Craig is very competitive with leading, well-rated companies; salesperson did an excellent job in estimating and although his estimate was highest I felt it was the most accurate; I felt confident that I made the right choice in selecting Craig to move me before the move took place. Preliminary work was well done and organized on December 5 and 6 but it all fell apart on moving day when there were a number of miscommunications and not enough personnel to help despite my request for more help in packing two days before the actual moving out day (I received a phone call on the morning of December 6 and was asked if I needed more help and I stated that I did because we had not been able to make any progress with packing the china and some areas of the kitchen due to unplanned schedule disruptions related to the moving tasks); too many items did not make it into the van; two trips to come back to the sold residence were necessary before the van left for Florida but that was too late for several items, some of them expensive that had to be tossed in the trash because we could not fit the items in the trunk of the car I drove to Florida -- it was heavily weighted down and I had to grip the wheel the entire trip to keep the car on the road; some items/boxes we packed did not make it to the new residence; several items were nicked, broken and/or damaged; not packed well enough/covered/anchored to withstand the hard roads to Florida (broke main TV, scratched items such as furniture, handles off bedroom furniture; 8 screws were missing from one bed and two from other bed even though the delivery crew put the beds together; think about how dangerous that could have been if the beds collapsed with us in them; 40 pairs of shoes were thrown into a box virtually unprotected and they were surrounded by items that had grease-covered paper on them; so the shoes, especially the more expensive ones had damage and were covered with grease and had to be tossed; goods that we did not pack had coded labels that we were not able to decipher, Two members of the crew that worked with us to the very end of the night on December 8 were invaluable and helpful in getting many of the items in the truck; another member did an excellent job in packing media equipment; same member and others did a great job of packing china but did not finish the job and left china, glassware and all of our cutlery in the old house -- ever try setting up a kitchen with no knives? ; some of the china and glassware/cups was retrieved; too many items that had been earmarked for packing were left in the garage; the driver came back the next day and we identified garage items which he packed in the truck but we could not get in the house; had to make arrangements with the new homeowners for Craig's owner to come back the day after that, 12/10 and retrieve many items that were still there. and also load into the van which was scheduled for departure on December 11; the mover in charge on December 8 did not walk through the property with me to make sure everything was packed but did state to me that he did a check of each room and all was in the van; I found out after he left for the night that many items were left including items that were tagged and all the remotes to the TVs which were not packed in the same boxes as the TV sets. I also wondered why he told me that we had to be out of the house before dark when we were far from finished in loading the van; many hours later I found out that was not the case, that employees stay until the last item is loaded into the van. On the receiving end everything went smoothly for the most part; the main complaint is that too many boxes were left with heaving items unpacked that my daughter and I had trouble moving; the TV was put on the stand but not plugged in even though the cable company had come by early in the afternoon to hook up connections; the TV was shattered internally called spidering; and some heavy items were not put together making it very difficult for my daughter and me to move (see also my comment about the beds). Many of the crew members were helpful, efficient and courteous and I cited performance directly to Craig ownership but as it turns out quality control checks were missing in several areas. I did mention when signing off on saying that everything was there at the end of the move that it was difficult to determine if all the goods actually were there because their coding was unreadable; the boxes we packed had full identification and we had no trouble locating items we needed when we unpacked in the following weeks. Figuring out our lamps was a nightmare as not one lampshade was packed with the box that had the base or a floor lamp; ditto for the light bulbs; and the source rooms were not marked ; it took the better part of a day to realign the lamps -- 18 of them. I did receive compensation for some of the damage from Craig. If I were to give advice to someone booking a long-distance move, I would tell them to make sure there is a mechanism in place to provide help to the customer if the packing chores are not far enough along as moving day approaches and to make sure that all rooms are checked before locking the van so that everything is accounted for and arrives at its destination. Thank you for the opportunity to comment.
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