All My Sons Moving in Indianapolis- BEWARE

All My Sons Moving in Indianapolis BEWARE - picture of couple moving boxes out of moving truck

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This past Saturday, we did something that we absolutely hate doing.  We paid people to do something that we could’ve done ourselves.  Not very frugal, I know.  But, sometimes you just have to do things like that to protect yourself.  In this case, we chose to hire movers to move all of our furniture and stuff to our new, temporary homeAnd, it was painful.  All in all, we spent about $970 to have all of our stuff moved..  I absolutely hate paying that much, but there are several reasons why we think that hiring movers was necessary:

  • We have extremely heavy furniture and a very steep flight of stairs.  We didn’t want to hurt ourselves and end up with thousands of dollars of medical bills.
  • We don’t have a truck.  Even if we did, it would probably take at least ten trips to move four bedrooms of furniture.  We didn’t have time for all of that!
  • We don’t have moving equipment like dollies, moving blankets, etc.
  • Almost everyone we’re friends with has had some kind of back problem in the past so we didn’t feel comfortable asking our friends and family to help.  In other words, we’re all getting old.

Once the mortgage company set our closing date, we called All My Sons Moving & Storage in Indianapolis since we used them for our last move.  We scheduled our move for Saturday, November 2nd and made sure that we would be their first move of the day.  We paid a $100 deposit and the moving specialist told me that they would be at my home between 8:00 a.m. and 8:30 a.m.  We agreed to a rate of $159 per hour for four movers…and the moving specialist told me that we needed that many since we had a whole house of furniture and some heavy speciality items including a piano.

Moving Day

On Saturday, we got up early and started packing all of our last minute things like toothbrushes, clothes, etc.  When 8:30 rolled around, we took a break and waited for the moving company to arrive.  And waited.  And waited.

At about 8:45 a.m., I called to see when they were coming.  It was then that I was informed that they were only sending two people for our move since they were overbooked.  I was not happy.

“It’s fine if you only send two, but how does that affect my hourly rate?”  I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t going to be paying the same for only half of the movers I was promised.

A manager named Carlos then told me that the hourly rate for two movers was $129.

“So, I only get half of the movers that I was promised?  But,  I only get $30 off per hour?  With half the people, it’s probably going to take twice as long,” I said.  It didn’t seem reasonable that I agreed to pay $159 per hour for four movers and would get two movers for $129 per hour.

“Well, if you don’t like it, we just won’t send any movers.  Then what would you do?”  Yes, you read that right Carlos threatened to cancel our movers THE DAY OF OUR MOVE.

I was really confused and pissed off.  The conversation hadn’t gotten nasty at that point at all.  I was just voicing my concerns and complaining just as any customer in my position has the right to do.  And, I didn’t want them to cancel our move for obvious reasons.  After all, we had already closed on our home and had to be out later that day!  Of course, Carlos knew this.  He knew that I had to pay whatever he said and that we had to move that day.  He just didn’t care.

Eventually, Carlos quit being a total dick and agreed to send some movers.  But, that was only after Greg got on the phone and talked some sense into him.  And the movers did finally show up….at 10:00 a.m.!  Fortunately, they sent three people who were quick, hard-working, and pleasant.  They finished the entire job in a timely manner and I was glad to pay them and send them on their way.  When they gave me my final bill, they told me that I was charged $139 per hour for the three movers.  Whatever.

Unfortunately, my misfortune didn’t end there.  According to my bill, I was charged for four hours of moving plus one hour of travel time plus a 10% fuel charge.  If you run the numbers on that, I should’ve been charged $764.50, not $974.98.  But, when I paid at the end of our move, my whole house was a wreck and I didn’t get out my calculator and check the bill which is totally my fault.  When I called them to point that out, they said that I was indeed overcharged but only by $100.  The rest was for “packing materials” which do not appear on my bill, nor any of the paperwork that I received.  So, I’m thankful that I paid by credit card and am disputing the charge on my card.  There’s no way in hell that they’re getting that extra $200 bucks from me!  I have also filed a complaint with the BBB as well as the Attorney General in my state.  I am deeply concerned about the way my move was handled and the way they treated me throughout the entire process.

