado that we’d kept in storage. We called several moving companies, and in the end we chose Empire Moving and Storage. They told us that they were locally owned and trust worthy.
On the day of the move, we were notified that the movers would arrive between 9 and 10. They actually showed up at 1:30 (but, yeah I know, that’s a common thing). My husband and I were ready for them. We’d purchased 300 cubic feet of space in their truck (The man who booked it told us that they prefer to itemize it and know exactly what’s being loaded, but since we hadn’t seen it in years we told him we weren’t sure, and he assured us that as long as it fit in the space, everything would be okay) and we’d already and measured out the space in my in-laws garage. We knew everything would fit. We waited, and when they arrived, they loaded half of our things. Then they told us that the rest wouldn’t fit, and that since the small pieces of furniture weren’t all itemized, they couldn’t take them without charging us more money. We refused, and were left at a standstill for over an hour while we tried to get ahold of a supervisor, when they did finally reach someone, they accepted that they made a mistake, and they loaded all of our things.
One week later the delivery driver attempted to make a delivery at my parent's place in Oregon where we’ll keep our things until we move into our home next month. My parents just moved here as well, and they had not had problems with their movers delivering their goods, driving up the road and into the driveway (they live on a dirt road (see the picture below)). Our drivers arrived and parked at the end of my parent’s road. They walked to the driveway and told us that they couldn’t pull in there. We were surprised, but told them that they could unload at the end of the drive and that we would move everything the rest of the way. Then they went to their truck and told us that that they couldn’t make it up the hill to my parent’s house (mind you: not only did my parent’s driver made it up, but several semi trucks do it every day). They said we could either meet them at the end of the road (1/4 of a mile away from the driveway), or they would charge us more to get a smaller truck to get it down the road.
At this point, I called their office in Colorado and spoke with a supervisor. The first supervisor I spoke with assured me that his team sent pictures, they couldn’t make it up the hill, and I had ten minutes to pay them before they left, took my things, and locked it up in Washington where I’d have to go pick it up if I wanted it. I called my husband, who was waiting at the end of the road with the drivers, and told him to pay them. He did. They took the money and drove away. in the mean time, I was told that another supervisor would be calling me. He did, and he treated me awfully (I have a recording of the conversation if you need it). At one point he told me that if we’d paid more, they could have delivered it all the way. At another point, when I told him that I’d call the police to tell them that the movers had taken our money and our things, he told me to go right ahead and call. He said they could legally hold our things for two weeks. He spoke over me, and didn’t seem to care about what I’d already gone through with their company (I did ask for a partial refund after all of the crazy things that had happened and because we were now going to have to get all of our things from the end of the road). After speaking with him and getting nowhere, I went to meet my husband at the end of the road, and was pleased when the truck returned.
The boxes in the truck weren’t stacked well. We had several broken items, some that were not replaceable like a chair that came from my husband’s grandmother. We got it to my parent’s house after the truck was long gone, and now we’re going through our things, adding up the broken items (more pictures below, and even more of the damage should you need them).
That’s where we stand right now. Hopefully you can share and investigate this concern so that others are not subject to the same treatment (though, find the pics of a review below that shows others have unfortunately had similar things happen).

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $1450

My family moved from CO to NC for a job opportunity back in the summer of 2015. I was contacted recently and offered a rebate of $50-$100 to post feedback of my experience so here goes. Someone from Customer Service called me a few days before the move and notified me of the time frame for pick up. They were about 10-15 min late but I was super impressed by their work ethic and care for my items. My estimator Allen stressed to me if we took our time during the quoting process that their would be little to no price increase on the date of move and wanted me to stress that in this review. The crew was very polite and never asked me for anything during their work time. The only damaged item was a flimsy dvd rack that we bought from Walmart about 10 years ago so we never even mentioned it until this review and hope people understand that it was nothing!
This experience really took a lot of stress off of my Wife.We had twins about 5 months before the move. The move was smooth at pick up and we were delivered toward the latter part of the delivery spread that we were aware of up front. There was no better way to put a smile on my Wife's face than for this move to go smoothly. We would like to thank the crew (can't remember all of their names) and everyone who represents this company. Keep doing great work guys and maybe we'll talk to you again if I get an even better job opportunity elsewhere!

Service cost: $7600

Everything from beginning to end was perfect. The office staff were amazing- both Vanessa and Karen were great. My moving consultant Allen was very honest and gave me realistic information no other moving company did. The 4 other quotes I had received were well under the cubic feet and weight estimated by Allen which worried me greatly. The day of the move, my end cost ended up being less that the estimate. I was elated. The movers showed up promptly at 8am when we had a window from 8-10am for our move. They were Super Fast! Efficient. Respectful. And overall amazing. I will absolutely be using these professionals again for all my moving needs, and would recommend them 100% to anyone looking for movers. These guys will put your mind completely at ease.

Move size: Partial Move Service cost: $4600