Thompson and Son Moving and Storage

Essentially everything the previous reviewer(MichaelVanWelden) wrote was identical to our experience, except we were also extorted out of an additional $7K dollars and 90% of our furniture was severely damaged. They are criminals. We are following up with the FBI, the US Dept of Transportation, the Better Business Bureau, have hired an attorney, and will make sure this does not happen to anyone else. In my 49 years, I have never engaged with such a dishonest and terrible group of people. This is no exageration. BEWARE.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $12632

To whom this may concern:

Move date: August 5, 2016

The time was moved on us from the initial agreed upon time of 9am, it changed to 2pm and then I was called and asked to change it to 12 noon. I called to make sure there was no confusion and was told that the move would be at 2pm. Well, they were 20 minutes late showing up, I waited along the main street to help guide them in and they just passed my up. I called them and gave them correction changes. Now for the rest of the facts.

I served over 30 years of active duty military in the ground transportation career field. As a former commercial driver and career transporter, I wished I could still physically do my skill set but due to service connected disabilities I now must rely on businesses like yours.

With that said, this was without a doubt the worse and unprofessional move for my wife and I ever. I say this after working with professional moves that have move our household goods worldwide to/from places like Japan, Germany, Korea, Hawaii, Iraq/Kuwait, Charleston SC, St Louis, Abilene TX and many other locations. Well you get the measurement of comparison here.

We provided a detailed list of what was to be moved and even reduced that list by moving many of the lighter items before the scheduled move. The total amount to be paid was expected to be $419 with a requirement to pay $100 down immediately. I was told that $319 would be due at the completion of the move and must be in cash unless I was willing to pay an additional service charge for using a credit card.

The moving team included a driver that had been on the job only four days and the other two had even less time. Don't get me wrong, they worked hard but they did not work smart. Their inexperience and failure to arrive with all the required equipment and supplies made the move tougher for the movers and took much longer costing me much more than was expected. In other words it took twice as long to do the move. Because of my experience we really did make this a dream move for anyone doing the labor. They failed to show up with enough wraps and tie-downs to properly protect the furniture. When they finally got everything loaded with the assistance from my wife, they began their journey of 16 miles to our new single level home with a huge front entrance door. They chose to back the Budget lease truck they were driving into the driving and eliminated the front entrance as their primary entry. The lift was positioned directly at the garage entrance and the offload began with a few near mishaps. This was certainly a great OSHA example of what NOT to do. Again, they worked hard but they were not properly trained to do the job and and took many safety risks along the way. This caused the move to take much longer on both ends of the move.

By the way, before they offloaded they told me I would need a total of $698 in cash instead of the agreed upon $319 balance. Wow! Just do the math and it's easy to see that the total move process is seriously broken and I was to pay for that broke process. Who has that kind of cash when you are only expecting to pay $319. Yes, I had to borrow the funds from my VA disability pay to take care of the doubled charges. Why? Because the supervisor's boss was on the line and told his guys to not offload the truck unless I came up with the additional funds. This sounds like a dream case for the legal community for sure.

What was damaged? They destroyed a wooden 60" credenza TV stand worth about $399, deep scratches in the top surface of our Ashley Furniture foot-board, deep gouge and scratches in one of the Ashley night stands, a rip in a leather recliner worth about $499 and a couple other items. All this had been documented on the moving teams discrepancies and insurance forms for damages. This all happened on August 5th and we have yet to hear from anyone.

We will give it a couple more days and then we will go to plan B with the legal team and the BBB.

Service cost: $798

The estimate included: *Full service move door to door *White Gloves service *Loading and Unloading *blanket wrapping and quilt pads *Free use of wardrobes boxes *Disassembly and reassembly of your furniture.The scheduled moving date was June 28th 2016 at 2pm and movers never arrived, then after negotiating the elevator reservation with my building I was offered another elevator reservation for June 30th at 2:30pm and the moving was rescheduled with company for 2:30pm, employees arrived at 7pm after the elevator cut off time. I asked the movers why they were not using blankets or quilts to protect my furniture as offered in your quote for white glove service, they replied they were not given any blankets or quilts with the truck and had no tools with them.
Due to their late arrival, I helped them but they finished loading the truck at 9 pm and couldn’t make it on time to unload it at my new location (cut off time 5 pm). I received a call from the company to let me know that my furniture will be delivered the next day at 9 am and was suggested to buy an air mattress for the night and send the receipt to the company!! The next day a different crew arrived to unload the truck, which had a mechanical problem and couldn’t park in front of my building. The rain started and they dragged all my furniture on the floor damaging several pieces of which I have filed a claim, which has not be resolved as of today. The supervisor asked me to pay the balance in cash for an amount of $375 plus $60 in tips and when I asked for the receipt he said the company only uses electronic receipts and I should receive it very shortly, I never received it. The next day my bank alerted me that 2 charges of $170 and $236.19 had been applied to my account on top of the $50 deposit and the cash payment. During my call to the company Saturday, July 2nd to complain about this issue, I was told they will investigate the situation with the supervisor and these charges would be reversed to my account, as of today no credit has been credited to my account and damages to my furniture have not been compensated.