What I Learned

After the movers left, I did a little research online.  What I found is that All My Sons Moving & Storage has a D+ rating with the Better Business Bureau.  And apparently, they had an F until recently.  I also found numerous complaints online, including these:

“I called this company back in February to schedule a move for May. The day before they called to get a 100 deposit which I was told nothing about in the initial booking of their services. I was also told that they would be at my apartment to help me move between noon and 4 in the afternoon, they didn’t show up until 9pm that night and that was after several phone calls to their office. The office manager is rude and a bully, and overbooked his staff  so that not all the jobs get done that day. when a crew finally did show up, they told us that they only had an hour left to  work in the day so we helped them move in order.to get it done faster. The crew was nice and understood why we were so upset over the whole thing. the crew that came was nice and if it weren’t for them I would probably sue this company. DO NOT USE THEM, THEY ARE AWFUL, YOU WILL REGRET IT. THEY WILL SCAM YOU AND TAKE YOUR MONEY. TWO MEN AND A TRUCK COSTS MORE, BUT THEY DELIVER ON THEIR WORD. ALL MY SONS SUCKS.”

-Abby P., Indianapolis

“All My Sons Moving has a F rating with the BBB for a reason unfortunately I didn’t find out until too late.  I scheduled my appointment with them on the 12th of May to move me on May 26th Memorial Day Weekend.    I usually use Two Men and A Truck because of their exceptional service, ethics, and reliability however, they weren’t available so I had to go with All My Sons.    Before the move, they slipped in another fuel fee which is 10% of the total bill.  I was told hen I paid the deposit the move would be after 12:00 p.m.  I called the company around 3 p.m.  expressing  my concern that it was approximately a 2 hour move, the drive from my current address  to Indianapolis was another hour, and to unload will be another 2 hours.  Carlos stated that he would ‘try’ to get someone out to move me that day.   At 5:06 p.m.  Carlos called to let me know that they would not be able to move me on my scheduled day.  They moved it to Sunday.   When I stated that I was disappointed that they forced me into a move on Sunday.  He made sure to state they weren’t forcing me to take Sunday.  However I didn’t have any other options.   I couldn’t call another moving company to move me at 5 p.m. on a Saturday and I couldn’t get movers to come on Monday because it is a holiday.   When I expressed these things to Carlos, his response was “I don’t know what you can do.  All I know is we cant move you today.”   At 5:24 p.m.  I called All My Sons again and spoke with Carlos, requesting that he send me an email to confirm they changed my move to Sunday May the 27th.  He refused.  Later that evening he called me to say he was cancelling my appointment.  He didn’t feel comfortable moving my things because I said I would rate them on Yelp and Google Places.  However as a consumer I have the right to rate my service whether it is good or bad, which I usually do.   The odd thing about All My Sons is when I told then I usually use Two Men and A Truck they were quick to slander them and insult the quality of their work however they have a A rating with the BBB and All My Sons have an F (44 complaints and all of them unresolved.)”

-Ally R.

Unfortunately, these complaints are just the tip of the iceberg.  I found hundreds of similar complaints about their Indianapolis location as well as thousands of complaints about their service nationwide.

I really wish that I had checked them out before we used them this time.  Sure, we didn’t have any problems when we used them for our last move….but that was six years ago!  Had I read their reviews and checked them out with the BBB, I would stayed far away from their service.  Carlos acted like they were doing us some sort of favor by moving our stuff.  But, the truth is, they weren’t doing us a favor at all.  There are a lot of other moving companies in Indianapolis and I will definitely call someone else when we move into our permanent home in the very near future.

If you are in the Indianapolis area and reading this review, do yourself a favor and hire someone other than All My Sons Moving and Storage in Indianapolis.

***UPDATE: The fraud department at Chase did find that All My Sons Moving & Storage handled my billing in a fraudulent way and refunded the overage I was charged on 12/5/2013.

Have you ever had a bad moving experience?  What would you have done if the moving company threatened to cancel your move….just because you complained?

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82 Comments

  1. So sorry that happened to you. I’m glad you’re taking a stand. Movers are expensive because they’re meant to save you the headache and hassle of moving. These guys are causing you more. What jerks.

  2. I think there are certain industries where employees can easily develop a “hero complex” and begin to think that their customers are actually working for them instead of the other way around. Unfortunately I see this among IT support personnel all the time.

    1. Yes! Exactly!

      They acted like they could choose to “save me” and complete the move or just leave me there. But really, we were paying them good money for a service! Very strange.

  3. I’m so sorry to hear about that. Threatening people on the day of their move is about as low as you can get. I wonder what their rating is on Angie’s List? Probably D.

    I haven’t had a bad moving experience, but I’m dreading our next move as we now have a house and actually have quite a bit of furniture and whatnot, which wasn’t the case a few years ago when I was just getting out of college.

