Williams Transfer and Storage

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We called Mayflower last year asking for a local agent to move our things. We have now moved four times with Mayflower, and up to that point had received excellent service and treatment. The agent that came out to view our things was professional and courteous, and we anticipated no difficulties. When the packers arrived, we had a few small problems. We remained at the house all day and were available to answer questions, but we do try not to interfere with packers who know their business. I looked around the house from time to time and found a few things that had been forgotten, but nothing out of the ordinary. They told me, however, that they could not pack oil containers that had been opened. This isn't crazy but was frustrating for me since it wasn't mentioned before and has never been an issue with Mayflower before. I had to throw some things out hastily so my oil and vinegar bottles could be packed. When the packers left for the day, however, I found a number of things that simply had not been packed. These included some large items that they might have been planning to simply put loose in the truck later (laundry baskets, bath mats, door mats) and a number of small items that had been laid out for packing and then evidently simply forgotten. I called the agent and he was very concerned to make sure that we were happy and the issue was taken care of. He promised to have the movers bring extra boxes the next day, which they did, and I ended up packing most of these items up myself. The next day the packers arrived with their truck, which was much too small. We have a steep driveway and I think they were hoping they get could a smaller truck up the driveway, but they couldn't and even if they had, our stuff didn't fit in. They had also evidently expected to be done in less time than they were as well, because in the early afternoon there was a great deal of shouting, so much so that I thought a serious argument or maybe even a fight had broken out. It turned out to be concerned with lunch, which they evidently had not brought and for some reason could not leave for. I'm not sure why that caused an argument but we had Thanksgiving leftovers so we shared some sandwiches and then they went back to work. I have no idea what was at play there and we were going to throw the leftovers out anyway so we didn't mind sharing, but there was either mismanagement or bad communication of some kind at work there. When they had finished loading the truck, there were still a large number of items and boxes. They began cramming things in wherever they could, including into the truck that had brought the movers. I assume it was at this stage that they started just shoving things on; there were plenty of things that arrived here without a box or a tag of any kind. Then they took it all off to local storage. Once we had moved ourselves and found a new place, we contacted Williams to let them know that we were ready for our things. We moved into our new place on the 15th of December. This is when we really began to have trouble. Over the next two weeks, we were given three or four "probably" dates, but did not receive our belongings until January 4. We had to buy temporary bedding and dishes, celebrate Christmas on paper plates and without our tree, and lose the time my husband's office had given him to help us get moved in. Although I understand some of this was holiday related, during this period, Williams was not responsive to our inquiries, and would go days at a time without returning our phone calls. I was seriously beginning to wonder if our items had been lost or destroyed in transit by the time they finally arrived. Unpacking was pretty uneventful and the packers were always friendly and polite to us, even when arguing among themselves about lunch. Once we had everything unpacked, we placed a claim for five items. I should add that I didn't make claims for things that I feel were packed well and just got dinged anyway. I didn't ask for money to refinish my entertainment center or fireplace, even though they had dings and scratches. I claimed a couch cover which had not been removed from the couch and got holes in it from the couch legs, a TV chair that didn't seem to have been wrapped up at all, etc. The total was under $200. The claim was placed on February 28th. Over the next few days, I exchanged several emails with a lady at Williams, giving her further details. The last email from her was on March 1st. After a few weeks, I sent a follow-up email and got no response. Finally in April I pressed her for a date I could expect to hear back. She told me she was out of the office and would get back to me that Friday. The following Tuesday I heard from her and a few days later, on April 19th, over six weeks after the claim was submitted, I was told that two of the five claims had been denied. They are refusing to pay for two things. One is upholstery damage to a TV chair. The chair was mildly damaged before moving but was damaged much more in the move. However, they simply have a note that it was "damaged" before so I understand their refusal to pay on that claim. If you do go with Williams keep a close eye on all furniture as it's loaded and preferably take before and after photos. The other claim they denied was for a broken mirror frame. They said that we packed it. It was sitting in the finished attic in a box with several other items. The box was from a previous Mayflower move and has the stickers from those moves on it, so the only possible solution is that they just taped it up and declared it packed by owner. We did have a number of packed by owner boxes and there may have ben some in the area, but we did explain it as carefully as we could and did not get a "Hey, this is ready to be sealed up, right?" question from the movers. This is a minor issue but I do kind of feel like, considering that they've caused us unreasonable delays twice in the process, the claims area was their chance to "make it up to us" and they should really just give us the benefit of the doubt on any claim that doesn't look fraudulent.

We got estimates from two companies. The other company had a higher estimate, and was high-pressured with their sales pitch. Jeff Williams was friendly and low-key, but professional. On the day of the move, the workers were there on time, ready to work. They were courteous and friendly. They protected the floor with heavy quilting, and wrapped all breakables especially carefully. They wrapped and packed the contents of the house and loaded everything onto the moving van, then went to our storage facility and loaded things from there. Early the next morning they unpacked the moving van. They said the company will even come back and pick up the empty boxes if you deconstruct them. Both the management and the workers were a pleasure to deal with!

They did not break anything. They did really fine. I called them on another occasion to help me move a table into my car. They sent one of their guys out and helped me out.

I appreciated that they will do long distance moving. They are nationwide. Most companies I had found on Angies List only traveled locally or under 300 miles. They have been good so far. The people that helped pick it up were on time and very good.