Father & Son Moving & Storage

If I did my homework, I would never have used them. Just see for yourself and check with Consumer Affairs!   They should be clear that the "estimate" you get is what you will be paying for and that does not change and it does not go by weight but by size.  They gave me an estimate after I revised my original listing because I had the EXACT counts and updated address.  I got the revised estimate and I signed it.  The moving guys see the estimate and mentioned to me they will charge an extra $150 for 2 flights of stairs.  My estimate clearly does not say that.  My email listed my new address and in BOLD I indicated it was a 3rd floor apartment with no elevators.  The person I dealt with claimed I never told him.   POOR business.  One thing that made me not BLOW up was the moving guys who actuall did the "dirty" work, were nice guys.

Service cost: $1200

I can't speak for the whole staff but my team (David & Carlos) were unbelievable.  The time, energy and enthusiasm was amazing.  They kept me laughing during a very stressful time.  I was so nervous about the move and immediately put me at ease.  They cared for my things and were so honest it was really a shock after all I had read on line.  I do, however, highly recommend that you do a visual estimate because it made all the difference.  Marc was great -- came to my house in 24 hours and estimated the job.   What I got from on line estimates was all over the place.   Not only did they come in at a good price -- but they stuck their word if my weight was lower they would not charge me and they didn't!!   And to watch the hard work and the packing magic was really impressive.  Great jobs guys -- Thank you! .

Service cost: $6000

I would never spend this much time typing out a review if I wasn't so angry and dissatisfied. I can't believe this company hasn't been shut down. It's the management that is especially dishonest, the actual movers doing the labor were not to blame (except for the wet, smashed boxes).   Highlights: Copied signatures onto documents that we didn't sign, boxes (esp those marked "Fragile"..hmm, interesting) were WET, smashed, and contents were ruined/broken, wouldn't accept certified check the morning of the move in, the office screened phone calls and wouldn't answer to tell me approximately when my things would be arriving or where my things were currently (for 10 days)   Warning: I had this same experience and I noticed several other people mentioning it - you negotiate the price estimate with them, but they will try to get you to sign "accidentally" for the original cost estimate (significantly higher)

MAKE SURE YOU READ EVERYTHING BEFORE SIGNING  
1.) First impression: scheduled to come between 1-5pm, didn't show up, no phone call. That night, received call that they would arrive at 9am, they arrived at 7am. Tried to get us to sign paper with initial (higher) cost estimate. Said we would sign the updated version when they sent it, instead they copied/forged a signature which we later saw in an email
2.) Was told 3-5 days until my things would arrive at new location, later they said they had up to 10 days (this is a 8 hour trip mind you). After 5 days go by, they say they will give us 24 hours notice before arriving at new destination, they have no idea when, but definitely within the 10 days outlined in contract. The parking permit for the apartment I'm moving into needs 72 hours to be approved, you have to pay for, and if the movers don't give you enough notice and have to park further away, you're charged extra.
3.) After calling from a different phone number that they wouldn't recognize since they were apparently screening their calls, we're now informed that the stuff will arrive AFTER THE CONTRACTED DATE WINDOW which was already 10 days (Ridiculous). Note: We were note psycho calling them and being annoying, we just needed the answer to one question: where is my stuff currently sitting for the 10 day window?
4.) We're given 8 hours notice that they're coming - we weren't prepared (obviously -  they're lucky we decided to come to the apartment early with no furniture/beds/clothing) so they were told to come in the morning.
5.) They show up on time! First thing that went right.
6.) They won't accept the BANK CERTIFIED CHECK and said "you're on the clock" saying they would charge double if we didn't have "acceptable payment" which was not outlined in the contract (contract simply said a check made out to the company). My dad ran around on a Sunday to multiple ATMS and carried nearly $1000 in cash around downtown to give to them.
7.) Boxes were crushed, my $200 dollar per piece textbooks (packed in boxes inside other boxes) were ruined and soaking wet, my dresser was warped from being wet and the heat, my clothes were wet. Things were broken. The wet boxes ripped like tissue paper, an entire leg of a table fell out and was loose in the truck.   Positives: The men that moved us into the new apartment were generally pleasant, they did not scratch up the walls (though we followed them around), and didn't get heated during the check and wet box fiasco. They had received the boxes from another truck driver, and they were allegedly already in bad condition. (These transfers from truck to truck mean increased time, increased labor/cost, lack of ownership/responsibility on the company's part since there are different crews in different areas, and increase the chance that your things will be lost/misplaced/damaged.

