Complaint Review: Olympia Moving & Storate

We hired Olympia to move one 3-bedroom home to another in the West burbs. Seemed simple, but turned into an absolute nightmare. Hands down the worse company we ever dealt with in our lives. Not just moving company--any company, period!

To start, we requested someone come out to assess the move, but were told it was not necessary. Olympia could provide an estimate from experience. We said, we have a lot of stuff, best to have someone come out. No, not necessary.

To prepare for the move, we placed all boxes in the garage on separate tarps for separate rooms. We wanted each room loaded and unloaded separately. We moved all furniture to the hallway by the front door. We also have a gym, so we disassembled everything to make that move easier as well.

On move day, an undersized truck arrived with a foreman and 3-man team.  We sensed trouble, as all of our items would not fit into this truck. The crew looked around, and immediately, said, "you have a lot of stuff.  We can't move all these things in one truck. We need to get another truck." We thought great. We have not slept in days, and now this trouble-fine. The foreman called his office, who dispatched another truck.

In the meantime, while we dealt with the foreman, the team was in the garage loading boxes. They tossed everything into the truck haphazardly, and not according to room, as requested. The truck was loaded quickly, since everything was already staged by us for loading, and one of us, hubby, went with that team, while the other, wifey, stayed behind to wait for the 2nd truck.

At the new home, the workers raced in an out quickly and asked where does this go, and threw things around. They were instructed to put the headboard from the bed on the bedroom wall, the boxspring and mattress against that, and the frame then on top so that at least we could get the bed put together for the night. Instead, they placed everything on separate walls, put heavy furniture in front of that, and then boxes on top of the furniture.

Meanwhile the 2nd truck arrived at the old house, and the 2 movers said the remaining items were too heavy. Finally, they did take the gym, but they dropped several boxes, and broke many items. Once loaded, they left, while the original team returned to the old home. Hubby stayed behind at the new home to wait for the 2nd truck.

Once the original truck and movers arrived at the old house, trouble started. Wifey did not disclose to hubby until the next day, but the foreman kept making passes at her. She warned him to back off, but he got angry, picked her up and kept trying to kiss her. She was able to escape, but really!  

Now, back at the new house, the 2nd truck arrived to meet hubby. The movers repeated the items were too heavy, so they put everything in the garage. Hubby subsequently moved all of these items into the house alone, as well as every box and furnishing that the movers simply tossed haphazardly all over the place.

These movers left, and hubby waited for the original truck's return. It took longer than expected, but once they arrived, hubby told them to unload everything. He was upset at the amount of time involved and that everyone seemed to have difficulty lifting many items. He did not know of wifey's ordeal yet.

Once the truck was unloaded, the foreman said he would take his driver and return to the house to finish the move. He told hubby to stay behind and direct the movers where to put items. Unknown to hubby at this time, the foreman was texting wifey relentlessly, saying he had to be with her, and that he was on his way back to the house, kissy, kissy.

Hubby sensed something was wrong, so he drove back to the house in front of the truck. Once there, the truck was loaded, but the team said they could not take several items as they were working off the clock, so insurance was not in place. Due to the fact that several items remained, hubby made 20 subsequent trips in his car, over the next 3 days.

Once the dust settled from the move, we noticed almost every piece of furniture was broken, chipped or scratched. The movers did not use moving blankets, only shrink wrapped items with no other protection.  Also, many walls in our new home got scratched or dented by the movers, and the entire home had just been freshly painted.

Afterwards, we complained to Olympia. They refunded $250 and said the foreman was dealt with. They instructed us to put together a list of all damages and send that to them for compensation. We followed that direction, only to be told, no, you have to file a claim with our 3rd party insurer, CSI. We complied, to include pictures, weights and descriptions of all damages--over $10,000.  After 2  1/2 months, CSI emailed and denied compensation. Their reason: "We cannot assess weight by pictures." We reached out to Olympia repeatedly. They will not respond, which speaks volumes.

Bottom line, the worst company we ever dealt with. Stay away from them. The Prince of Darkness of moving companies.