Tri-State Area Movers

They quote a low price, put all of your belongings in their rented truck and then refuse to release any of it until you give them a big bag of cash!! On top of that, they use a fraudulent certificate of insurance as they are uninsured (and uninsurable as they are thieves!) so there will be zero compensation for all the damage they will absolutely do to whatever of your stuff you can manage to buy back from them. They scammed us out of over $7k. Don’t let it happen to you!!

Move size: 4 Bedroom Home Service cost: $4400

I wrote previously about the horrendous experience we had moving from Long Island to Richmond, Va. It was a disaster in nearly every way. Almost all of the furniture was damaged or broken (a lot of chafing against other items, poorly wrapped, glass and marble broken, concrete statuary all broken, paintings punctured or completely missing, CASH AND JEWELRY MISSING (they started stealing things as they were "packing" items they were told to leave alone). The movers camehours late -- stinking of dope -- were disorganized, haphazard, and eventually physically threatening when we started raising objections.

Delivery was late, and incomplete! We waited three weeks for delivery of all our goods--they attempted to deliver the wrong things on one occasion, and when the final truck came, it was still missing items AND THEY HAD ACTUALLY SWAPPED-OUT NICE MATTRESSES FOR CRAP ONES.

AND - to add insult to injury, they hold your items hostage until you pay the "new, adjusted fee" according to either space, or weight, or hours, or whatever new metric they're introducing to justify the dramatically-increased charge inflate the charges which, in our case, was over 150% or original quote

So, we paid extra for insurance, because shit happens. When we tried to exercise that insurance, TRI STATE'S OWNER, GABRIEL (GAVRIEL) AVGI ADMITTED THAT THEY ARE SELF-INSURED AND DON'T PROCURE THE ACTUAL "COVERAGE" YOU PAY FOR. They pay to fix the damage themselves (despite you paying for coverage), EXCEPT THAT THEY DON'T PAY, FOR ANYTHING.

When you are able to track down Mr. Avgi, he's "in the middle of something" and will call back. Never does.

Mr. Avgi provides an a-mail address for proof of claims, you send them, he is silent, then in a few days, tells you they haven't been received (probably 3x in our experience). Then, silence.

We recovered nothing despite damage to/destruction of over half the furniture shipped (nearly everything was damaged, it was just a question of how severely).

Avgi and TriState hide behind the Carmak Amendment, a 1920s law insulating interstate movers from most common law Tort claims, and limiting the types and amounts of damages recoverable. Knowing how difficult it is to bring a successful claim, Mr. Avgi operates with total disregard for the law and the customer, and with total immunity. When the truth gets out about who he is and what he does, he changes the name of the business and/or declares bankruptcty and moves.

Gabriel Avgi is a crook, plain and simple, and TriState Movers -- the one run by Gabriel Avgi, not the poor guy Joe M. who looks to go by a very similar name and gets dragged-in to these assessments -- is essentially a criminal operation.

Since writing my original review, I have received communications from 5 other individuals who had been victimized; retirees, a doctor, a rabbi, the list goes on. And you can see the other reviews - they tell much the same story.

What are also clearly frauds are the shining positive reviews Tri State received/s. They are incredible, as in you won't believe it, as in non-credible - they aren'[t to be believed because they're fake.

Do yourself a huge favor and stay the hell away from Gabriel Avgi and TriState Movers, or whatever name is now over the front door.

Move size: 4+ Bedroom Home Service cost: $30000

NEGATIVE 5 REVIEW. attached was the email i sent to the company and did not get any response ...

I am writing to express my extreme disbelief and disappointment regarding my scheduled move from Hicksville to Port Washington yesterday which was not completed.

The movers came around 10 am. Gave them instructions on what furnitures n boxes to be moved and transported. The guys starts loading and packing for 4 hours (till around 2pm) , not even touching the refrigerator that was included in the move and took them another 3 hours to disassembled n haul the refrigerator to the truck that being said it was 5 pm..

Then Dipi from your office called me around 2 pm and told me that it exceed the cubic feet that was initially quote to me by Chase which was $ 1000 to now becomes $4000 quadrupling the cost.As this has been unbelievably unacceptable and we felt hostage to pay $4000. Not considering that we will not get to move our stuff that night and end up sleeping on the floor of our new place.

Plus I have to pay your movers again today for another 3-4 hours to bring, unload and assemble my furniture estimating to about close to $ 1000. That being said this whole chaos and madness of this moving encounters with Tristate Area movers cost me about $5000.. have I known how bad your company was I should have gone with Piece of Cake which was only charging me less than $2000.

When i gave the moving instructions to your estimator Chase. It was clear that we have to move to Port washington and be done by 5 pm as per Coop policies otherwise I will be fine with $1000 .The movers procrastinate and drag the whole moving time. They told me that no instructions was given to them that the move must be completed by 5 pm.

Your estimator Chase did not disclosed any hidden charges and gave us erroneous estimate. And you expect me to give your company a 5 star review. This whole experience with your company has been a horrific experience from the beginning with asking for a COI weeks before the schedule move and with moving that is taking 2 days.

I am very stressed, disappointment. that this move did not go well as expected. It was truly a disaster and a terrifying experience with Tri state Area movers.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $5500

After leaving in the rain they opened boxes and turned them upside down into other boxes which apparently also got soaked and crushed. My grandmother's glass were not put in the box for glassware which we bought and paid for and were broken. I will make one positive note, nothing was stolen or missing. We had a three leg move and were tipping in stages which apparently ticked them off and they tried to intimidate us, when they didn't get their way apparently they went into action. I never received an inventory after untold amount of requests in writing, phone and three on person visits to the warehouse. We have broken lamps which were just thrown into a box with whatever they else they dumped int the box with them, no lamp was wrapped. They took apart a bedroom set and showed up without the legs to the bed, dresser and armoire and without hardware to attach the headboard and bottom frame nor parts attach mirror to dresser. Boxes with bed pillows were moldy by being put into storage for four weeks until the last leg of our move. The guys who delivered were fine, but the packers were even trying to be intimidating. They left without moving our washer and dryer which was a condition of our closing, they were supposedly fired when we went to the warehouse to speak to Gavi. Ther is more but it really is too much to write and relive.

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $6000

If you value your money and/or your possessions, DO NOT HIRE this company. Nothing but thieves, lies, fraudulent estimates, unprofessional and rude staff. Charged more than double the estimated price, stole several irreplaceable original pieces of artwork and an entire collection of jewelry. They held my stuff for 17 days which allowed them plenty of time to go through everything and steal what they wanted. The remainder of my possessions were literally thrown in the back of a budget truck. Broken, dented, scratched, smashed. I am devastated and in disbelief that this company gets away with doing this to so many innocent customers. Are they accountable to no one? CONSIDER YOURSELF WARNED.

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $6400