Better Move, Inc.

Review: I have referred a lot of my clients to Better Move. And, because of this, expected them to treat me with respect, and honor their verbal agreement between one of the owners of the company ([redacted]) and I to "take care of any damage done to my piano".

During the move, the 4 movers who were employed to move my things from Jersey to my new apartment in NYC destroyed my piano. This was my late mother's piano, whom I watched play when I was younger; and which I feel a sentimental connection to when playing now.

I called [redacted], in tears, after the first leg was broken in my old apartment. He told me to continue with the move, promising that the company would take care of the damages done to my piano. After getting up the first flight of stairs in my new building, it was clear to me that the movers had the wrong equipment and were not adept at moving pianos. I told them to bring it back to the truck and bring it back another day when they had the proper equipment, with someone more experienced in moving pianos. They refused, with the response of "we're already here, so we might as well bring it up." My hands were tied as it was 4 against 1, and [redacted] didn't answer my call. After 1 1/2 hours later, they finally got it up to my apartment completely destroyed.

Both legs were snapped, there were huge gouges on the front and sides of the piano. The entire bottom facade was off, the keys were chipped and completely unplayable, the top was destroyed and falling off of the piano, and the top part that holds the music notes was completely cracked down the middle. I watched them flip my piano up the staircases and started balling on the street. I had watched my dead mother's piano go from mint condition to a completely destroyed structure, on its side (as it was unable to stand upright with no legs) in my new living room. The movers couldn't care less and at one point started to laugh.

I called [redacted] several times during and after the occurrence. He answered the first couple of times and said it would all be taken care of and that we would talk about it the next day; at one point he stopped returning my calls.

The next day, [redacted] got in touch with a piano repair company, called Beethoven Pianos, and they gave us a quote for about $4300 in repairs. This is when Better Move started to be unresponsive.

To my surprise, [redacted] left for Israel a couple of days after the occurrence for about 10 days and had me talk to his business partner ([redacted]) who proceeded to say that they would not do anything, and that he needed the verbal agreement [redacted] gave me in writing. I was livid. During the time of [redacted]'s vacation, [redacted] was extremely rude, unhelpful, and unresponsive. Meanwhile, [redacted] did not respond to any of my emails. You can imagine my surprise to how they treated me after giving them so much business and somewhat of a relationship with [redacted].Desired Settlement: I would like my piano repairs to be payed in full.

Business

Response:

To whom it may concern,

[redacted] did move with us but the details below are incorrect.

When [redacted] contracted our company for the move he was asked as well offered in the proposal to purchase insurance especially for a high value like the piano. He decided not to do so.

Giving his explanations about the importance of the piano it doesn’t seems like he really cared about the process and our advice to avoid it.

When our team arrived to the destination and the piano had to go up the stairs our field team supervisor took few minutes to analyze the situation. The conclusion was that trying to take such an old piano up the stairs may damage the piano and building walls. There for we asked the client to sign a release form in the event and he still wants to do it…and he did (Attached release form signed by [redacted])..

What was expected to happen happened and not only that the piano damaged but also the walls in the building were scratched.

[redacted] approached us regarding the piano as well the walls. We received an email and call from his building management and after we sent them the release form regarding the building as well they never called us back. They understood that if the tenant made a decision and signed a release form allowing movers to do it and that he is responsible for it then there is no need to get back to the movers who simply followed [redacted]’s instructions as well had the document signed before they started.

Despite the above, Better Move that is known as a reputable company decided to give [redacted] $1000 as good faith and good customer service. [redacted] is still refusing to understand that:

1. He has no coverage since he decided not to purchase one.

2. He signed a release form understanding the consequences of taking the piano up the stairs.

We believe that there is no ground for a complaint in your system and expect this case to be waived.

Thanks

I had an extremely bad experience with this company. They charged me almost 3 times the original estimate justifying it falsely with made up hours. I moved from the upper east side to 2 days of storage to downtown. My move involved a 1br apt where I had them load the majority of items which I was donating onto my truck, and the rest onto their truck. The estimate was for around $1500. The final charge was $4200. They started the delivery in at 1PM but billed me for hours from 6AM claiming traffic from their storage facility and loading time. I would avoid them at all cost and get a binding edtimate from any other company you use.