The individuals on the moving crews we worked with were decent people and worked extremely hard but they were understaffed and under equipped.

We never received an itemized inventory list–something required by the FMCSA–even though we asked both crews and called Mendards multiple times, being told each time it would be sent and it never was. One Mendards employee told me that an inventory list that corresponded to labels on items was something that “more expensive companies” do. We were also not asked to sign our final bill at delivery and were given no documentation.

The moving crew at delivery was severely understaffed. A crew of 2 moved us in over the course of two full days. My friend who met the truck for us ended up moving items once the movers delivered them to the door because the movers were exhausted and overwhelmed to the point that he was concerned about their safety. Before they could unload, they had to unload the large trailer truck they could not safely drive into our neighborhood because of train tracks (a well known part of any large move into our new city) with no other assistance. The walls of our stairwell got scuffed, dinged and marked up during the load out, to which the crew said, “The insurance will cover that.”

Several boxes were ripped. Many items went missing or sustained damage: a wooden coffee table (a leg broke off and part of the leg was not recovered, the surface was scratched), one missing dining room chair, one broken dining room chair, a missing stepladder, 2 missing fans, a missing box of vinyl LPs and 2 missing legs to an easy chair. Multiple items arrived with scratches (bookshelves, record shelves, multiple dressers). Our wooden corhnole game had one of the stand legs broken off at the joint where it was screwed in. Our stereo receiver has had one channel damaged. We ended up doing a local move a few months after arriving in our new town, and the local movers pointed out all the damages they noted to our furniture so that they would not be held accountable. When we told them the damage took place in the cross-country move, they were appalled and said they’d never seen any items in such bad condition after a move.

I attempted several times to get the company to revisit the discrepancy between the initial and final estimate, and to provide us an inventory list. They either said they would and then did not, or told me why I was wrong. Any call to the moving company involved either waiting for the phone to be answered (I was told once that I had to let it ring until someone answered, which often took from 3-10 minutes), or waiting on hold which took up to 25 minutes per call.

(11/20 Response to owner’s reply: Damaged/nearly destroyed boxes are one of many concerns. Menards raised the initial estimate by 34%, not the carrier. I have already written Menards several times including last week. I’d be very happy to receive a reply.)