Available Moving & Storage Inc

In May we made a move from New Hampshire to Miami, Florida. It was an experience from h***.! I picked ?Available Movers? because it appeared they were the most reasonably priced mover listed and boy was it a mistake. The move was the beginning of a series of fiascoes that ended up in a life changing nightmare. To begin with, the truck arrived the day before we needed to leave New Hampshire at 8pm about 8hrs past schedule.which caused a lot of stress because we were due to leave first thing the next morning.. On arrival 6 men set to and shrink wrapped every single item we were moving without being told to. And for which we were charged. Some mysterious $40 boxing charge turned out to be a small empty file box they wrapped. (This was waved.) When the bill was tallied up it had jumped from $900 to $2600, close to $1700 more than what was quoted to me over the phone and online. This, the truck driver said, included an extra 200 linear footage over what we had ordered. How they arrived at this, I don?t know. It seemed very arbitrary seeing as we had only replaced pieces of furniture with boxes and they were packing the load into a small transit truck that we were told at the last minute was to be transferred into a larger truck. (I had not taken any extra insurance on a priceless antique, inlaid, Venetian secretary desk, as I was assured this would probably be a door to door move.) Then there were the shrink wrap charges and an obligatory 20% tip on the cost of the whole move which had grown from $900 to $2600. The tip which had to be in cash was actually printed on the contract and it was implied they would not take the move unless we paid it. When I said I only had $120 in cash, the driver adjusted the price to get his tip. Back in Miami, almost a month later and after worried calls, I was told that my things had been stored in a facility in the Bronx and that the truck driver was on his way. After another week, I got a call from the truck driver that his truck had broken down three times and he had had to change trucks. He finally showed up in a beat up U-Haul. After transporting furniture and boxes and two items that didn?t belong to us up to my apartment, thetruck driver turned and said, ?that?s it, we?re all done?, I pointed out the two things that weren?t mine and that my antique desk was missing and he replied ?Oh yeah, that must still be in the truck. Let me go getit.? After about a half hour with no sign of the movers, I went downstairs to find the crew furiously trying to glue my now splintered and destroyed antique Italian inlaid desk back together with gorilla glue. I stood there in shock and watched one of the movers smash a drawer into my desk with his fist in a slot where it didn't fit. The furniture arrived completely unwrapped and the priceless inlaid Italian desk was shattered now with the legs covered in giant wads of white glue. Both legs had been broken off. The chair had a leg wrenched loose and chips and dings all over the seat. And in the end, on top of everything, I was charged extra for the u haul rental, which the driver said he had to rent because his truck was too big for my condo complex. That night I sat down to watch TV in the arm chair that had arrived in the move and began to itch all over. This was the beginning of the horror. Bedbugs, which imprisoned me and kept me from making contact with anyone for fear of passing them on for months -and some other mysterious creature that was embedding itself under my skin. The treatments for the bedbugs ended up costing me over $3500 to get rid of and these crystal-like creatures are still with me. There is no question that these bugs are dated from the move and were delivered to me in that chair and in my boxes. When I sent pictures of the damage and proof of the bed bugs I was told I was only entitled to $72compensation for the weight of my desk at $.60 a pound. The papers for my damages claim were approved and went to ?Available Moving? August 13. It is now December 24th and I have yet to see a check. I have called numerous times. There are always excuses and apologies, but no check. Diane, the sweet talking sales girl who initially promised to stay with me during the entire move and I could always call if there were any questions or problems, became entirely unreachable the moment the first problem arose. All I can say is, AVOID THIS COMPANY LIKE THE PLAGUE!

This storage facility was good. We kept our items there a few days longer than we had expected and they didn t charge us for it. I thought that was pretty nice. It was in a clean area and it was a good location for us. They are who we would use again.