UNIFIED MOVING SERVICES, LLC

Unified Moving Services, LLC Review RUN AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY!!! Don't be fooled by the so-called "Veteran Owned Company" line... there is absolutely NO honor or integrity with this company- perhaps we should have asked exactly WHO was a Veteran and IF they were actually discharged with an Honorable Discharge or not? They are a TOTAL disgrace to Honorable Veterans. My husband and I are BOTH USAF Veterans and we are completely disappointed with this company. Baskar Vaiyapuri and Ovid Sekhar are the owners. Marc Zammichieli is the manager. This review is for the Unified Moving Services in Hyattsville. Don't let them tell you these bad reviews are for another company. Where to start??? Marc is a smooth talking operator, both before the move and after, but despite all his smooth talk, nothing EVER gets resolved. We received a quote - with someone showing up and doing a household walk-through so that it was as accurate a quote as possible. Then, on moving day, the crew showed up and instantly began saying there was "way more than we planned on" and "this is going to cost a lot more because of...." and the complaints and excuses started. They sent out a "Manager" who was rude and condescending and he declared that the move couldn't possibly be done without another $2,500.00 charge!! The move is held up until you agree to pay additional money. Meanwhile, the "packers" and "movers" were not experienced packers and movers and failed to pack our items correctly or pad our furniture correctly. As a result, we ended up with approximately $3-5,000.00 worth of damage to our household goods. We have a file with pictures of all the damage to back up this claim. China, Plates, Dishes, Collectibles, Desks, Bar Stools, Tables, Lamps, Pictures.... you name it, it was damaged. Many items were one of a kind items we got as we travelled the world in the military. They damaged our brand new house's walls, floors and door frames. When we summarized and itemized the damage done, complete with pictures, we got the ultimate runaround. Marc seemed sympathetic and then ultimately stopped taking our calls... our emails and forms that we submitted for insurance purposes was constantly rejected and we were told we needed ridiculous items of information in order to process the claim... like "how much does each individual item weigh" "how much was the original price" "how much is the current price" "what year was the item purchased" (keep in mind many items were 20+ years old and had been bought around the world and couldn't be priced currently because the items were no longer available!!!) - you name it and they were asking us to provide unreasonable amounts of information for each and every item (including quotes from a company to have the walls, door frames, floors, etc... fixed) before they would even consider the insurance claim. Needless to say, we were unable to provide every little detail that they demanded and, therefore, our insurance claim was deemed invalid and we were never compensated one dime for all the thousands of dollars of damage to our house and personal items. Total scam. Total Disappointment. RUN AWAY!!!! Do NOT use this company. If at all possible, I would give absolutely "Negative Stars" or "No Stars" for this review. Unfortunately, you have to give at least "One" Star or you can't submit your review.