Overall: Absolutely, under no circumstances should you hire this moving company.  Nothing is planned, they're dishonest and try to cheat you out of your money, the contracts are shady, THEY SCREEN THEIR CALLS, they assume no responsibility for anything, and were not even apologetic when my things were missing and they were planning to dishonor the contract (it's a two way street guys!!). I do not think this was a unique experience, I think they're just terrible. Photos are currently unavailable, but will be added.

Service cost: $1800

Worst moving company ever!  Do not use these people, even if they give you a better price.  They were supposed to pick our furniture up on a Thursday morning-we were closing on our house the next day at 9am.  After 5 phone calls from us, they let us know some time around 4pm that Thurs that they weren't coming until "around" 10am the next day!  They finally showed at 10:30.  The people we spoke to in the company were rude and unapologetic, almost as if this had happened before.  They would not take our phone calls the next morning when we called to verify that they were even coming.  It took them all day to get our stuff out (supposed to be 3-4 hours-it was 9).  Our buyers were so mad they showed up to make sure we were even leaving-they had movers that were on time.  They told us we would have our furniture in 2-3 days.  Once they had our stuff, they said "oh no!  that's wrong-we can't get it to you for 3-5 business days" This then changed to 7-10 business days!  We didn't get our furniture for almost 2 weeks!  We had only packed clothes, etc for the estimated 2-3 days they had told us.  Once again, they would not take our phone calls during this time period, so we started to wonder if they were even coming at all. When we called from a different number, the people were extremely rude and unhelpful.  When we finally got it, many of our pieces now have large dents and scrapes.  Also, we are missing a large painting, with a lot of sentimental value.  It turns out one of our neighbors saw them try to put it in the truck, and when they couldn't fit it, they put it back in the house we had just left!!  We had to have another neighbor go over and get it back for us.  These people were unprofessional, rude, and downright rotten!  I hear there are over 80 complaints to the attorney gen.  I hope they are shut down and soon!!

Service cost: $4000

We were quoted one price for number of items and weight, but on the day of pick-up we were told we owed $184.14 because of cubic measurement for our load on the truck.  Didn't make any sense to us and, even after talking with the saleman, Scott, again (who offered to take fewer items at the old price..huh!) I reluctantly agreed to the added cost.  I objected to an additional $40.00 charge that was made to cover the mattress and box spring that was never mentioned during the estimating.  When the delivery was made in Baltimore, my son watched as the movers dropped his desk and scrape the top.  Another piece of furniture had deep gouges that occured because something else had been piled on top of it in the moving van.  We did not have a good experience, would never recommend this company and only hope that the damaged items are compensated for in some way.

Service cost: $1456

Rude, unprofessional, dishonest company, will not recommend them to anyone ever!! poor management !! I have never been treated in such a bad manner before! I was lied to, I had an estimate that I signed for and the guy who went through the estimate with me told me that all is included (packing my TV and wrapping my dressers with mirrors) but when the movers showed up in my apartment they asked us for an extra 230.00$ for one TV and three mirrors to be paid NOW! I called the office and they told my it should only be 24$ per article but then the bill was reading 230.00 for 4 items $$! I called them back and they put me through their manager, the rudest person ever!! I explained what happened and the only think he has to say is PAY YOUR BILL PAY YOUR BILL!! did not even say sorry for what happened!!   and they told me delivery takes 3-4 days up to 10 days but the guy I spoke to told me he will guarantee it will only take 3-4 days!! and guess what the movers in my apartment said no it takes 10 days!! DO NOT TRUST THEM! THE WORST EXPERIENCE EVER! BTW did not deliver my furniture yet! lets hope it will be undamaged!

