Ocean Moving & Storage

This company is unreliable and unprofessional.  They use subcontractors and are difficult to deal with.  Furthermore, their prices are not competitive, especially considering what you may have to deal with.  Overall, I would not recomend this company. During my moving experience, the pick-up driver arrived in an unmarked truck and refused to provide identification.  He became very hostile and argumentative to the point where I had to call a Sheriff to resolve the situation.  The driver also insisted I sign blank paperwork before moving anthing, and misrepresented damages on my furniture.  Upon arrival, my furniture contained several damages not previously present for which the company will not cover. The driver also indicated he can accept a personal check upon pick-up, which they do not, which caused a conflict with delivery times and payment.  This company lacks efficient communication, professionalism, and reliability.  You will greatly regret choosing this company for your move.

Service cost: $2152

I hired ocean moving and storage for my move from Boston to Ft.Lauderdale. I would rate them a zero if possible and wish I knew they had a better business bureau rating of an F  (look it up!) before going with them. Thats my summary..Here's my detailed experience:  I got a quote of 2.99 per cubic ft. I happened to called again and spoke to Reg who promised me he could not go lower than 3.00 per cubic ft. Same company, 2 different prices in quotes for the same items. The manager had to reconcile the problem (by giving me the higher rate). Their contract says no hidden costs.. Read closely. They charge an elevator fee, a long carry fee, AND a stair fee for EACH flight of stairs. After reading these, I negotiated a waiver of the elevator fee as well as packing my flat screen tv before moving day. My quote was just under 1,700.

On moving day they argued with me over what the salesman called items on the inventory paper (ex a dresser vs a bureau) immediately telling me my quote was wrong. They tried to additionally charge me fees including:-fuel charges (not included in quote)-$200 for a long carry fee-packaging my microwave (although I already took out the plate)-shrink wrapping my couch (although the contract clearly states they will cover large items with protective blankets) My final cost to leave Boston jumped to 2,300. That's a 600 difference! I had a 12 day gap between my move out date and the day I needed my furniture delivered. I waited for the driver to call me. No call. I had to call THEM on the anticipated delivery date only for Eli ( the dispatcher) to explain the following.. This company has an office/warehouse in Pembroke Pines and the truck with my stuff headed to FL shortly after loading up. Instead of unloading my items into their warehouse and storing (which is supposed to be free for 30 days) for less than a week, they kept it ON A TRUCK! Driving it to Boston, picking up other items and making me the last delivery as they head back down since I'm close to their warehouse. 

I was willing to rent a uhaul truck and pick my items up from the truck but they were in north Carolina at the time. 3days later (a Saturday): The driver called to tell me he may be able to deliver my items late in the evening Sunday. Desperate (from sleeping on the floor for 4 days, eating drive thrus, canceling all of my cable/Internet set up appointments, having a week's worth of clothes lasting an additional week, and needing to start a brand new job on Monday morning with no work clothes) I explained how late the delivery was and if he could do anything at all to get it here earlier I would appreciate it. He responded by telling me I signed a contract giving them up to 10 business to deliver after the date I specified and that if I didn't have his payment in cash when he arrived Sunday night (including any additional fees they might find on the delivery site) he would not begin to unload my items from the truck. The highlights:-2 different quotes from the same company-actual cost was almost 700 more than quote..

MANY additional fees not in quote-kept items on a truck making several trips along the east cost.-FOUR DAYS LATE (which they are allowed to do via their contract). Don't plan on needing anything you're moving for at least 2 weeks after your delivery date including bed, pots, clothes, shoes. Again, please look up their better business bureau. I wish I had known about the 43 prior complaints.

Service cost: $2300

I chose this company to move my 3 bedroom house as well as my sisters 4 bedroom house from fl to ct. The reason that I chose to go with Ocean Moving is because I felt really confident with my rep. She was thorough, detailed, and answered my questions the most honestly. All the other companies I spoke to were really pushy. I felt like they were just telling me what I wanted to hear. They were on time as promised. They took their time packing all 70 of my boxes. The movers were professional as can be. 2 out of 4 of them were with the company for about 4 years. You could tell they knew what they were doing. I think I only waited 2 or 3 days on delivery. everything was in once piece. I ended up tipping each mover $200. .

Service cost: $2500

The bad decision became apparent on the day of pickup.  They were one man short and it took them 6 hours to pickup a 2 bedroom apartment.  Despite the guarantees, some of my items were damaged in transport, mainly due to their incompetence.  Read the fine print, the insurance is a joke.  As others have mentioned, get someone to go to your place and appraise your stuff.  I was told they have to charge for tape too, despite how gratuitously they use it throughout the move.   In general moving companies are a rip-off.  For some reason they keep mentioning that they charge by cubic foot, but in reality they just count boxes.  Their boxes might I add, anything else is a guesstimation.  In regards to the damages, let me just say I am glad I packed all of my expensive electronic items in their original box.  Most of the item they packed had some form of damage.  In particular, my brand new washer and dryer set had multiple dents on the top and sides.  For some reason, they had the brilliant idea of packing pieces from one of the beds with the screws still attached to the wood boards, and then they also placed parts from my desk in the same box.  Those pieces from the desk were ruined.   As I mentioned, the worst experience ever.  I was charged about $600 more than was quoted, and the guy had the nerve to ask me for a tip.  Ridiculous. I was told that if I provided an address my items would be shipped.  Despite this, I took them 23 days to make my delivery, after I called to inquire about the where abouts of my move.

