Richard N.
Honolulu to Seattle Move Was Disaster
Was moving from Honolulu to Seattle. Company sent a quote to me while having phone conversation with booking sales person based upon a fixed cubage which could not be exceeded without extra cubage charge. That all seemed fair. When the movers arrived they had another quote for the. same moving job I had been quoted which was about $1000 more than the one I had in hand from their sales person, and printed from the confirming email sent me by my sales person. With movers sitting around the crew boss called the LA office and talked to someone of authority who refused to honor the original quote I had been given. I was panicked because I had to be out of my condo apartment, and thus got talked in to paying about $700 more than their written quote with nothing more added? It was a bait and switch deal. Part of my original quote I accepted was that City movers would professionally pack the dishes, all wall hangings , furniture, and the sofa/sleeper. I used my homeowner insurance company to insure everything for replacement value. The next failure was that City Movers packed things very poorly. About 80% of my crystal and China was smashed in transit. Two large framed wall art pieces were literally broken and scraped to the point of no repair.. My expensive sofa/sleeper which cost about $5,000 was completely torn up down to frame on one end, and deemed to not be repairable by my insurance company. My insurance recovery from my insurance company totaled almost $7000 after my $500 deductible was applied. City Movers has serious communication problems. They appear to run in crises management mode most of the time at their higher levels of management. Their operations plan is to get everything unloaded at their warehouse in LA and then plan trips using routes to optimize delivery. I notice that they have little regard for boxes that say "Fragile" or "This Side Up" when stacking boxes in trucks or warehouses. It appears that they have little understanding about packing fragile things with their teams in the field. The crowning event was when they would not unload anything at my destination for the move in Seattle without having a cashiers certified check handed the driver for the balance due, and not accepting credit cards at the destination point. Their sales people seem friendly, but after the deal is made you have to deal with the tough guys who are all about changing the deal. READ your contract before you sign it. I highly suggest not using this company unless you have good insurance to cover your losses. The insurance offered by the company is only a few cents per pound and largely worthless. They try to sell you their extra insurance through them before your moving day. I have no experience with that as my insurance on the residence from which I moved covered my stuff in transit. If you use City Movers, make sure you have "Replacement Value" insurance. Plan on loses and claims.