Service cost: $1905

Grossly underestimated $$ for moving despite providing the company with an itemized list of everything in the house.  We paid almost $1000 more than the estimate, despite the fact that they suggested on multiple pre-move phone calls that the actual moving cost would be much less than the estimate ("we're usually much faster than what we estimate").  They then tried to blame my husband and I, suggesting that we had more to move than we had reported.  We were not living in the house at the time.  The list of items and boxes was dead on.  I actually walked around the house with my computer and entered all the items into an Excel spreadsheet.  This was what I verbally provided for the estimate. When we called moving day to let them know there was no way everything was going to fit in the truck they sent, they sent a second truck with the line "it will increase the estimate."  I should have asked how much because as it turned out, it doubled our moving charges.  When I called back, I was transferred around to different people.  Ultimately, I ended up speaking with an extremely rude person who had absolutely no concept of customer service.  When I told him that I was not informed that the 2nd truck would result in a doubling of our moving costs, he stated that he was positive I had been told this information because the owner of the company had been secretly listening in on my prior phone call with customer service and had heard the exact figure quoted.  This was a lie.  Additionally, it is illegal for companies in Massachusetts to eavesdrop, record, or otherwise listen in on telephone conversations without informing the customer.  You will pay the hourly moving fee travel fee (~same as the hourly moving fee) when the truck is traveling to your destination, plus a 10% fuel surcharge on the entire bill.  Our moving truck took 1hr and 40 minutes to travel a distance that took us 40 minutes.  We waited an hour for them to show up..  paid for every second.  I suspect they stopped for lunch.  The truck was then supposed to follow us from a storage facility to our home.  It was a 5 minute drive.  They got lost despite being one car behind us on a residential road.  They were "lost" for 20 minutes.  They then drove by our driveway and were no where to be found for another 10 minutes.  Guess what?  We paid for every minute of that too. At the end of the day, we ended up not having enough cash because the actual costs were so much higher than the estimate.  They don't accept personal checks, so we paid by credit card, which involved signing a form stating you will not contest or cancel the charges.    Moving day is stressful enough.  Fathers&Sons Moving made it a 100 times worse.  This is a bad company that you should avoid at all costs.  My husband and I are reasonable people with professional jobs, and we have worked with movers on prior occasions.  We weren't looking for a bargain basement move.  I rarely leave online feedback but this just has to be reported.  Bottom line..  AVOID!

Service cost: $2850

Father & Son movers out of Billerica should be shut down for unfair and deceptive practice, inflated fees, holding goods hostage and on demand cash payment. I DO NOT want anyone else to go through what I, and numerous others, have gone through with these people over the past few months. Unfortunately I had the same experience as at least 181 other consumers as reported on this Consumer Affairs website.
On May 17, 2017 three men arrived at my residence in Marlborough, Massachusetts 4 hours after the agreed upon time. Their excuse was an emergency at 6 am which would delay my job. Although they called several times saying they would show up they didn't arrive until 11am, which caused them to delay finishing my job until after 10pm. In order to settle my two little girls into a hotel on a school night I had to leave at 7pm with instructions to my neighbors to lock up the house and had to give the key to the storage facility to Mike, the lead mover, where my belongings were to be stored in Northboro, MA 15 minutes away. The three guys were “nice” to my face and commented how awful their previous customer was, that she didn’t offer them water or a tip. Unaware that the men were mistreating my belongings I gave each of them a $100 dollar tip and even bought them dinner. Later, after investigating Father & Sons I discovered numerous others in different areas of MA, NY as well as NJ complained how the movers got them to give them extra tips, which suggests this is a common practice in their company and not just the movers exclusive to my job.
Before leaving I paid Father & Sons in cash as I was told that if I used a credit card they would charge me a 3% fee. I was quoted on the phone around $2,600 for my moving job. Mike (the lead mover) asked me, “how much do you want to pay?” I was unsure what he meant. He told me he’d see if he could get me $600-$1000 off moving materials and asked, “How much do you want to pay?” I said I was quoted around $2600 and asked why I was supposed to tell you what I have to pay? Mike made a show of calling Father and Sons to say he is taking off $600 from my bill for packing materials. I gave him $2400 cash plus 100 tip for each of the 3 guys and even ordered them dinner.
One week later I got a call from Kristin,the receptionist at Father and Sons (who happens to be Mike’s wife) who informed me that my belongings would not all fit into the unit I had rented in Northboro, MA. This was a surprise as I had secured a 4 bedroom storage unit and had confirmed with the manager at the storage location that the unit was large enough after I clarified what I was intending to store. Kristin told me they had been calling for a week, which I denied, informing her that she had all my contact information including my cell and email for months and no one had called me or emailed me. I found out a week later that half my belongings were in Northboro and the other half an hour away at their facility in Billerica, MA, which I didn’t authorize. Kristin informed me they were charging me $600 for storage at their facility, and extra labor because they didn’t finish until 10 pm. I am now afraid they will hold my belongings hostage as I have read about other people on the Consumer Affairs website having the same issues. Father and Sons continues to violate the Attorney General’s outline of unfair and deceptive practices.

