"What an idiot I was," said Kim Schmid. Even 22 years of experience as a litigator didn't prevent her from making several costly mistakes during a move from south Minneapolis to Edina this year. In the flurry of activity when three trucks and five movers arrived, she signed papers saying that she did not want supplemental coverage for damage to her possessions. "I assumed negligence was covered," she said.
It's a mistake that many consumers make, hoping that everything will arrive in one piece. Unfortunately, Schmid watched as her dining room table crashed from the edge of the moving truck to the asphalt. Later that day, Schmid asked her mover, Local Motion of Eden Prairie, to deliver the damaged table to nearby EuroNest in St. Louis Park to be repaired.
Schmid didn't realize that without the supplemental coverage she was covered for only 60 cents per pound per item. Since the table weighs about 100 pounds, she can collect no more than $60, even though the repair bill was $400.
Damaged furniture is one of the most common complaints about movers at the Better Business Bureau. Nationwide, the number of complaints to Better Business Bureaus jumped from 3,800 in 1997 to 9,200 in 2007. Consumers in Minnesota generally fare better. In 2008 the Minnesota bureau received 59 complaints on moving and storage companies. About 80 percent were resolved.
Besides furniture damage, other common complaints include movers arriving late and charging higher than anticipated fees, said Barb Grieman, vice president of the Better Business Bureau of Minnesota and North Dakota.
Schmid got four bids to pack up all her household items, store them for two months, then move them after her remodeling was completed. Allied's bid was about $8,000. Local Motion provided a phone bid after asking questions about each room. She chose that bid because it was not the least or most expensive.
Schmid regrets that her mover did not physically inspect her house before providing a bid. Local Motion's original bid range was $4,000 to $4,800, but after packing, storing and moving were completed, the price rose to nearly $6,000, said Schmid. Local Motion will do in-home bids at a customer's insistence, but rarely finds it necessary, based on historical accuracy, said Matt Meyer, the mover's regional vice president.
Meyer said Schmid's final cost reflected changes she made, not an inaccurate bid. Schmid added two weeks of storage, and she also asked Local Motion to pick up and deliver furniture from Durr Ltd. in addition to delivering her stored items to her new place in Edina, Meyer said.
