Economy Movers

I've had a variety of experiences in moving, as my husband was in the military, and we moved sometimes as often as every two years. We had moves that were unremarkable, with everything going well, and one terrible move, in which we ended up hiring an appraiser to figure out the damages, they were so extensive, $3,500 was paid for the claim from the US military. In comparison to that worst possible move, Economy movers seem relatively tame. The owner appears to be the man who was in charge and did most of the work in doing some packing and some of the moving onto a truck container. Mark had an assistant who seemed knowledgeable, for the first several days, but lost him. The new assistant had not had any prior experience, it was obvious, and I had to show him how to tape a box! He didn't know anything, and was apparently learning "on the job." Mark was personable, and responsive to the way I wanted things packed. He was always on time. Regarding the packing, I think that they did a fairly good job, over-all, but with some notable exceptions. I had a ceramics piece I had made myself, of a parrot riding on a roller skate. It was so constructed that the skate and the parrot were separate pieces, and I made it clear that this was extremely valuable to me, and that I wanted it carefully packed. Mark took the piece and set it aside. I was assured specifically that it had been carefully packed and on board, when everything was loaded on the truck. When I got to the other end, however, the ceramic piece had not even been put in a box, but simply tossed in a shallow wicker box with a pillow in it. The ceramic parrot was broken, and amazingly, the roller skate was intact. The box the ceramics was in was in a pile that had fallen in transit, as the load was not packed in such a way as to secure it in place. It is a testimony to the packing that (at least so far) I have not found too much other damage. The stackable washer and dryer were loaded into the truck by another moving company, and not re-stacked. Mark told me this, as he rearranged and worked on the load the folowing two days, but he did not stack the dryer on top of the washer. At the end, when they were unloaded, the dryer was badly dented. A commode, a piece that has been in the family for several generations, was badly scraped and worn in several places on the maple top. I found an entire dozen bags of U-Haul blankets I had rented, which had not been used. I gave them directly to Mark, so I know he was aware of them. It appears to me that Economy movers is unaware of the usefulness of moving blankets to prevent this sort of damage. While they were working, I was constantly wondering where they had gone. They took smoking breaks constantly--at least every fifteen minutes, if not more often, and left the cigarette butts on the ground. At one point when I saw Mark drop a cigarette and grind it out on the ground by my front steps, I said, "You are going to pick that up, aren't you?" and he nodded. But he did not pick up the other butts that were scattered on the ground. Although Mark and his assistant were friendly and accommodating, they spent so much time on breaks that I was not surprised to be offered a discount on the price. He wanted to be paid in cash at the end of each day that they worked. My move was very confusing, as not everything I owned was going--perhaps half of it was staying behind. However, there were a number of items I made clear that I very much wanted to be sure got on the truck, as it appeared I would not be able to get everything on. In fact, I could have gotten more loaded, but Mark thought the ramp went inside the trailer, without being broken down. He apparently had not used a container with bulkheads and ramp before, and when the ABF Freight company rep came to haul the container away, he said it could not be moved until the bulkheads, which were against the wall, with my load beside them, had to be taken out, and the ramp taken out, and the bulkheads had to be secured behind the load, and the ramp put in between the bulkheads and the back of the truck. This left a huge area where more belongings could have been loaded, but I didn't have the opportunity to load more than a few more items. We did call Mark, and he returned within an hour that night, and got the bulkheads clear, and the ramp out and folded up as it should have been. During this time I was able to get several more items loaded into the truck, but wished that I had been able to fully use the space, and not leave so many things behind. Those which had been missed, and which did as a result make it onto the container load included the microwave and toaster oven. It seemed fortunate to me that the movers were available to load the truck over several days, as it took that long to load it, but I wonder, after seeing how quickly it was unloaded, whether it might have been that I paid far more than I should have, and that the movers could have used their time more efficiently, if they were not constantly taking a break. The dollar amount of the damage is not yet known, as I have many boxes left to unpack, but certainly there is significant damage that could have been prevented to the maple commode and the dryer, which would probably have to be replaced, as the dent to the top could not be repaired. And how do you put a price on an irreplaceable one-of-a-kind ceramic piece? It is painful just to think about it. I also don't know how to put a price on the items which were not loaded--a box full of copper, a full box of granite tile that has been mined out, and is no longer available, and other miscellaneous items. I don't think this was an easy move, as only I knew which items were to go and which were to stay, so I can't completely fault Economy Movers. I do think it is more than fair to fault them for deliberately loading my ceramics piece without any attempt to protect it. Another shadow box which I made, from mixed media, was broken while they moved it, without packing it, from the house to the container. Other than that damage, so far it appears that the load arrived intact. Over-all, I think Economy movers is capable of doing a small well-defined job with close supervision, and I think they did a good job of loading and securing a few special pieces--a hand-made wooden canoe was secured very expertly, as was an electric four wheel bicycle. I just wish they were as careful with some of the other pieces which ended up damaged. The problem with moving in Duluth is that there are only a few moving companies, and they mostly are small family businesses, and are not bonded or insured. I was pleased that these movers by all appearances, were honest.