On June 14, 2017, I went to check on my belonging at the Northboro storage unit and was horrified to find my things just thrown into the storage unit. My new memory foam mattress was bowing and I am not sure if it is ruined or not. It did not look like it is properly stored. The integrity of the mattress may be compromised. I need to have a mattress inspector inspect it for defects. When I called Father and Son upset and crying over the condition of my belongings Kristin blamed me for leaving the movers unsupervised when I had to put my little girls to bed at the hotel. The consumer shouldn’t have to stand over the movers to ensure they do their job.
I documented with photos the items I could access in the storage unit. I had the manager at the storage facility Diane look at how my things were packed to which she commented how she “had never seen anything packed liked this before.” She sympathized how many of my things might be ruined noting the mattress simply placed on top of my treadmill unsupported. I also sent pictures of a box of glass items that were simply thrown in a box with no paper or bubble wrap. Kristin replied it was my fault because I didn't ask the movers to wrap them. Although my mother used Father and Son movers out of Worcester without complaint I was scammed by these movers along with numerous others. I later found out Father and Son was sued by Attorney General Martha Coakley in 2012 for over $200k dollars for deceptive business practices, abuse, inflated prices, holding goods hostage and demanding on the spot cash payments. Consumers like me question how these people are still in business?

Father and Son representatives are nice over the phone and in person, but are rude and abrasive once you confront them about anything they have done wrong. They deem the consumer to be culpable for their poor moving practices and have their excuses ready. I sent a very long letter of complaint to them today and have not heard a word. I don't want them to move me to my new location for the second part of my move. I want to hire another mover to get my things out of storage. I just sent them an email stating that I was contacting a lawyer, the attorney general and the BBB.

Thursday June 15, 2017, the owner of the moving company just called me after I told the receptionist that I was contacting the AG, lawyer, BBB, consumer affairs and a news station. He is now refunding me $600 for storage and sending movers for free down to Northboro storage location to store all of my belongings. I just heard from the owner Bryan, he said he wanted to make things right. He offered to send the three movers back with all my stuff to Northboro and move it back for free. He seemed sincere on the phone so I accepted. He said he would refund my $600 he charged for the storage in Billerica.

Today, June 16, 2017 the movers showed up with my furniture from their facility in Billerica. I rented another storage unit in Northboro to fit the rest of my belongings. The same three movers arrived including the lead mover Mike. We spoke and I explained my concerns. These guys are such smooth talkers. Mike kept saying he would give me such a good deal if I let them move me for the second half of my move. All of them apologized but they kept saying there was no other solution to the problem as it was 8 at night when they arrived at my storage facility which was closed by then and not everything would fit. They said they called me twenty five times and called every hotel in Marlboro leaving messages everywhere for me. I told them they did not call me. I also told them that the sales rep at Father and Son’s had my cell and my email for months so if someone wanted to get in touch with me they would have. Today, they showed me their cell phones from the numbers they supposedly called me from. It showed my phone number and the dates and times each of them called and texted me. I took down two of their phone numbers. Later that day I called Verizon and asked the rep to look up those phone numbers and see if there was a record of these two movers calling me. I explained to her what happened and I had exact dates of when they supposedly called me that week of May 17th. There were no records and I printed this out. She said there are all kinds of fake apps to make it look as though people called when they really had not. Such a scam!! I got all my stuff back to Northboro storage facility today but I am really worried about the condition of my things and won’t know how my furniture is until I move into my condo on July 5, 2017. I believe the only reason the owner Bryan sent the movers with my things back to Northboro is because I threatened the AG and a lawyer.

July 5, 2017 moving day. I hired another mover to do the second part of my move from my two Northboro storage units to my condo in Northboro. I wish I had hired these movers in the first place as they are fantastic. They were one of the movers that came to my house to give me a quote. I regret not hiring them. I explained my entire situation to Mary the office manager and James the owner of Fresh Start Movers. They were so nice and understanding. They felt awful about my situation. I told them I wanted to take the move slow so I could take lots of pictures as proof of what Father and Son movers had done. They sent over 5 guys to do the move and they could not have been more helpful. They offered to write a letter stating how horribly everything was packed. They had never seen anything like this before! They kept saying that if they had packed the things like Father and Son had they all would have been fired. The owner of Fresh Start is going to write a letter on my behalf stating how terribly wrong everything was packed including all the damage to my furniture.