Service cost: $2329

 This is a straight-up scam. When Oren, the driver, arrived (a day late), he told us it didn't matter at all what Jessica, our sales person and customer service rep, had said. If we wanted our furniture moved, we would have to pay $600 additional dollars, and $150 of that had to be in cash (which went straight in his pocket). When we called Jessica, she said she no longer had access to our accountant, her job was to sell, and she had done that. She falt-out lied about when it would be delivered and the cost of the move. When we tried to talk to the dispatcher, he was extremely rude. Also, half of the total sum had to be paid in cash, which was news to us when Oren  said that (Jessica, when asked, said she had no idea how the finances worked - not her job).
When they arrived, it was a driver in an unmarked 18-wheeler (it had been an Allied moving van, but that had used black spray paint to remove the name) and two 100-pound students from Kazakstan who never moved anything before. While they were nice, they had no idea what to do, but at least there was minimal hassle. No bullying on this end. Boxes were pretty much destroyed, and there were a few broken plastic containers, but at least everything was there. They did tried to tell us that they would need to hire a smaller truck to transport stuff to the apartment, but we told them no, and that idea vanished quickly. They also showed up with no tools to put furniture back together (something Oren had said that they would "of course" do), but luckily, we had some tools, and, because they were nice kids, they put it back together. Really, though, after all the hassle on the front end, we felt pretty lucky on the back end, all things considered.
There is a reason that  everyone is so negative on this company and that their better  business bureau grade is an F. Like we said, it's a scam with lots of untraceable cash involved. Lord help you if you move with them.

Service cost: $1555

Beware of this shady company!! The sales rep initially quoted me $900 for a 600 mile move. Once they arrived they doubled the price stating that my couches were too large (my couches are very small and inexpensive). The sales rep also told me totally different information than the movers and head guy was a rude douche bag. "Dispatch" was filled with more than a few idiots and they that no real reason for raising the price. How a computer could valuate my couches at half the normal size of a standard couch set is beyond me! This is the company you want if you want to be lied to, disrespected, and If you'd like to waste sun your of your time! I usually don't take my time to do reviews but I'll take my time to do it on every website I can in order to allow others to learn from my mistakes. If I could I would rate them less than 0 stars.

Service cost: $1700

Customer satisfaction is absolutely not this companys top priority! After being guaranteed a drop off date by one of the dispatchers, it was later found out that she was unable to guarantee a date. When we called back the next week to see where in the world my belongings were, the dispatcher was no longer working for the company. I'm 22 years old and moved from home to Chicago for a new job. My mother flew out with me to help me unpack and had to leave before the movers got here because of how long we had to wait on them. They picked up my belongings almost two weeks before they were delivered. I'm in a new apartment, in a new city, with no bed, furtniture, or clothing because of this company. The movers are unprofessional and unless you have a translater nearby, good luck understanding anything they say over the phone. The date of my delivery changed from a Saturday, to a "maybe" Monday or Tuesday, to Wednesday. It is now Thursday and I am still waiting for my belongings to be delivered. Never use this company if it can be avoided, it will save you much stress and a lot of sleep!