Scammers! Bad Experience with Unified Moving Services, Hyattsville, Maryland. Horrible! Based on our move experiences in late September 2019 we do not recommend Unified Moving Services. We downsized our large family home into a townhouse approximately 30 miles away. A sales representative from the Unified Moving Services company came to our house and provided us with an estimate of two trucks and a crew of five. We bid the job to three companies and while Unified was not the low bid, we gave them the job as they are a veteran owned company. On September 26th, the day of our move, the Unified movers showed up two hours late. No one from the Company called to let us know they were going to be late. Additionally, they showed up with only one truck as the other truck was broken down back at the company’s garage – dead battery. On arrival the Unified crew chief asked me if I wanted to save a lot of money. I knew then, that the move was going to be a problem. He said that the Unified Sales rep had overestimated the job and that he could fit all our house goods onto one truck. Additionally, he would send one of the mover crew back which would reduce the labor cost. The pack and truck loading of our goods went okay. There was one ½ inch gouge in a stair wall, but for the most it went okay. However, we were unable to load a trashcan and several flowerpots, because the truck was fully loaded. We were told that they could pick up the additional items the following morning as they would free up room in the truck once they repacked a large 65” large flat screen TV. Unified stored our goods for two nights at their warehouse. Problems began once Unified began to move our house goods into the townhouse on September 28th. The move in was very rushed as the crew had a second job after ours. After an hour the Crew Chief and one of his movers departed saying they were unneeded and were heading to their second job. All our heavy furniture had not been unloaded into our three-floor townhouse. The remaining crew members became exhausted as they carried our boxes and furniture into the house. The walls of the townhouse were gouged in many places. Much of our furniture, particularly the Master bedroom furniture, was badly gouged as well. Our brand-new $2,500 Serta King bed was also irreparably damaged because Unified didn’t pack the bed correctly. The bed was no longer flat, it had bulges like little hills as high as a foot on the surface of the bed. Lastly, a $40 Ingolf makeup stool had the seat torn from the legs. The Unified mover who was left in charge became angry particularly after we pointed out all the damage to the walls and our furniture. Also, boxes were left in our garage and not placed in the correct room – 3 floors up. Also, I had to ask them to assemble the Televisions. Clearly, the crew chief should not have left with the other mover. The remaining crew was exhausted carrying heavy furniture and boxes into the townhouse. The move into the townhouse went much longer than anticipated. As the crew became more tired, the number of mistakes rapidly increased. The crew literally ran out of the townhouse when they were complete. We called our contacts at Unified Moving Services and told him that the crew were rude and angry and described the damage to our house and goods. We were emailed a Claims form. Once the truck was headed out of our new neighborhood, I turned on my 65” Samsung HD 4K tv. The TV which cost $2,245 in November 2016 was damaged, the upper left quadrant of the TV was cracked. After 10 minutes, the TV was completely inoperable and now sits in our garage waiting for the insurance adjuster from Unified to inspect the damage. The claim form is difficult to fill in unless you are doing it in pen. It took me 5 hours to fill out the insurance form from Unified. I included detailed descriptions and pictures of the damage. To complete the form, I had to research and include the original date, purchase price and vendor for each damaged item. We submitted the documentation for the insurance claim on October 1, 2019. Per our contract with Unified they have 30 days to respond to our insurance claim. It is now 40 days since we submitted our insurance. We have placed many calls to Unified Moving Services to get a status on our claim, been given the runaround and so far we have had no response from Unified Moving Services. We are considering litigation to recover our losses from United’s incompetent services.

This was the worst experience ever! I paid $640 extra for the packing and unpacking option - and Gary said they unpack everything that they pack. The movers that delivered my belongings refused to unpack - they said they didn't do that. The movers that packed my things in Maryland did a very poor job - and there were quite a few broken and damaged items, which the insurance they suggested did not cover. Movinginsurance.com denied all but one small claim - and I paid almost $500 for the premium. When I reported to Unified Moving Services that the movers did not unpack my items, they told me to file a claim with movinginsurance.com. What a joke. The movers were late in arriving and delivering. They did not handle my belongings with care. I asked them specifically if they could pack a family heirloom (a Tiffany lamp) so that it would not get broken, and they assured me they would. I told them I can make other arrangements to have it shipped if they were unsure. The Tiffany lamp was broken on arrival. I've just been getting the run-around from Unified Moving Services and MovingInsurance.com so I am giving up - and writing these reviews to hopefully warn others. I also filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau.

