Schroeder Moving Systems, Inc.

Contracted with Schroeder Moving Systemss due to the assurances of the Relocation Specialist (salesperson) that the firm was superior in quality to competitors and our move would be handled in a professional way. We chose Schroeder, a United affiliate and payed a premium price that was higher than it's competition.
The quote was specific that charges were to be based on services, packing of boxes and unpacking of boxes on the manifest. Our experience was that all items
were loaded onto a truck and unloaded with out care in handling. The crew were pleasant but we guessed these individuals actually were temp employees.
We know the firm had contracted with EPIC for a major move because they
inquired whether they could move us on a different day other than the day we agreed to. Did we get a crew that was trained to meet the quality standards our Relocation Specialist sold us on, the answer is no!
We witnessed a Lee
Weiss framed print being handled with one hand by one of the movers which broke apart. He apologized and wrote it into the final report. Previous to the incident, I explained the art work needed to be handled with two hands.
We filed a loss claim with
Schroeder and the will only refund $15 for an estimated $150-$200 loss. We feel this is outrageous and the bait and switch sales tactics should be called into question.

Review: We obtained an estimate for packing and moving of our possession from [redacted] to [redacted]. The total for the packing portion was $1324.53 and the target delivery date was w/in 6 days. After we flew to our new home we were notified that the target delivery date will be changed to sometime 2 weeks after the initial estimated date. I voiced my concern that both my husband and I will be out of town that week but we were not offered another date. So I resorted to contacting another moving company for the actual moving portion of the job. The following were the problems we encountered:

1. We are being charged an extra “warehouse holding fee” for their lack of availability and unacceptably long delay.

2. We are charged for every box used in the packing process and almost all boxes were packed 1/2 full at best - there were extra large boxes containing only one lamp shade or two bottles of wine. This is dishonest at best and essentially theft.

3. Most of the glass shelves from my kitchen curio hutch were missing, the rest were broken because they were wrapped with thin sheets of paper and placed in large boxes with no additional padding. Meanwhile, my plastic tupperware were protected by bubble wrap.

4. When we confronted Schroeder moving company, they placed the blame on my husband for not calling during the packing process when it is not his job to oversee Schroeder’s employees.

5. Our final bill was well over $1900 even though the actual weight of our possessions was nearly 100 lbs less than estimated.Desired Settlement: Charge adjustment/refund to reflect the actual estimate MINUS the damage incurred from improper packing (roughly $500) - $824.

Business

Response:

Being affiliated with the largest van line in the country, we, as all other moving companies, do run into capacity issues during the summer months. And with an industry wide loss of over 30% of the van operators over the past several years, it has created a substantial strain on the assets and drivers that we have. Unfortuantely, this region of the country ended up over capacity at the time frame the customer was moving. We did get the customer out of their residence on time, having the local agent pack, load and transport the shipment back to their local facility. Ultimately the customer decided to make other arrangements for moving their goods before we could get a van assigned to pick them up. Regarding the examples of packing noted in the complaint, lamp shades have and will always be packed in a single carton by themselves. They are very fragile, lightweight and susceptible to damage. The wine bottles are very fragile as well. Could a smaller box have been used? Maybe, but we leave that to the judgment of the individuals providing the packing service. The packed glass shelves were moved by another company, so we therefore have no way of knowing if the carton, or the entire shipment for that matter, was handled with care. The overall charge for the packing service was calculated and priced per container. We have the option of charging per container or as a lump sum, with the factor being based upon the weight of the shipment. In this instance, the charges were less pricing it per carton. So we passed the charges, based upon the least expensive calculation method, on down to the customer. The packing estimate, as the customer states, was $1324.00. The actual packing fee was $1286.29. The remaining costs were attributed to the local agents fees for picking up the goods and transporting back to their warehouse. These charges (origin loading) are part of the overall transportation fee for the moving services. In this case, when a customer cancels their moving service mid stream, we need to collect for the services performed up to that point.

Any customer would be disappointed and upset if their goods were not being delivered on time. And rightfully so. We own up to that and apologize that neither our agency or the van line we represent, were able to live up to the time commitment

Consumer

Response:

The response was nothing more than excuses, including justification for practices like placing two 750 mL bottles of wine in a box that's at least 2 feet in the smallest dimension in order to charge for the box. None of it justified the unethical billing practice or change the fact that we were charged for "storage fees" that resulted from their inability to deliver a service in a time frame as they promised. Any reputable business would take responsibility for their shortcomings and not pass on the cost of their failure to the customer that they inconvenienced. Furthermore, it is unreasonable to place blame on the customer for not overseeing the packing process just as it would be unreasonable to blame the diner for not overseeing the chef. I don't appreciate being charge extra for other people's incompetence.