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $750

After I received an email for my initial quote to move, I decided to cancel the reservation. I did not sign the electronic agreement that was in the email. I did put down a $50 deposit. I decided to cancel the reservation because my friends decided to help me move. I called their customer service number and the lady said she would cancel the reservation and refund my money back. I received a phone call from Shawn about 10 mins later. I explain my reason and he was very negative towards me stating that I will not get my deposit back because the "truck has been reserved." No where on the agreement did they say they could not refund my money back. It stated that if I canceled before 7 day of notice there would be no penalty. I told Shawn that I will accept the $50 loss. I decided to accept the lost because since I felt that this company was already bullying me and being dishonest. They did not follow their own policy agreement and tried to intimidate me into keeping the reservation. I filled a complaint with the BBB. Obviously I would like to my refund but I think I saved myself from a massive headache had I kept my reservation.

Service cost: $500

I hired these thugs to move me. They quoted a great price but that's where the great ends. The building I am moving to requires a Certifiate of Insurance. The horror show trying to get the certificate was insane. I requested that the contact the building to make sure the certificate is correct. The person I spoke to, Shaun Thompson refused and said that he's not "doing my legwork". I got them the correct information (took a whole 2 minutes on the phone with the building) in addition to emailing them the information from the building which included a sample certificate, and they still did not get the Certificate to the building on time, which meant I could not move. They had 3 weeks to get this done! I had to hire a last minute moving company and now will sue Thompson for the difference in price that I had to pay. Do not use these people, even if they were the last movers on earth. You'd be better off buying camels and strapping your furniture to them to move. Where is the zero star option?

Service cost: $500

The worst customer service experience. I'll say this first: the three guys doing the actual move were fine. Young, but took care of business. The problem is the management - particularly Shawn. I was quoted at 4 hours labor, 7 hours drive (drive time is static - you shouldn't get charged more even if they hit traffic). The actual labor time was as follows (as was described exactly as such when moving forward with the deposit): arrived 9:30am, finished loading 10:15am. Totaling the 45 min used of the quoted 4 hours. I'm thinking..GREAT! we have 3hr15min for the to unload! wrong. They drive to the move-in location, and they demanded an additional $200 in CASH and charged $131.00 to my credit card..(that math doesn't even add up, if they're going at $109/hr for labor..it should have only been $218 (6hrs from 4hrs = +2 additional hours, hence $218, not $331). Outside of that..the "drop off" arrived/started at 3:00pm and they finished/left at 5:15pm. That's 2hr15min. Total labor time was 3hrs - literally half then that we were held hostage for. We had ZERO choice as they refused to give us our items back unless we gave cash. We were robbed, plain and simple. To make matters worse, I attempted to contact the office "manager" (Shawn mentioned above) to get a simple clarification of the breakdown, and he became extremely defensive and downright disrespectful. A true unprofessional. That being said, if money isn't a problem, feel free to go with these guys. However, if you value your dollar, and don't feel like getting completely ripped off at the time of delivery, I highly recommend going with a competitor such as Summit or American Van Lines, obtain a BINDING quote (means the price agreed upon is the price you'll pay..no more or less). There was a slight tear in my mattress, and they dropped one box that broke a vase and a small figurine (no worries..those can be replaced). It's very frustrating to have your personal belongings taken hostage. Prepare accordingly. I'm proceeding with formal complaints (probably won't go anywhere, but the least it'll do is inform other potential customers).

Service cost: $1349

I honestly can't say I'd choose this company again. The kids (yes, kids) who came to move were courtesy but very slow and inexperienced. We were quoted for 3 hours and had an accurate inventory, which the supervising mover also commented on its accuracy. They took 3 hours alone just to pack the truck. Then they took a lunch which we weren't charged for, but prolonged the moving day and we were already upset about how long the day was becoming since they had to drive an hour to our new location. In the end, the move was nearly twice as long and twice as much money as originally quoted. They also broke a wooden leg on one of our desks. During a previous move, we were able to move our home in under a 3 hour timeframe with a U-haul and friends. We regret choosing the expensive route we did.

Service cost: $666