Moving Company that "Sucks the Big Kahuna" - Don't hire them!

A moving company that terrorized my elderly parents on a cross country move to Westchester County!

Some of my Rainmaker friends know that we moved my parents in with us in Westchester County last Fall.  This followed some family set backs and an ongoing illness that had made it difficult for my Dad and Stepmom, Diana, to stay in their home in Oregon.  So they put it up for sale out there and moved across country by plane, train and truck.  DO NOT, please for your sake, hire ALLIANCE EXPRESS MOVING or RUN TRUCKING LINES, INC. near or far for your West Coast clients.  They actually are both national companies, so New York and other buyers, beware!

HORROR STORY - It's a good thing that I'm not a mean or violent person, after the treatment that my older parents received from Alliance Express Moving and their Sub, Run Van Lines, Inc.  Again, pass the word to NOT  hire either West Coast Moving company for your clients -- word to the wise!

My Father is 83 now and has been diagnosed with a difficult disease by the Veteran's Administration.  It was made far worse by having more than 1/2 of his belongings and business materials damaged or destroyed in a move.  He served in Korea, settled in San Francisco and retired to Oregon 20 years ago, with Stepmom, Diana -- until their recent move home to New York.  They still have a business that my father has run since the mid- 1970's.  Along with his business partner, Diana, Dad moved marketable inventory and office materials that were either ruined, broken or damaged by Alliance's obnoxious subcontractor, Run Trucking.

Meantime, the jerks did not wrap or pack personal furniture and they even put lamps with bulbs (filled with mercury) into boxes of clothes and shoes.  Had the bulbs broken and one did crack, the shoes would have had to be thrown out.  Precious collectibles and things my grandmother gave my Dad were ruined, bent or mangled by the poor "day workers" that Run Trucking Lines, Inc. hired on some street corner -- we believe.  They did not know bubble wrap from a napkin and most of the furniture and breakables were thrown in with books and wooden shelving for antique furniture.  Yeesh! 

Now, my parents are on a fixed income, Dad's a vet and is not well and a lot is on my step-moms 5'2 little shoulders.  Having "Ron" at Run Trucking yelling at her and bullying at her to hand over cash at their Oregon home and screaming to sign an addendum that doubled the cost and "apparant weight" of their belongings because he's in a hurry was bad enough.  But, he had non-uniformed (7/11 or Home Depot pick-up) guys who literally THREW my parents expensive, published books, poetry that Diana had printed on demand and that SELLS, and other items from her years in Africa doing photography into boxes -- not stacked or tight, but just loose every which way!  My parents are both published authors and poets who even have CDs that they'd paid a lot to produce...and that sell on their website -- and these were also tossed in and cracked by these Neanderthals.

That complete disregard for someone's things, combined with my parents age and inexperience with such Shysters is what's so disconcerting.  Of course, we didn't know he'd trashed my parents things and some heirlooms (I'm the only kid / daughter) until the truck arrived in New York.  But, as rude as the dude was (Calif. girl here), I should have sensed a bad situation getting worse.

Unfortunately for Ron, he was yelling at my parents on their cell phone when I arrived home one day, after they had flown out ahead of their trucked belongings.  The truck was due to arrive in 24 and the guy wanted to be sure we had cash.  "Ron" had met his match and was told that at no time, on this planet and in this universe is it okay to speak at volume and with disrespect to his client -- my family.  He damn well was not going to speak that way with me -- 25 years in news with big guys hauling camera equipment -- uh, NO!!

Apparently "Boyfriend" Ron is from Tel Aviv and maybe he should go back and yell, or haggle in a bizarre there and not pick on older West Coasters who don't understand that poor behavior.  I'm married to a New York Jew so 1)  I can say that and 2)  my guy respects our clients and hiI  s elders / betters, dude!  Needless to say, I won the argument, shut him up and shamed him and his tone was dulcet for days...until his truck arrived. 

I got Diana's frantic call that the truck was at Forrest and my warehouse/office at Servpro of Scarsdale / Mount Vernon.  We had Run Trucking deliver there, after requests to HIS client, Alliance Express Movers.  Our street in Fleetwood is "tight" and the truck would have had a hard time getting to our front door.  My Stepmom said the trucker would drive away unless she handed over the cash BEFORE he opened the door to see our family's things.  This was $2,800 out of the $8,600+ we were charged for my parent's Oregon to NY move.  I called Ron and he tried the yelling bullying thing again.  I first closed him down, asked him to lower his doggone voice NOW and how I could help him, while sitting in my Rotary meeting in Scarsdale.