Service cost: $800

Travesty from the start!! I tried to give this company a month to show even the slightest bit of integrity to return my missing items. I have been more than patient and understanding, but I now feel obligated to write my first complaint. I doubt this ultimately results in me getting my stuff back but at the very least, hopefully after reading this others won’t make the same mistake and potentially lose things that are important to them. I had my doubts from the beginning, especially after reading some of the reviews on Better Business Bureau, but the sales rep Shawn continuously assured me that this company is reliable and all of their employees are well trained professionals. In retrospect I sincerely regret not taking those reviewers’ advice. The movers were scheduled to arrive at noon, but the driver (Oren) and two other men (who didn’t speak any english) came at 7:30 AM. I was not prepared for them to be there so soon, but the driver insisted that they had other jobs and had to be on their way. They loaded the majority of my things onto the truck, and the driver told me that it was over the cubic footage that the rep Shawn and I had come up with. We did an itemized inventory to come up with the initial cubic footage, and Shawn stated that any additional cubic feet would cost $2.35 more per. Well, the driver wanted to charge me 1.5X over the quoted price. It wasn’t until I insisted that the driver speak to Shawn (who didn’t want to speak with the driver) that the driver changed it back to the original price. When they were finishing up with loading my belongings onto the truck, there were two very large boxes remaining that were extremely heavy. The driver said that he had to charge me a $100 handling fee per box because of how heavy they were. I reluctantly agreed, because of the extra fee and the personal value of these boxes (which contained my entire library of books, important notes, and papers that took years to compile!). In Florida, the driver arrived extremely early again, but this time ALONE, with no help. I asked him where the other movers were, and he said that in NC he used illegal workers that he found sitting outside of Lowes/Home Depot (which apparently is standard practice per the driver), and that he went around Tampa that day but couldn’t find anyone to work since it was a Sunday (ironic, because Shawn repeatedly stated that they use licensed trained professionals). The driver moved all of my belongings (3 bedroom house) alone! After getting everything in, I noticed that there was a large number of my belongings that were damaged. Things like deeply scratched dishes, chipped wooden furniture, and a shattered glass end table. I understand that those sorts of things happen when you move, but these are supposed to be professionals, and there was only one person unloading that day. The biggest issue I had was that that my large L-shaped desk and hutch was completely destroyed (and had to be discarded), and the two large heavy boxes that I had to pay the extra handling fee for were not there. The driver was on his way out, when I told him that I was missing the two boxes (he said he knew exactly which boxes I was referring to, since they were so heavy). The driver said that the boxes could only be in two places: either still somewhere on the truck mixed with another shipment that he could not go through at the time or at the warehouse in Atlanta (the only other place that they stopped). He said he was in a rush to get back to Miami and that they would send my boxes to me the next day (Monday 8/22/11). I called the company Monday, and they told me that they hadn’t located my boxes yet and to call back in a day or two and they will send it. I called numerous times and spoke to several people over the next two weeks with no results. Each time I called they said that they couldn’t find my boxes, or they would tell me to call back, they would put me on hold for extended periods of time, or just blatantly hang up on me. I was consistently yelled at by someone named Sal who was very rude and impatient when I would ask if they found my boxes. He said that he didn’t have the time to talk to me about my boxes and hung up on me on more than one occasion. Shawn would confabulate elaborate stories that were extremely inconsistent each time I spoke to him (and I had to call him out on several lies) and told me to just file a claim. I told him that I would much rather have my boxes back. Victor would also give me the run around and kept telling me to check back later. The dispatcher/owner Itai said that they ran a skip trace to locate the boxes and to keep checking in. After repeatedly being hung up on, told to call back because the “dispatcher was busy” and being given the runaround, I contacted the company one final time. When I was finally able to speak with someone, Shawn told me that I needed to stop calling, because the boxes were lost, that the owner told him that they will not be looking for my boxes any more and that I should just get over it and file a claim. I was and still am extremely upset. These boxes mean more to me than any anything. They could have taken or lost anything else, and it wouldn’t have upset me the way this did. Since then I’ve tried several times to file a claim, which would be obsolete to me since I would much rather have my belongings returned than receive a check for 60 cents on the pound of lost item, but the claims department site that I was directed to will not allow me to attach the lost boxes and the damaged items on my claim file. I have repeatedly attempted to call the company and file a claim with no luck. Ocean moving and storage company has not taken any responsibility for losing my belongings and have absolutely no remorse. I doubt my situation is an isolated incident which is why I’d like to do anything I can to get my stuff back or at the very least would hope that my scenario could somehow help others considering using this sorry excuse for a business to reconsider and heed the advice of the online reviews for this company. They shouldn’t be able act so rude, careless, and downright unprofessional without consequence. I don’t understand how two very large boxes that were extremely and memorably heavy could just vanish without anyone taking notice, and that this company will not put any additional time or energy to find it. Instead they drag me through the agony of continuously calling and stressing about losing the numerous books, notes, and paperwork that I have put many years of work into. These items are invaluable and irreplaceable to me and I will do whatever it takes to get this resolved and have them returned.

Service cost: $3200

My move was from NC to NJ and the delivery was not as smooth as I thought. Need a lot of followup and patience to hold.

Though my move had a few damages, my main concern was that the unnecessary pressure they create during pickup and delivery both.
Also I got a spoiled invoice which is no way readable and hence cannot be submitted to claim the expenses. When I tried reaching them to issue me a new invoice, I had a tough time and still having a touch time in simply getting an invoice for which I have already paid in full.

Regards,
Rahul Bafna.

Service cost: $1400

Horrible company. Please do not even bother to use this company. Victor g is going to deceive you with his great customer service in the beginning, and when the movers show up the nightmare will begin. The quoted price will vanish into thin air, and they will give you a ridiculous new price. The movers will damage your furniture and you will be ticked off during the entire experience. When you call Victor g to inform him about your experience, his nice personality will have vanished with the initial price that he quoted. You will have to get your money refunded through the insurance company or by taking them to court. I suggest using a reputable company such as American van lines, and not this chaos created into a so called moving company. Please read this review and all the others that have horror stories about this company. Don't do it!

Service cost: $1057