American Moving and Storage Services

I have moved 7 times in the past 11 years and this move was a NIGHTMARE. I hired All American moving and got a quote with them on the phone and some how a truck with a different name showed up at my door: big boys moving. All of my paper work had big boys moving written on it even though I never hired that company. This joke of a company showed up at my door after I had already put the $ 600 down payment so I was stuck. For starters they changed the move day 24 hrs before the move and my husband lost 2 days of work as a result. But fine. I forgave that. On moving day mover walked in the door and said I owed them 700 more than the quote in his hand. He said if I want my stuff packed professionally then it would be 700 more and that it had to be cash. (I’m not sure why I would hire movers to move my stuff unprofessionally when i can do that on my own.) After 2 hours of phone calls and arguments they agreed to do it for originally qouted price but made me sign a paper that said if any glass broke they were not responsible since I refused the professional packing. The driver was very angry and was arguing with the salesman and his supervisor because he didn’t want to honor the quote even though I heard them tell him to honor it. My guess is the 700 was his cut! I then watched them pack my stuff in ways I have never seen movers handle my stuff ever before. It was devistating to watch. When the mover was leaving he let me know that my stuff would be going 5 hours south to miami for a few days and would get switched to a new truck before it made its way back up to me in Virginia. Nice. A few days later when my stuff arrived at the new location, the driver started by saying I owed him an extra $ 120 because he could not pull his truck up to my street. (So they are also incompetent drivers who can’t even drive their own trucks.) After arguing with the salesman and supervisor on the phone, they let me know that they would wave the fee out of the goodness of their hearts. Finally I thought it would be over but no, the driver threw a fit and said he didnt care what any of them said, he wanted the $ 120 and it had to be cash or else he would leave all my furniture in the middle of the street. He was shouting like a maniac and harassing the neighbors (who I did not even know) so I called the cops. When the cops arrived I said to him in front of the cops, that I didn’t even care about the $ 120, that he could gladly have it if he just gives me my furniture and leaves. I was so done. I told him I’d call the office and make the payment with my credit card. He again went ballistic and said it had to be cash. I told him he was being sketchy and the cop agreed. He finally told me not to worry about the money and that he’d move the stuff. He didn’t want my credit card payment. If it wasn’t cash he wasn’t interested. He started unloading the truck and the cop stayed because the man looked angry and I was frightened to be with him alone. He then proceeded to literally SLAM my furniture onto the road. He was throwing my nightstands face down on to the road. I was horrified so i took out my camera and started recording everything. He walked over and asked me if i was filming him then refused to work and went and sat in his truck for 30 mins. The cop told him if he wasnt moving my furniture he had leave because he was blocking our entire road off. And he threw a fit about me recording. He finally decided to keep working. They didnt finish till past 11 pm. And he was insulting and laughing and making a mockery of it the entire time. Best of all he broke the majority of my furniture. I am beyond devestated. They tore my mattress, broke my bed, broke my daughters dresser, and left tape marks and dings all over my coffee tables and end tables. I am horrified. Not to mention how rude and unprofessional the supervisor was on the phone. She does not let you speak and keeps talking and cutting you off and was very insulting and belittling. I will see them in court! RUN! ZERO STARS!!!

Can I give less than 1 star? Horrible company. Stay away or you will having nothing but problems. I am actually disputing a charge right now with them. I decided not to use them after they repeatedly ignored my phone calls once they had my deposit. Before they had my deposit, they acted in a professional manner and called back in a timely fashion. Once they had my deposit, I was not even worth of a return call to them!!! As the move got closer, and I couldn’t get a call back from my representative, I left a voicemail telling them that I was cancelling my move because of their horrible customer service. I then called Discover to cancel the charge for the deposit that I gave them. I expected that to be the end of it. Well, now they are disputing the charge saying that I cancelled without giving them notice, and without a good reason. They should be put out of business. Run as fast as you can— to another company!!!

