Bailey's Moving & Storage

Beware. Business is dishonest. Estimate for a move was done over the phone. After getting actual weights on the receiving end, I found that I was overcharged by ~20%. Horrible experience with dishonest people that clearly take advantage of consumers with their racket.

Moved was fine, few scratcher on the furniture. Very friendly and very nice, and professional

If your looking for a dismal move and damage to the house you are selling and the one your moving into as well as significant damage to much of your personal property this is definitely the company to choose.

An onsite estimate was performed by the company's representative. Items to be moved as well as those that would stay were discussed. This evaluation was performed approximately one month before the actual move.

The day of the move four men showed up to pack the truck. They did not listen to instructions from my wife or myself, nor did they communicate with each other. They had a total disregard for our property i.e. when loading the truck they seemingly neglected to place moving blankets between furniture pieces and managed to moderately and in some cases severely damage the wood surface.

One of the movers informed us that since we had moved many boxes of our belongs already it made it more difficult to correctly load the truck. Fifteen minutes later the same individual was complaining that there were too many boxes to move, and that they had been told there would only be a "few household items" to be moved. When told an inventory had been performed, they stated they had no knowledge of such an inventory.

While moving an elliptical from an upstairs room they managed to severely damage the handrail on the stairs. They had four people moving this one piece and still had no control. This same elliptical had been moved twice previously up and down the same stairs as part of remodeling projects. On both occasions it was moved by only two individuals and neither time was there any damage to our property or the equipment.

They one great talent was taking breaks. This frequently consisted of smoking cigarettes in the truck containing our furniture, e.g. leather chair and couch.

When it became apparent that the move would not be accomplished on time a representative from Bailey's called to explain the additional charges if we wanted to have the move completed. With three quarters of our property already loaded it seemed a ridiculous question.

When moving our belongs into the newly purchased home they managed to provide a few new scratches to the furniture as well as the recently refinished wood floor.

Under no circumstances would I recommend this company if you value your possessions or your home's integrity.

I ended up serving legal notice to the registered legal agents of Allied Van Lines & Bailey's Moving & Storage that I would pursue the issue in small claims court.  In response they paid a total of $2,181 against my claim in excess of $7,800.

1. My letter re Bailey's/Allied re their decision not to reimburse me for missing and damaged items:

I am disappointed in your decision to deny my claim and...I will take appropriate steps to pursue it further...and that the photographs of the condition of my property as it was finally delivered will clearly support and indicate the level of professionalism with which this move was handled...

I am also astonished by Nancy Blegan's (Director of Bailey's Customer Service) mischaracterization and misrepresentation of facts and events in her email:

1. "Worse than that he refused to pay for the shipment."  At no time did I refuse to make payment, I simply enquired as to the significant difference between the original estimate and the final billing. 
2. "...then he refused to submit any documents for shipping ie passports, customs, letter of auth, all the mandatory documents for shipping." At no time did I refuse to submit any documents that were required for the move.  I was dealing with multiple coordinators in different offices within Bailey's organization and as soon as I received explanatory help from...the Grand Junction office I completed all of the forms as soon as possible. 
3. "At that point he stated that he would have a refund of every penny of his money through the claims process."  I do not understand this false account and assertion.  It is a blatant misrepresentation.
4. At no time did I make any demands except for my simple request that Bailey's wait to begin the repacking from...until I could be on site to observe it. Further, I did not "refuse" to provide a friend or relative to observe the repacking, as I explained to her...I simply did not have any such assistance available to me. 
5. "Then he advised he would not be able to be available and demanded we ship it as is." This is a misrepresentation.  As indicated in an email...12/3/13 to her, I expressed my surprise that they proceeded without giving me time to make arrangements to be present at the repacking.

2. My email to Bailey's/Allied re the condition of final delivery: 

Your position of not covering the reimbursement for missing items I claimed does not contemplate or comprehend the actual events of this move...Because the initial shipment was packed by owner (PBO), it needed to be carrier packed (CP) prior to international shipping.  The Allied affiliate in Denver requested my presence to witness the repacking.  I confirmed that I did in fact want to be there during the repacking & that I would advise them as to when I would be available to return from Bulgaria to Denver to do so.  They blatantly ignored my requests & repacked my property in my absence... That repacking that was done without waiting for my presence was most likely due to my property having been removed from storage prematurely & placed on the open warehouse floor too early because my international coordinator was under the assumption that there was a short and specific time limit in which to ship my property to meet Bulgarian customs... She apparently based her decision based on the simplified and general time guidelines of 90 days as presented on the Allied website.  As I explained to the Allied staff at the time, those...guidelines...are general & did not apply to my specific situation under Bulgarian...laws. Accordingly, I was denied the opportunity to observe & thus protect the contents as they were repacked.

Because I have made many personal moves & I also have first hand working experience in your industry...every original PBO container had been carefully packed with specific written notations on the outside of each container as to its contents... The repacking was, to say the least, chaotic & the contents of each CP container were a jumbled mess: crystal was packed together with steel hand tools & glass items were packed with electric tools without...protective packaging material, unrelated items were jumbled together, delicate items were packed together with metal containers of screws, nails & bolts, parts of my valuable stamp collection items were removed from their original containers & were used as unprotected packing material to fill open spaces in boxes containing unrelated goods, furniture hardware was packed with clothing, electronic equipment was packed with kitchen goods, matching sets of items were not packed together & were found separately in different boxes, delicate 100 year old record cylinders were loosely packed with books, delicate lamp shades were boxed without any protective padding, the re-packers’ written notations on the outside of boxes were inaccurate & mis-labeled, and boxes were packed without regard to any...organization... "Helter-skelter" would be an apt way of describing the condition of the...containers.

Accordingly, there was no reasonably possible way for me to discover or account for the complete & total contents of each... container as to the completeness, with which it was originally packed by me... It has taken several months to sort out the jumbled repacking.

As you have seen in the many photographs...the packing of the delivered transport container speaks for itself as to the professionalism & due diligent care with which my property was handled... I believe that any adjudicating authority would agree with that opinion based on the photographs... 

It has been explained to me by Allied that the condition of my property as packed in the transport container was probably due to...the Bulgarian customs office. Even if the...customs...was responsible for “trashing” my shipment, it was Allied’s responsibility to correct that condition & prevent further damage to my property prior to driving the jumbled contents approximately 200 kilometers from the port to my home. That was not done. Based on the unprofessional manner with which the carrier repacked my property...it may not be unreasonable to assume that the transport container was actually packed that way by the Denver...staff.  All I know is that Allied was responsible for professional due diligence in the care and protection of my property... 

You have stated that “...it appears as though everything packed and tendered for shipment was delivered”.    Because of the obvious lack of care with which my property was handled, I believe and assert that the missing items were either lost or stolen while in Allied’s custody.  Despite my expressed desire to be present at the “Denver repacking”, I was denied the opportunity to protect my property and I can only conclude that Allied did not pack all of my property...

3. From my 12/12/13 email to Nancy Blegan:

On 3 December 2013 I sent an email...to you, & as of this date I have not received a reply from...you.  That email expressed my deep concern about the way my account has been handled. This email is an attempt to clarify the situation and to possibly arrive at some mutual understanding and compromise....Because of the original confusion and problems caused by having four different contact persons within your company, I must tell you that it still seems awkward that I am still hearing from people other than my relocation coordinator...

As I explained...I needed time to coordinate with Bulgarian customs officials & your Allied Bulgarian representative before I could make plans regarding both the shipment of my property & also, in view of my disability, the timing of my travel to your witness the repacking of m