    1. I don’t know about Angie’s List since I’m not a member. There ratings elsewhere are horrific, though!

  4. Ben @ The Wealth Gospel says:

    Ridiculous. I’m not sure what I would do if I were told what they told you. We’ve been lucky and have always had people from our church help us move. I can’t imagine having to deal with that kind of crap.

  5. I hate moving but your move was way worse than any move I have ever had. That’s terrible and I hope everyone in Indy reads this!

  6. Movingscam is another great webpage to check for this. They have a fantastic forum. Looking up Indianapolis it appears your friends are listed.

        1. p.s. This will make a great GRS post… how to avoid a moving scam, and what to do if you’re caught in one anyway. Movingscam has a lot of great tips.

          These captcha math problems are getting harder.

          1. Ya think? Maybe you’re right. I could write about how I basically did everything wrong and how things should’ve gone!

            And yes…the captchas are getting hard. I’ve had to think a while on a few of them. But, I was getting completely overwhelmed with spam so that’s the price I pay I guess. Apparently, no one should be able to comment unless they can do 4th grade math? Maybe that’s a good thing =)

          2. The reason I haven’t been commenting much recently is that the captcha + my poor ipad skills don’t get along– I kept getting time-out errors and no way to get a new captcha without losing the comment. But I can comment from a desktop no problem.

            I don’t think anyone has done a GRS post on moving scams, at least not in the past few years. It would be a big value-added to the site because people don’t generally even think about those kinds of problems.

          3. Ugh, I’m going to tell Greg that. He basically added the captcha against my will. It’s annoying. It even makes me do it!

            I agree about the moving scams post. It’s hard to come up with topics that haven’t been covered a million times!

  7. That truely sucks. But thank you for the heads up on All My Sons. Not that I plan on moving anytime soon, but it is good to know they are terrible. An experience like that makes me miss the days when you could buy a case of beer and a couple pizzas to “pay” your friends to help you move.

    1. Yeah, all of our friends are too old to bribe with beer and pizza. Plus, we just have a whole house full of furniture now. We don’t have a lot of “stuff” thankfully…but our furniture is heavy.

  8. Wow, so sorry to hear that Holly. I think I would’ve been irate if that had happened to us. What kind of idiot threatens to cancel sending someone to move you when you’re simply asking for an explanation of what’s going on? We’ve never had a moving issue like this, but had a horrible experience in getting a washer/dryer delivered to us that turned out to be an absolute mess.

    1. That’s exactly right. I was just trying to get an explanation…to understand what I was/wasn’t paying for. He acted like I had no right to ask. It was very strange to say the least!

  9. Ugh, I’m so sorry you had to deal with that! We’ve not used a service to move yet, and after reading this I will definitely be doing some careful research into what company we hire (if we do hire anyone). So thanks for sharing your experience as a warning to the rest of us! If we had hired them and they had threatened to simply not send anyone, I would have gone nuts. How on earth can anyone in a service industry think it’s a great idea to threaten a paying customer?!

    1. After reading so many other reviews with a similar story, it seems that that’s what they do to keep people in line. They know that people often HAVE to move on a certain day and they know that they have you over a barrel.

  10. Terrible, terrible service!!! They know they’ve got you over a barrel and then they just put the cover on a little tighter!! Well, Holly, what goes around comes around. The company will get their comeuppance sooner or later.

  11. I have never used a moving company but have heard complaints of how they hold you hostage because you have no other option really when you are packed up and have to go. I’m sorry you had to go through that. When there are so many people who complain about not having work, you’d think the ones who do would try and do a good job.

    1. Well, the actual movers were great. They did what they promised and worked really hard. Its just the office people who are scammers. The movers themselves aren’t really involved in the pricing or anything.

  12. I haven’t had to pay for movers, but I have had terrible experience with an alarm company. I thought I did research before I hired them, but after dealing with them and doing further research I realized google had used their algorithms to spam me with great ads, and the research showed they are indeed a terrible company. Ugh…Almost done with my contract from hell.

  13. Wow, that’s a pretty bad experience. It’s a great reminder to look into companies before using them, which to be honest, I never really do because I like to think that people are honest and good – especially when they have small companies! I hope you get your money back.

    1. I’m pretty sure I’ll get the $200 I was overcharged back. I have my receipt and it’s pretty obvious.

  14. Those people really suck. Acting all crazy at the last minute because they know you have little options available. I have never had a bad moving experience because we still live in an apartment and so we do not have a lot of stuff. I usually rent a U Haul and get 2 of my friends and the job is done.