I had seen some good reviews of this company and talked to them on the phone and they sounded very friendly so I signed up a «non-​binding contract» that was based on the final «weight» of the merchandise; and paid the deposit. I gave them an itemized list of my stuff a week before the move and they revised the contract and added an additional charge of $ 307 for «packing materials.» On the day of the move, after all our household was packed in the truck, the driver claimed that the moving charge will be based on «volume» and/​or «weight» whichever was higher (despite the original contract) and asked for an additional $ 1100.00 for packing materials, otherwise he was not going to move our household! As we had sold our house and had to vacate the property that day, we signed the forms and paid the additional cost with the intention to dispute the additional packing charges later with the company manager. Three months later, many phone calls and promises, and we have not resolved the issue and are being forced to file a lawsuit. I do not trust the original estimate they gave, their estimate of the packing expenses, their willingness to cooperate and resolve the problem; and rate them one star for being on time to move our household.
Farid

What a mistake… we used American Moving Storage Services for an out of state move. The quote was thousands off the final move cost even though we well covered the estimate. They were over a week late even though we thoroughly discussed delivery times. We had to take a hotel for a week which inflated our cost even more. There was no apology… no communication whatsoever… I phoned over and over trying to get answers. In short, this moving company is completely incompetent. Indeed, run like you never have before. Even one star is kind!
** American Moving and Storage Services claims below in their comment regarding our review that we were not their customer, however we most definitely were. They use third-​party carriers and this is definitely the company. Had we known they did this we would have not signed with them to begin with. I still have all of the documentation from our move and the address they show as their corporate address here on Unilocal is one and the same.

Then why the heck on earth would your people give us a verbal promise that they would deliver during an estimated time? Why would you never return our phone calls? Why wouldn’t you follow up with decent customer service? You simply collected our check and never, ever followed up or returned our phone calls. Btw, I never read or was told anything about these dates. Like I said, your people verbalized a date, and God forbid we believed you.

I originally had another moving company, but switched to American Moving and Storage after they PROMISED me that my furniture would leave CA on August 3^rd. They did not even show up until the 3^rd. Then, my stuff did not leave CA until 2 weeks later! Now the mover is telling me that they will need an EXTRA $ 600 to deliver my stuff because of extra flights of stairs and needed to rent a shuttle. I am completely fine with this as I did sign a contract. However, I told them that I will require receipts as proof of all extra costs. The mover refuses to give them to me. This is shady and illegal. I will likely need to file a lawsuit to get my stuff back. DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY!

Run, hide, don’t ever use this company.
Back in March of 2014, I moved from Cleveland, Ohio to San Diego, California. Everything was fine with the quotes, they were flexible with my move dates and the people who came to pick up my belongings were polite and professional. When the people did come, my moving estimate jumped, but so did the amount of stuff we were moving… No big deal. Paid the money.
After my shipment left my house, I literally had no idea when my belongings were going to be at my house till a day or so beforehand…3−4 weeks later! I wasn’t asking for a play by play, but if I needed to take off work (at a new job), I needed to have some sort of date range. When I finally got the dates, it was after calling 15-​ish times and more emails that I care to remember (which have all been saved).
When our belongings arrived, mostly everything was in good shape, with the exception of… The motorcycle. When the motorcycle arrived it was on its side. We filed a claim. They wrote back saying the motorcycle was not included in the type of insurance coverage we already had. Then, they started quoting documents that we were never provided as to why the motorcycle would not be included. It went back and forth for a long time before my boyfriend and I were just completely done dealing with it… Over six months after we moved…
**Update based on the response back to my post. We were not provided any sort of waiver to sign to crate (or not crate) the motorcycle. This company continues to lie which only further shows the real light.

Duntara quoted us $ 4800 for our cross-​country move, but raised the price over 61% to $ 7800 once all our belongings were on the truck on route. They never showed up on the drop-​off date promised and never even called. We spent the next 3 weeks on the floor of our new home being given the run around.
The trailer, that holds several different loads, was rerouted several times and out in the heat wave for 21 days. When they arrived, there were several boxes and items «lost» (including new electronics, collectible crystal and family heirlooms). I find it hard to believe that our most valuable items were accidentally lost. Our furniture and other items were several heat damaged and several broken. They refused to pay even the minimum $ 0.60/lb in damages after making me waste more hours on all the paperwork. They were also nasty and condescending. Over a year later, they offered us less than 10% of our loss in order to get us to take down negative reviews. Even though we had nothing to gain by declining the meager couple of hundred they offered, it wasn’t worth having another family be so treated so poorly. Do not do business with Duntara Moving!

