Zippy Shell Incorporated

Zippy shell is a trash company and quite frankly they deserve to go out of business. They rescheduled our move on us multiple times even though we had a confirmed date, were disrespectful every time we spoke to them, lied about the size of the containers, the list goes on and on. I can’t discourage using them enough. It got to the point where we almost got a lawyer involved to help us get our stuff. It is supposed to come tomorrow and if it doesn’t we will be contacting the police for stolen property. On top of that we were told the “movers” they work with will do nothing to protect the carpet or anything. That’s all on us. As someone who has moved multiple times in my life I have never heard of movers who think it’s a good idea to track mud through someone’s home. This company is trash plain and simple.

Move size: 4+ Bedroom Home Service cost: $6000

What ever you do, do not use Zippy Shell for your next move. I had used Zippy Shell for a long move but smaller items. They hired a moving crew to move my items. We supplied the packing materials such as blankets. The moving crew themselves told us ahead of time that Zippy Shell does the worst job with moving items and our items will most likely be broken due to the way they move and shift the items. They basically said they don't care when moving stuff. Sure enough they were right, broken furniture, broken box, and missing pieces that wee broken off bc because everything was not inside a pod but a cage. I filed a claim for my items, I waited 6 months for them to get back to me to tell me "The 1-800-Pack-Rat Zippy Shell claims process has concluded, and we appreciate your patience regarding the matter. The claims department has evaluated the claim you’ve submitted for damage to items that you rented from the Company. Upon review of the facts of this matter and the terms of the Customer Protection/Duty to Insure Addendum to the Rental Agreement, it has been determined that the damage incurred to your property were not caused as a result of the unit being improperly loaded, mishandled or dropped by a member of the 1-800-Pack-Rat Zippy Shell staff.

Section 6 of the Addendum states: “6. Exclusions: We do not assume liability for damage caused directly or indirectly by any of the following, regardless of any other cause or event contributing concurrently or in any sequence to loss: or (xii) damage caused by improper packing, normal shifting or intentional acts. (please see attached rental agreement terms/conditions)” Based on the terms of the Addendum, this is not a covered loss.

Additionally, the Loading/Unloading Help section of your attached signed rental agreement advises that 1-800-Pack-Rat Zippy Shell does not provide packing assistance or packing materials. It is the customer’s responsibility to supply such items if they wish them to be used during the loading process. The claims team reviewed the documentation enclosed within your claims submission and spoke with the loading team. They confirmed that no adequate protective loading materials were provided. While we apologize for your experience, 1-800-Pack-Rat Zippy Shell cannot take responsibility for the damages sustained to your property."

Again we provided blankets and packing materials and they provided the workers to pack the items. Do not use them. It may seem like a good idea but use someone else. Let their business fail for not taking care of their clients.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $4000

Bottom line: I would not do it again nor recommend this company to anyone I know. (Some items were dirtied and damaged.)

The move: I was moving from the Detroit area to San Jose, CA. It was a 2400+ mi move and I had to move my 2BR apt and my car. I figured out that the cost of the zippy shell move (~2700) would be not a whole lot more than if I did the move myself, so I decided to try ZS.


At origin: the showed up on time (Sept 14) and 3 guys loaded up the shell in a reasonable amount of time. Their leader seemed to have a lot of experience with ZS and suggested I leave behind my floor lamps because they would not survive the journey. I said OK and left them to my landlord. What about my TV? (I had wrapped my 40" LED TV in several layers of bubble wrap and foam.) Yes that will be fine you have that thing wrapped up very well. I said OK, put it on top of the sofa. He said fine.

I had some rope and I bought 6 tie down straps from IKEA to help them secure it but he said they only needed the rope.

At destination: my shell arrived San Jose (Sept 25) but the earliest they could get it to my apt was Oct 3, a Tuesday. I asked if they could deliver on Sat Oct 7 and after some e-mails they said yes. I called later and asked if I could get some stuff from the shell in the mean time -- the advertise about how easy this is -- but they said they could on Thursday and wouldn't I rather wait until Sat? I said OK.

They said the shell would arrive between 9-noon and it ended up coming close to noon. I hired 3 movers to unload it and when I saw my stuff it looked like it had been through.. a rough ride. Most of it was fine though, just dirty. I filed a claim for 2 things. My TV, which now had a cracked screen, and my desk which looked like someone hit it with a crowbar a couple of times.