    1. That would be ideal. I hate paying for movers. But, we really have no other way to get it done.

  15. Yikes, what a royal pain. Glad you endured and finished off the move. I had a similar experience about 10 years ago. Movers know they have you over a barrel, but you’re right, your best defense is to rip them a new one with BBB and inform others.

  16. Well, that sucks. Thank you for letting us know about this company. Though we are not in Indy, we do have this company where we are. I won’t even call them now since they seem to run their business like a bunch of bullies. I won’t deal with it. Sorry you had to deal with it Holly and good luck with the chargeback.

  17. So sorry to hear about your crappy experience. For your next move, can I recommend emove.com? It’s affiliated with uhaul, but we have hired guys to help load and unload trucks that we rented and they have the ratings right on the site when you check availability. I’ve had amazing luck with all the guys we’ve hired through that site.

    1. I will check it out! Obviously, we’ll have to do this all again in the near future and will need to hire someone again. My piano won’t move itself unfortunately!

  18. (insert cry) I forgot to do the figgen math again after I posted a long comment. GRRRRRR! So I’ll just say I’m sorry that happened to you.

    1. Ugh! I’m so sorry about the captcha. I started getting thousands of spam a day and had to do something!!!! Some of the problems are hard=/

  19. Wow that is ridiculous. I would be so mad! I can’t believe they are that ridiculous. Hopefully future customers read this post.

  20. I love this post, Holly. Not that I’m taking pleasure in the bad experience you had, but in the fact that you took a lot more than $200 out of their pockets with this post. If even one potential customer reads this and goes somewhere else, they got a negative 500% return on the $200 they tried to take from you.

    Our power as consumers is rarely fully exercised in the way you have shown here. We have more power than we think. With your blog, you have a ton.

    1. Oh, I hope that people read it. I’m hoping that I can get it on the front page of google for the search terms “all my sons moving Indianapolis.” That way, anyone who googles them will see it. Hehe

  21. It has become so ridiculous how some of these companies deal with paying customers. I shake my head every time I have to deal with nasty customer service like this. I’m glad you are reporting it. Some companies just don’t care and as consumers we need to look out for each other.

    1. I agree. That’s what I love about the internet…it’s a great place to share our experience, good or bad, with each other.

  22. Obviously, Carlos didn’t realize who he was dealing with! Good for you for disputing the charge and trying to make sure no one uses their services. I hope all your efforts pay off, as that’s an absolutely ridiculous way to run a business. What jerks!

    1. I would personally HATE running my business that way. Can you imagine dealing with unhappy customers all day? I can’t!

  23. Wow, that’s pretty ridiculous. I hope more people start reading reviews of this company and they go out of business! That’s no way to treat your customers!

    1. Me too! Anyone who checks them out on the BBB will run far, far away!

  24. How awful! What a terrible experience. I’m glad you’re all moved out but I understand the forehead face-slap that occurs when you realize you didn’t do enough research. This post is a great reminder to us all!

  25. Ugh. So sorry Holly! Our last move was a Corporate move so it went pretty smoothly. 🙂 But I cannot believe the manager’s attitude and I feel bad for the movers, knowing they probably have to regularly deal with people’s wrath and it isn’t even their fault.

    1. I feel bad for them. Really I do. The actual movers did a great job.

  26. Super UGH! Sorry to hear about that….and I’m surprised you kept your cool on this once….considering your history with people giving you terrible customer service.

    Hey, at least you have a large platform to put them on blast….hope these clowns are put out of business.

    Also, have you thought about reaching out to local news. They LOVE this stuff.

    1. The only reason I kept my cool is because I was in total disbelief! And, oh yes, I’m gonna get people to link to this post somehow, someway. It needs to be on the front page of a google search. I’ll get it there!

    1. We can hope. Unfortunately, they overbooked the day we used them….so they have plenty of customers at this point!

  27. your story makes me want to call them and prank them…i want to waste their time like they’ve wasted other peoples….

    1. I will pay you $10 via paypal if you do! Oh, and ask for a member of the dreadful duo! (Carlos or Amy!)

      Suggested questions:

      For Carlos: I heard you may have a small penis. Is that true?
      For Amy: I heard that hanging up on people is your preferred method of dealing with complaints. Is that true?

