Complaint Review: In And Out Moving & Storage Inc.

I'm proud of my research skills and serious approach toward decision-making I'm a librarian but I have learned a very important lesson: no matter how many good experiences you've had with a service provider, NEVER fail to do a new background check before you do business with them.

In August of 2008, my husband received his PhD and landed a job 1000 miles away from our home in Chicago. Being renters in a major city, we'd moved more than our fair share of times, and most of those moves, all within the city limits, were with a local company called In and Out Moving & Storage, Inc. (DOT License #662633, MC License #306319). I'd even done a single long-distance move with them when I finished grad school in 2000, but it was only from Michigan and was a long time ago.

After being extremely happy with these movers, and recommending them to friends who also had (almost entirely) good things to say, we immediately called them and booked our long-distance move. I take full responsibility for not doing my homework and researching whether the company had changed in quality since our last local move in 2006. And I was appropriately punished for it.

Everything about this move, except the overall pleasant pre-move experience on the phone, was different. And not in a good way. The movers showed up on time, but in an unmarked van (their fleet was so busy that day, they said, that they'd rented trucks from another company). I know now that this is one of the Dreaded Signs of Moving Apocalypse and I should have immediately locked the door and called another mover. But as with most renters who are moving, especially long-distance, we were over-stressed, exhausted from packing, in a time crunch to be out of our apartment so the next tenant (a friend with a new lease) could move in, and generally vulnerable. What followed was awful: first, a mix-up over whether all our stuff could be loaded for the price quoted (ultimately resolved in our favor, as per the contract), then hours and hours of slow and worrisome packing with at least one trainee and a crew boss who spent most of his time on his cell phone. At least we weren't paying by the hour.

Things got much worse when we arrived in our new home and waited for delivery. We had agreed to a flexible delivery date, for a significant price difference (over $1000) than a definite date. As a result, they theoretically had a 2 week window to deliver our belongings, beginning on the first acceptable date we quoted them. We moved out a few days before we left town, and then drove to our destination with a few stops along the way, so we anticipated about 3 weeks before we could take delivery. Over the course of the 2 full weeks (post our earliest agreed-upon delivery date) we waited, we called and called, and were told repeatedly that our stuff would be on the next truck, leaving this week. We heard this twice, but it took maybe 10 calls to get that information. Finally we were able to confirm the truck was on its way, and we agreed to a delivery between 3 and 5pm. This would have been at the absolute end of the 2 week window.

Our movers were ultimately late, lost, and exhausted. They arrived at 9:30pm and took over 2 hours to unload the truck. Some of the boxes looked dented or squashed. Clearly labeled fragile boxes were brought in and book boxes stacked on top of them. We helped unwrap all our furniture, and started to notice damage. I was shaken and upset, and not in the best of spirits anyway after spending two weeks eaten oven-baked frozen food and sleeping on the floor of our empty apartment on borrowed, bare twin mattresses for 2 weeks.

We laboriously assembled our(((REDACTED))) bed (thankfully undamaged) and crashed at 1:30am. The next morning we inventoried and surveyed the damage. Most of our bookcases (yes, ok, from (((REDACTED))) and (((REDACTED))) were damaged, some beyond repair. Our media stand (ditto) had been kicked in on one side. Two items (one we noticed immediately, and one we realized much later) were missing. Neither was ever found by the moving company. We received a box belonging to someone else, and despite repeated requests and promises from the movers, it was never picked up and returned to its owner.

Our attempts for redress have been a nightmare. When I was finally escalated to the owner of In and Out Moving & Storage, Inc., who identified himself as Ariel Hersh, he was unsympathetic, confrontational, insulting, and verbally abusive. I hung up in tears. He made several promises, which I noted down, and followed through on none of them. These included contacting the people whose belongings were on the same truck to try to track down our missing items, finding the real owner of the mysterious box and returning it to him or her, and sending a formal letter of apology for our terrible exprience.

We followed procedure diligently, taking many pictures and sending those, with a letter and the required (extremely complicated) forms, to their third party claims adjuster. This company is called Claims Processing Center (Staten Island, NY). They indicated they had 120 days to process our claim. I had virtually no success getting anyone on the phone besides their brusque administrative assistant, except when I called five times in one day (after the 120 day time frame had elapsed) and demanded to speak to a claims processor. This person made all sorts of promises, none of which were kept. Finally, after 208 days, I sent a letter (return receipt) to the owner of that company, describing out our experience and giving her a two week window to respond and complete the processing of our claim. Someone signed for the letter, but in more than 3 weeks I've heard nothing.

I have since reported our experience to the Better Business Bureaus of Metropolitan New York and Chicago & Northern Illinois. I registered a complaint with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, and filed one with movingscam.com, which forwarded my complaint to the Department of Transportation Office of the Inspector General. I am considering filing in small claims court against In and Out Moving & Storage, Inc., although I doubt we'll ever see a penny from them.

This experience has taught me some important lessons. Trust no one. Do your homework. Get it in writing. Document everything. File important paperwork by mail with proof of delivery. Never be afraid to cut your losses, even when you don't see an alternative to a bad situation. And, frankly, move yourself. After this experience, one of the most stressful and demoralizing of my life, I would never use long-distance movers again. I would probably hire (thoroughly vetted) professionals to load and unload, and drive the truck myself, despite the hassle. It's cheaper, and apparently much safer.

PLEASE do not use this moving company. Period. Be prepared, and good luck in your next move.

Hilary
Providence, Rhode Island
U.S.A.
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