At first, Marc and Gary seemed very responsive and professional. Marc told me how careful they are with our goods and even mentioned that they were a faith-based operation that really cares about it's customers. He quoted me a maximum cost based on the expected weight. It seemed competitive, and considering that they give two free months of storage, it sounded like a good plan. I was also sympathetic to a fellow small business owner who is trying to make it among giant companies--I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. I also had only seen positive reviews on Yelp--little did I know that the true reviews were hidden. Perhaps yelp thinks there's no way a business could be that bad? Well, they are wrong. The first day of the move, 5 guys and then 3 more showed up and completely overwhelmed us. They spoke English as a second language--they were a mix of Lithuanians and Mongolians--and spoke other languages as they packed our stuff. Not so great when you're not sure if they're talking with each other about mundane stuff, or about which items they're planning to steal, or goodness knows what else. They were found dragging furniture (with wood exposed) on the truck floor, literally throwing bathroom supplies in a box along with a lamp shade (later found broken and covered in shampoo), packing an open bottle of room diffuser oil in a couple sheets of paper and placed on a blanket that was covering a metal fountain, and one guy trying to pack too-tall bottles in a cooler and then trying to jam the cover on with his knee. After one of them said, "well, you have insurance, don't you?" my husband sent them home, even though Gary kept insisting they could get it all packed that day (we had pre-arranged for two days to begin with--we have a lot of stuff!). The second day, a true supervisor showed up (Jomart) and he was fabulous. There were two other Mongolians with him, who were also kind and thoughtful with our items. Then two Lithuanians showed up who were full of attitude and didn't like that I kept insisting they put a sticker on everything. I knew I had to be a hawk around these guys. So even though they said they could have finished the night before, they were there from 9am to 1am finishing up. Gary is not too good at estimating. He thought we'd have a max of 19,000 lbs, and we actually had 28,500. One good thing is that Marc stuck by his word of only charging us for 19,000 lbs. When they delivered our goods, they were 4 days late, and the driver hired temps who were inexperienced at moving, including a 300# woman smoker, a young woman who probably weighed about 110# (neither of these two were much help at all), three others and one guy and his son whom he hired from Craig's List. Thankfully one of the guys had past experience moving (though he was probably 60+ years old), and thankfully few things were damaged by them (not so for the folks in MD). But it took all day--9am to 8pm. Also, we discovered that UMS had replaced our awesome John Deere Zero-Turn Radius lawn mower with a piece of junk, replaced a new ladder with a beat up one, and kept our hand truck. We also found that bathroom items were just thrown into a box, topped with lamp shades which ended up covered in shampoo and/or crushed. One highlight--our good wine glasses showed up in perfect condition. Go figure. This was an awful moving experience. I feel so gullible for having believed Marc's promises. No cost savings is worth it, unless you really don't care about your stuff.

They were top notch. Workers were great and courteous. Wrapped everything to perfection. Worked hard and were very nice. Great communication throughout the whole process.

The crew and office staff was very friendly. The moving crew did not prefer to speak english while we were around. But would when we asked questions. The movers showed up at the tail end of the window. We had prepacked all but the major furniture and it took them 5 hours to take the packed boxes and the furniture from the house and pack it into the truck. They damaged our refrigerator beyond operability (dented the freezer door and broke the wall plug). While unpacking the truck, the movers smoked in the truck with all of out stuff, they left trash piled in the yard and cigarette butts in the driveway. Settlement took nearly 6-weeks for refrigerator damages.

Everything, with the exception of a two drawer filing cabinet, arrived safely without damage. Drivers and packers at both ends were friendly and professional.

The original quote given to me estimated close to $1K and I was nervous for such an expensive move. After doing a lot of research I realized this was the norm for the DC Metro area. I read great reviews on Angie's List and there was a $75 coupon. I decided to go with Unfied Moving Services. The only hiccup I had with the move was the lead guy told me I had to empty my armoir and dresser because it was too heavy for them to lift. Now there were 3 guys and they weren't big guys, actually kind of small for being professional movers. I told him that I was not emptying those items, they had been moved into the apartment by 2 men with the drawers full and I'm sure 3 men could get them back out. We went back and forth a few times but the thought of packing and unpacking more made me persistent. He agreed to take them as is. They wrapped the furniture and sure enough between 3 guys were able to get everything loaded into the truck with no issues. Best news, the entire move was done in 4 hours, so with the 1 hour of travel time and my Angie's List coupon--the total move came to $600. $400 under budget and I was so excited! Moving is hard work and the expenses add up quickly, I was very happy to see that I underestimated these guys. They were small but they worked really hard. The only other thing that happened was they scraped a tree in my front yard when they were leaving the new house. It did more damage to their truck than it did to my tree. Now I can look at that tree for many years and be reminded of the day I moved into my new house!

Unified moving services conducted my move from a second floor 2 bedroom apartment to a 3rd floor 2bedroom apartment last April 2013. My initial conversation with Marc was direct and to the point. He allotted detailed information that other moving organization wouldn't. I was impressed how detailed Marc was and not afraid to say his organization's personal point of view. I appreciate his direction and honest answer to my questions. It was a wonderful experience. Everyday I thank GOD for unified moving services for their wonderful organization and their support to the military.

i have moved 3 times in the last 2 years and this was by far the best service of them all.This was a local move from New Carrollton MD to Annapolis MD and it could not have gone better. I was moving out of a 3 bedroom house with lots of boxes and every room fully furnished. the move was done to completion in about 7 to 8 hours and that included reassembly of some of the furniture once i arrived in Annapolis. the crew was very polite and efficient and as well as treating my important items as if they were there own. i was thrilled with this company and will recommend to anyone who need to relocate. From, Tony

