Accurate Express Movers

Photo evidence for all claims can be found on Flickr by searching for "Accurate Express Movers" (I am not allowed to use external links on this review). I have created an album with photos and full description of my horrible experience with Accurate Express Movers. AE Movers is a cash-only (or wire-transfer) operation. According to the FMSCA, cash-only movers are most likely scam companies (I am not permitted to link to the FMSCA in this review, but you can find this info on their website). AE Movers also bases everything on cu.ft. - According to MoveBuddha, moving companies that use cu.ft. are scam companies (I am not permitted to link to movebuddha in this review, but you can find this info on their website). Again, photo evidence for all claims and a full description of events can be found on Flickr, where I have made a public album called "Accurate Express Movers." I am not permitted to link to anything in this review, but you can search Flickr for "Accurate Express Movers" and pull up the album. Due to space constraints, here is a list describing our experience with Accurate Express Movers (the full review with details an photos can be found on Flickr by searching "Accurate Express Movers"): Accurate Express Movers: 1. Violated their own contract by not providing us with the actual cu.ft. usage of our items when picked up 2. Did not let us verify the actual cu.ft. after loading our items into their truck at pick-up 3. Padded the cu.ft. usage by packing their own mostly-empty boxes during pick-up 4. Gave our address out to a complete stranger (a friend of theirs), who they then invited to our house and onto our private property in the middle of our pick-up to "hang out" 5. Did not cover our mattress, therefore destroying it with unsanitary moving conditions 6. Completely ignored our apartment community's restrictions on move-in/move-out times (10am-6pm, as written and signed in the moving documents) by showing up to deliver our items at 6:30pm, and then threatening re-delivery fees unless we let them unload (they unloaded until 1:00am) 7. Held our items hostage unless we paid an inflated price for them, with no paperwork at delivery 8. Badly damaged our stereo system and speaker by literally throwing the components into boxes with other random items and no packing materials 9. Tore a piece of furniture during disassembly 10. Have been completely unavailable and unresponsive to any and all contact attempts after delivery

At first, this company seems pretty great. Their quote staff is responsive (as one would be when trying to secure paying contracts). Their preshipment staff is top notch. The guys who came to the origination point were great too. They loaded my household goods and took care to wrap and stack things nicely (note: we were present at this point). This is where the value and good stewardship ends. My things were taken to a depot to await assignment to a driver. What happened at the depot, I will never know. We get to our destination (it was a CA to MO move) and the driver calls 24 hrs in advance to give me a delivery window. The next day, the window is nearly over and no driver and no call. So we call. An he is rude but says he will be there in an hour. Okay, no problem. We wait. He arrives and is rude from the outset. After he is here for at least 30 minutes trying to situate his truck, a random man walks up and it turns out this is his help for the day! Not a professional mover, but a random day laborer. They open the truck and my husband is shocked. Why are our plastic totes upside down, have holes, and are shoved into spaces? They weren't loaded in such a manner at origination. Why is a statue my husband created unboxed on the floor? Why does the driver proceed to toss the statue and all of the boxes, regardless of how they are labelled, of the truck? Why are my new moving boxes that were pristine and packed correctly at the outset all trashed and crushed and shoved into spaces too? The day laborer? Why does this guy, supposedly a network of professionals known to the driver, look like he is going to die a few hours into the work and doesn't know how to lift properly and assemble furniture? Why does my husband have to stand over the driver to insist that he reassembles our furniture when that is a contracted service? Why does the husband have to reassemble things that were done incorrectly after they leave? whoosaaa... right? The driver is rude and dismissive and careless the entire time, so much so that the day laborer apologizes FOR HIM at the end. The office is closed weekends, so Monday morning I call to complain. At first, it sounds like they are appalled too, and I am relieved. I am assured that the operations manager will call me within the hour. He does not, but it's busy so I am patient. I call again Tues. I am told that I am on his published schedule and will be getting a call that day. I wait. No call. No call Wednesday either. So I am now really frustrated and irritated. I call again Thursday. This day is the first time I am advised on the claims process. I will fill out the claim, but I can't submit it until all of the belongings are unpacked and checked because you cannot submit another claim nor can you add to the claim once it is submitted. I finally get to speak to the "operations manager" who is conveniently also the dispatch operator. He also has no boss over him, so my complaint dies there. So, I might get $0.60/lb for the damaged items... maybe. But I didn't keep the crushed statue to weigh it. I paid over 8 grand to this company and was promised a professional moving experience. I did not get that. They have a lot of 5 star reviews on a lot of sites, but that has to be some kind of falsity if this is their usual method of business. I am including the photos I have available. In case anyone is wondering, that black wrapped object on the bottom of the pile, under the BOOKCASE and other HEAVY FURNITURE (Why is is that on top???) is my husband's TRAEGAR smoker. I tried to resolve this but the company clearly has no interest in customer experience once the money is in their hands. I was told as much when the "operations manager" said "you already paid for the delivery, there isn't anything I'm going to do now." Which I find funny, because had I not paid the driver nearly 3 grand (IN CASH or postal money order ONLY) he would not have delivered my goods, there would have been a $700 fee for re-delivery, and storage fees... so it's not like I had a choice to not pay, take it, and try to resolve it later.