Bait and Switch on Moving Quote
Tyler
Submitted this review about
American Home Movers
Review made Live: 4/30/2012 8:48:00 PM
Not a pleasant experience with AHM. Would not go with a shipping company ever again. I will do the hard work, even if it costs more at the end of the day. This is your money - read on and see if it's worth the cost.
You see at American Home Movers, there are a few things you should know up front - it would have been nice to know beforehand:
- Not all terms and conditions are available for review until after they show up to move you. Buyer beware.
- Quotes are done over the phone. They will take an inventory that is largely flawed. After all, it is only an estimate, but they assured me - "We just want to ballpark your estimate so that there are no surprises when we get there. It might be a little more, maybe a little less."
- American Home Movers will hire a group of individuals to rent a truck 20" to 30" and load it. After that it will go to a warehouse. Within 5-7 business days, they will pile its contents into a larger semi and then ship that semi to as many places as possible. You are under their clock, not the other way around. We lived in our cross-country apartment for a week before we had a bed to sleep on.
- You pay for a flat rate square footage total until the truck is loaded. The square footage is a rough estimate that they "attempt" to correlate to weight. That's when they tell you what it will actually cost. In our case, it rose by 50% - our $2,000 estimate turned into a horrific $3,000 estimate. And now what will you do when everything is loaded? "No. Unload it." That's what I should have said, but alas, I had a job to be at in Michigan.
- The movers (once they get there - in both pickup and delivery, they were two hours later than our quoted time) are very professional and will work their butts off, but be wary of the company they serve. They are overbooked and underpaid. Tip them and don't kill the messenger.
- The time to deliver your stuff is anywhere between 1-14 BUSINESS days (longer for a coast-to-coast move). In my particular case, business day 12 was when we got our stuff.
- Inventory tracking is lax, at best. They will label items with colored numbers, but the list will be as descriptive as "Box" - so if something has a list of items contained, it matters not. Some stuff (as expected) was broken when it arrived - some of that was our fault, but I thought they would have ensured the safety of some of that stuff since they charged us for it.
- Two boxes are still missing. One of which is an easily labelled PS3 - a mistake on my part - I should have put my expensive systems in larger boxes. We don't know how the process is going to go, but after a week, I can assure you it's not pretty - in our particular case - to get reimbursed for such lost items.
- We had one of our intermediary movers call and say that out of 160+ items, "missing only 2 is pretty good," and to "not worry about it.' "I distinctly remember your PS3. It was on the truck." He insinuated that we had gotten away pretty clean.
- Shipping the car was both a nightmare and a breeze at the same time. We were originally quoted $875. We were charged a $75 booking fee by BOTH American Home Movers and the company they sold our business to - totaling $950. After fighting with representatives who kept insisting on us having a Plan B for pickup times, we had to bring the car to my sister's house who helped remedy the move. When I called American Home Movers, they were disgusted and said no company should tell us to have a Plan B. I asked if AHM had (since they were the ones who originally booked the shipping order for the car) any alternatives, they were quick to say "We'll call you back." Needless to say, they didn't.
If I had to do it all over again, I would not go for cheaper options - and American Home Movers has some of the most attractive quotes out there. But if you are going to spend this much money on a move to a different state, go with an assured brand. Trust us.