We hired Unified Moving Services to assist with a split move. The first part of the move occurred on 6/20/13. Our time frame for arrival was between 9 to 10 am. They arrived around 10:15. Not a huge deal. They packed some fragile items, took apart some furniture, and loaded all items into the truck. They did take a couple of breaks, which I expected. However, during these breaks they smoked inside the truck housing our belongings. We are non-smokers and have children so this bothered me a bit. They calculated about 9 hours total using 3 men for a three bedroom townhouse to pack and then unload in their storage warehouse. They did store if for free which was nice. The second part of our move occurred on 6/25/13. They came well within their time window. They unloaded all items, but seemed hesitant to deliver items upstairs. Also, a different crew was sent this time so they said they did not know how to put the furniture together and therefore didn't. This was a pretty big deal for us. We did have a couple pieces of furniture that had slight marks on them. We also had some boxes that clearly said "this side up" or "fragile" that were turned upside down or damage during transit. All in all, the service wasn't lousy, but it definitely could have been better for $2000. UPDATE 8/12/2013 - The company responded below in regards to my review, but I never received a phone call, email, etc. I do not think they did anything about my complaint as they stated below because I have not heard from them.

I have used these guys three other times and have never been anything but totally satisfied. They are always prompt and courteous and work hard the entire move. They move things professionally and quickly and handle your items carefully to ensure no damage to your items or your home. I have recommended to multiple friends and would use again in a heartbeat.

In May 2013 we needed professional assistance moving a very heavy item up two flights of stairs. We had called at least ten companies before finding Unified Moving Services. The other companies refused us, as we live in a newer home with hardwood stairs and they didn't feel comfortable moving such a heavy item. Our item to be moved weighed 700 pounds which came apart in two pieces one weighing 450 pounds and the other 250 pounds. On Saturday, we contacted Marc, the General Manager, who was extremely courteous and professional. We discussed the specifics of the job, our difficulties in finding a company that could do this, and our concerns about the complexity of moving such a heavy object. He determined that we would need a minimum of four men and that it would take several hours. We agreed to the price he quoted, which we felt was reasonable, and paid the $50 deposit which would be used towards the total cost of the job. He said that they would do the job while taking extreme care to avoid damaging the floors or walls. Marc asked if we could email pictures of the item so he could see it and we told him we would get pictures to him by the next day. He said he would get back to us on Monday and we could set up a move date. We sent several pictures of our item, the length, width and height measurements and total weight. On Monday morning, Marc called, as promised, and we scheduled the move for Wednesday that same week. He told us that the foreman would call us prior to our appointment to verify the date, time and address. Then on Tuesday morning, we received a call offering if we wanted to move the date to Tuesday afternoon as their schedule had opened up. However, we were unable to accept this offer due to our schedule, so we just kept the original move date for Wednesday. We verified the day, time and address for our move for the following day. Then on Wednesday morning, we received a call an hour before their arrival window letting us know that one of the scheduled workers had just called in sick. Since we needed four men for the job, we were offered the option to keep the appointment and adjust the start time until another worker could be called into work or reschedule for another date. We opted to wait an extra hour to allow another person to come in and fill the spot. We felt this situation was handled in a prompt and professional manner. They arrived a little earlier than expected and immediately started to assess how to get this job done. The workers were polite, respectful, and gracious and their work ethic was evident in how quickly and effectively they moved this large heavy item. They were able to handle the job without hesitation and we were amazed at their strength and stamina. They figured out a way to complete this laborious task without any damage to our pristine floors and walls and we were completely overwhelmed by their excellent service. We tipped the workers as they certainly deserved it. We would highly recommend this company as we were extremely satisfied with their service. We feel that their effective communication regarding the scope of the job, the managing of schedules, financial obligations, and handling unforeseen circumstances led to successfully completing the mission which met the intended outcome.

It went so much better than I expected. He seemed to be genuine in getting issues resolved. He wanted to know if I could change my previous review and advised him I could not and would not, as it would defeat the purpose of Angies List. BUT, I did offer to update it. I received a check from him yesterday, as his part to rectify my issues. Given all things considered, if he remains the owner, I would absolutely consider doing business with them the next time I move. Thank you Unified!! You have truly done what no other business would ever do to correct the perception of wrong doing, and it is greatly appreciated.

