Summary: stressful, unprofessional communication, last-minute changes, poorly trained crew, sloppy…read morepacking/wrapping, lost and damaged items.
We engaged Next Generation Movers for what was supposed to be a two-part move: a morning move from our Nashville home to storage, including packing our kitchen for us, and then an interstate move two months later. Communication with Connor was always spotty, but his sales guy, Whit was responsive and professional. They confirmed the initial move would take place in the morning to accommodate our child's school schedule.
On Thursday, the day before our scheduled Friday move, Connor called in the morning and said he was on his way. I corrected him that our move was the following morning. He asked if he could come pack the kitchen that day instead. I was concerned because we hadn't completed our own packing/cleanup of adjacent areas, but agreed. I couldn't watch the packing closely--I had to work since this was unscheduled--but it seemed frenzied, no one asked me questions, and the boxes weren't taped to how I am used to seeing professionals tape boxes of fragile, heavy items (no bracing/cross-taping on the bottoms). No box inventory or labeling. Connor packed three library books that were lying around--again, we had a lot of things lying around because we didn't plan for packing that day. I was so surprised he would've packed anything not obviously "kitchen" and there was no apology. With my repeated reminders the next day, he did open boxes to locate the books. The crew dismantled other non-kitchen items, for example a bookshelf we still had items in a drawer of, which led to a haphazard putting random stuff in a box for us to deal with later. They left on Thurs with some of our kitchen stuff still out on the counter.
On Thursday at 8:30pm, Connor texted that he needed to change our move time from Friday morning to afternoon (not framed as a request, but as a statement), which was not feasible for us with my child's schedule. The text exchange, and the fact it happened at all, was extremely unprofessional and unnerving. While we awaited his slow reply, we were on the computer, while we needed to be finishing our packing, looking up alternative movers because we thought he was going to bail on us based on our prior experiences with him that day.
On the move date, Connor didn't have his phone with him for any communication. Most of the crew showed up in the truck about 20 minutes late (would be fine if we'd gotten a call or text to let us know!), with one crew member ("T") showing up hours into the move. The crew was kind enough to us, but seemed lacking in training or clear expectations. Our entire bed frame base was not disassembled or wrapped, my husband saw the crew lose hold of a toy kitchen which cracked one of its leg, and many of our furniture pieces were either not wrapped at all or only partially wrapped, leading to marks on a brown upholstered chair, and scratches on a wooden high chair and on our bed frame. I had to remind the crew about all the stuff out on the kitchen counters that they hadn't packed the day before! I also discovered at the end of Friday that they missed packing up one small kitchen cabinet entirely.
Because Connor didn't have his phone, my husband ended up waiting an hour at the storage facility (time we paid $200/hr for) unable to figure out where they were (apparently the crew was also having an issue with running out of gas for the truck and not being able to reach Connor for a payment method). The crew was kind and respectful to us, but they seemed (rightfully) upset with "T"'s late arrival and Connor being AWOL with no phone, and there was some verbal fighting.
We found an alternative company to help us with the interstate move. The contrast was night and day. They taped over Connor's boxes, which were all popping open in our storage unit from insufficient taping, and wrapped our furniture appropriately. While loading the interstate truck, we also found an entirely open and over-filled box that Connor's crew had "packed" and moved into our storage unit.
Upon unpacking, we've realized two expensive kitchen items are missing and Connor neither apologized nor accepted any responsibility. We know (both my husband and I checked) they were not left in our home, storage facility, or the interstate truck, and we know that Connor's boxes were unlabeled, un-inventoried, and one was literally wide open on the way from our former home to the storage facility. He told us we would have had to alert him before our interstate move...when all the unlabeled, un-inventoried boxes were still packed. There may be a standard about responsibility passing when items are handled by a separate company, but Connor's response to my inquiry about these lost items was woefully unprofessional and unhelpful. We paid $250 for "insurance" on our move with him. I'm beyond baffled by positive reviews, as we saw this behavior at each step.