  28. Jennifer @ Budgeting in Baby says:

    I have only ever moved myself with the help of my friends and family. The absolute worst of my 4 moves was when my roommate kicked me out the weekend I got back from studying in Mexico for 6 weeks. Luckily I was able to have everything packed and moved out within 18 hours of getting home but after a day of traveling, who wants to stay up all night to pack?
    Though moving after a freak snow storm when I was 5 months pregnant wasn’t a whole lot of fun either.
    Your moving experience sounds horrible and makes me glad that the last time I moved I didn’t hire someone to help like I had been contemplating (due to being 5 months pregnant).

    1. That sounds awful. I honestly cannot imagine moving while pregnant. Greg would have to do it all while I sat on the couch and cried.

  29. I wound up using a moving company when B and I moved from Virginia to Georgia. Mainly because my employer offered to reimburse me for moving expenses so I figured might as well take advantage of free help. Well, they loaded up our stuff and we drove down to Georgia and waited a couple days for them to arrive. I then called to inquire when our stuff would be here. They said it would take up to two weeks to deliver. They were holding out to see if they could get a similar route in to save on the cost. Which I understand but they never told me before hand. We had to spend those two weeks eating out and sleeping on the floor because we didn’t bring much with us.

  30. Moving is always traumatic! It always bothers me when I see a mover carrying just a lamp . It seems so inefficient. I do like how they can move big, heavy furniture in impossible situation without a scratch or damages a wall. Moving requires a lot of front end work.

    1. Yes it does. I’m thankful that I could hire movers to move my big stuff…like my bedframes, mattresses, and piano!

  31. Yikes! This is awful! But, in the slight upside you have written such a great series on moving this is bound to help so many other people! Hopefully when people Google this company your review will have great SEO to get hit up early to warn others. I know I’ll be referring back and remember to whip out my calculator to check the bill. Good for you disputing the charge!

    Do they have a dedicate “Yelp” service for movers? Isn’t there something like Angie’s List? I see Hulu commercials for that!

    1. I complained to the BBB and the state attorney general. Plus I disputed the $200ish overage with my credit card company. Now they have to deal with them!

      I’m sure I could complain on Angie’s list too if I was a member.

  32. You are paying the moving company so they work for you. Not vise versa. In addition to filing a complain with the attorney general and better business bureau, I would take them to small claims court for damages. I would find the CEO of the company and write him a strong letter of complaint and make suggestions how he could improve his business.

    I’m sorry you had to deal with lousy movers. May Karma reward you! 🙂

    1. Thanks Sheri!
      Unfortunately, Carlos says he is the owner (although I have reason to believe otherwise). I may call their corporate office tomorrow. I can only file so many complaints in one day, lol.

  33. Aw, man…moving is stressful enough without having to deal with this kind of crap! I’ve never used a moving company, but I’ve only heard bad things from friends who have. There’s a novel business idea for you – create a moving company that doesn’t suck! lol Hope the unpacking and rest of your move goes more smoothly!

  34. Oh Holly so sorry about this one. While reading this post I really want to give Carlos a hard punch on his face!! grrr.. He was so unprofessional!

  35. Sorry to hear about the bad experience with moving. That is a big fear of mine as I might have to hire movers in the near future. I’ll make sure to check the reviews and the BBB. Glad to here that you contacted the BBB, the state attorney general and disputed the charge with your credit card company. A lot of people just get mad but don’t take any action. That’s probably what the moving company is hoping for.

  36. That’s about as good a price as you can get considering the things that they did. You can never be too sure if you do the move yourself. Hiring professionals is the best option when there are heavy aand fragile stuff.

  37. Ouch! I’m so sorry this turned out to be such a crappy experience. There’s something to be said for checking up on a company’s most recent reviews, even if you had good experiences with them in the past — ownership changes, management changes, and that can have a profound effect on the quality of work the company provides.

  38. Lisa E. @ Lisa Vs. The Loans says:

    What a nightmare! Definitely going to do my research before ever hiring moving guys!

  39. Wow, I hope you reviewed them on yahoo, yelp, etc. I usually look up reviews prior to choosing a company but when no one has left reviews you don’t know these things til its to late. That Carlos should definately be fired, that isn’t how you do business. I would think someone could sue him since his failure to comply with the times agreed upon could cause losses.

  40. Just to let everyone know All my sons is still Scamming people. Just used them this weekend. The short story is a three hour move took two days a total of 14hours. They wanted to charge me $2100.00. They didn’t secure the furniture in the truck overnight so everything shift and fell. They destroyed thousands of dollar and I won’t see a penny.

    1. Did you pay by credit card? If so, call your credit card fraud department immediately.

  41. I’m sorry you had to go through that! I hate paying for things that are not worth it. But we all have our learning experiences. Thanks for sharing.

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