Also goes by Duntara Moving & Storage Impor. Terrible track record with BBB and just about everywhere else. Google their DOT number: 866 751
I’ve been through a similar fight with a moving company several years ago– who demanded more money, a new contract– foolishly, my younger self signed and agreed– but thankfully fought back and won back my money from the company. So I went into the agreement with AMSS with some hesitation. Spoke with Craig and he seemed helpful– we had a LOT of questions for him and most importantly we wanted to see all contracts up front. He assured us he was sending my husband and me all the paperwork we would need to sign and stated over the phone that the driver would not be showing up with more paperwork (of course we emailed him our phone notes so he could correct any misunderstandings, which he didn’t.)
Well, come today– moving day. The movers showed up– with a PILE of paperwork. The «estimate» was raised, additional packing materials were added– annoying, but whatever– but the paperwork had unfavorable, different language from our original contract. The movers refused to move forward unless the new contracts were signed, which would void our previous contract. My husband called the company– and spoke to Tom and asked for the new estimate to be sent to us with the original language of the first contract. Tom refused. There was no way we could move forward on an entirely new contract that we were completely blindsided with. We didn’t sign the new contract, obviously– and ended up speaking with Craig, then Tom, and then finally Shane (the «manager») We sent him correspondence indicating our agreement via Craig. We’re seeking a full refund on our deposit as per our original contract which this company neglected to honor. Shane is like most moving company «managers-​» rude, try to scam disguised in persuasion to agree to still use them and ruthless in stealing your cash.
The guys that were hired by this company on the truck, listening to our conversation with Tom, even stated that they seemed unhelpful and don’t blame us for feeling uncomfortable being blindsided with contradictory contracts.
The last moving company I used are scam artists and this company is no different.

If this review is to help people see what their getting into, then if you value your furniture don’t ship with America Moving and Storage! I ask you to look at Pictures 25 through 33 on their Unilocal page. Pictures 1 – 24 are theirs.25−33 are mine. If that isn’t enough; well… Now the rest of the story! A sales representative named Angelo phoned me one day and asked if he can help me move. I thanked him and told him I had another moving company helping me. He insisted that the moving company I had selected was a low star broker company and that his company was a far better choice than the one I selected. Well, I was told I could move from California to Georgia and total would cost about $ 6,400.00. I was told a truck pulling a 53 ft trailer would arrive to pick up my stuff on October 23, 2014. Come moving day a 26 foot straight truck pulls up to be loaded. I told them it would not fit but their lead man «Israel» assured me it would. He then presented me with another invoice he wrote up with an $ 8,100.00 price tag on it. He said please sign this. I said «no way». He then said, signing this invoice doesn’t mean anything, it’s ok to sign it. I said if it doesn’t mean anything, then I don’t have to sign it. He called his supervisor and gave me the phone. His supervisor said sign it or we can’t move you. I said fine, then leave. He said they’d keep my 1400 dollar deposit if they would leave. I said I would inform my attorney. They then agreed to the original estimate. After loading the 26 foot truck their was not room for all my items. Of course «Israel» the lead person had earlier told me it would all fit! They left my stuff sitting in my carport and said if I wanted it to go it would cost me $ 1,500.00. I talked to their dispatcher who tried to convince me that I had shipped over weight because a 26′ truck holds 12,000 lbs. I told him I was a professional truck driver and compared a 53 ft. trailer full off Rice Krispies can fill a 53 ft. trailer and only weigh 22,000. So… he was caught in a lie. They left and even though they inventoried items that were not shipped, it didn’t matter to them the predicament they had left to me. I rented a trailer 5’x8’, loaded it and took it to Georgia myself. It cost me $ 643.00, plus extra gas for the weight and for something they had agreed to take to begin with. I had agreed that my truck would arrive by November 4^th, however Israel told me if I waited a week longer he had a driver that had a crew that would be careful with my cargo. Actually they hire people they don’t even know, as I heard the crew complain they were underpaid for this job. Well, my cargo arrived 28 days after it was shipped. If you look at the pictures I posted on their Unilocal Website You will see the careful work they do. My mother left me a beautiful dining table she bought in 1958. The movers dropped it in the truck before unloading it. A friend of mine witnessed it and the workers ask him not to tell. He told me anyway. The driver told me that my entertainment center (paid $ 580 new just months ago) was damaged from the loaders in California, but didn’t want to tell me when they did it. Also one of the dining arm chairs was damaged to a point where the arm was severed from the bottom of the chair. There were other damages but more minor. If you still want to use this company then… nah…you don’t. I think they should be taken out of business. They don’t deserve to exist to hurt people the way they do.

