Zippy Shell Incorporated

I don't even know where to start.
I have had a horrendous time with these movers and I don’t want this to happen to anyone else so I’m hoping you can make a difference. I moved from Danville PA where I was a chaplain at the hospital there to Union City here to be the Interim Minister at our Fremont church. I contracted with Zippy Shell to move me across the country. The salesman made a lot of promises that ended up not coming through. He contracted on shell with me, which is like a pod, but much smaller, and when they arrived on July 30th it was very apparent that ½ of my things would fit. So immediately we had to call the company to contract a second shell which they said would arrive the next day on July 31st. Also this cost me an additional 3400.00. I contacted my church as this was over the budget of moving expenses and they agreed to help me, but I’d have to pay the overage back to them. The second shell did not arrive until Aug 1st and they loaded it completely. The scheduled date to arrive here was to be Aug 13th the salesman told me. With the addition of the second shell, they held the first and didn’t ship it and then told me the arrival date was to be Aug 20th. This became complicated as I arrived in Sacramento for a week and then Fremont on Aug 10th and stayed with a congregant until Aug 24th. I then had to stay in my empty apartment until the arrival of my things which didn’t actually occur until Sept 8th. And with this I had to constantly call the company to even have them deliver by then. I lived in an empty apartment sleeping on a cot for 2 weeks with borrowed things such as a pot and pan and towels, etc. until my things arrived. I had only 2 suitcases I was living out of. Needless to say, it was extremely uncomfortable at my age, which then was 63, and I recorded on the attached excel spreadsheet all the calls and their responses from all of this. After all this, all they did was apologize and say they could give me $500.00, which would not even cover the inconvenience and the damages I experienced. I submitted a damage claim which I also have pictures of, for over 1500.00 and they denied it, saying they only paid for catastrophic damages. This was unbelievable as they ruined a few pieces of my furniture and I had an estimate from a furniture repair to compare it to.

They also charged me $318.00 for storage in Washington DC when the salesman had said there were not any storage fees. They would automatically take their charges as they had the church credit card. They took these charges without permission and never contacted us except to send me an email showing the charge. The salesman promised so much and delivered none of it.

I am a minister so I don’t make that much to begin with. I don’t have a company that will cover expenses, I have a small congregation who can only afford so much. I can’t imagine what a family would go through having to live out of suitcases for over a month. I really feel I deserve compensation for all the issues I experienced with them. They would tell me a supervisor would call me back, which didn’t happen, I called them countless times and finally discovered they had lost my things somewhere in Chicago a month after pick up and refused to tell me this until I finally had an employee tell me. Their customer service was horrendous, their policies serve themselves and not the customer and there should be consequences to their actions.

This is all I could find on them:

Zippy Shell Headquarters

170 3050 Water St NW
Washington DC 20007
Or
8405 Benjamin Rd
Tampa Fl 33634

Thank you for reading.
Blessings,
Rev Jo Green.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $7929

LATE: We moved long distance and were told that our latest arrival estimate would 7-10 business days after the initial pick up date. 16 business days later, the warehouse finally called to confirm arrival. And THEN it was another 2 business days before they could schedule a drop off.

POOR COMMUNICATION/FOLLOW THROUGH: Per any representative we talked to, Zippy Shell is to reimburse $50 a day for late arrivals. However, we have now been trying for a month and a half to receive word of any follow through on compensation.

FILTHY: Our items arrive caked in road debris and dirt. Every single box and mattress had to be wiped down before we would consider letting it into our new home. Worst of all were the mouse droppings that littered at least a fifth of our contents. We were promised when we first signed on with ZippyShell that the cage of our contents would be "fully protected and shrink wrapped." That was a joke as there were a few layers of plastic wrap that encircled the middle third of the crate that was otherwise fully exposed to the elements.

DO NOT GET SUCKED IN BY PRICE. You will regret your decision.