Finally, it was clear that he would have to get the cash that we'd pass to his driver, as it was in a contract my stepmom had ill-advisedly signed.  All I asked him was to have the trucker open the back door for verification that my parents things were on the rig, while his trucker was handed the cash.  This solved it, but it was clear that my parents belongings took up only a fraction of the cubic feet in this 18-wheeler vs. what we were charged on his manifest.  My husband's a builder and fire and water cleanup professional and knows his linear and cubic feet on site.  He stood with the driver and my parents, just shaking his head about the $3,800 quote in Oregon from Alliance Express that had more than doubled once they passed us to Run Trucking.  Also, chairs were not wrapped and clearly broken on the truck and, while unloading, we noticed an antique Asian screen was cracked THROUGH it's protective box (no cloth wrapping) and Forrest knew from the unloading that it was going to be bad for my parents.  

I called the manager at Alliance, "Tony" several times in this whole process and as soon as our things were on his "Sub's" truck he no longer took my parent's calls.  When I got through, I was told that they had "fired" Ron at Run Trucking, as he was not their usual Oregon or North Pacific area guy, but was national.  Also, they would no longer use his services because another Alliance client had complained about Ron's rude behavior and disregard for their personal or business belongings that he had shipped on a truck.

Guess what?  For your realty clients, parents or kids moving to an out-of-state college perhaps, the Department of Transportation laws ONLY protect the trucker.  Trucking company contracts do not talk about delivery "in good condition," "unbroken," or "handled with care" and there are NO Customer rights in cross state trucking.  Is that a Teamster thing...don't know, don't care and we've had union members in the family?!  So, you need to read all the fine print before you ship anything across state lines on a truck that isn't USPS or FedEx etc.

The ONLY protections by the feds for cross state trucking and moving of YOUR belongings, or a loved ones, are on behalf of the trucker.  So, read the fine print, don't pay cash and do not be bullied!  In our case, my parents signed a contract that ONLY stated a trucking company would pack and drive / delivery their things and NOTHING about the condition and care in this process.  That's why USA bank did not honor our chargeback on the small portion of the nearly $10k cost, and refund our money from these rip off artists!  My next blog may be about my father's Veteran's credit card company not backing their client on behalf of an agressive and awful business owner who made my parents cry.  They can rot too!

So, all the movers are required to do is throw your cherished things into a box, with a lamp or crushing a lamp shade, breaking CDs and bending favorite books and just get them from Point A to B.  There is no recourse for you other than to file a rather bogus "insurance claim."

Get this...the Limited Liability clause we are filing almost a year later is for $.60 per POUND of reimbursement for damaged or broken items.  Take the four nice lamp shades we threw away:  They were from Macy's and Pier One respectively and cost about $20 - $35 each new.  My parents will receive $.60 per shade because they each weigh under a pound.  It's taken us nearly a year to go through all this, photograph it, print pics at CVS and otherwise document OUR case because Run Trucking sucks!

My parents' gorgeous upholstered wing chairs that had just been refinished in 2010 had one or more legs broken off (both went in a dumpster), a bronze antique lamp had the top/head snapped so that a lampshade can no longer be attached...it was my grandparents and was usually in my room or my father's reading area for decades.  ..and that's just two more of the many examples.

Such a waste.  Let's be sure to put the names out there of movers NOT to use.  

One New York Moving company we LOVE and refer clients to is:  COLLINS BROTHERS MOVERS out of Larchmont, NY.  Since the late 1800s this company has moved folks near and far and they are family owned like us.  They can "agent" any move to any location in the country, even if it's not to or from New York.  When I called my buddy, Craig, at Collins and told him how my parents were treated he was shocked and could not believe it.  We used Collins for our "in County move" from Thornwood to Fleetwood last year.  Everything was wrapped like it was glass, even Forrest's golfing gear...AND during the October 28th snow storm last Fall.  They rock AND roll and we almost did in the icy snow that early Fall day!

So, hope any or all of the above helps someone and saves them the heartbreak.  I'm going to blog, Tweet and Facebook the heck out of telling the world to avoid Alliance Express Movers and Run Trucking Lines at ALL COSTS, before they harm someone else's -- or their parents lives and professional belongings.  Hope they rot in hell or the equivalent, to be frank about it!

A moving company that terrorized my elderly parents on a cross country move to Westchester County, NY.

____________________________________________________________________________________

Hillary Sheperd

Vice President / Co-Owner, 

Servpro of Scarsdale /Mount Vernon

Mount Vernon, NY  10550

914-669-5181

Servpro of Scarsdale / Mount Vernon

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