Cali Movers: Lying liars who fill your moving experience with deceit, unwanted surprises and broken promises. Don't make the same mistakes I did.
Cali was one of multiple movers that I contacted. Their quotes were competitive, and the booking person was very courteous. We gave a time-frame for when we wanted to move in, and based on that she gave us the Move Out date. She explained that the quote included wrapping furniture in blankets, disassembling what could be disassembled, and putting it together on return. She quoted us a nominal fee for crating two TVs. They were so professional on the phone that we chose them after our survey of other companies.
On moving day, they show up and the surprises begin. Their contract says they have 30 days to deliver our goods (not the one week given by the phone rep). The foreman assured me it was just formalities so I continued, knowing thatI wasn't going to get another mover on 1 day's notice. Next, the foreman told me that he would have to crate (i.e. wrap in paper, cardboard, shrink wrap and tape) EVERYTHING that wasn't in a box (chairs, cushions, etc) for additional cost.
What followed was a long discussion where I was basically required to accept these additional costs or send him away, forfeiting our deposit & leaving us without a mover. In hindsight, I should have sent him away. He promised to let me know if these fees were approaching $1,500- at the end of the day, I was presented with a $3,100 bill. Of course, at this point my stuff is all on a truck and in his control. I signed off, pissed but resigned to the fact that this would be over soon. BOY was I wrong.
What Cali Moving doesn't tell you is that their movers pack stuff into a truck and take it back to a warehouse. And then they try to combine your shipment with others and hire a private shipping company (i.e. a dude who owns a semi) to take your stuff and get some folks in your area to help him unload. All the assurances made by the booking agent were lies, because they didn't know who was going to pickup the shipment or when!
So our stuff sits in a warehouse over a week, and is finally shipped out, arriving over a week late. This isn't quite the horror story others have experienced, but it was still quite disruptive. Each day, our calls were met with lying assurances that our shipment would load ""Tomorrow"". This led my wife and I to each waste a week of vacation sitting in an empty house, and now left to unpack our stuff after work each night.
In the end, numerous things are broken or damaged. The ""Crating"" process didn't save the corners of wooden book cases being crushed, and boxes marked ""Fragile"" had clearly been shown no care. The inventory documentation created by the loaders was a joke, so we had no idea what was in each oblong, tape and shrinkwrapped item that came off the truck. This meant that all the stuff the Loaders had disassembled couldn't be reassembled because we couldn't find all the parts. The only bright point was that the PRIVATE shipping company was great. The move in had no surprises or problems other than the fact that they couldn't reassemble half the furniture.
In the end, many of these surprises were completely unnecessary and totally Cali's fault. Had Cali quoted or warned me of the REAL costs up front, I could have made an informed budgeting decision (A quote of around $5,000 ended up closer to $9,000 when all was said and done). Had they played it straight when planning or on our numerous calls, we would not have lost a week of vacation. Had they properly documented their packing, we wouldn't be spending hours each night digging through miles of tape and shrinkwrap to find missing screws.
No doubt, being honest up front may have made them less competitive, but so what? It is immoral to lie (even through omission) to your customer, and I think they will soon find that the numerous 1 star reviews on locals sites will make them even LESS competitive than honesty ever would have.
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