Royal Relocation

Worst Movers on Planet.

We entered into a contract with a Columbia, SC  company, America’s Moving Services, which seemed to have good online ratings and credentials.   America’s Moving  Services’   polite salesperson verbally informed us that they were the  only company with which we would be dealing throughout the move.  However, as we learned later, their contract provides that they may instead hire a subcontractor to actually be the carrier and move our belongings.  Their contract also provided that we would receive 24-48 hrs. advance notice of when our belongings would be picked up during  a 2 day window of time. 
At noon on the Friday before the weekend  during which our things were to be loaded on the truck, America’s Moving asked if the movers could come to the house “to get started.”   At 3:00 pm, the truck arrived and, for the 1st time, we learned that America’s Moving had hired a subcontractor, Royal Relocation Systems  of Brooklyn, NY to move our things.  Royal’s crew were all Russian and E. European immigrants, most with limited English skills.  After arriving at our house, Royal informed us that they intended that afternoon/evening to complete loading all of our belongings  on their truck. 
As we had not received any advance notice as America’s Moving Services had promised, we had not finished packing.  As a result, the moving crew simply tossed our unpacked items into boxes as we frantically tried to finish packing ahead of the movers.  Several times, over the movers’ objections, we  had to climb on the truck to open and search through boxes to remove things that they had packed without asking us.
Royal Relocation Systems  were the most  unprofessional movers imaginable.  Their crew damaged our home’s wooden floors by dragging instead of lifting furniture and  picked up none of the trash and empty water bottles that they tossed to the floor of every room.  Although I had moved a box spring into the house years ago, the movers could not fit it out of the same house and it ended up being cut in two and discarded.  Legs were broken  off a bookcase and armoire. 
At 10:00 p.m. that night, after all of our things were loaded on the truck,  the crew leader met with us to negotiate a new “deal” by which he would give us  take it or leave it price as opposed to determining cost by having the truck weighed, as set out in America’s Moving’s contract.  He blatantly told us that, if we accepted his “deal” they would expect a higher tip. 
Five days later, despite our prior arrangements  with both them and America’s Moving  to pay via bank cashier’s check,  Royal Relocations Systems’ truckdriver called to demand that we pay them via cash so that he could “buy gas.”
It had taken a 4 man crew to load our belongings on the truck. When the truck  arrived  at our new home a week later,  it was manned by only  Royal Relocation Systems’   truckdriver and one laborer.  The truckdriver  informed me that he had to find and hire two men in order to  unload  our belongings.  At his request, and wanting to get our things unloaded and the movers out of our lives, an hour later I was driving the truckdriver around local Wal Mart and Home Depot parking lots as he propositioned any able bodied minority male whom he thought might want an immediate job  unloading  a truck.  When that yielded no results, I called an appliance store I had dealt with the prior day and asked if they knew of anyone who might help.  Fortunately, an hour later two men appeared at our new home and helped Royal Relocation Services do  the job for which we paid Royal $6900 and American Moving Services an $800 fee. 
We cannot  be more emphatic, do not make the same mistake we did,  DO NOT HIRE EITHER AMERICA’S MOVING SERVICES OR ROYAL RELOCATION SYSTEMS.  If you must hire America’s Moving, do so only if they agree in advance to actually perform the move and waive that part of their contract which allows them to hire a subcontractor to  be the carrier. 
 
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