Business

Response:

The customer was only charged the fees for moving the items to the local agents warehouse. This was done to ensure that we had the residence vacated by the agreed upon date, and the fees associated with that were part of the overall transportation fee.Yes, we would have been late with the delivery commitment and we have acknowledged that. But when the customer cancelled the interstate moving service, we had no choice but to have our agent at origin charge for services performed.

There are three incidents. Schroeder handled coordinating the move. [redacted] facilitated the move.
1. I paid for 3 shipping containers. The cost was to cover the mover picking up my items, load the items onto the containers, and from there the items would remain in the containers-locked until they reached the delivery destination. THIS DID NOT HAPPEN. I LEARNED THAT THERE WERE ZERO CONTAINERS. All of my items were loaded onto a truck. The truck took my items to a warehouse. My items were moved AGAIN from the truck onto shipping containers.
I WAS ANGRY AND I WAS SPECIFIC THAT I DID NOT WANT MY ITEMS TO BE MOVED THIS WAY. I called to complain and I was yelled at by a manager who told me that I had too much stuff and I should be lucky that they moved me. Remember I paid $4,700 for the move. The manager offered a $200 refund and then told me that their company is more important because they aren't making any money. Sure enough, the very reason I did not want my items moved this way was due to the increased risk of damage. Yes, many of my items were damaged; lamps broken, sofa table completely disassembled, etc. This isn't the worst part.
2. During the repacking of the items from the truck onto the shipping containers, the movers opened all of my large and medium boxes and storage bins and shuffled items back and forth and when resealing the boxes they were purposely crushed. HOW DARE THEY DO THIS! HOW DARE THEY OPEN SEALED BOXES! Large boxes were opened, repacked, crushed or flattened, and re-taped with packing tape. Items were disassemble WITHOUT MY PERMISSION. Furniture items were taken apart and delivered to me in pieces. NO ONE SAID ANYTHING OR TOOK RESPONSIBILITY, ALL MY BOXES MARKED FRAGILE WERE CRUSHED WITH BROKEN PIECES IN THE BOXES.
Pickup and loading day. The movers were fine. Slow, but ok. The company uses a tagging system in which each item moved onto the truck is assigned a sticker with a number on it. The concept seems helpful, but it slowed down the process. There were two movers and one person had a clipboard and the other was talking and moving items. The person with the clipboard was distracted with reading and trying to attach stickers to everything.
NEWSFLASH: Hire someone extra to handle such an administrative task and let the movers do their job and physically move items out of the house.
By the way, there were over two dozen items that were not labeled with a number. So when the delivery took place, there were items all over that were mysteriously "unaccounted" for. Very frustrating.
3. The same issue when they finally delivered our things. There were three movers and one guy was distracted and either did not know how to read or there was an impairment of some sort. It was clear that he was very skilled at moving and not skilled at performing the task of logging over 200 items. There were missing items, items that were broken and the movers were outside my new home urinating in the shrub area.
I've filed a claim and I haven't heard anything since a rep visited my home to take photos of the damage.
I'll never recommend this company. I'll never forget the horrible move. I'll never pay a mover if they have one bad review. My mistake is that I had a tight schedule and I needed to move and I had a budget. I should've paid extra to a company who put my needs first instead of treating me that my needs did not matter. I would pay double for great customer service.

Review: We contracted with United Van Lines, and Schroeder Moving of Appleton, WI as its agent, to move our household goods. The pickup date was June 30, 2014. On June 26th, we were told that they did not have a driver. At no time prior to this, and there were many emails back and forth about various other things, were we told that it was possible a driver might not be available. By the time we were notified, there was no time for us to investigate whether we could hire another company who did have drivers. Our window of delivery was July 8-12th. I followed up several times during this period of time with Schroeder to check on whether or not they found a driver. I was told as of this morning there was none, nor did they know when one would come available. I then called United Van Lines, and they told me they didn't know, either, and that Schroeder was the coordinator and would have a better idea of time lines. I informed them that all of my husband's materials for work were on the van/in the warehouse, and he could do no work, nor get compensated for work, if he has no materials. Their response is that we would get paid $100 a day outside of the last date of the delivery window for our trouble. Although this is somewhat comforting, it does not compensate for all the duplicate amount of materials/household goods we are having to purchase to just live in an empty house. We find it unconscionable that we were not told ahead of time about the lack of drivers; I do not believe for a moment that they did not know this. I find it unconscionable that we are not given any window for future delivery. Just because our pickup location and delivery location are not on "popular routes" is not an excuse for us to suffer having our belongings basically being held hostage with no possible delivery date. I was told by United that this was their "busy period"...as if that were an excuse for their failure to hire an adequate number of drivers. I was also told by Schroeder Moving that because our shipment was underestimated in poundage, and that we are not in a popular delivery route, that it would be difficult to find motivated drivers!Desired Settlement: We want our goods delivered by the end of this week. We also want both companies to apologize not only to us but to all other customers who are in the same situation as we are. We also want a negative rating against both companies, to protect future consumers.