They responded with this:
"We have just discussed that there has been some damage done to your items. Please take the time out to fill out the attached form and send it back to claims@zippyshell.com
If you have any evidence of damage, please also attach to the email you will be sending the claims form.
Please include:
Pictures before the loading
Pictures after the loading
Receipt for each item claimed, from original purchase
Proof of Replacement Cost or Repair"

I sent them pictures of: my original receipts, a bunch of boxes to show them the move was rough, and my two damaged goods. I also sent pictures of a Craigslist ad (and link) I had posted in Detroit when I tried to sell some items -- this ad showed my TV was in perfect shape before the move.

Their response to my claim was this:
"First, we want to apologize that you have had damages to your belongings and sincerely regret that this has occurred during your move and we thank you for taking the time to inform us.

There are specific guidelines that must be adhered to before submitting a claim to our insurance carrier for consideration.
One of the things that we take into consideration is the coverage that you elected for your move, which in this instance is the Standard Content Protection.

All our tiers offer a coverage amount of $50,000 and covers the container should a catastrophic event occur.
The Standard Content Protection carries a $5,000 deductible and does not cover natural shifting of items while in transit, loading/unloading of the container, tornado, earthquake, and theft accompanied by forcible.

While we respect that your belongings are very important to you, we need to inform you that your claim has been denied as it does not meet the deductible or coverage qualifications."

Final remarks: even if they had replaced my two items, worth only $369.93, I would not go this route again. Their sales people are great but after that it felt like a bare-bones operation. They are really not very flexible with delivery dates or letting you access the shell easily -- that's complete BS. Even if I had let them deliver Oct 3, best case, it would have been 19 days for them to deliver the shell.

Also, I don't know what kind of "climate controlled environment" they had because my stuff had a lot of dust and even a few leaves, like they left it outside for some period of time.

Next time, I will just do it myself even if it sucks at least it will be over sooner and I can get on with my life. Live and learn.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $2693

My kids have renamed them "turtle shell" because they are not at all zippy. We moved from Minneapolis to Vancouver WA recently. We were very happy with their service in Minneapolis. We opted for them to load and they were on time, and went out of their way to try to reduce number of shells we needed. However, since arriving in Vancouver, we have been extremely disappointed with their service here on the delivery end. Their customer care team is a joke. They are basically middle men between you and the local warehouses and movers. They are all polite, but, since they do not have direct control of the warehouses, they cannot schedule anything immediately and therefore cannot give any definitive answers. There is always a 1 -2 day turn around before they can get back to us with any answers to our questions or scheduling request. The customer care team would not provide us with direct contact to the local warehouse making communication very patchy and frustrating. We would be told "you will get an email to confirm your delivery" but what we got were obscure emails with zero details (see picture below). Although our containers got to our destination warehouse quickly, they could not mobilize them out of their warehouse easily for delivery. Due to communication breakdown between the customer care team and local warehouses, the local warehouse was not in the know of our tentative delivery dates. We likely are being charged extra for storage due to their fault not being able to deliver per our request. We will never use zippy shell again!

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $8500

Don't ship anything valuable with this company. If other companies charge more, pay them - but don't ever use ZippyShell. I plan to post the pictures of my vintage bicycles and wheels before and after they were shipped in a ZippyShell container. My container was shipped to a wrong location and it took weeks before I got it. By the time I got the container a large portion of carefully packed items were wiped out. Then the company offered a few hundred dollars to buy my silence, asked me not to write bad review about this company in exchange for the money. Guess what!

Move size: Partial Move Service cost: $2325

I live in Sacramento CA and rented one of these crappy containers. Contains inner cage where your stuff goes, which greatly reduces usable square feet. They delivered. We loaded. Was to be stored in Sacramento warehouse ~4 mos. About 6 wks later, a RUDE young guy called and said Sacramento company was closing and my stuff was going to be moved to SF area. I said NO, bc it was not packed to be moved 180 miles round trip. His response was that I didn’t have a choice unless I wanted to take my stuff back THAT VERY AFTERNOON. I TOLD HIM I DIDNT HAVE A PLACE TO TAKE IT W/ such short notice! They moved it. Three months later, I took out of storage. They drove it all the way back; ~90 miles. My beautiful furniture has SO MANY SCRATCHES AND GOUGES. They were not careful. I filed a claim. They assured me it would be paid. IT WAS REJECTED. Their reason: OOPS, WE FILED WITH THE WRONG INS CO!! I never received a penny for all the damage. THEY ARE UNPROFESSIONAL AND DON’T GIVE A ROYAL RAT ABOUT THEIR SO-CALLED CUSTOMER! AVOID!!

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $898

People write reviews when they're upset or overjoyed. I've given ZippyShell a one-star review, so obviously I'm upset. However, the world doesn't need to read my individual sob story.

