Complaint Review: Armstrong Relocation - Pompano Beach Florida

Armstrong/United was contracted through my employer to move us internationally.They sent someone out prior to our move to evaluate everything so that he would be able to advise what would be needed on moving day. He told us not to pack anything and what we already had packed would need to be unpacked and repacked by the crew, so we shouldn't do anything. They scheduled two days for packing up our home. The first day, the movers arrived and out of 4 people, only one spoke a little English. Therefore, communication was an issue from the beginning. They began packing our stuff without asking what goes together or if boxes for some of our items (like kitchen gadgets, etc.) existed. After the first day of packing, most of the house was packed with the exception of  the attic, furniture, and our daughter's room. We had a 3 bedroom, 2 bath townhouse, so not a huge house to pack. When the crew left on day one, they told us the crew would be coming the next day at 9am and would pack the remainder and load the truck. The 2nd day crew arrived at 8am instead of 9am and couldn't even wait for a few minutes for us to get dressed and ready. Evidently, they were in a rush to make the delivery to the port and said the crew the first day didn't finish everything they should have packed. Things just got worse throughout the day. They were rushing around and complained all day that we had too much stuff. Then, when it got to the end of the day, they started saying they didn't have the proper boxes to pack things properly. Evidently, the surveyor who came out first didn’t do the right job either because the movers didn’t come with enough boxes.In hindsight, I should have said something then or put a stop to allowing these movers to continue to touch our things. At the end of the day, they kept trying to avoid packing our daughter's (small) rocking horse, and ended up wrapping it in paper before putting it on the truck. Clothes, including my wedding dress and husband’s suits and tux were thrown in a regular box because they didn’t have a wardrobe box. They said they couldn't take our step stools because they didn't have boxes for them. Then they left, and I began to worry for the next two months about the condition of all of our belongings. Unfortunately, I was right to worry. When our boxes arrived in Switzerland, it was a mess, to put it lightly. It turns out the movers were in such a hurry, they didn't even properly number and inventory our boxes, so we had no way of knowing if everything even made it. After unpacking everything, not only were there entire boxes missing from our shipment (I don't know how many) but things were packed improperly and all of our precious belongings were not cared for in the least. Some items (maybe when we were in the room supervising) were meticulously and even overly wrapped with packing materials while other, fragile ceramics and electronics were literally thrown in boxes without any wrapping at all. So many things were broken and lost. Not because of regular things that happen during a move, but because of a complete lack of care and extreme negligence of this moving company. They purposely broke things to try to make them fit in boxes and a lot of what was ruined belonged to our daughter because her room was last. Artwork she had done and saved was crushed, one was even used as packing material to wrap something else. The worst was her bed. She had a metal bunk bed and when I surveyed her room after they disassembled it, the screws were left on the floor. I brought them to the crew leader and after my insisting that they had to be with the bed, he taped them to the outside of the box with the bed in it! Of course, they didn’t make it here, and they don’t have replacement screws in Europe since they use metric screws. It wasn’t safe for her to sleep in her bed as a result. I really hope you don't use this company because you will be sorry just like I am! I understand things get lost or break during a move, but their complete negligence and lack of care resulted in a real problem for us.