Business

Response:

We at Schroeder Moving Systems sincerely apologize for the major inconvenience this has caused the [redacted] family. This is purely a case of the van line (United Van Lines) allowing its agents to book business beyond its capacity levels. And although we are a major hauler of household goods within the agency family, we simply had no drivers available to handle this particular order and were therefore leaving it up to the van line to assign a truck and driver to load and deliver. This obviously has not happened. A van has since been assigned, and is scheduled to be at our Appleton facility on Wednesday the 16th to pick up the shipment. The $100 per day is the standard compensation for late deliveries. We realize it does not adequately cover the expenses that can be incurred while waiting for your goods, but it is the van lines policy.

Again we do apoligize and have news that the shipment will be loaded and on its way this week.

Review: Damage claim was on 7/11/14 and claim hasn't been paid to this date.Desired Settlement: Claim paid in full

Business

Response:

Unfortunately we had some turnover in our claims department, which resulted in the delay. I have spoken with the customer and explained the reason for the delay and also informed her that I was going to have our home office resolve the claim.

Working with Schroeder Moving has been frustrating and disappointing. We have used professional movers three times in the past 15 years, and have never experienced the problems we encountered with Schroeder. Our initial impressions were positive and led us to select them despite having read some negative reviews. We should have listened to the reviewers because once Schroeder had our business, their interest in customer service disappeared.
We were originally told our furniture would be delivered to our new home between 9/25-9/28/15; however, when we were loaded, we were advised that our furniture would be taken back to Appleton, off-loaded and then reloaded when Schroeder had a driver. Our belongings did not arrive as scheduled and communication about the status of the delivery only came after we contacted them. The furniture was ultimately delivered to us on 10/2. It arrived in a Mayflower truck, headquartered in Richmond, VA. It appears our furniture was loaded and off-loaded 3 times. The people who moved us in commented that the truck had been poorly packed and it appeared our furniture had damages.
When we were first loaded, we were advised to leave clothing, etc., in dresser drawers. Unfortunately, stacks of clothing inside the drawers arrived completely upside down – obviously, they had fallen out of the drawers at some point and were thrown back in. Clothing was missing.
Despite damage to the furniture, there was little we could claim because the inventory was written to show that everything was damaged prior to being moved. Some of that furniture was new within the past 2 years and had never been relocated in our home after delivery from the store. Four rugs, purchased for the new house and never unrolled or stepped on, were described as “worn.” In the hectic packing time, it was not possible for one of us to be with the person completing the inventory the entire time; we assumed he would provide honest descriptions, but that was not the case.
We purchased replacement insurance for the move, but decisions about reimbursement fall exclusively to Schroeder. Everything was denied with the exception of a repair to a desk drawer that the delivery movers had noted. We were verbally advised by them that we had 90 days to file a claim. However, Schroeder denied everything else because we had packed/unpacked boxes ourselves and no damaged boxes were noted on the inventory at delivery.
The day of delivery, it was pouring rain. The movers brought things in and stacked boxes in various rooms. Some boxes on the bottom of piles were clearly labeled “top load.” Boxes were missing stickers and it was impossible to determine if all boxes were indeed delivered. The movers were soaking wet and cold, anxious to go home. There was no way that we could have gone through all the boxes when they were delivered. Some damaged things such as an artificial, fully-lighted Christmas tree and the bag it was in (described as having no damage when packed, but having puncture holes and a large tear when opened) were not discovered until the holidays (the tree’s top section had one run of lights that would not illuminate) – they had been put in our home’s storage room. Claims for a damaged CD player that looked as if it had been dropped or thrown and missing clothing were also denied.
We have never filed a claim for damage with any other mover. Given everything that went wrong/was poorly handled by Schroeder, one would think that they would have been responsive to our concerns, but that was not the case. I would never use them again.

I was helping out a family member with a pickup from a storage facility in Marshfield. First of all, the pickup was scheduled for 9:00 AM. The van did not arrive until 10:10 AM. The weather on the date was zero and very windy. Once there, I was told they would not be able to take everything that was contracted to move. After much verbal protesting, they did finally manage to load all items. I would never allow this company to move anything of mine and would not ever recommend them to others. I had to spend a total of 5 1/2 hours on a move that should have been completed in half that time.