WARNING! DO NOT HIRE THEM! Worst company to deal with. If I could give them negative stars I would. Nothing but lies from them. I was quoted in lbs then the movers came and told me it was in sq feet. The price tripled. Then when I called they told me more lies and couldn’t tell me how much I actually owed. I was told a date my stuff would arrive. 3 weeks later I still had nothing and no delivery date in site. No one could give me answers other than all the extras I would be required to pay. Got my stuff with at least 2 boxes lost. And many broken items. This is only a small portion of hassle I dealt with. I was hung up on and told they didn’t have time to talk to me because they were busy. They became extremely rude and unable to deal with. Do NOT hire them!

This is an update for American Moving and Storage Services…
After 6 months of going back and forth regarding the settlement of my move I FINALLY have come to a resolution with this company and only this company, BR Movers, who, lets just say, is still a piss pot. I must say that I appreciate the effort that they made in reaching out to contact me regarding the problems that occured with the company that they contracted to complete my move.
One of the supervisors even made a point to travel to me to bring my compensation check as opposed to waiting for it to come in the mail since it was taking a long time for me to receive it. That was nice and appreciated.
I gave 2 stars for the following reasons. Moving is stressful and at the end of the day, I dont wish what I had to go through on anyone. So, minus 1 star for the whole experience because now I dont really trust movers, Minus another star because it took 6 months to get resolved. I had to write letters to managers and reviews for folks to stay on top of my claim.
Richard is a great asset to the company. He handled my problem efficiently and the first time I spoke with him, my claim was resolved the same day versus the 6 months of back and forth.

They are liars and offer terrible service. They explicitly told me they were a moving company and not a broker and the day of the pickup an entirely different company came and they did not honor the agreements made by phone. Don;t trust them!

DO NOT ever contact them. They are the worst company I have ever worked with.
James and Nadine are the worst service individuals I haver ever dealt with. They do not communicate effectively. They lie. They will not tell you when your items will arrive. They will get your down deposit and never reach out to you again. The company steals. If you are going to move, I would suggest investing in a company that ensures communication all the way through and I would go with the more expensive companies. American Moving whines to you on the phone. They tell you to call a dispatch who never answers. They give you false promises and no discounts for lying or not getting all your stuff to your new place. They say your name is on a board for it go to out then you are told it is just sitting in storage. I felt violated with them and completely taken advantage of. TERRIBLE company. YOU WILL regret it and it will not go smoothly making your move miserable. I had to sleep on an air mattress for a month.

I was contacted by Angelo of American Moving and Storage Services. He was very friendly and eager to hard sell the service and available and willing to what it takes to make the sale and get my 30% on a credit card… The quote was low so I took it.
American moving and storage will then contract someone else to move you and all contact stops unless you call them. They are suddenly less available and when the movers didn’t show up on the move day I called and called until someone in dispatch told me the contract has a two day window and I could call the mover they contracted… They gave me the wrong number… I tracked down the actual mover on my own based on the name (obscure and hard to do) and found out that they would be there the next day…
The mover was friendly and available, however they were amateur hour, with an old truck and boxes from Home Depot that they didn’t bring enough of and had to go
back to Home Depot for more. Basically it’s like hiring random guys off the street to move you. They were friendly, but not careful and packing was disorganized and things were broken… Items were not labeled or kept together so I still can’t find various parts to furniture etc… (No assembly upon deliver either). The mover said that American keeps the 30% and the remaining money’s given are in their name and they keep that. So all that American Moving and Storage Services does is contract a hack local mover and for this they get 30%… Also I was promised deliver on a specific day and paid $ 600 extra for storage to ensure this… The delivery was made on the first available day on the contract, and no choice of day for my $ 600… They say they don’t remember the agreement to deliver on the Sat. as requested and paid for… Oh and the cost was higher than quoted due to the $ 0.48 per lb. charge… So in the end it would have been the same price to hire Allied or another actual pro. mover… live and learn from this; run don’t walk away from this company and their services… Oh and complaints after the fact and request to refund the $ 600 are ignored.

Finally showed up to deliver out furniture. Took 13 days extra on too of the fact that they were 8 days late to begin with. A few damaged items but nothing over the too. Oh wait I forgot to mention, they showed up at 10:00PM. AT NIGHT. worked till 1:30AM. IN THE MORNING. If we would have refused the delivery then they were going to store our goods and charge us even more. THIS COMPANY IS A JOKE.

