Complaint Review: Miller's Honest Moving & Storage

I know the temptatation of having friends there to help in expectation that would speed things up and lower the hours in the end. Unfortunately, in addition to what Jim already pointed out to you, those friends may have ended up in the way, irritating and delaying the movers, who had to work either with, or around them.

Packing of anything other than furniture should have been done already before the movers arrived. All they should have had to do was carry furniture and boxes. If you became aware of them constantly rearranging the truck in order to pad the hours, it would have been wise to video an example from outside the truck, then use that later to request at least an hour or so refund.

Same with phone and cigarette breaks. Sometimes paid lunch breaks, or even more breaks are expected and warranted if the move is estimated to take several hours. Unfortunately this is something that needs to be spelled out and written into the contract for your protection. They'll never offer to do that. You need to always ask.

Unlike many movers whose BBB ratings are F, they have no complaints, yet, but are also not rated. They may wish to keep it that way by not inviting a first complaint, from you, if your claim is legit. They otherwise have good reviews on Yelp etc. But any of these sites can be manipulated for or against a business.

 The owner of the moving company contacted me, and we came to a fair resolution. I am satisfied

UPDATE. The owner has contacted me, so we will see if this will be resolved. If not, I'll respond with more detail.

They walked through our entire house and we were given a flat estimate of how much they would charge. We felt that it was an overcharge...  I am curious on what basis did you believe it was an overcharge?  Was this based on other quotes you received, or was this simply your gut feeling that this was too much money?  Moving is not inexpensive, so I am curious as to how you came to the conclusion this flat rate was an overcharge?  The rate you eventually got at $50/hour per worker for NY may be slightly less than standard pricing.  Windshield time, is generally 2X that.  You probably would have been better off accepting the flat rate, however you don't indicate how much that was, so it becomes hard to evaluate one way or the other.

You also don't indicate how many hours the guys you hired worked - that time would include phone breaks, smoke breaks, and lunch breaks, no matter how excessive you thought that might be.  However, if the time they worked was at least 7 hours (based on your narrative it sounds like it was at least that long), then I can see how this happened.  That's a lot of hours for a local move in one day.

We get to one of our destinations, and we are told that we have to pay the amount they wanted before they let our items off the truck.  That's illegal.  Well, not really.  Hostage loads only happen on interstate moves, not on local moves.  Now, it would have been considered an illegal hostage load if (a) you came to an agreement on pricing and signed a contract, and then (b) the pricing was hiked significantly and they would not deliver to the house until you agreed to the new price.  In your situation, and I have seen this numerous times, the mover will get a sense you either (a) aren't going to pay, (b) aren't going to tip the movers, or (c) make it well known you have been unhappy with the service.  In such a situation, the mover has delivered your HHG to destination (which is why it isn't a hostage load) and will ask for the funds upfront before the items are unloaded.  The mover wishes not to stick around in a situation where they're not appreciated.  I mean that's simply the reality.  It isn't illegal, but it isn't a good practice.  It also shows to me there was a great deal of distrust on both sides of this transaction.

Now, the movers didn't perform a very competent move for you - I mean there is no reason a mover doesn't carry their own tools to unassemble and reassemble furniture they took apart.  I sort of understand the care they undertook to wrap certain items because damage does happen.  However, wrapping disposable cups or plastic bags sounds like a crew that had little idea what they were doing.  At the same time, claiming you had friends to help move you in an effort to lower your price is very bad form as well.  Moreover, it discharges the mover from any liability IF there are people performing moving services the mover never authorized.  For example, if there was damage to furniture or to walls, and you filed a claim, your claim would be rejected in total because of the friends who were there helping.  If you hire movers, then let the movers do their job.  If you want friends to help, then consider doing the entire move yourself.  Don't do both.

There's no question the dispute you made was also invalid; if you had accepted the flat fee from the mover, then you would have had a case for a partial refund - they promised to perform all services for that flat fee, and they failed to perform.  However, once you accepted the hourly rate, the mover can claim his movers worked these many hours for the rate agreed to, and the final bill was correct.  The fact the final price turned out to be roughly the same as the flat rate is irrelevant.  By law, you have to pay for the hours the guys worked.  Whether they finished the job becomes irrelevant.  Are they still dishonest - heck yes.  Are they incompetent?  Absolutely.

Full Disclosure:  I do not work for this company.  I have previously worked and consulted for a legitimate moving company.  Best of luck to you.