Nothing was labeled, there were random kitchen things thrown in with toys etc. Nothing made sense as to how they wrapped things, packed things, labled things. It was a mishmash of all different rooms just thrown into boxes. Furthermore, I had packed 60 boxes and bins myself so I am not sure why it took them ALL that time to pack up a 3 bedroom house of which I had gotten rid of most of my furniture! I had already gotten rid of my dining room set, kitchen set, sunporch furniture, outdoor furniture, grill, a huge leather couch and my daughters bedroom furniture.

Here is a list of all the things the movers did wrong or destroyed, I have pictures of everything:

1. They charged me over $600 for packing materials yet they used ALL of my blankets, towels, curtains, pillows, bedspreads, electric blankets, my girls bean bag, sofa cushions and sofa pillows and anything else they could find to wrap ALL of my furniture in!! They used all of my fleece blankets to wrap up my flat screen tv’s. We could not even get the tape off of all my blankets. The new movers I hired were in absolute disbelief. They used my electric blanket to wrap breakable glass candles in, all of my beautiful knickknacks were wrapped in all of my bath towels, no pictures were wrapped just thrown in boxes (around 50 pictures), my cleaning products were in a box with my sofa cushions on top of it along with glass kitchen items being protected by more sofa cushions and my nice couch pillows.
2. Hot wheels car set just thrown into the storage unit with a million pieces everywhere.
3. My girls stuffed animals had a halloween carving knife just thrown in the box with all of their animals and my daughter cut her hand on it.
4. My long rolls of Xmas papers were folded in half with tape wrapped around it. I had to throw them all out.
5. My nice area rugs just crumpled up and wrapped with tape around the non slip padded rug underneath so it ripped when the tape was pulled off the non skid rug.
6. Mattress protectors were left on the beds. There were holes in the plastic they wrapped around my mattresses so all of the matress protectors were dirty. Twin mattresses wrapped together not separate as they should be wrapped.
7. They took apart my whole tv stand and the black nipple things were missing to shut the glass doors, so the doors no longer shut, the new movers said no need to take any of that apart.
8. I was shocked to see my desk as Father and Son said it would be cheaper to buy a new one rather than them spend 2 hours trying to disassemble my desk. They told me they would destroy it and throw it out. But it managed to make it to my condo and the new movers said easy to take apart and put together not sure why in the world they would say that. Father and Son told me it would cost $150 dollars an hour for them to take apart might as well buy a new one.
9. Tv stand missing feet, all my furniture missing the bottoms of the feet (not sure why they didn’t need to be removed), end tables, sofa table etc. So now when you look at my furniture it is dark furniture except for very bottom where feet should be it is an unfinished cream color.
10. Step stool missing.
11. Digital scales broken as stored incorrectly.
12. New movers surprised tvs not broken as not stored correctly.
13. Scratches and dents all over all my bedroom furniture,my girls furniture, my coffee table, sofa table and end tables.. All of this furniture went to germany and back with NO scratches.
14. All of my pictures frames are dented and ruined and I have a few that were $100 dollars (professionally done of my kids) and more because NOT one picture wrapped.
15. Lightbulbs thrown into boxes of toys randomly loose.
16. Lamp shades thrown randomly about all dented.
17. Beautiful dining room fancy candleabra were just thrown into my hamper on top of electric blanket..shocked not broken.
18. Expensive new welcome mats left behind.
19. My silverware was just thrown into a box with other random items. I asked the new movers how this is supposed to be packed and they said with an elastic around spoons, forks, knives etc.
20. My girls’ bean bag chair was thrown on top of a bunch of kitchen items and taped to a box completely sticking out of the top of the box.
21. Many of the boxes were not even taped.
22. I was shocked nothing broke as about 15 serving dishes were just stacked on top of each other with absolutely no paper or bubble wrap in between or around them.
23. My tv cord missing. Random remote controls, electronics, plugs etc just thrown into all different boxes.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $2400

This was my first experience with a moving company and it was a great experience.

I highly recommend Father and Son Moving Company in CT. I did all the packing prior to the move so they did the actual move.These guys were very efficient and responsible with my items. It was a hot day and I moved to the second floor. I suggested they rest a little but they wouldn't until the job was done.

Nice people too! I'd definitely use them again if needed!

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $540