Purple Heart Moving Group

Sales Rep: Nick Didio
Customer Service Rep: Mercedes Grullen
Customer Service Manager: Trevor Swan
Manager: McKenna Rhodes
President: Liliya Zaslavskaya
BBB Rating: C+

Needed a mover for a relocation from TX to NV. Contacted Purple Heart and talked to Nick Didio. Nick reassured me that Purple Heart was a reputable company and could be trusted because: "we serve Veterans", "we have large Federal contracts", "we have our own trucks", "excellent reviews", "our competitors change the price on the day of the move".

Move coordinator Nick tells me that a physical walk through was not necessary to provide a volume based quote. A verbal description of only furniture would suffice. Having moved several times in the past, movers have always had someone come do a walk through. I asked if wanted to do a Facetime walk through to see the contents? Not necessary. I asked if he needed a verbal description of contents other than furniture? Not necessary. Nick works up a "not to exceed" quote of off 1400 cu-ft. I sign the contract and payed a $3800 deposit. We were given a two day range of when they'd be here to load and that they would let me know a firm date two days out. No call. I had to contact them and was told that the truck would be there the next day. When I asked why I had to call to find this out, Mercedes told me that "they would have gotten to it".

The driver shows up in a rented Penske truck and does a visual assessment. He came back with a volume estimate of 2400 cu-ft and said that the truck they had was not big enough. I would need to pay an additional $4100 for another truck to make up for the nearly doubled difference in cubic footage.

Hearing this, I attempted to contact Nick Didio but was told that he could not be contacted since he was not in the Customer Service department and he didn't have access to our contract. I said I have a binding contract and that I was not going to pay the additional $4100. I was told that I'd either have to pay the additional costs or load only what would fit on the 26' truck leaving the rest behind. I asked for a manager and was passed over to Trevor. He told me the same thing but added that I should have let them know that we had more volume than what was quoted (volume did not change) and that I was responsible. I asked to speak to Trevor's manager but he told me there was no one higher that I could go to for this issue. But then manager McKenna who was listening in spoke up and reaffirmed that I only had those two choices adding that I should have known the size of truck needed. ??

At this point I asked for my deposit back but was told it was not refundable because we were less than 5 days out from the date of the move. Having paid the deposit by auto withdrawal leaves me no way to dispute the charges to recoup my money.

I told Purple Heart that I did not want to do business with them anymore and insisted on a refund. Nope.

Purple Heart has extremely deceptive business practices taking absolutely no responsibility for underestimating the volume of our household items and put the entire burden on the me to make up the difference for their mistake. They've done to me exactly what they claimed they would not do; “quote a price then change the price on the day of the move". Purple Heart even uses it in their follow up email marketing materials (See attached image). Providing and guaranteeing a sight unseen quote knowing they will change it on move day is a predatory practice allowing them to bilk customers out of their money at the last minute even as movers have already started loading. The fact that they took no responsibility for their mistake or offer any kind of compromise spoke volumes. They are scrupulous in their approach and have no intention or interest in taking on a customer satisfaction approach to their business.

They are a broker not a moving company. They do not own their own trucks. They absolutely will jack the price up on move day.

Don't make the same mistake I did. DO NOT USE PURPLE HEART.

Move size: 4 Bedroom Home Service cost: $13500

My husband is retired from the military and he hired Purple Heart Moving Group for our move from Maine to Oregon. As soon as Purple Heart got it’s deposit we never heard from them again. The movers from i& A Moving Company increased the cost by an additional $9000,00 even though we had fewer items than were on the original estimate. They spoke Russian and the driver(AZ) mentioned the mob while in our home. My husband signed the paper work under duress because these movers were nasty. They damaged our home, complained constantly, refused to pack one closet and were always late. After waiting over 3 weeks our goods were delivered by 2 men who also spoke Russian and we had to pay the additional money to them with money orders. Again these men were rude to me and they did not know how to put our furniture together. This was our seventh cross country move and it was totally unprofessional. I will be contacting every consumer agency to warn others about Purple Heart Moving Group and I and A Moving and Storage.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $22000

My wife & I was looking forward to our move to Florida after our house was sold in New York state. We found Purple Heart Moving group on the web and thought that if they were supporting the veterans of this great nation then they can't be all that bad. Boy were we wrong. After they kept pushing for a moving date we finally picked one about 9 weeks in advance and they gladly took our deposit. About a week later the sale on the house became a no sale. It is now about 8 weeks before the move date & I called Purple Heart to cancel and asked for my deposit but was told that I outside my 5 day window were going to keep the deposit on file for 1 year. I called them when the year was up was told by their so called customer service the deposit was non refundable. Do not use this company they will rob you blind as they quote their mile long contract that you need several lawyers to understand as they continue to keep deposit monies from senior citizens and real Purple Heart recipients.Perhaps a trip to the national Purple Heart Museum in New Windsor NY would make them realize the true meaning of th Purple Heart, In the mean time DO NOT GO NEAR THIS COMPANY unless you are a senior citizen like myself and enjoy throwing your money out the windoww.

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $3087

Review of Moving group Purple Heart and Sub Contractor 5 Star Moving co. Mind you I am not a professional mover and shared this with the initial contact with Purple Heart. I did request that I have an in person Quote. I was told that I am a professional and have done this many times it will be fine I can provide you a quote over the phone. My estimated bill went from $6500 to $14000 on the day of moving. Unbeknownst to me Purple Heart Sub Contracts out with 5 Star. I had a small moving truck show up for a 3 bedroom house and basement. There appeared to be no communication between the subcontractor and Purple Heart. Another truck needed to be rented in addition to additional boxes. Many of my items were left behind do to the decision of the 5 Star Subcontractor. There was extensive damage done to the drywall of the basement stairway and hand railing. I have made multiple attempts to have my Treadmill delivered to me and reimbursement for the damage without success. I would not recommend this group as they do not appear to be what they are. Very frustrated mover, More to come..

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $14000

Initially they offer you a lowered than market rate for you to take the bait AND gave false promise on delivery date. Took half of the deposit for nothing. Contracted the job to American Relocation Home, which is absolutely horrible. Pickup driver charged $1000 more for a couple more large U-Haul boxes, lured me into signing my actual delivery date to the "First available delivery date", which was later on explained by Purple Heart Moving that it is the first day my shipment will be in transit. LIES! It took them more than a week to ship a one-bedroom apartment from IN to MA and I still have not received my items. Delivery driver kept false promising me delivery date. I had to reschedule back and forth between work and the new building for the move-in, and now I have to pay fines to my building because "there was no record of me telling them the move-in has to be before 6 PM".

TL;DR: do not book with this company. Just go on Uship where there is user protection. Purple Heart Moving is a scam.

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $3500

I contacted with Purple Heart for a two household cross country move. Purple Heart then subcontracted the actual move to Mover Dudes, LLC. My wife and I have moved a few times in our life together, but none was worse than this one. The amount of lost, broken, or damaged items was staggering. Jonathan the owner of Mover Dudes picked up the items from the first stop and complained about how many items were at the location. He then did the same at my location. Jonathan stated that he would have to adjust our estimate by 20%, which would have been a lot to, but ok. He then doubled the amount from $8500 to $16,800 and needed cash. He told that if I didn't agree, he would count the items and leave items for us to move on our own.

One we reluctantly agreed they packed our items on the truck. Once in transit, they kept missing the date our items would arrive. Finally, 4 days later the movers arrived and demanded the balance in cash before unloading the truck. Upon bringing in the first item, they put a big gouge in my wood door. The foreman first stated that they caused some damaged and then lied to say that they didn't.

Once I started seeing items coming off the truck I noticed damage on some items. The foreman told me that we needed to inspect everything and sign off on the invoice. How was I supposed to go through everything in an hour?

Once we started seeing more and more items damaged or missing, I contacted Purple Heart and they referred me to Mover dudes. I received the run-around from both companies. I wrote the BBB and gave them a negative review. Purple Heart offered me $400 as a settlement if I would remove the review. I declined their offer. I provided a list and pictures of damaged, broken, or missing items to Mover Dudes.
Once I got through everything, I submitted the documentation to Jonathan for submission to their insurance company. Jonathan called back later to say that I'd missed the deadline and they would do nothing.

The items lost or destroyed were 60+ year old items mother and late father bought or received as wedding gifts. The same happened with items my wife received as wedding gifts or bought 30+ years earlier when we had no money but we're great quality. These items were very sentimental to my mother and to my wife and I. They also lost a 6.5foot tall120lb bronze floor lamp.

I CAN NOT SAY ENOUGH THAT UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD ANYONE EVER USE PURPLE HEART MOVING GROUP OR MOVER DUDES IF YOU WANT A GOOD MOVING EXPERIENCE. THEY SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED TO DO DAMAGE TO ANOTHER CUSTOMER. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK AND PERIL. READ TYE REVIEWS, YOU'VE BEEN WARNED.

Move size: 4 Bedroom Home Service cost: $16800

There is an agreement in place to lessen the financial losses that occurred during my move

This will be lengthy but please read it in its entirety to save yourself time, money and tremendous heartache. This review includes terrible service, fraudulent business practices verging on extortion, extensive damage to walls and even broken stone steps all with a shrug from the delivery driver. This is a brand new home.

I booked a move from CO to NC explaining that I would be in NC and not able to be present for the pack and load. I was told everything I needed to hear during the initial conversations. From we will walk you through this to consistent updates to personal care and being assured of a highly professional company. Well, NONE of that was true. I was lied to, ignored, patronized and left with no options. My biggest concerns were they did not follow their own policy which left me without the opportunity to adjust my inventory prior to the arrival of the packers. So the 'estimate' jumped $4,000. I did have more items than the initial inventory but once the packers arrived Purple Heart told me they were out of the equation. This left me in a vulnerable position since I was out of the state and my house was closing the next week. I had no time to secure another moving company once things started to go bad with Purple Heart.

The care of my belongings was worse than neglectful. I left specific instructions on how to handle some antiques but these were ignored and an actual crowbar was used to take apart an antique desk, breaking two pieces that needed to be fabricated to allow the desk to be put back together. Boxes I had packed were all opened and most of the boxes I packed were dumped into large wardrobe boxes. I do mean dumped. No packing paper. Books on top of glass decorations, lawn equipment in with art work to name a few. Some of the boxes weighed over 160#. Leather furniture cut, torn and EVERY piece of furniture was scratched or broken.

Purple Heart uses jobbers and day labor to complete these moves. They used a company that is located near their office in Florida not a local moving company, hired temporary help to load my belongings into Enterprise rental trucks. They put my items out for bid for the transportation to NC. An owner/operator who also worked for Boost Express took the job.

Once picked up I was told the driver was going to Pennsylvania to deliver another load then to me. Weeks later I received a call that the delivery would happen on Monday between 10-11am. Making arrangements to be there at 10, I waited until 3pm for their arrival. The 'team' they were to arrive with was the driver and one person, taking two days to unload.

**Throughout this process, I NEVER spoke to a manager or supervisor. I made multiple calls and sent emails attempting to speak to someone who could help me. I was told that Kristen Kelly was the only supervisor that would talk to customers. I was only able to receive emails from her sometimes a day later during critical times of the move.

The truck was able to park 35 feet from my house. The driver said the stairs were too difficult to navigate wanted to walk around to the back of the house to deliver the items downstairs. That is fine EXCEPT then he tried to charge me $580 for extra distance from the truck, charging me for the walk around distance. When I told him I would not pay since he could park 35 feet away, well within the 50 feet requirement, he offered to take $400 in cash. Needless to say, I did not pay that either.

I have already paid over $1000 to repair and replace items. The claim process is terrible. Once you submit a claim then they tell you they require box number, boxes, packaging etc to process.

So, my move when from $10,000 to $14,000. I paid $1,000 to repair and replace items that would not be covered by their claim process.

A state's attorney needs to look into their practices. I am notifying every Federal and State agency about their practices.

Final word: DO NOT TRUST THEM.

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

We used this broker back in July of 2019. First, don't use a broker. Brokers go with the cheapest movers to make more money. They come in low and keep adding as they go along. We started at about $7,000. By the time we got our stuff (and it was over a month later), we ended up paying nearly $14,000. Stuff was missing, a lot was broken, they were rude and unresponsive on the phone (except when they were trying to get our business of course). I GUARANTEE you will regret going with this group. THE WORST!

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $13800

On 6/23/2020 I received a quote from Purple Heart Moving company to move my belongings from TN to SC for $4482.56. Purple Heart assured me this was a very high quote to allow for any errors or extra items. The movers were to arrive on June 30 but there was a 2 day window in contract. We communicated with movers that we were closing on our home on July 2nd and really needed to be moved on June 30. Purple Heart hired another company to move us, Dependable Mover out of New Jersey. We were unaware that this was the process. They called on June 30 to say they would not arrive until the morning of July 1st. Then on July 1st movers did not arrive until 5:00pm. Again we were scheduled to close on our home the next day and had to be out of home. Once they arrived they said the estimate was wrong and our furniture was much heavier than our quote. They increased the price by $3264.99 with a total cost of $7747.55. I was so upset and did not have this kind of extra money. But it was the night before we had to be out of our home, after 5:00 pm and too late to find another mover. We had no choice but to pay the extra money. Movers were not able to move all belongings so we had to rent a truck and finish moving our belongings the next morning.

We had not closed on our new home in SC and items were to be placed in their storage and we would let them know delivery date. I have been trying to get in touch via multiple phone calls each day, text messages and emails with Purple Heart Moving Company and Dependable movers for 7 days now to schedule delivery of items. No response form Dependable movers and Purple Heart occasionally will answer their phone and say they will be in touch with information. We are concerned we will never see our belongings again.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $4482

Let me first preface this review with this: If I had to choose between using Purple Heart again for my move or setting all my belongings on fire so they couldn’t touch them, I would HAPPILY watch everything I own burn. This has been the absolute WORST experience of my life and no one, and I truly mean NOT ONE PERSON at Purple Heart has been remotely helpful. Not to mention some of my items were STOLEN, yes you read that correctly **STOLEN** and EVERYONE from purple heart is avoiding my phone calls.

Let me first start with Josh Donovan whose phone number was conveniently disconnected a few weeks after I wrote a big fat check to Purple Heart. Josh first assured me that Purple Heart was not a broker, which was ABSOLUTELY FALSE, and that all movers were required to wear a mask, booties and gloves when entering the home, again ABSOLUTELY FALSE. He assured me my things would be there between 3-10 business days and usually does not take up to 10 business days, again ABSOLUTELY FALSE. I am now half way into WEEK EIGHT, yes my friends read that again, WEEK EIGHT, and Josh if you are reading this and need help with counting, that is 37 business days, which is nowhere close to 10 business days. My good friend Josh then proceeded to tell me that they could easily make a drop off in Ohio as it is the halfway point between Missouri and D.C., guess what friends, ABSOLUTELY FALSE. Josh then informed me that I needed to put down a deposit and half of the remaining balance would be due at the time of pick up and the other half due at the time of delivery, REMINDER, delivery is currently at 42 business days. See rest of review in the next posting **.

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $4000