Hardesty Moving and Storage- North American Lines

I am amused at Mr. Caldwell’s simplistic response to the damage done to my property. What he has failed to address are the following points as follows. Whereas the pickup of the load went OK, the unsupervised delivery the next day was marred by bad behavior from some of his crew and bad treatment to my property. I know for a fact that Mr. Caldwell was doing another move in Muncie and decided that other move was most important for his business at the time. To wit this is the damage that I have found to my property: 1. Victorian shelf with tiles - - - one column broken, shelf split in two 2. Victorian shelf for the Royal Bayreuth porcelain, obliterated to smithereens 3. Gold whippet statue in the entrance, broken in half 4. Victorian music stand, the little ball decorations on top shelf, broken off and put in a little pile in the garage, hidden from view 5. Victorian tilt table, table legs/support destroyed in three parts 6. Armoire - - - corner on the upper crown missing; crown of armoire was not supposed to be taken apart, corner of this Victorian piece now missing 7. Oak buffet on third floor of old house, molding missing, I picked it up from the floor and gave it to Mr. Caldwell. He has no idea what he did with it. 8. English deco armoire, leg broken off , temporarily glued by Mr. Caldwell 9. Thonet bentwood hall tree, nicked midway stem 10. Dining room chairs, scratched and rubbed against each other, leaving all kinds of marks 11. Thonet screen, hole left in one cane screen due to a finger pressing through thecane weave 12. Four wheel casters in Grand Rapids Furniture Company antique glass case missing 13. Steinway L piano, bought new for $40,000 at Meridian Music, 2004, scratched on one side, sustaining pedal not working. Mr. Caldwell assured me they had extensive experience moving pianos. Not the case. The last time any of these things were moved was by Indy Piano Movers from Indianapolis to Richmond, IN. We had no issues whatsoever. There was not just damage but severe damage perpetrated by a few workers, which had NO supervision as Mr. Caldwell’s attention was elsewhere that day. There was even drinking on the job, as I found empty beer bottles in the back of the property, again all due to unsupervised personnel. One of them asked me to tell the boss about the behavior because he, the employee, didn’t think it was his place. I did tell Mr. Caldwell. His response was that his worker was very tired and worked “his rear off.” Mr. Caldwell assured me there would be someone he would contact to fix the damage to my property. I then withheld the overage on his move estimate to be paid after the completion of the repairs. Mr. Caldwell agreed to the conditions as they were inscribed on the contract, balance to be paid on completion of repair of damaged items. That he settled for the entire damage for $369.00, the amount of the overage, is an invention on his part, and news to me. Mr. Caldwell further in our first telephone conversation post move promised me that he would clean up the truck(s) and get me the parts that were missing (a) the corner of the armoire and (b) the molding of the buffet. When time after my move was passing, and the cleaning of the trucks was being delayed for other moves and other excuses, and my phone calls went unanswered, I called his private number at which time he blew me off. In other words, he had no intention for looking for the two missing parts of important antique furniture and no intention in fixing the rest. He calls harassment that I repeatedly called him on the phone, to which he answered only twice. It is very odd how people always claim harassment when they are guilty of what they are accused.

A team of two men performed an outstanding move of my household goods. Their techniques were proper, and they were great when conserving time in their tasks. I highly recommend the company.

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Do not count on responsiveness or communication. No one answers the phone at the company. Several times in the claims followup we left daily messages and emails without response for up to two weeks. Once we broke through by calling every twenty minutes for a few hours. Another time I located Rickie Fowler's home phone online and started calling there. The story on what we needed to submit for damages kept changing. I have an email stating we only had to submit estimates which we promptly did. Then, after no action for a while, receipts were requested. This is hard if one is holding off on repairs until the funds are provided. We contracted with Hardesty North American. It was surprising the van did not say North American. When we were having difficulty with claims, we contacted North American at the corporate national level. They were unwilling to assist us since our move was never booked with them as a North American move. What you see on your contract is not what you get. The crews were never on time for packing, loading, or delivery. The best day was 2 hours late. One packing day was 6 hours late. You arrange a time, stay at home, and NOTHING HAPPENS. On delivery, we got the call from the driver that they would be there in a short while. 3 hours later, here came the truck. On both the loading and unlaoding, this left us up at midnight (starting to clean the empty house on departure and trying to set up to sleep on arrival) which should never happen. The items that they packed did come through without damage. All damage was to furniture and other large items. Certainly not close to the standards we experienced with corporate moves while I was working.

The truck assigned to do the hauling, had immediate mechanical problems after loading, and weighting. They called saying, we were over weight by 1500LBS. Adding $800 to the estimate cost of $3500. The owner, then called and said, the weight was right, but he still had to raise his original estimate by over $400. The two workers did a good job. I am being kind on the grades. They rented a truck from another company to do our hauling. (The workers, expected food, drinks, and tips which we provided).

It went very well! Ricky Caldwell, the president of the company, was very helpful in making sure we were prepared for the move. We had the same crew both load and unload our belongings. They really went the extra mile for us. For example, they helped my wife dig up plants she wanted to take with her. While unloading, they were happy to move things more than once in a careful manner.