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $2400

As of now, we wish we could give 0 stars. Our Experience is Zippy Shell begins in June 2018. We were moving from Arizona to Colorado. To start, the actual Zippy Shell did not fit and store as much as advertised. Customer service did absolutely nothing to help with this. So that was over $2800 wasted to have a Zippy Shell plus still needing to rent a Uhaul to tow behind us to fit the rest of our belongings because of how little was able to fit in the Zippy Shell. Our things were moved into a storage facility because we did not have an exact date we needed our Shell delivered (we moved in with family and were waiting to buy a house, so we did not need our furniture and other belongings delivered right away). Long story short, we have been living with family since we got to Colorado, so our things stayed in storage this entire time (over 2 years). We went to visit our things in the summer of 2019 to get some items out because we were about to have our second child. When we arrived at the address given where our things were stored, it was not a Zippy Shell facility, instead it was a third-party moving and storage facility (Arrow Moving & Storage). At this particular place, other customers items were stored in enclosed wooden crates. Our Shell was the “odd man out” because our belongings were in the cage-like enclosure and were completely exposed to all elements. When we got there, we found our mattress was completely saturated with a liquid. It was stained and molded (this mattress cost over $1500). Seeing this, we immediately removed it. We called Zippy Shell customer service and they claimed they could do nothing to help us. They didn’t even offer for us to speak to their claims department even when we asked to file a claim. The costumer service representative made it seem as if that wasn’t even an option and didn’t exit. After talking with Arrow Moving & Storage, they told us they would make sure they didn’t put our belongings in the same place that it had been assure that the liquid couldn’t infect our belongings again. Time went on, we were extremely busy with our growing family & tried to have confidence in our storage company that they would take care of all of our things.

We returned to the storage unit in September 2020 to find that more of our things have water damage, mold, the cage had been bent inward (possibly from the forklift) & punctured & scratched up multiple bed frames & our couch is completely filthy covered in water damage, mold, dirt & wood splinters. You could not even move a pillow without your hands almost instantly getting covered in black filth. The storage facility told us that they are not equipped to hold a Zippy Shell unit, but when booking with Zippy Shell, we discussed that our things would need to be stored long-term, they assured us that it would be in a Zippy Shell compatible facility & that they were able to do long term storage without any issue. They promised our things would be stored in a personal locker & this particular facility, our things were out in the open, exposed to everything, there were not any personal lockers.

We have well over 3k in damages to our belongings, not to mention the money wasted(over $3500 in monthly payments made to the storage facility) while storing our things at a facility that was not equipped to care for our belongings like we were promised.

We filed a claim on 9/21 & on 9/23 a woman named Juanita called. She called to confirm the location that our things were stored. She was extremely baffled why our things would be stored at a location that was not a Zippy Shell facility. We are patiently waiting to see how far we get with our claim through their claims department, and are willing to give them the benefit of the doubt because they will hopefully be understanding of our position & willing to work with us. We will update our review as we go through this process.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $7000

You should choose any other company. I am ashamed to have fallen for this scam. I will just bullet point this so you get the idea.

- Bad Packers failed to load the truck fully. (Contractors with no accountability, Shell is a glorified chicken wire cage)

- The promised lock was not delivered and I had to use a personal lock which took about 20 minutes to fit to the pod.

- Delivered the wrong pod leaving ours in our home state (if you had chainsaws and chainsaw oil (DHL) in your pod along with your furniture and TV, it traveled to Monterey California, I noticed that your tools were scattered on the floor of the truck.

- Lost our Pod and had no idea where it was for 2 weeks before finding it in Michigan.

-Knocked the lock off our Pod, removed all the items and packed them in a smaller truck without our permission. (also proving the ineptitude of the previous movers.

- Many items delivered damaged or missing pieces. Everything was strangely filthy and smell terrible.

- Charged me overtime 120$ for the delivery after violating our agreement in every way imaginable. This is honestly what inspired me to take action against this company and make sure that no one else has to deal with them.

- There is no one accountable and no one at this company will take accountability, it is a scam and you are better off burning your things in your front yard than paying for a move from Zippy Shell. I would have had I known what I was signing up for.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $3000

They drove the truck into our house and won't pay for the repair.

PACK RAT aka ZippyShell hired BellHop to drive the truck to deliver our pod. They backed into a wall on our driveway.

