Talia S.
They will steal from you! RUN!
I have no idea how this company has so many positive reviews. While I did hire them partially based on all the positive reviews, I am shocked at what happened here. We reached out to inquire about services for a cross country move. They were immediately kind, helpful, and responsive. They said they had a spot on a truck to fill and offered us a great deal to book. It seemed too good to be true, but everything online said they were great so we booked. That's when it went downhill. After booking, they basically ghosted us. They would answer our calls and would promise to call back and would never call back. On every call they reassured us that they would pick up on our preferred date and get us our stuff within a few days (nowhere near the 30day max). They created their quote based on number of items and said a couple more wouldn't be an issue. They didn't explain that it was actually based on cubic footage. Either way, we spoke with them ahead and let them know we would have additional items. They updated the quote and charged more- not a problem. The problem is that they said within 2 days we would hear about pick up day and window. As before, they didn't call us. We had to keep calling incessantly to get answers. No one helped, they just delayed responses. Eventually they called and said pick up would likely be on a Saturday based on our contract (which actually said Thursday or Friday). They eventually said it was a mistake on their end and that our contract was correct. Finally, with a day to spare, we were told pick up would be Friday between 8am-11am. Friday comes, it's 8am and we haven't heard from our driver. We call customer service who says "oh, 2 minutes ago they called and said the truck broke down." They then proceeded to tell us that they likely couldn't get us out until Saturday (so it makes me wonder if they did, in fact, write it down incorrectly). We fought them to get another truck. They did and when we weren't hearing from that driver, they said that truck also broke down. With more pressure on them, we got assigned a 3rd driver to pick up between 4-7pm. We had a 5hr drive that night so we called the driver who said he was a 4 hour drive out and should be there by 4pm, 5 at the latest. Then the driver became unresponsive. At 6:30pm he called to say he was there. They packed up all our stuff and loaded it on the truck. They DID NOT try pack it with as little space as possible. They then proceeded to charge us for an additional approx 350 cubic feet than quoted. On the truck, they did not pack as tightly as possible. Our driver was able to climb over the stuff, to the back of the truck and bend down to pull out a box. If that doesn't demonstrate the open space, I don't know what does. They wrapped our furniture in a way that left open space where there could have been boxes. They essentially extorted us. According to our contract, and federal regulations, since they loaded the truck, they agreed to the initial quote and they should not have charged us more. They charged us $2,000 more than quoted. We had no choice. Bronze Star was closed so we couldn't get support. After reviewing the inventory, they also charged us for all medium and large boxes, which isn't true. They lied and were fraudulent just to get more money. We called Bronze Star over the next couple of days to get an idea of when our stuff may be delivered. As before, they promised to call us back and didn't. They lied and said the other company flew our driver out to help us which is a lie based on what the driver told us. It also wouldn't make sense with the timeline. A day or so later, they told us our stuff was driven to the North East (we were moving from the South to the West Coast), and was sitting in a storage locker with no idea when it would come. The stuff has since arrived after 2 weeks (which yes, does fall in the contract, but it was a pain to get an ETA). When the stuff arrived, we had furniture unprotected, some things were broken, and the biggest this was when we measured the space on the truck it was LESS THAN the original estimate. It is clear they spread out our stuff on the first truck to make it seem like it used more space. They lied and stole. We have clear photo evidence. Bronze Star told us what we needed to hear to book us and left us high and dry. Their supervisor, Court, yelled at us on the phone multiple times. They lied to us to get them to trust them and then broke their contract and stole from us. Oh, and their 3rd party movers have an F rating on the BBB. They clearly don't vet their partners. When we brought this up, they put it on us and it was basically our fault because we needed to get out of our home. Anyway, DO NOT book them. Book pods and move it yourself.
Response from State to State Moves IncFeb 16, 2023
We did experience some difficulty last minute with the initially selected carrier sending the job back to us to redispatch, due to unforeseen issues with their truck. Another carrier was selected pretty quickly, however this carrier also would not work out because they ran out of space on their truck, not because it also “broke down.” At no point did the customer have to “fight” us to get another truck assigned; standard operating procedure is to automatically begin looking for a replacement carrier the moment the need arises. We were able to select a different carrier for this pickup. This was absolutely not the customer’s fault. Things like this do happen, most of the time without prior notice, and it is the broker’s responsibility to find a solution which was done The driver arrived within the pickup window dictated on the customer’s contract. Bronze Star Moving has three full time customer service representatives available 24 hours per day, seven days per week, including nights and weekends, to handle any and all needs of the customers. All customers are advised verbally and in writing on their signed contracts and pickup confirmation emails what to do if they experience a problem at pickup. The contract states, 1.The mover must provide you with a revised estimate. 2.Contact our office at (888) 610-5045 so that we may assist you with any revisions. 3.DO NOT allow the mover to load the truck or perform any services before you CALL US. You must agree in writing to the new estimate. We will assist you with this.” The customer did not contact our office so that we could help with the revision of the estimate, their reason being that Google told them our office was closed. We should have been contacted. Bronze Star Moving is in no way liable for a customer’s increase in cubic footage, especially if no attempt was made to allow us to help. Minimal can be done after signatures are received at pickup and everything is loaded. The customer did require the use of an additional 350 cubic feet worth of space on the truck, which increased the price of the move at the agreed-to rate per cubic foot on the contract. The professional movers that loaded the truck did so in the best way possible to ensure safe transport. If our offices had been contacted, we may have been able to see if the carrier was packing the truck “with as little space as possible.” Unfortunately, without any evidence these claims are purely circumstantial. Our Customer Service team spoke with the customer multiple times regarding delivery, but any update that we provided simply was not good enough. The customer wanted to know an exact date that everything would be arriving, which is not something that can be guaranteed without a premium service added to the bill. The delivery window, again as dictated by the terms of the contract, was 5-30 business days due to the large distance between pickup and delivery locations. The carrier advised us on 02/02/23, just five calendar days after pickup, that the shipment was approximately 7-10 days out from arrival. After reviewing the written inventory that was taken at the time of pickup, it all made sense: the customer had an additional 10 large items, not to mention the larger-sized boxes than what was given to us over the phone during booking. Also, we would need to review the clear photo evidence that the customer measured the space on the truck so we can substantiate these claims that less space was required for their move. This particular customer had additional items that were not included on the initial estimate. The customer did not read much, if any, of the contract that clearly outlines policies and procedures for the move. Again, while the issues with the carrier are in no way the customer’s fault, Bronze Star Moving cannot be held responsible for a customer’s added inventory or services, or additional cubic footage. We wish you the best of luck in your endeavors in Las Vegas.