Complaint Review: Highlawn Moving & Storage Inc.

The charming man of many names came to estimate my load and hours needed. "You have about 60 boxes" he said. I should have thrown him out then. I knew it would be more like 100-300 when I was done packing. He gave me a confusing "binding" price for four men, 10 hr.s including 1 hr. of travel.

They showed up an hr. early so I could not supervise their work, as I was still packing in another room. They were a scarey bunch of seemingly illegal immigrants. I went outside a few times and to my horror saw that my bed was in the middle of the street, my bike and guitars unattended.

They repeatedly put things on a fossilized dead mouse that was revealed behind a piece of furniture despite my protests.

"Joshua" the scam estimator, had promised to be with my every step via cell phone. He was nowhere to be found, in fact his voicemailbox was even full.

The foreman told me they would finish and meet me in the adjoining state. I checked their contract, which had grown about 10 pages from the one I had signed as the estimation time. My name was wrong as was the spelling of the street. I rushed there and waited. I saw their truck going the wrong way long after they should have arrived. 20 mins. later they appeared, insisting they passed just a minute ago.

They told me to pay all in full or they would not unload. I had paid a deposit. I told them this was illegal and got my lawyer on the phone plus two cops on site within minutes. The movers insisted this was standard with all companies but I knew it was a scam. To my horror the lawyer and cops told me to pay them!

Finally Joshua materialized on someone's phone. I started screaming at him about his disappearing act, and everything bad that had transpired, and he was extremely rude. We had lost maybe 2 hrs. with their tardiness and this holdup scene, and now multiple phone calls between lawyer and him, etc.

The foreman kept referring to me as "she" on the phone to him despite my protests in Spanish. This was truly offensive.

When they arrived my double halogen lamp and bed (unblanketed of course) were sticking out of the truck. I had told Joshua I didn't think the size truck he was sending would be sufficient and it wasn't. He said it would have some kind of hump on it for extra room but it did not. They had some of their own stuff in there and lots of packing materials they hoped to sell me. I refused to allow this.

They and he blamed me for having way too many boxes for this deliberate under-estimation. Joshua had promised they would bubble-wrap mirrors, glass of that lamp, a precious painting, etc. but when I begged them to, they conned me saying they didn't need to, they were pros. Pro conmen. The lamp worked at first but now does not.

I was promised masonite or blankets on my wall to wall carpet, to protect from dirty boots. They had none and Joshua said on the phone then, "your place is so big we would need miles of it!" I had shown him the floor plan and discussed the logistics of bringing stuff into each room on masonite or blankets. After 3 hrs. they finally lay down some blankets! I had laid out shower curtains and backs of unused new carpet in case they didn't come through, of course they did not. They didn't want to walk on them and finally walked wherever they wanted to my horror. Newly steamed carpet.

After an hr. the foreman insisted on more cash to continue. This was dispicable. And after the next hour, the same. He would stop working  for a long time until I coughed it up.

They began to take my upright piano up the stairs-- I had shown Joshua photos of the steps, stairs and landings to which he had said, "fine, fine" to everything blindly. They would lift it one step and talk for 10 mins. After about 17 grueling stairs, just 4 steps from my hallway, they realized it wouldn't make the final turn and left it hanging tilted, in 10 degree weather, for at least 3 hrs.m while I had to have the lawyer call Joshua again. They wasted more time during all this. The foreman insisted I sign a waiver that if the piano or the condo's stairs  broke, it was my responsibility.

Finally we agreed they would take it back down where it remains, 2 days later, shrinkwrapped in one lousy blanket in a freezing garage here. I shone a flashlight on each step for them which they said they didn't need so they could see in the dark where the wheels were, etc. I watched and took pics as they banged it repeatedly from stair to stair, and nearly snapped the stairs  and railings apart.

At this point I was out of money. Finally the woman I had spoken to first called, whom I had thought was just a secretary, Susan? Suzanne? Very nice as I recounted the hellish day. Apparently Joshua deferred to her over this piano catastrophe. She told them to shrinkwrap it in a blanket in my garage. The 10 hrs. was long over, so she told me just pay one more hr. and they'll bring up the rest (a full room's worth of stuff, which took another 3 hrs. or so). I said I was out of money and they could take me to an ATM in the end for that hour and their tip. 5 mins. later the foreman denied she said this & was again trying to gtake me to go to the ATM. I would not go and insisted I speak to her again.

I did much of the moving myself tho I am in poor health. It was freezing and I didn't know if they'd pull a knife on me next. In fact the gatekeeper was so concerned she appeared in my walk-in closet before going off duty to whisper that here was the number for the local cops should I need it.

The 3 other guys were so dumb they couldn't read when a box was labelled "garage" and would labor up 2 flts. ( which they insisted were 3) only to have to go back down with it. Many huge boxes were put in wrong rooms. They broke a new shopping cart and hid it in the garage. Luckily I had found a spring on a step, and it is part of it. They crushed one bin, and smashed and dented much else. They left behind a new clock in my old place.

On top of this I generously tipped them each much more than Joshua had suggested, for the extra hours and was not thanked. Now my piano is probably unusable; it is my livelihood. They may have cracked the soundboard. The cold weather will ruin it for sure and they kept nicking the legs.  I want to sue them and have them pay for another company to be hoisted up my terrace which may involve removing a metal railing. I will threaten to call local tv news help segments. 

DO NOT CONSIDER THESE PIGS. I wish I had seen this and other sites. I was charmed by the manner of this confident and seemingly sweet man who claimed to be a musician too but was truly EVIL. When he stopped returning my calls the week before the move and we got cut off once and he didn't call back, I told him he was making me very nervous, especially about how this binding thing works. He said even if they take much more time than the 10 hrs., I will pay just $980 to move what in essence was a house full of stuff (2 rooms packed to the rafters). Initially the website had estimated a ridiculous $500 without even knowing what I had. Of course I wound up paying triple that.