Complaint Review: Dolphin Moving Company - Clearwater Florida

The moving van arrived at our house on time on Tuesday, January 26th.  They loaded it up and supposedly labeled all the boxes and large pieces that couldn't be boxed with inventory stickers, and one man, who was also the driver, wrote the description down on inventory sheets.

One box, labeled "parts" was on the kitchen counter.  As things were dissembled, they put the parts and hardware into that box.  Legs to a dresser, bed assembly hardware, parts to two lamps, wall sconces, hardware to mount a mirror on a dresser, and I'm sure more.  Somehow this box and several other items never made it to our new home.  They had no inventory stickers.

When the movers unloaded, they came on Saturday instead of Thursday. That was not a problem, but the guys were not the same crew.  The driver was different and he had one helper instead of two.  Offloading took all day. When we asked the driver what happened to the other driver, he mumbled something about an accident in Atlanta, (which was totally out of the way of the route).

HE stated that the truck had been off loaded and reloaded. The administrative office says this is not the case, but when we saw inside the truck, things were arranged differently that when they packed it on.  We were the last load on and the first load off.  Then he said they likely used my husband's missing ladder to do the off and onloading because it's gone. We are also missing at least one other box besides the parts box and a shelf to a handmade bookcase.

When the truck arrived, it had a Penske cab on it instead of the Dolphin one that was on it when we loaded in FL, so we knew something was wrong.  The crew worked very hard and looked for our parts box at the end amidst the other two loads on the truck but couldn't find it.  They DID find more of our boxes mixed in with the other loads though, and I believe the other missing ones got mixed up in there too and we never got them.

There is no way to trace since there were NO stickers for inventory put on about 30 of our items by the first driver!  We are fortunate to have got most of those items here.  They asked us about other property that was not labeled to see if it was ours when they were offloading and it was not.  We could have been dishonest and kept it.

No one wants to tell us what happened to the original driver.  The new driver was the one who mentioned an accident. It's all being swept under the rug.  I am spending hours on the phone attempting to get replacement parts for items that sit in pieces in various rooms. 

The office admin is sending me a claim form, but if stuff is missing that can't be inventoried, then how do I know what I lost?  It may take months to search for something and realize we never got it, in addition to what we know is missing.  I feel like I am spinning my wheels.  The admin said she is trying to reach the other people whose stuff was offloaded but they won't call her back. I suggested that she call them in the evening when they are home.

I just want to say that this has been a miserable experience.  The new driver had been with the firm only 5 days, but he was much better than the other guy and he said there was no excuse for not putting inventory stickers on all of our things.

I recommend avoiding this company who obviously does not train their workers how to do inventories and has issues en route that they will not explain to me.  I wil wait and see what recourse I have with the claim form.