Description of Work
We had two moving days. They came on the first day to move furniture into garage. Dining room set and computer desk, piano, treadmill etc. They knew what we had to move and sent two workers who were inadequate for job. We told them not to move through small room and they tried anyway and knocked off railings and failed to inform us of so. Had two sofas that I wanted to stay clean and wrapped them in plastic covering. For some odd reason they ripped the covering and piled two dining room chairs on one and glass shelves on the other. It doesn't really make sense. We gave them a few things we didn't want any longer and they decided to take extra things we didn't give permission to take. I called owner to explain this and she started screaming and yelling and claimed everything was "my fault". Gave me a really hard time about the job.Manager is the rudest person I have ever spoken to. Very unprofessional. I will never hire them again. I called them again today 12/7/15 (the owner is mean and nasty and and screams at me) My husband gave the guys a $30 tip before we knew everything that happened. The owner said she would get the tip back for us but now she says it's up to me to get it and she gave me the phone numbers. They did more damage than we knew. My file cabinet was moved and they didn't tape the drawers shut. There was a gouge in the wall where the file hit it. (two different gouges) I had to fix the wall before we left. They broke both of the file drawers in the move. He also broke the treadmill - took it apart when I told him not too. I called Josh and he started screaming when I asked for his tip back. I offered him a table and chairs and fake potted plant and they took that to mean he could take anything they wanted and they did. They are mean, sarcastic people and we don't anyone else to have that awful experience. I gave them a box of Zip Lock baggies because they needed 3 or 4. When I found the box they had helped themselves to 2/3's of the box. I apologize for the length of this complaint report – It’s difficult to explain the problem without including all the details. I spoke to Sue Sarama, the secretary at Alexander’s many times before we hired them – She was always so kind and did her best to answer my questions, in fact, everyone I had occasion to speak with at that time, including Ms. Joni Alexander, the owner, were all very nice and helpful. We were impressed and thought we had chosen the right company for the job. When we went to their office to sign the contract wand met them in person, we were sure we were doing the right thing. We keep wondering now how we could have been so wrong. We had two moving dates scheduled with Alexander’s- the first (Mon. 11-23) was to move some of our furniture and decorative items into our garage for Goodwill to pick up the following day. The second date (Wed. 11-25 – the day before thanksgiving) was to move us to our new location. The two man crew arrived right on time. They seemed very nice and polite and went right to work. The head of the crew was so impressed with the kitchen set- he admired it so much, I finally (Just to be nice) asked if he would like to have it. He also greatly admired an artificial willow tree in a ceramic pot we had between the living and dining room, so I told him he could have that, too. (the kitchen set and tree were not listed on the good will pick-up order, so I thought it would be ok.) He said He’d love to have the kitchen set, but would think about the tree. Later on, he asked my husband if he could have the computer desk from his den (that wasn’t on the list, either) and my husband, Jim, agreed to that too. That was it. Sometime after they left, we discovered they had helped themselves to other items, as well. It’s true we were giving these things away- but to Goodwill- they had no right to take anything else without our permission. I have to say here that we must take part of the blame for all this. By offering them the few items, we kind of set the state for them to get the idea they could take advantage of us. Also, I have to admit, we didn’t watch them every minute – we were told by Ms. Alexander and Ms. Sarama they had the best movers in the business – and we believed and trusted them. The men seemed to be doing a good job- we did see them carry out most of the items – as far as we knew, they didn’t hit anything, so we were pleased they appeared to be so careful. Thinking back, though, they didn’t take direction very well. AT one point, we saw them trying to figure out how to disassemble the treadmill in the den. We told them it was not necessary- it was delivered fully assembled and it was on wheels, but they insisted, so we didn’t say anything more. There’s one really trivial thing we’d like to mention, nonetheless-they were taking apart the computer desk and asked if we had any small ziplock bags they could have for the nuts and bolts for whatever they had to take apart. We asked how many they needed-they said maybe three or four, so we opened a new box of ziplock sandwich bags and gave them what they asked for, but left the box in case they needed more. After they left we went to pick up the box and found they had taken two thirds of the box. Of course, they’re very inexpensive, so that really doesn’t matter, but the point is, it shows how dishonest they were- and they took advantage of our good nature – we find that offensive. We did tell them from the beginning we wanted everything taken out the front door- there was not enough room to move things out through the utility room. When they came to the last item to be moved-our Worlitzer spinet piano, we saw the head of the crew with a tape measure in the utility room-he was sure he could get the piano out that way. We told him not to do it, but he insisted on trying, well, he was wrong- they had to take it out the front door, as we tried to tell him. We had a bi-level home-they had to take it up five steps. When we saw how they struggled, we felt really bad for them. Truly, we thought they might kill themselves in the process. They were just not equipped to do the job.. When we hired Alexander’s, we make it clear we had this piano in the lower level family room-we concerned they might have trouble getting it out of there. Ms. Sarama and Ms. Alexander assured us their guys were all “big Bruisers” and the best in the business, so it would be no problem at all – in fact, Ms. Sarama claimed she had seen them carry pianos up a full flight of stairs. The tow men they sent to do this job could hardly be described as “big bruisers”- the head of the crew was sight build and about 5’7” tall. The helper-just a kid- was a little taller and somewhat heftier. They did, with very great effort, finally get the piano out and into the garage, and the job was over. My very kind, always generous Jim thought, all in all they had done a good job (so did I) – and the piano move was such a difficult task- so he gave them each a $15.00 tip. We should have had the good sense to check around first, but, foolishly, we trusted them. Just as they were about to back out, I happened to go into the utility room and was shocked to see they had knocked loose one of the railings off the utility room stair side wall. I called Jim and he ran out and stopped them (this probably was a result of their attempt to get the piano out that way.) The head man came back and denied they had done it. He claimed the railing wasn’t attached properly to the wall (both railings were there for over 25 years), so it was our fault. He then put some crews into re-attach the railing to the wall, and they went on their way. The wall was still damaged, so we had to repair and paint it. It was a little after the fact, but after they left, I took a look into the garage to see what they had done with the furniture. I was shocked at what I saw. I bothered to wrap the two sofas in plastic to try to keep them clean- we saw them take them out that way. For some reason, they ripped open the plastic, took the cushions off, mixed them up together and stacked them in another place. There were side pillows on one of the sofas-they were put on top of the piano bench, which they placed on top of an old dresser we had in the garage. They weren’t visible, because the dining room hutch was in front of them. Also, we had a foam pad under the cushions on the older sofa to bolster them up. They removed that, as well, and put it with the cushions. How would anyone have guessed what it was or where to put it? We bubble wrapped the glass shelves from the hutch. They took them and piled them on one of the cushionless sofas and stacked two of the dining room chairs on the other one. They put the two very heavy dining room table leaves across two more of the chairs. The others were crammed in the opposite side of the garage. One of the dining room table legs was sitting directly on the garage center floor drain. Everything was a jumbled up mess-it was ridiculous, and there was no good reason for any of it. We had plenty of room in our oversized two car garage, and we left our car outside, we had to take time we didn’t have to straighten things out and try to put everything back together as best we could. We also noted they had bound up the treadmill they had disassembled with all kinds of tape. It was a fine piece of equipment-now it looked like a piece of junk.