Their claims process was archaic but ultimately they said if we paid a mason to repair the wall and provided an itemized invoice, that they compensate us for the damage. We even signed a contract with Pack Rat / Zippy, but they never paid us back. It's been months and they keep making excuses ("it slipped through the cracks for the accounts payable team") as to why they haven't repaid us.

It feels like working with a very incompetent if not criminal organization. I'd recommend using any other mover that you can find.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $2800

Where do I even begin? I guess with this: DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES USE THIS COMPANY.

Now for the details — Zippy Shell wasn’t able to provide me an online quote, so I called on March 23, 2022 to book a move beginning April 23, 2022 from PA to TX. The person I spoke with was very kind & helpful. He thoroughly broke out the costs, timelines, sizes of the container, etc. I was given a specific price, told most deliveries happen within 5-7 days of pick up & was assured that the shell I chose could fit a 2-3 bedroom apartment. I signed the agreement & that is where this hellish saga begins.

Unlike other reviews, the shell was delivered on time, however it was MUCH smaller than advertised. I’m not sure what kind of 2-3 bedroom apartment could fit in there, but my 2 BR (where one bedroom was used for an office, no large furniture) did not fit easily.

The loading company barely managed to fit everything in & the shell was picked up on time (4/27/2022). I proceeded with my move, drove from PA to TX & called Zippy Shell about a week after pick up to figure out where my belongings were to help me plan some appointments. The first person I spoke with said my goods were in transit, but when I pressed for where along the transit route, they were unable to give me any specifics. The CSR doubled-down on their refusal to help, so I hung up & called back to get another rep. This happened two more times, with the third rep finally revealing that my shell was still in PA, despite me telling the original sales person that I did not want any storage. My agreement even noted it was for immediate delivery. This is where I began to lose my mind.

I remembered taking a photo of the shell when it was delivered & there was a local PA number, so I called & verified they were local, not the corporate group. When I told the woman my name (it’s kind of unique), she said “Oh yeah, your pod is definitely here. I just saw it yesterday.” She looked up a few things & confirmed it hadn’t even been scheduled for pickup yet. This was a full week after the shell was picked up from my home. The woman took down all my information & assured me that it would get routed to the person responsible for scheduling everything. She also noted that the scheduler typically calls a person back within an hour when it’s marked expedited.

When that call-back never came, I wasn’t surprised at all. I was, however, beginning to get enraged. Every single person at the corporate call center told me my shell was in transit when it had never even departed for its destination. I waited 3 additional days before calling the local person in PA again, at which time she informed me that my shell was scheduled for pickup May 10, 2022. For those keeping track at home, that was nearly 2 weeks after they claimed it would begin moving toward TX.

Once the shell arrived in TX on 5/13/2022, I immediately called to schedule the delivery which included unloaders. They arrived this morning (5/16/2022) WITH AN EMPTY SHELL thinking they were scheduled for a load-in. At this point, a mistake is par for the course on this whole experience, so I didn’t get upset when they told me it only took about half hour to get to my home. No problem that in about an hour, they would return with my shell. Two hours later, I began making calls to figure out what their time frame was. While on the phone with yet another third party that Zippy Shell brings into this existing logistical nightmare, the movers finally showed up.

As the nice little icing on this cake made of excrement, the movers proceeded to damage not one, but MULTIPLE items while right in front of me. A nightstand fell flat onto cement out front off of a dolly, multiple other pieces were banged into walls inside, the siding outside & really any other obstacle possible. A dresser foot was ripped off completely as they set it down and when they didn’t have screws to fix it, they assured me their supervisor would reach out to me, but left before I could verify the number they gave was even right.

After all of this hell, I contacted multiple people involved in the process. The third party responsible for booking the movers told me to contact Zippy Shell for a claim. Calling Zippy Shell got me a PDF form that I have to fill out and send back. But something tells me, I won’t even get a tiny percentage of what my belongings would cost to replace. And that dresser with the foot ripped off is still on its side upstairs as I type this. Who’s going to fix that and pick it up? I hired movers because physically (and this should come as a shock to no one) I can’t pick up a solid wood dresser by myself.

I have never seen a company make so many bad decisions so many times, so consistently. There wasn’t a single person I spoke with or interacted with that did the right thing.. ever.

TL;DR: In case you missed it up top… DO. NOT. EVER. USE. THIS. COMPANY.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $3300

Went with this company for a long distance move from NJ. The sales rep was nice and i felt like I made a great decision. Once the move took place, they delayed my container 2 days and were unapologetic. Charged me erroneous fees for a drop off at my house and storage insurance i never purchased. The unit itself had a busted interior lock when arrived at my moving location and exterior shell lock when it arrived at my destination. They accept no accountability for their errors and their customer service reps act like you are bothering them when you call. Will never suggest this company to anyone sadly.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $3800

Warning. Went w them despite bad reviews because I’m a positive optimist and was sold by their excellent sales personnel. Never left a bad review but…

This = Move from hell.

Promised Monday delivery. Monday they change delivery to Sat! I change my movers. Sat all day I’m calling… they finally call back that they don’t have drivers but promise absolutely guarantee Sunday they double booked drivers. No show Sun. Calling all day. Finally they tell me my pod is broken and they tried repairing all day yesterday (not a driver problem) but it would leak and be susceptible to thieves in its state. I explained what’s done is done I don’t care let’s find me a pod and move I’m a week late and have to be out of my house tomorrow. Nothing. No inventory in the DC area. I was stranded.

Days of calling to get my money back. Not a single apology not a single surprise or effort to help find a solution just hours on hold and transferred from account to account no one knew what to do and my sales reps would t answer their phones or emails.

Warning flags I should have noticed and if you get a pod you will still deal with. - no straight forward pricing - no portal - no account to reference your order or status or pricing - no receipt just all vague word of mouth and emails but no reference no way to track or know when and what you are getting. No way to reach people and forever long holds. All this before move day should have scared me off. This company has no logistics, no inventory, no staff and no ethics. Please please stay away.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $3200

My move with Zippy Shell from Palo Alto to New York was nothing but a nightmare, involving significant miscommunications with the company, an incorrect date for the loading company, unprofessional loaders lacking the proper equipment and damaging the items during loading, a pick up that did not occur on the agreed upon date and difficulty reaching the moving company, lots of back and forth with the company, threats of charges that were not previously agreed upon and actual additional charges based on information previously provided to them but which they had failed to note earlier. In addition, were significantly damaged when received. Some photos of the damage may be found at https://goo.gl/photos/JfebaNmCGMC5Qx4XA. After being provided with the damage report and the cost to repair some of the items, the moving company did not get back to me for over a week without my reaching to them and, even then, still has yet to provide an indication regarding whether they will pay for this damage.

