Moving Staffers

We used SML movers, doing business as Moving Staffers, to relocate from New Orleans to Houston -- with disastrous results. The loading muscle we employed on their re​​commendation were no better than amateurs, arriving at our house an hour late, a man short and with no tools whatever. They labored in high heat – but their haphazard loading meant that much of our furniture, including some massive, precious pieces, came off the truck in chunks. Heavy oak legs were sheared off! Boxes marked “Fragile” came off crushed and torn. But most importantly, despite dramatic photos, SML refuses all claims for compensation. They claim it’s our fault by violating the terms of service in that: We did not provide a moving blanket for EVERY piece of furniture (they specify 60 blankets for a 25-foot truck!) and they do not cover moves by freightliners – although in multiple conversations, including one VERY thorough introductory conversation, I explicitly mentioned my arrangements and they continued to work with me. My wife wept as the furniture came off the truck. Despite clear evidence that overpowering shearing forces generated by sloppy loading tore off chunks of furniture, SML retreated behind the technical excuse of too few blankets and the use of a commercial freightliner to blow me off. It’s their cover, pure and simple. Adding insult to grief and thousands of dollars in injury, they offered to kiss me off with $100. Classy. We do not want this to happen ever again – to anybody. Be warned, this is not a stand-up company.

Move size: 4 Bedroom Home Service cost: $2188

Worked with them to get movers for both ends of my move from Atlanta to New York.  They seemed reasobale to deal with on the phone.  When the movers at the destination began to unpack the truck they found many boxes and pieces of furniture that were damaged or destroyed because the truck was packed so poorly in Atlanta. The movers unloading the truck said they had never seen a truck so poorly packed before.  I documented how all the boxes were crushed and the furniture had been stacked haphazardly, all with many many picture of the extreme amount of damage.  Book boxes stacked on top of boxes labeled glass or fragile.  A 100 year plus antique table just thrown on top of boxes and not tied down. A large chair stacked on a ironing board and then balanced on a vacuum, all three of which were destroyed or severely damaged.  The antique table now will cost more to fix than what I payed them.   Moving Staffers refused to pay any insurance, and the amount of damage exceeded the amount I payed them by a vast amount.  I will never use them again and will go with a full service moving company next time.  It was not worth the small amount of saving to have so much of my furniture and other items damage or broken beyond repair.  STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY.  They provide little to no customer support or resolution.  The worst company I have had to deal with in as long as I can remember!  This is a terrible and irresponsible company AVOID them at all costs, no savings is worth having all your possessions left broken with the refusal to work with you.

Service cost: $1037

On both ends of this move, the 3 men we hired were extremely efficient.
They did not break or lose any pieces, no wheels/handles or glass pieces were broken.

The 28foot trailer and one cube were packed tightly floor to 8 foot ceiling, and strapped into place. There was no shifting.

after the horror of another moving company I was leery of hiring people, but, but being a single person could not do it alone. However there was not a scratch on a wall or a dent on a piece of furniture. The three men on both ends, arrived on time, worked tirelessly and were courteous and pleasant to deal with.
The fees were nominal and nothing extra was padded in, I knew exactly how much I was paying.

Would highly recommend.

Service cost: $1690

Where do we begin? What a joke to have wasted our valuable life, time and energy working with this insurance group (Unirisc). Laughable! Their professionalism (none), their timely service to their customers (none), regard for the belongings destroyed by the PODS company they sponsor selling insurance through (a joke)!

From Jan. 2017 to today (3/20/17), the timeline we were subject to for reviewing our claim was a comedy of errors from beginning to end! They were like the 'Keystone Cops' chasing their own tails in figuring out how to even handle our claim. One department lost our documentation to initiate our claim, while another department had numerous so called claims analysts assigned to assist us - of which, none of them did.