First let me say, I've waited these past few weeks before posting this rating to give it a fair review. After a couple of conversations with Marc Zammichieli, General Manager I confirmed on 6/28/2012 my move scheduled for 719/2012. Sent in $50 deposit same day. I was only moving 4.6 miles away from a 3 bedroom (only 2 were used) mobile home to a small 2 bedroom apartment on the ground floor. It took me every bit of the few weeks prior to the move date to give away, sell many belongings and pack the remaining. Also, prior to the move I rented a 5' x 10' storage locker closer to the new home for the things I knew would not fit at the new place but, that I wanted/needed to keep. That locker was filled to the brim which left relatively little for them to move and to keep the expenses down. I contracted for 3 movers and truck @$95/hour. They were supposed to arrive between 9 & 10 AM. Everything had been done the night before so I was ready for 9AM. At 10:20 they were not here so I called the office and spoke with Joe (position unknown) he said he'd find out where they were and call me back. At 10:28 as the truck was arriving he did call me back and said they'd be there i about 10 minutes. I may be a bit anal about punctuality but when I was able to work I was never on time, I was always early. I don't think arriving at 10:28 is close to between 9 & 10AM. And did tell the man that came to the door (the leader I suppose)that he was late. He said traffic was bad. No kidding, that's certainly not news around here and that excuse would never fly wherever I've worked and total BS. It's a lack of planning and laziness. He and I went through the house indicating what was going at the beginning and many more times while they were there. Why so many times? It was organized and simple. He also told me that it would take 7 hours! WTH?? There is no way it could take that long, more like half that time. They wanted approximately $60 for each of 3 big screen tvs so my son and I packed them ourselves and had them loaded into my car prior to their arrival. I had also discussed with Joe beforehand the need to move a 65 gallon tank that was too heavy for just one person (my son) to do. Again outrageous fees wanted to do this, which Joe made no mention of at all. So we left the tank with the reptiles for us to do later. They also were moving a refrigerator & gas range, which they balked at as apparently Joe didn't convey this information to them. More on that later. The leader and one guy was from Russia and the third was from El Salvador and none of them really had a grasp on the English language and I was constantly having to repeat myself. It was beyond frustrating to have to deal with people in a service industry that can't communicate effectively. However, they all did work hard and fast and it was a hot day as well. I provided cold water and Gatorade while they worked. After a couple of hours we were on our way. I had them follow my son to the apartment so they could start to unload while I stopped at the office to get the keys. My son gave them the choice of using the parking lot side that had some steps or a small grassy hill or the street side which was level but, just a bit further. They chose the former, which only made the work harder for them. They just unloaded the boxes and put them anywhere without regard for the right room. And although they did dismantle both queen sized beds they only had to reassemble mine at the new place as my son said he'd do his own. When they were about halfway done unloading I sent my son to McDonald's to get lunch for all of us and asked each guy what he wanted. They didn't eat until the job was done however, that was their choice. When the guy that took the range out on a dolly got to the front door threshold the grills & plates fell quite loudly onto the floor. Why weren't they removed beforehand? I gathered them up and put them into a trash bag and gave it to them to take. The didn't wrap the refrigerator or range which were black and I prayed that they wouldn't get scratched or otherwise damaged on the truck. Thankfully, they did not. However, within a few minutes after I saw the truck pull away I realized that the grills & plates were missing and immediately called the office hoping they could catch them before they got too far, it was voice mail and I left a detailed message. 30 minutes later I called again and Marc answered I explained why I was calling and he transferred me to Joe who said he'd check the truck when they got back and have the grills & plates delivered to me the next day. The next day came and went and no delivery. I called several more times only to continuosly get voice mail again leaving detailed messages. A couple of days went by and I did get to deal Joe who again promised they would be delivered the next day. Now mind you a gas range is useless without those parts so I was unable to cook except for a toaster oven. Again, they were not delivered. I emailed him advising that he has now lied to me twice and to just tell me where they were and even though driving a distance is painful for me I would come get them, as a diabetic I need to eat and this was unacceptable. Joe called me back and again said they'd be delivered "tomorrow". Again, no delivery. I called and spoke to Marc and explained what was going on and he got Joe on the phone who stated "I said AFTER tomorrow". Sure that's what he said, NOT. I'm not nearly as dumb as he'd like me to be. The next day while I was at the doctor's he left an undecipherable voice mail for me, but by the time I got back home they were there in a box. Now in between all this Marc said that he felt bad since he understood about diabetes and would refund 5% of the total bill, which I have yet to see and sure as h*** don't expect anymore. Their words just ring hollow. I will end by stating that I was charged for 4 hours of work plus 1 hour travel time for a total of 5 hours plus about $15 for tape (which they really use quite liberally), I provided cold drinks and lunch for all the guys and tipped each $50. I just felt that they did work hard and in the heat and deserved it but, this was not a small expense for me at all and I'd saved quite a while for this job. It was imperative given my situation but, I'd never do it again. I could have just as easily rented a truck and hired 3 guys off the street for less. Lastly, I had to hire a plumber to disconnect the refrigerator & range prior to the move and he came back the evening of the move to reconnect at the new place for a cost of $300 to me. Unfortunately, he was unable to make the necessary adjustments and testing at that time because I HAD NO GRILLS AND PLATES for 9 days. I need him to come back but now I can't afford to do so since that will be another $200 because he has to make another trip. So I'm still unable to use the range at all but only the oven. All because THEY screwed this simple little thing up so badly. Marc can talk the talk but won't/can't walk the walk.

Overall move was great. Marc was helpful in making the reservations and explain the moving industry -- established vs. fly by night operations. The team arrived close to the scheduled time -- go stuck in Beltway traffic. They were very proffessional and treated my stuff with care. They had a tough move into my "new" home with bigger furniture into smaller spaces. Really no complaints overall and would recommend.

Great Job start to finish.

They were very flexible when our home closing was delayed and we needed to change our move date. These guys showed up on time and got to work quickly. We had packed many of our clothes and books prior to their arrival. They were extremely fast and efficient and careful to not scratch the wood floors or dent the walls. In the end, we were able to move 90% of our house the same day in two truck loads. Very impressed. We have moved over 10 times and this was the first move we arranged. It was also the best and our first with no damage to our homes or personal items. Great move and well worth the money!

I used Unified Moving Services for our move yesterday and I have to say I was blown away at how great these guys were. You usually expect movers to show up late and toss your stuff around. These guys were on-time and so professional. They did a good job of wrapping up our furniture, and anything they took apart for the move they put back together perfectly. When they arrived they hit the ground running and worked hard for three hours straight before I requested that they take a break for a few minutes. Then when I got lunch for them they rested again, but for a brief time. They were always mindful that I was paying by the hour and I think if I had not let them know it was ok to take a break they would have worked straight through. It took them six hours to do the job. My one complaint is that I paid twice what the estimate was. Next time I would have someone come out and look at what we have to get a better estimate. I know that it is hard to do these things over the phone. Other than that they were great and I would definitely recommend them. If you want a more detailed recommendation feel free to contact me at doctorroya@gmail.com.

The estimator returned calls promptly and gave me an estimate over the phone of 14 hours to complete the work. The actual move, though, was a different story. The movers took the whole 14 hours estimated, but ended up only moving about half to two-thirds of the expected amount. In fairness, I had them spend about an hour assisting with packing I wasn't able to complete prior to their arrival. However, there was little sense of urgency about the process, and communication was difficult with a couple of the movers due to their limited English.

I HAD A GREAT EXPERIENCE USING THIS COMPANY AND WOULD NOT HESITATE TO USE THEM AGAIN. MARC WAS VERY PROFESSIONAL WHEN GIVING ME AN ESTIMATE AND EVEN GAVE ME SOME TIPS WHEN LOOKING FOR A MOVING COMPANY IN THE EVENT I DID NOT USE UNIFIED. ALSO, WE TALKED ABOUT MY APARTMENT BELONGINGS, WHICH HELPED WITH GETTING AN ACCURATE ESTIMATE. ON MOVE DAY, THE STAFF WAS PUNCTUAL AND COURTEOUS AND TOOK GREAT CARE WHEN WRAPPING AND MOVING MY FURNITURE AND BELONGINGS. THEY WORKED SO HARD! IN THE END, MY MOVE EVEN CAME IN UNDER BUDGET AND ESTIMATE!