Zero stars!
It’s Sunday. Still no truck. No call from the driver. Which of course, was «guaranteed» yesterday.
The truck was supposed to be here last Wednesday. All kisses and promises at the beginning, but when the rubber meets the road, they’re useless. I’ve order a U-​haul.
Read the other «not recommended» comments and beware. Those are the true story of this group of shysters.

I was contacted recently by both Anthony and his manager Richard. Richard took the time to listen to my fathers anguish over the move. Richard also identified that they made some staffing changes and were disappointed in the service we received. They both seem concerned and recognized changes need to be made on their end. I left our conversation feeling like our voice was heard and that action would be taken to improve on their side. They have been in business awhile therefore I am confident that they are turning things around.

I did a move from Virginia to California, although the move took longer that what it was promised and the price was slightly higher than the estimate. The customer service representative (Michael) took time to call me and sort things out after the move was finalized. Do your research and look at BBB and Unilocal before hiring any moving company

My move was from IL to NJ
Various names the company uses: American Moving and Storage /​Duntara
In summary these guys are brokers and they would broker your move to whichever company can make the move the cheapest which results in very bad movers doing your move. For more details read below. They also have a lot of complaints at BBB.
Like the other reviewer posted. This company is extremely dishonest. Before finding movers I was told from a friend of mine to avoid movers that broker a mover. I checked with these guys and they told me they were family owned and they would not broker my move, and I specifically asked that when the moving truck comes would it have your name on it and the sales person said yes. Guess what happened close to the time of the move? I had another moving company’s driver reach out to me and tell me that he will pick up and he was with Best Price Movers. I asked who this company was when I called their number they said the move was brokered to them, a term these moving companies will sometimes use is associates/​affiliates since most folks looking to move avoid brokers.
Anyhow the best price movers loaded my stuff on a truck and I was told that this was going to go to a warehouse and then it was going to be loaded onto another truck. I was given a 5 — 6 day spread for delivery, but the driver called on the 6^th day saying he can’t bring an 18 wheeler to where I am so he will need to unload the furniture to a smaller truck which will also cost me another $ 200 saying that I didn’t have appropriate access for an 18 wheeler (who has that in a residential area?). I told the driver to have the company call me about the $ 200 because I was not paying it. I never heard from the company about the $ 200. The driver came on the 7 day and was late, I had booked the elevator with my building from 2 PM — 5 PM, and the movers were well aware that after 5 the building doesn’t allow the move, the movers showed up at 4:45 PM.
They quickly started unloading and when I looked at some of the boxes they were wet and torn. I also found a lot of the boxes were in very bad shape. All of the china was broken, even though it was packed well. It seemed like the boxes had been thrown around. My wood furniture had some chips and scratches.
In all in this move my items had been loaded on to 3 different trucks, and similarly unloaded 3 different times, all this loading/​unloading is going to affect anyone’s items especially the way these movers throw the boxes in the truck.
Also to note, when the mover came into the new apartment (two 20 — 25 year old Ukrainian guys) who barely spoke English. I asked them to put something on their shoes to protect the carpet because it was raining outside and I didn’t want stains on the white carpet. They guys refused to put anything on, even though I provided them with slip on covers and plastic bags. Instead I had to cover the carpet with bed sheets.
Things to watch-​out for:
— Movers that broker your move, they might use terms like «associates/​affiliates»
— Movers that do not give you an exact price before loading your items onto a truck. This is important because you will have issues upon delivery, where these guys will say your items were heavy and they’ll charge you another $ 1000 to $ 4000 in some cases and will keep your items hostage if you do not pay (this is based on some of the other reviews I read)
— Movers that collect some money upfront. This is important because if you have any last minute changes or your move isn’t going the way you thought it would, these guys will keep your money. Lets say the movers at the day of the move do not show up, or if they show up and they do not shrink warp your couches etc.
I tried to find out what the procedure is for some of the better cross country movers & as an example I’ll use mayflower; they do not quote you a price until a moving consultant comes to your home and looks at all your stuff, he will prepare a quote based on the amount of furniture you have. This is the exact amount you will owe at delivery. Their own truck with their company name on the truck will come to pick up your stuff. You will not be pay anything at loading, and you will pay once all your stuff arrives. In terms of cost mayflower was $ 1200 more expensive than these movers. So if you have expensive stuff it is better to go with good quality movers, who have better insurance coverage also if anything happens to the items during the move.