Ultimately, after waiting almost 2 months for a decision on receiving restitution (either replacement of our damaged valuables or honoring the insurance policy we took out for security with PODS, in the event any of our belongings were damaged) we finally received a letter emailed to us today. The end result was their due diligence was resourceful in finding a way to exonerate themselves from honoring the claim. Their "out" , if you will, was to revisit verbiage they extracted from the policy (in the finest of small print, no doubt-because we certainly didn't recall seeing the reasons they pointed out in their decision as grounds for simply writing us off). In other words, we were left with quite a bit of our furniture, priceless memorabilia and heirloom pieces in ruin without any regard for "making us whole", as insurance purchased against such losses is meant to do!

Advice to the wise..don't even waste your money on the insurance PODS includes in your contract for possible damages. It's obviously a profit ploy they've built into every move they handle with no intentions whatsoever of honoring when it comes time to use the coverage for damages incurred!

Thank God this was our final move and we never have to deal with the likes of services like PODS, or the unprofessional 3rd party packers (Moving Staffers) they suggested on their list of vendors (without really vetting or validating their quality or lack thereof of services to their customers or the shady insurance affiliates they are associated with). It truly is a Buyers Beware Era and you would be making a big error in working with this organization!

Moving and transporting is going to continue..we are aware of this reality, but, if you've taken time to research and review who to deal with and what to save yourself from, we hope this helps in your decision making process. Because, if we had it to do all over again, PODS was not the best choice and we should have just gone with the more experienced, traditional movers. Trying to save a few bucks cost us far more in the long run. Operative word here - "RUN"..as far away from using PODS for your move, if you can help it!
Good Luck and may you not be subject to any losses!

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $12000

This company is recommended by UPack on their website. It is the main company they recommend.
Moving Staffers did not take any care in loading my furniture and sewing machines. No machines were tied or secured to truck. The rolling wheels were not locked after rolling them up ramp into UPack 28 foot trailer.
The movers did not arrive with appropriate packing materials and had to go get some items.
Large steel ladders were loaded on top of delicate machines. The movers did not have any normal moving tools such as blankets to separate machines. They rolled around in truck causing severe damage to 4 machines. They overpacked the truck, loading items such as a canoe and steps, suitcases on top of crates that were clearly marked ‘do not stack’. These crates were delivered by the Upack parent company. The damage took place based on incompetent loading, recommended by Upack, and the rolling around of my machines for the trip from Ventura CA to Denver Co where the 28 ft trailer was in storage for 8 months, then delivered to my house in Placerville, CO.
Moving Staffers would not pay for damages and Upack would not cover any damages even though they clearly recommend Moving Staffers as the main mover on their site, describing them as a network of movers.

Move size: 4+ Bedroom Home Service cost: $2548

My tables are ruined from them taping my sheets to them (sheets are ruined too). Every single box was crushed and ripped open. I'm still going through it all finding more and more damages to my belongings.

The truck was packed so unevenly that things had to be held up or they would have crushed my grandson and his friends when they unloaded the truck for me.

Completely disgusted. Never use them. My refrigerator is dented, my clothes are ripped, I'm just hoping that my bread machines and tv work.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $480

I can't even begin to explain how disappointed I am in U-pack and the company that they hired on our behalf moving staffers. They caused damage to over 60% of our property, and what I am estimating at 20K+ in damage. The service of U-pack was horrible from the start, when working with us, they gave us a quote and were completely off in the amount of space we needed in a truck, we ended up needing twice as much space as they apparently don't know how to estimate properly. Then we had several scheduling issues. They gave us estimated delivery windows which were also incorrect. But most notably was referring us to Moving Staffers who sub contracts work out to other companies who don't seem to have a good rating who have no regard to clients personal property and loaded things in the truck so bad that we had so much damage to our property. These guys were horrible, and for the cost we should have used a company that does it all for you.

Would you recommend this mover to a friend? No.

Move size: 4 Bedroom Home Service cost: $1900

My stuff was in storage for a couple years, it was packed by myself and several helpers. I went to check on everything 3 weeks before actually hiring moving staffers and everything was in same condition as it was left.

As you can see there were footprints and candle wax on my Italian Silk sofa and the wrought Iron table legs were easily removed with one allen wrench instead of broken off. Many, many more.. I paid for 3 hours no steps nothing just from storage unit to truck it was a 1.5 to 2 hours job max.

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $420