Move On

By request, here is the story of my moving scam. In 2001, I moved from Austin to Boston and I hired a moving company to move my stuff. This was my first mistake, seeing as I didn't really own anything of value. I could have sold or given away all of my possesions and re-purchased them in Boston for less money than it would have cost to move them. My second mistake was failing to due much due dilligence when selecting a moving company. I would up hiring this company called All State Van Lines. The first problem was they failed to show up on the assigned pick-up date. I called their office all day and never got an answer. They finally called me that evening and assured me that they would be there to pick up my stuff the next day. They showed up the next day and picked everything up, but the plot suddenly twisted when the paperwork that I received was from a company called U.S. Movers, not the All State Van Lines company who I had booked the move through. They apparently had subcontracted out the move and failed to tell me.

From there, things kept getting worse. The 10 day estimate they gave me for my move to be completed turned into 32 days. For most of that time, I was constantly trying to get though to someone at U.S. Movers who could tell me where my stuff was and when it would be arriving, usually to no avail. When the movers finally showed up, all of my stuff looked like it had been dropped out of airplane at 20,000 feet. They lost one of my items (a filing cabinet), which I filed a lost item claim for which was never addressed. I wrote complaints to both All State Van Lines and U.S. Movers, neither of which was ever addressed. I should have pursued this matter futher, but I was more upset with myself for entrusting a company to move my earthly possessions without doing proper due dilligence beforehand.

As it turns out U.S. Movers (Brooklyn, NY) is blacklisted on Moving Scam. I can't not recommend this company enough. The blacklist on Moving Scam is quite daunting, but there are some good movers out there. When my then-girlfriend (now wife) relocated to Syracuse from Boston, her company paid for her relocation and we were both very impressed with the moving company who handled the move. The company is Clark & Reid and they are based in Billerica, MA. I think they are a local outfit, but if you ever need to move to or from New England, I would recommend looking into them.