Service cost: $3520

Dear Zippy Shell owners and operator,
The purpose of this letter is to share my experience with your company and your staff. In preparing for my local move I researched several moving companies; however when I spoke to Elizabeth McConnell on the phone about the services you offered I was sold. She explained that I would be provided with a moving coordinator that would “help me every step of the way” and they would guide me through my move. Although my family lives on a tight budget the services described to me by Elizabeth made me breathe a sigh of relief and felt that this would be money well spent. I was then contacted by Dora Vazquez who introduced herself as my moving coordinator. Together we went through my needs and she came to the conclusion that I would need two fifteen foot containers. To again ease the pain of moving I requested movers; Dora explained that each container would include two movers to load and then again unload at our new home. Finally, I provided her with the date of November 24, 2015 as our moving day letting her know we needed to be out of the home that day by 3:00 p.m and that we close on our new home on November 25, 2015 in the morning so I would like a noon delivery. Dora explained that the movers would be there by 9:00 a.m. and would have everything loaded in time and that they would arrive at our new home at noon on November 25, 2015 to unload.
On November 19, 2015 Dora contacted me via email asking if I minded having my belongings loaded on a moving truck vs. containers. She explained that since it is a local move this would make it easier on the movers and that all costs and other services would remain the same. I responded the same day letting her know that I am fine with this suggestion however that I have concerns that there would not be enough room and also reminded her that I chose the containers in case our closing on the new home did not occur on November 25, 2015 as planned. She assured me that the truck would be large enough to meet my needs however explained that she needed to contact the movers about storage since there would be a day if not more between loading and unloading. Dora promptly emailed me back to let me know they would secure the loaded truck in their locked warehouse at a fee of $100 a day. I reminded Dora of my contract letting her know that 30 days of storage was factored in; she then told me that the original costs would remain the same. After a couple emails back and forth we agreed on a truck vs. container, there would still be four movers and storage was factored in. As the moving day approached there were increased concerns that the closing on my new home would be delayed until November 30, 2015. Dora told me I could change the unloading date if needed as late as the day before. We decided to move the unloading date to November 30, 2015 at noon to be safe; this was done via phone and Dora told me that she updated the information.
The time came for me to provide payment for the first half of my move; I gave Dora my credit card number and made her aware that I would be using a different form of payment for the second half. She then proceeded to bill me for the full amount $1775 on my credit card; but sent me a receipt via email indicating that only half was charged. Only half of the payment was due at this time and she was aware that I wanted to use a different card for the second half that was not supposed to be billed until 24 hours prior to unloading. I was not aware of this error until I was at closing on my new home and my loan company denied my loan based on this new charge which affected my debit to income ratio. After six hours at the title company and an increased home loan of $1775 we were allowed to close on our new home.
The day of loading the movers arrived on time however there were only three movers instead of four. Half way through loading they expressed concerns that there would not be enough room on the truck for all of our belongings. Prior to our move my husband took our patio furniture and all of the belongings in our shed to the new house. Dora factored these items into the amount of moving space I would need so there should have been more than enough space for my belongings on the day of the move. I contacted Dora and she had a small truck sent to our home an hour later. The mover that came with that truck sat and watched to other movers and did nothing. Even with the extra truck, my husband’s truck and my car filled there was still not enough space for all our belongings. At two-thirty there were still items to load and the movers but the movers told me they had to leave to have the trucks back to the warehouse in time. At no time was I told there was a time limit on loading.
On Monday November 30, 2015 at 9 a.m. I received a phone call from the mover telling me they were at my new home ready to unload and wanted to know where I was. I told them that we were at closing and they were not scheduled to arrive until noon. He replied that he failed to check the time of delivery and would see us at noon. When closing was taking longer than expected I sent my father-in-law to the new house with the key to meet the movers. I then called the movers to let them know that my husband and I were running behind but my father-in-law would be there to greet them. He replied that we would not be getting our stuff until the next day because they had to go to another job. Finding this information unacceptable I contacted Dora who then put me in touch with her supervisor Allison. Neither was able to return my calls within a timely matter and neither was able to make my delivery happen. I then called the contracted moving company directly who informed me that the delivery time of 12:00 was never provided to them and they were told it was fine to deliver my items the next day. At this time the moving company could not help me as all their movers were dispatched to other jobs.
That evening my husband and I had to spend $580 at Walmart to buy blankets, clothing, food, towels, soap, and additional items to support our three children and two dogs while we waited for delivery of our items. I had to return to work and needed work clothes and our three sons had to go to their new school also needed clean clothes to wear. We all had to sleep on the floor; the only positive was that we were able to fix the billing mistake and close on our new home. When the movers did arrive the following day to unload they had to be encouraged several times to keep unloading.
What started as a wonderful experience turned into a night mare. I attempted to contact Dora several times following the move to get a resolution to our experience she would not respond; I finally was able to get a hold of Allison, her supervisor who proceeded to tell me that your company did nothing wrong. I was then put in touch with the head of quality control who denied that my experience was any fault of your company. He told me that they have 7- 10 days to move across country. I reminded him that my move was a 20 minute drive door to door and that 7-10 day window was not in my contract. I also provided him with the information exchanged with my moving coordinator about delivery dates and times; payment information and the amount of moving storage I would need. Finally he agreed that a mistake was made with processing the payment but said movers can never guarantee delivery. I am appalled that that statement could come out of any individual’s mouth. I requested his supervisor’s contact information and he refused to provide it. I feel taken advantage of by the way I was treated. Every promise made to me about our move fell through except for the amount I was being charged. I am not sure how a company can function with the level of service I received. I would never recommend your company to anyone.

Service cost: $1785