J Herschel Kendrick Moving and Storage

I had a fantastic experience with Kendrick movers. After having damaged furniture and poor estimating by Two Men and a Truck, I had to find someplace better. Kendrick Movers was the place. They were courteous, accurate, on time, and professional. They moved my two-​story 4-​bedroom house including a basement, shed, piano, fridge, and antique items to a larger home flawlessly. They took short lunch breaks and hurried up and down the trucks’ ramps. Their pricing was spot on and their trucks were amply stocked. I would not hesitate to use them again and recommended them to my realtor so she can refer them to her other clients.

I wanted to share an email I sent to the company following an attempt to use Kendrick to move my 85-​year old grandparents from their condo into another apartment on Christmas Eve:
Hello,
I wanted to write an email to share my extreme displeasure with the experience my family had today, Christmas Eve, with Kendrick Moving. My parents and I arranged to have Kendrick move my 85 year-​old grandparents from their condo to another apartment. The movers had moved about 80% of the furniture and items into their moving van before attempting to move my grandparents mattress and box spring, where they found stains from bed bugs that were on the outer protective cover of the box spring. Upon finding these stains, the movers immediately halted the job, said that «we have orders from our boss,» and proceeded to immediately move everything back into the apartment.
While I completely understand that bed bugs are a serious problem, and completely understand a moving company’s policy of refusing to move furniture when evidence of bed bugs are found, I am compelled to write about our experience because of the incredibly unprofessional nature of the movers.
One of the movers refused to even talk with my stepfather about the situation, brushing him off and saying «I don’t wanna talk about it. We are moving this stuff back.» Additionally, my mother called the company line to talk with a manager about the problem. The manager informed my mother that the movers had said they saw live bed bugs. When I asked the movers where the live bed bugs were so we could see them, they stated «well, there is a difference between old and new bed bug stains, and these stains are current.» No explanation as to how they «knew» this. Additionally, the manager my mother contacted on the phone told her that she would call her back shortly after their conversation, but not only did the manager never call back, but three separate phone calls were made to attempt to re-​contact the manager to figure out what exactly was going on, and the office didn’t even pick up our phone calls. Additionally, the movers were overhead making numerous snide and unprofessional comments while they were moving items back into the house. On one particular occasion, my stepfather was attempting to make hotel reservations for my grandparents (since we now have to figure out where they are staying until we find another moving company), one mover was heard saying in clear earshot of the phone conversation, «make sure you tell them [the hotel] about bedbugs.»
Again, I understand that a company may have a policy when evidence of bed bugs are found. But no effort was made to actually determine if there were active bed bugs, or if they were in fact stains from when my grandparents had bed bugs 3 years prior (which we informed them numerous times about). We do need to also mention that a thorough inspection of the mattress, box spring, and surrounding area showed NO evidence of current bed bugs. The only evidence was the stains, which I took pictures and videos of to document.
The experience we had with your company was abysmal. The movers made no attempt to explain the policy, their rationale, or get us in contact with a manager. When I asked one if we could talk to a manager, he responded, «what, you wanna talk to the president of the company?» Again, there is a right way and a wrong way to handle such a situation. Moving, especially moving an 85-​year old couple, is an extremely difficult thing to do at times. Having the move on Christmas Eve made it even more frustrating that the move could not be done. However, instead of apologizing, explaining the policy, and allowing us to talk with a manager to understand the situation, the movers were curt, rude, obnoxious, and did nothing to help us figure out what was going on and what could be done. I will be sharing my thoughts on review websites as well. We have no intention of using your company for business again, and will be finding a competitor to HELP us move our grandparents. Merry Christmas.