Continental Van Lines

The in home estimate was very good, seemed very professional. We received other quotes and Continental's was mid-range. We did not go with lowest bidder. We also received a personal recommendation from a family member who recently used them the year before. The recommendation was not glowing, but we decided to go with Continental, partly because they actually came and performed an in-home estimate, whereas the other movers we contacted just provided a phone quote. The packing of our belongings was mostly done by us, so most things were in boxes, except for the large furniture items, which Continental disassembled and packed. The loading of the truck at our old home in CT was uneventful, except they estimated the weight of our belongings at over twice the initial in home estimate! 6,000 LB versus 13,000 LB! We chalked it up to the nature of that industry that all movers would low-ball in order to get our business. The lead mover then said I could accept his estimate of the weight as opposed to driving to the truck stop weighing scales to get an actual weight, but if it weighed more than 13,000 LB, then I would have to pay the difference. Well, not feeling very trustful I accompanied the crew to the weighing scales, and the actual weight was under 12,000 LB, so I saved myself $600 with that little dance. Once in Florida at our new home, they said there would be a delay of several days in delivering our belongings, since they were driving down from New Jersey and had a couple other stops along the way. We weren?t happy about that, particularly since they took a non-customer-friendly attitude with me over the phone, basically saying ?we?ll arrive when we arrive....click!? They had our stuff, we wanted our stuff, they were in the driver?s seat. The unpacking of the truck was not horrible, but not that great either. They left dirty hand prints on mattresses and let our new tempurpedic mattress get wet during a short rain squall that moved through. The packing plastic tore, but they could?ve easily slid the mattress back into the empty truck until the rain passed! I would have suggested the slide the mattress back, but they instructed me to stay away from the back of the truck and I was to remain in the house to tell them which room to put things in, which my wife was doing, so I didn?t see the big deal in letting me look into the back of their truck. The real problem started to become apparent as our belongings came off the truck and into our new home.....furniture was broken, marred, gouged, scuffed, chipped, and dirty. Boxes were broken, punctured, smashed, re-taped, re-packed, and dirty. Mirrors broken, dishes broken, floor lamps would not stand straight or even stand at all! The full extent would not become apparent until later, after the truck pulled away. My toolbox was missing, hand truck missing, our daughters? art work from school, a box of shoes missing, wooden shelves broken to the point where you began to believe it was intentional! Our Maytag washer no longer worked (a Maytag! it worked great in CT!), the clothes dryer had dents and scuff marks on the otherwise shiny white surfaces. We still don?t know all that we are missing. There are days still where my wife or I will think of something we haven?t seen in a while, we wonder, and then just chalk it up to ?the movers!? We called to file a claim, but are calls were ignored. It took a week of me calling multiple times a day to finally reach the girl who handles the insurance claim. When I finally reached her, I asked if everyone was OK, that obviously the moving truck was in an accident and rolled over a few times, or at least that?s what it seemed like based on all the damage to our belongings. She mailed a claim form, but we never filled it out. I could see where this was going....I would spend several days of my life detailing the damaged and missing belongings, attaching photos, getting it notarized, pouring emotion and cataloging grief, and in the end I would receive a check for probably $200, as opposed to $4,000 that should have come to us. As my new neighbor said ?it?s probably better to pay the money and get them out of your lives forever?. I looked at that claim form many times, and decided to take my neighbor?s advice. It?s only now, many months later that I?m able to sit down and document our extremely negative experience. We speculate that the damage occurred in the warehouse in New Jersey, the extra step of unpacking the Connecticut truck, and repacking later for the Florida trip. In between they probably played forklift hockey with our belongings in the warehouse. The family members who recommended them were fortunate we believe because Continental went straight from their old home to their new home, with no extra unpacking/packing at a warehouse in between. Our move to Florida had been wonderful up to that point, and to this day we cite the only dark spot is our experience with Continental Van Lines. They should be out of business. I wish I had signed up for Angie?s List before our move. I?m sure we would?ve found a reputable mover and avoided this extremely negative experience. As it is, I?m documenting our experience now in order to ?warn the rest of the herd?!