Western Express

Beware! Hire at your own risk !

I recently moved from Maryland to Missouri in July 2017 to be closer to family. I had not moved in 34 years, so I contacted several moving companies. Western Express sent out a very pleasant gentleman to do the estimate, and the office contact James was just as nice and helpful as he could be.

I was given a quote of $6601, and advised that my furniture would be picked up on July 11 and delivered to my new location within 7 to 10 days.

On the day of the move five men showed up in an Enterprise rental truck, very pleasant, seem to be efficient. When the truck was packed full, they advised they were going to pick up another truck to collect the last few items. Instead of pulling out of my driveway the truck backed up and struck the corner of the roof of my house, doing $1153 worth of damage. I sent pictures to the moving company immediately, they advise they would take care of it. Since I was leaving shortly and I had tenants moving in, I called my insurance company to make sure this was taken care of before I left. My carrier advised me several days later that Western Express denied any knowledge of this incident, so the claim has to go through normal subrogation channels which means I won't get my deductible back for a very long time.

Things got very much worse on the other end of the move. I Joe back to Missouri waiting for the delivery, I have heard nothing from the company. July 21 I finally got an email from the office of the moving company asking me to contact the driver, "George". George was in Indianapolis, with my delivery, and asked if I had heard from anyone from the company. I have not, and he proceeded to tell me that my load was overweight and I owed more money. I had paid half of the fee on pick up, $3300, and I was now told I owed an additional $8700! I called the company, spoke to "Oscar," he apologize for the fact that no one had contacted me all week, but my load was overweight. I was asked how much I could pay, $3900 was all the cash I had. I was told that was fine I could pay the rest later.

The next day, July 22, 2017, the furniture arrived at my address In an unmarked truck and trailer. Three local Missouri residents have been hired to help unload. "George" was the driver and the lead.

I cannot list hear everything that was broken or stolen from this load, but I will try to condense it. Having just gone through a divorce I did not have a lot of furniture, and and I had packed all of the boxes myself, securely. The only thing I had requested the company to do was pack my lamps which I have gathered in one location, and move my furniture.

The pictures I have attached are just a fraction of what happened. The lamp that is pictured was a wedding present of my mothers in 1947. It was a two globe hurricane lamp. As you can see, there is only one broken globe, and not all the pieces are in the package. I believe the lamp was broken first, and the larger pieces were wrapped up and taped, and put into a box with six other lamps. Among those lamps to of the lamps are missing the glass shades, and another vintage lamp is missing the flower trumpet shades. One of these to replace is $89.

The other picture is what is left of a lawyers bookcase. This is a vintage four shelf bookcase with glass doors, that for some reason was completely disassembled. Instead of four glass doors I have one, and each of these pieces was forcibly removed from the other. I have no idea how I'm going to even repair this, the piece of the bookcase with the legs is missing.

I have been documenting and sending emails to the company almost daily, and have heard no response. I am not listing the scratches dings and dents, I am listing what was, to me, deliberately smashed or stolen. I am bored nothing from the company, I can only assume it is my tough luck what is happened.

What bothers me is the lack of care and concern about my personal belongings. Boxes were open and gone through, and then re-taped. That's how I know what happened because I did not use that particular tape to close my boxes. Most of what was broken I believe was done by deliberate action.

The boxes that were gone through and items removed is definitely a violation. Boxes it on myself packed I am finding contents spread in different boxes if at all.

I could go on and on about this, and I will gladly answer any inquiries about my experience. What I can emphatically state is stay AWAY from Western Express headquartered in Maryland. I did not buy any extra insurance because I could not afford the premiums, it was several thousand dollars, but I never expected that all of my household belongings would be so mistreated, and stolen. I also did not expect the company to damage my house and then deny any knowledge, costing me an additional $500.

Allegedly I still owe them almost $1600 for this move. I will say this much, Western Express has nerve, pillaging and smashing my belongings and then charging me extra for the privilege.