What does the reader need to know about Zippy Shell? You don't need to hear my drama - you need to know the important facts.

Here's what is important:

Zippy Shell has the appearance of a snappy upstart that has improved upon the logistics of an old industry throug the power of data and technology. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Zippy Shell is basically a call center and a website. Moving is a very physical process. The call center employees and website don't move your belongings from point A to point B. Zippy Shell is a the worst type of concept - let's break up a process into pieces, outsource those pieces to multiple vendors, and create a process where lots of people have a small amounts of responsbility, and where no one actually has to answer for the whole (terrible) experience. Let's put most of our effort into our sales force to sell (and disguise) this bootleg product.

Your move is handled by a series of outsourced partners. A "franchise partner" will pick up your stuff. Another franchise partner will pick up your stuff after it's delivered, by train, to your destination. They will not know each other. They will have no accountability to you - you are not their client. Zippy Shell is their client. Zippy Shell will coordinate with the different partners as they each fulfill their part of the larger process.

So, if and when you have an issue, there will be no one to listen to your concerns. The call center people are based in Florida and will tell you everything you want to hear until you make your initial deposit. After they have your stuff, good luck - you will be forced to sign a piece of paper that basically says "this worked perfectly and I love it" before they will release your belongings. So, once you have your stuff and you try to complain, they'll just say "looks like here like the move went off without a hitch." You'll be told that eventually you can talk to a manager - someone with a sense of ownership over the process, someone with the ability to interject and fix the situation. Ha, silly you, you gullible, sad little person. Even if you talk to this person, they can't answer for the work that was done - they're just working in the Flordia call center.

What was most suprising to me is that they couldn't give you a status at any point during the move. Our stuff was picked up and we couldn't get up an update for 3 weeks. It was just a total black hole. Like I said, not a technology company - not a smarter way to move.

My move with Zippy Shell was beyond awful. I lost a lot of property. I lost a lot of money. The stress and frustration probably took a year off my life.

My grievances are many, but the most salient point of malfeseance was this:

They didn't send pods/trailers/containers to my residence. They sent a truck instead. You can see the picture - does that look like what you see on the website? That truck wasn't in the contract, that wasn't the deal, but they did it anyway. Everything got worse from there.

I have to move on now. I spent four months fighting with this company, but when a person goes against a corporation, the person usually loses. All they can do is right a review.

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $5000

This is the WORST company for moving. We hired them to move us from Colorado to California with assistance in packing.

EVERY PIECE OF OUR FURNITURE IS DAMAGED!! When the crew was unloading other moving companies were in the dock and asking why the moving company did not use blankets to protect our furniture. The company that unloaded our trailer also took pictures of the damage for their record and said they would forward copies to ZippyShell. They were also amazed at how the trailer was packed.

I called to make claim and never got form, call again and get form along with this email:

We are going to need some detailed information from you in order to begin processing your claim. please take the time to fill out the attached form and send it back to claims@zippyshell.com

If available, please include:
Pictures before the loading
Pictures after the loading
Receipt for each item claimed, from original purchase
Proof of Replacement Cost or Repair
Any additional details/evidence that may be important for processing your claim successfully
*PLEASE DO NOT DISCARD ANY DAMAGED ITEMS UNTIL THE CLAIM IS CLOSED*

No I don't know how many of you all keep receipts from furniture that you bought a few years ago, or how the antique furniture you inherited or bought, etc.

Then to ask for proof of replacement or repaired..You need to pay for damages so I can have it replaced or repaired. Even bought extra insurance!

Don't be a fool and use this company!!

Troy G.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $2900

Do NOT trust this company. We were impressed by Zippy Shell’s concept and the favorable reviews we saw. How very wrong we were. We were promised that after we boxed up all of our things, Zippy Shell would take about 5 hours to load it. They arrived late on Tuesday morning and two and a half hours later the crew they hired walked off the job. The loading finally finished up at 6PM THURSDAY when we put our lock on the third cage.
That experience was just a very small annoyance compared with what followed. As agreed, our goods were delivered to our new home in Florida on June 16th. The lock I mentioned? Gone. The locks on the other two cages? Gone. AND ALL 3 cages were gone as well. Some idiot in Boston decided to breach the contract we had with Zippy Shell and cut the locks off of our cages and literally THROW our possessions into a rental truck with NO protection. When the truck arrived here in Florida and the lady driver opened the rear door, things literally FELL OUT INTO THE STREET! Estimates to repair or replace the damaged items and to replace the missing items are about $10,000.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $4500